PALM SPRINGS, CA.
DESERT SUN
D. 25,000
SAN BERNARDINO METROPOLITAN AREA - -
JUL 30 1983
Bahai's victims suffer for refusing toreject faith
By GEORGE W CORNELL But few have given in he added, believing that said in an interview m the newspaper, Khabar I as intending gradual extermination or genocide, wip-
AP Religice Writer earthly survival is not as important as life's quality Junub, on last Feb 22 ing out Iran s 350 000 Baha is the largest religious
After being questioned and threatened for hours, for eternity The Iranian nation has determined to establish minority in a land where the faith originated in 1844
assured they could save their lives and gain national The accumulating deaths, persecution and pressure the government of God on earth. Therefore it cannot Around the world, there are now about 3 5 million
respect if they would renounce their “misguided are being compared to the early Nazi persecution of tolerate the perverted Baha is who are instruments of Baha'is in 165 countries 100,000 in the United States
faith, the 10 unyielding women were hanged the Jews But in that case Jews were classified Satan and followers of the devil There is no place for A gentle faith, members believe in the oneness of
They included two teen age girls five others in their racially and had no chance to recant to save them Baha is and Baliaism God, the divine origin of all the world s major reli
20 sand three older women — wives mothers, daugh selves Several governments have protested the persecu- gions, including Judaism Christiamty and Islam the
ters, sisters — members of one of the world s most Kazemsadeh likens the situation of fran's Baha is to tions, including the U S Congress Canada, West unity and equality of humanity and work for world
tolerant, peace-loving religions the Baha i faith that of the early Christians under the Roman empire Germany Great Britain, Austrlia Switzerland, Lux- peace and order
Their executions in the city of Shiraz in southern when many of them died rather than renounce their embourg and the United Nations Commission on —
_lran on June 18 as recounted by American Baha i faith in order to live Human Rights So have numerous other organiza
leaders, was only one episode in a grisly three-year ‘It s a matter of transcendence, of values greater tions such as Amnesty International and the U S
succession of deaths and abuse against Iran s largest than life itself,” he said National Council of Churches
rehgious minority In the last three years under the Khomemi regime in The world ‘is increasingly alarmed and dismayed
•“The objective is the elimination of the Baha'i corn- Iran, there have been 142 hangings, firing-squad exe- at the persecution and severe repression of the Baha's
: munity,” says Firuz Kazemzadeh, a Yale University cutions or assassinations recorded of Baha'is, mostly in Iran,” President Reagan said recently, adding that
‘dxpert on the Middle East and chief executive of the, local or national leaders. - they “are not guilty of any political offense or
Baha'inational assembly in the United States. Other persecutions have been widespread and con- crime.” ,
It's a systematic grinding process he says, of tinuous officials say imprisonments destruction of Onslaughts against them are seen by Baha i leaders
arrests, confiscations of property and assets dismiss Baha i property including homes businesses and
,als from jobs, expulsion of children from school and shrines, stopping .of pensions to the elderly, ousters
recurrent executions designed to mtmumdate and from jobs and schools mob raids
.spread fear. In the first week of July, about 130 Eaha'is, includ-
The' technique so far has not involved “mass mur- ing women and children, froth the northern village of
der,” he said in a telephone interview, but when fain- Ival were confined three days and denied food and. ,
ily members and friends keep being killed rather than ,water unless they converted to Islam.
forsake their faith how long can human nerve Eventually released without yielding they were
endure?” - . . . -. attacked by mobs, driven from' their homes and forced
Only two days befOre the women died, six Baha'i' to hide in a forest outside the village. - ‘. . . . .
men, ranging in age from 23 to 60,' were hanged in the In the xecution of Baha'is the Iranian' courts
same city, and on June 24, another young man. In variously 'làbel them American spies, agents of Zion-
these cases, as ‘in the steady toll of others, Baha'i ism, collaborators with imperialism, enemies of Iran,
officials said, the victims are Offered release if they moral degenerates and in the case of women, prosti-
recant their faith tutes
“They re told they can be freed have their homes That charge Kazemsadeh says is because Baha is
back and their jobs said Robert Blumn of the Baha i teach the equality of the sexes' — which Islam rejects
temple and headquarters-in Wilmette ill That s the and which the Khomeini regime sees as depraved
, Toffer — your life versus your faith. Many are offered While the Iranian courts cit such charges against . J)
‘ nore than they had before the Baha is rather than religid i, the judge in Shiraz
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