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ST. LOUIS, MO.
POST.D ISPATCH
0. 236,888—S. 430,029
ST. LOU S METROPOLITAN AREA
JUL 14 i9 •3
V Terror.In Iran
Amnesty International, the independent weeks. The government charges that the
human rights watchdog group, has issued a Balia'is were Israeli spies, but the real
new report on the rising toll of executions in reason appears to be that the Shi'ite Islamic
Iran's Islamic revolution, regime regards this group to be heretical.
Since February 1979, the Iranian regime There are numerous reports of imprisoned
of the Ayatollah Khomeini has officially Baha'is being offered the “option” of
executed at least 5,195 men, women and recanting their faith or facing death.
children. According to Amnesty Thereareaisogrowingreportsfromother
International, “This figure must be regarded quarters that the homes and businesses of
as an absolute minimum.” . Iran's 350,000 Baha'is are being looted,
Many executions go unreported in the burned or seized by officially sanctioned j
Iranian press or are carried out in secret, mobs of Sh.i'ites.
and still many others are reported as deaths The Baha'i faith, which was founded in
occurring in armed clashes with the Iran in the mid-19th century and teaches thatj
regime's police and military forces. all the world's great religions are divine m l
Of particular concern have been the their origin, has faced persecution from
growing reports of executions and general Iranian officials before, but this current 1
persecution of one of Iran's largest religious round is far worse and could foreshadow a
minorities, the Baha'is . At least 151 Baha'is latter-day Holocaust. The question now is,j
have been ki1le b r the Khomeini regime, 17 will the world be content to mutely watch the
of whom were executed in just the last few slaughter?
J3PO 545
