Aadel Collection
Bahais are desperately trying to stop persecution in Iran
San Jose Mercury News • Sunday. July 31.1983 2liA
Bahais are des
By Michaer Precker
perately trying to stop persee
ution in Iran
Dollos Mor, ,ing News
HAIFA, Israel — Through secret channels to the
West, word of the Iranian government's campaign
against the Bahai faith reaches its international
headquarters on the wooded, picturesque hillside of
Mount Cannel.
As the news of killings, disappearances and eco-
nomic persecution comes in, Bahal leaders work
desperately to publicize their cause and to mobilize
world opinion with a steady stream of booldets and
news releases, hoping to change the policies of the
Islamic revolutionary government of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
‘“It is a systematic campaign, and it is intensify.
ing,” said Donald Bamstt, a Californian who serves
as secretary-general of the Bahai international corn-
munity, which numbers 2 million people in more
than 100 countries. “The sole purpose is to extermi.
nate the Bahai faith in Iran.”
Latest episodes
Some of the latest episodes of violence cited by
the Bahais include:
In June, 12 menaud 10 womenwerehangedin
the -Iranian city of Shiraz after refusing to save
themselves by recanting their Bahai faith. Khomeini
refused an appeal from President Reagan to spare
their lives, declaring that Reagan's intervention
proved the 22 were American and Zionist agents,
By Bahai count, the hangings brought the numl,er
We are not an enemy of
Islam. We accept
Mohammed as a prophet,
but they, cannot accept any
other prophet after
- Ivloharnmed. ,
.
— Bahai official Donald Barrett
i_
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ties.”
From the start, Bahais have paid the price for
their dissent An estimated 20,000 early followers of
the flab and Baha'u'Uah were put to death, and in
the Moslem world only Iran has a sizeable Bahai
community,
Barrett acknowledged that Iranian Bahais were
urged to flee Iran before Khomeini took power, and
about 10,000 did. Because Islamic fundamentalists
view Bahais as Moslem dissidents, not a separate
religion, their religious freedom is not protected
under the Iranian Constitution.
Three stages of persecution
Barrett, a former senior legal counsel for Gulf
Oil, said the persecution under the Khomeini regime
developed in three stages. Shortly after the revold-
don, the nine members of the National Spiritual
Assembly, the highest Bahai authority in Iran, disap-
peared and are presumed to have been murdered.
When nine men were elected in their place, all
were arrested and executed ‘when they refused to
renounce their faith. Other prominent Bahais met
the same fate.
The second stage, Barrett said, was economic
strangulation. Baled property and financial holdings
were seized, and holy places desecrated. Bahais
were fired from their jobs and denied' pensions, their
children
of Bahais executed by the government since the
1979 Iranian revolution to 132. Another 14 have
disappeared, at least 200 remain in prison, and the
number murdered by Islamic zealots in the country-
side is difficult to determine.
“In June, 130 Bahai men, women' and children
were rounded up in the village of Ival and held for
three days in an open field without food, water or
shelter from the sun. After constant harangues, they
were released, but Barrett said the incident illus-
trated the growing campaign of intimidation against
‘
.
,
expelled from schooL
The final stage, the Bahais believe, is mass intimi-
dation of believers, Stories abound of mobs attack-
lag Babais throughout Iran, destroying property,
seizing teen-age girls to be married to Moslems
against their will and murdering men and women
who refuse to recant.
flw gh it all Bahais around the world have
remained quiet, partly because their faith pro-
scribes noisy political action and partly because
diplomacy seemed the best way to deal with Khom-
.
Soviet ‘construction boss
reportedly has been ousted
The New York Times
The head of the Soviet Union's eon-
struction industry has left his post as
deputy premier, in what appears to be
one of the highest-level demotions since
Yuri V. Andropov took charge last year.
According to recent Soviet press
reports, the official, Ignati T. Novikov,
76, asked to be relieved of his duties so
he could go into retirement
The reports were not accompanied by
the usual expression of gratitude for
services rendered, which has become
common under Andropov when leading
officials leave the government on
reachirm retirement ape.
In addition to being one of a dozen or
so deputy premiers, Novikov was chair-
man of the State Committee for Con-
struction Affairs, a powerful govern-
ment agency that supervises the spe.
cialized construction ministries,.
His' retirement follows criticism by
the ruling Polithuro of delays in the
construction of ‘the Atommash nuclear-
reactor fabricating plant and the associ-
ated town of Volgodonsk on the Don
River. Atomsnash is considered the key
to the program of nuclear power devel-
opment, and the delays have put the
manufacture of reactors and their
installation hphind w 'h ,sl,,lo
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BPO00537
aster, BUddha, Krishna, Christ and Mohammed. He
called himself the Baha'u'llab “Glory of God” in
Arabic and his followers “Bahai” -
Balsa'u'llah was exiled and imprisoned in Pales-
tine but later was freed to spend the rest of his life
in Acre,- 10 miles north of Haifa. His tomb, in ‘a
landscaped garden near Acre, and the golden-domed
shrine of the flab in Haifa, are the two holiest spots.
for Bahais. -
The religious differences between Islam and the
Bahais now are compounded by a geographic twist
of fate In Khomeini's eyes, the Bahais are synony-
mous with the “Great Satan” of Ziorism,
“Bahais naturally turn here,” Barrett said. “Their
holy places are here, their world center is here.
They contribute to the building and the upkeep.
Their passports are stamped with Israeli visas.
“The Iranians say, ‘Here's the proof that flahais
are spies for Israel and Zionisrr” he said. “It's so
easy to prove that is a false charge.”
No clergy'
- The Bahai faith espouses a mixture of puritanism,
racial and sexual equality and a Utopian view that
all mankind will eventually unite in harmony and
world government; there isno clergy and almost no
liturgy, but Bahais are urged to Study Baliai teach-
ings and pray daily. Alcohol, drugs and extramarital
sex are banned, and a strong family life is stressed.
Theologically, Bahais accept all the prophets of
major world religions, but regard their own teach.
lags as the latest in a series of “progressive revela-
tions” throughout history.
“The beauty of Bahai teachings La that it doesn't
deny the truth of other great religions,” Barrett
said. “It provides the key to understanding them
all?' ‘-
‘But the universalist doctrine poses a challenge to
Islam, which regards Mohammed as the final and
most important prophet “We are not an enemy of
Islam,” Barrett said. “We accept Mohammed as a
prophet, but they cannot accept any other prophet
after Mohammed, and to them that makes us here-
the 300,000 Iranian Bahais, most of whom live in
villages.
In early July two prominent Iranian Bahais,
Jahangir Hidayati and Ahmad Bashiri, were kid.,'
napped on the streets of Tehran. Authorities refuse
to provide information or even acknowledge they
were detained, raising-fears time two may never be
seen again. - -
The Bahais have urged Iran to permit an indepen-
dent investigation by the United Nations or any
other independent organization, but Iran has refused
the request
Regarded as heretka by Moslems, Bahais have
suffered persecution in Iran since a Persian mer-
chant declared himself the founder of a new religion-
139 years ago. Known as the “Bab” (gate in Arabic),
he began preaching — despite warnings from Mos-
lem authorities — that his religion would usher in
- an era of ,esce and brotherhood. He was executed
by a 750-man firing squad in 1850.
‘Messenger' ‘
Thirteen years later a Tehran. nobleman pro-
claimed he was the messenger of God predicted by
the Bab as the successor to Abraham, Moses, Zero-
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