Aadel Collection
The plight of a troubled minority
Features.Bahais
ast month, after a United Nations report criticised Iran's
human rightSreCOrd the Khomeini government invited the UNto send
in envoy to investigate the charges. The plight of Iran's 300,000 Bahais
ias aroused particular concern. Irene Ertugrul describes their position
s a religious minori&v in Iran and the historical background of their
chefs and practices.
The plight of a
troubled minority
lthough Bahais assert that their faith is
an independent religion, Muslims
•egard it as a pernicious heresy within
slam. Censequently the Bahais, and the
abis who preceded them, have often faced
vpression, especially in Iran, the birthplace
.f Bahaism.
Under the Qajars and the Pahievis, Iran's
3ahais were constantly harassed and
ometimes subjected to murder and torture,
,ften instigated by religious leaders and
)olitical groups. Their situation became
yen worse with the victory of the Islamic
evolution in early 1979. A determined
ampaign was launched to eradicate the
aith from Iran, even though the Bahais
ow comprise the country's largest religious
rninority.
in an interview given shortly before his
eturn fiom exile, Ayatollah Khomeini
romised full respect for religious
ninorities, affirming that islam would
.dopt “a humanistic attitude” and that
there should be no reason to fear'. But
ater he remarked: ‘They Ithe Bahaisi are a
,olitica.l faction: they are harmful; they will
iot be accepted.”
Various tactics are now being used,
including the arrest and execution of
arominent Bahais, the confiscation of the
issets of the Bahai community and the
cxertion of financial pressure and
intimidation, in order to force .Bahais to
renounce their faith. In August 1980 all
nine members and two appointed officials of
the Bahai National Spiritual Assembly
were arrested by Revolutionary Guards and
have not been seen since.
Eight months later, two members of the
Shiraz Local Spiritual Assembly were
ex cuted on charges of “assisting Zionism
and Savak”, as well as being members of
the Bahai hierarchy — the first instanee of
such a role being designated a capital
offence. At the end of 1981 those eli cted to
replace the national leaders were rounded
up and executed. In January 1982 six
members of Tehran's Local Spiritual
Assembly were shot, together with the
woman at whose house they were meeting.
Iranian officials have repeatedly denied
that these people were executed for being
B.ahais. A spokesman for the Iranian
Embassy in London told The Middle East
“Do you think that, after so many people
have given their lives to institute an Islamic
regime in Iran, anyone would be executed if
he were not guilty of the offences charged?”
But no evidence has been made public (even
to the victims' relatives ) to substantiate the
various political charges made against
them.
Since the start of the revolution some 120
Bahais, many of them prominent members
of the community, have been killed and
more than 200 imprisoned, In cases where
formal accusations have been made, they
have reportedly been accompanied by offers
to drop the charges if the Bahai repudiates
his faith. No action has been taken against
those who have murdered Bahais and
investigations into these cases have been
cursory.
Economic pressure has also been applied.
All community property, including the
investments which supported a wide range
of charitable activities, has been confiscated.
Homes, businesses and farms have been
looted or destroyed.
Many graveyards have been vandalised.
and the most sacred Bahai shrine in Iran.
the Shiraz borne of the Bab, was attacked in
September 1979 and completely dismantled
to make way for a square and roads.
Many Bahais have lost thrir jobs in
government-controlled institutions, now
that regulations barring Bahais from state
employment are being rigidly enforced —
whereas under the Shah officials often
turned a blind eye when Bahai abilities and
qualifications were needed. Students who
have received government grant .s to . in in
education and health have been ordered to
repay the money and, according to some
sources, Bahais sacked from employment
will have to repay their salarier. Since the
autumn of 1981 many Bahai children have
been denied admission to state schools and
are now being tutored at home.
A far-flung, community
ofmore than two million
Various national and international
organisations have protested to the Iranian
government and in March 1982 the United
Nations Human Rights Commission
adopted a resolution calling upon the UN
secretariat tn monitor what it called “the
perilous situation facing the Bahais in
Iran”. Since then. fewer Bahais have been
executed. ‘The Iranian government knows
it is being watched,” the Bahai liaison
officer at the UN said, but in late 1982
arrests were stepped up again
Today worldwide Bahai membership
exceeds two million, about a third of whom
Bahaisin Austria highlighting persecution in fran
The Middle East April 1983 35
Enr
BP000593
Fea turfs Bahais
Enmity towards the Bahais is largely
theological. Both Babism and Bahaism
claimed to be new revelations superseding
the Quran. Thus. in recdgnising either
faith. Muslims would be denying their
own creed: that Muhammad's message is
valid for all time and for all men.
In the early 16th century Iran had
turned to Shi in in its Jaafari form, after
adhering to Surinism for the previous 900
years. The Janfari Shiites believe that the
T/velfth Imam (in a line of succession from
Au. Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law
went into concealment while still an
infant. One day he will return as the
saviour, hut until then his community is
destined to suffer under the rule of the
unjust.
In 1844 Sayyid Au Muhammad of
Shiraz claimed to be the Bab (or gate) to
the Hidden In iam and, as his vice-regent,
to be entitled to rule over the faithful. The
Bab's following quickly grew as many
Iranians, facing increasing foreign
encroachment, sought national regenera-
tion through religious revivalist move-
ments. Soon the Bab even tried to bring
the Shah into an alliance. “if you pledge
allegiance to me and regard obedience to
me as obligatory,” read his message to
Muhammad Shah, ‘ t then I will make your
sovereignty great and bring foreign
powers under your sway,” But the Shah
brushed aside these overt wt 's and in 1847
ordered the Bab to be put under house
arrest. provoking him ..md his foihiwers
into open confrontation with the regime.
• In 1848 the Bab procla. med himself to
be the Hidden Imnam retunied and ordered
the laws of Islam to be abrogated. He
declared that a new religion, with its own
lega) system and scriptures, would now be
given to the world. The Quran had been
sufficient for its time, the Bab explained,
hut the world was now ready for a
contemporary message — his own
teachings, summarised in the Bayan.
In 1850' the Bab wa executed after
being convicted of heresy. As a result of
clashes between Babi adherents and
government troops in the two preceding
years some 3,000-4,000 Babis were killed.
In 1852. after Bahi followers had tried
unsuccessfully to assassinate Nasir al-Din
Shah, many Bahis were imprisoned and
50 execoted. Those who remained had to
keep their beliefs hidden or emigrate to
Baghdad.
The early years of exile in iraq saw
struggles for leadership and disputes over
doctrine, since carrying out the Bab's
religious prescriptions depended on the
establishment of a Babi state, which had
clearly become impossible. Eventually
Baha Allah assumed the leadership of the
movement.
Babi doctrines continued to win
converts from among the many Iranian
pilgrims who visited Shiite shrines in Iraq,
and the Iranian government pressed the
Ottoman authorities in Iraq either to
repatriate Baha Allah or move him
further from the Iranian frontier. In 1863,
shortly before he was moved to Edirne
(Adrianople), Baha Allah proclaimed that
he the new prophet whom the Ba,b
had predicted would follow him.
In accordance with the Bab's concept of
successive divine revelations to meet the
changing needs ‘ mankind, Baha Allah
announced that he would issue a new
scripture. Sobh-e AzaJ and his followers.
refused to accept this and the BObis split
into two sects, the Azalis arid the Bahais.
Sobh-e-Azal, remaining loyal to the Bab's
doctrines, was exiled to Famagusta,
Cyprus, which became the headquarters of
the Azali sect.
Baha Allah, on the other hand, quickly
distanced his teachings from those of the
Bab. He recognised the Bab as the prophet
who succeeded Muhammad and as his
own forerunner, but tried to erase the
Babi legacy of challenging secular
authority. The Bahais were expected to be
loyal to whatever government, was in
power. Carrying arms was forbidden,
except in times of necessity, and
unbelievers were to be won over by
peaceful proselytisation. The burning of
books, the destruction of shrines and the
shunujing of non-believers were also
discarded. And although the Bahais
retained as an ultimate goal a world
commonwealth of theocratic states
governed by Bahai institutions, its
attainment was indefinitely postponed.
In 1868 Baha Allah and his followers
were moved from Edirne to the
Palestinian town of Acre. At first they
were confined to a barracks but later Baha
Allah was allowed a comfortable villa on
the outskirts of town. He died in 1892 at
the age of 75. The most important of his
texts, the Kitab a]-Aqdas (The Most Holy
Book). was written to supersede the Bayan.
Abdel-Baha, Baha Allah's eldest son,
was designated leader of the Bahai
‘community. He travelled widely in Europe
and North America, winning many
converts to the faith. He often visited the
slum areas of cities, where he pleaded for
the rights of minoritiaj.
‘During the First World War he
organised a campaign to grow food for the
population of Acre, when the town's
normal stock was requisitioned. In 1920, a
year before he died, Britain gave him a
knighthood for. his “consistently loyal
service to the British cause since the
occupation”.
Abdel-Baha decreed in his will that the
Baha.is should be governed by a Universal
House of Justice, headed by a guardian
empowered to interpret the Bahal
scriptures (the o-itings of the Bab. Baha
Allah and himself). The guardianship was
to remain in Baha Allah's family, going to
Its most capable member. Shoghi Effendi,
Abdel-Baha's eldest grandson, then a
second-year student at Oxford, was
chosen.
Shoghi Efl 'endi did much to demarcate
the Bahai religion from Islam, snreading
the faith beyond the Middle East. He
abandoned his grandfather's habit of
attending Friday prayers in a mosque and
translated many of Baha Allah's and
Abdel-Baha's texts into English. With his
death in 1957 the line of succession was
broken, since he had no children, and the
leadership wa placed in the hands of the
Universal House of Justice, first. elected in
1963.
The Bab and his successors
‘I
;/ ‘ ::_.
receivinga knighthood ‘from the British
36 The Middle East April 1983
Pea (ui-es Bahais
in India. in Iran the Bahai community
• timated at about 300,00C'. although
10,000 have recently fled.
‘jktT ' Judaism and Islam, Bahaisni
hy that God is unknowable but makes
will known through prophets. As the
-. . .ti ire of civilisation developed, prophets
s Adam, Moses. Zoroastet'. Buddha,
Muhammad, the Bab and Baha
iii were sent, the Bahais believe, to
vide mankind with a creed and a set of
suitable to contemporary conditions.
Bab was the last in the cycle of
:..hcts which began with Adam. they
eVe, and Baha Allah started a new cycle
c! will last for some 500.000 years.
Allah's message will in time become
: , ted, although this is not expected to
xn for at least 10 centuri s.
e rights of women — and
divine right of kings
ildren of the Bahais are not
r aticallv enrolled in the faith at birth.
are free to choose, on reaching
-ity, whether they wish to belong.
0 emphasis is placed on equality of the
-s. Although Baha Allah allowed men to
e two wives, his successors have
ouraged this practice. Education is
ed and Bahais believe that if facilities
limited girls should be given priority.
education of women is of greater
-,r j ce than the education of men, for
are the mothers of the race,”
. -Baha said in 1912.
e Bahais are opposed to communism
‘cialism and believe monarchy enjoys
c sanction. But they oppo e religious,
:il. national or cla s prejudice and
- ,re xieties where there are extremes
alth and poverty, in their striving to
‘te world peace and uhi , they
. rt international organisations such as
United Nations and advocate the
upnient of an international language
. taught as a second tongue.
cry fIve years members of the national
mblies throughout the world elect a
ci-sal House of Justice, convening in
which was chosen by Baha Allah
og his exile from Iran to serve as the
headquarters.
e Bahai administrative hierarchy,
‘ugh not respon ‘ I c for the rdministra-
: f sacraments, cta as the defender of
dox docfl-ine and can legislate on
c ia not dealt with in the faith's
ure. Daily prayer is regarded as a
nal obligation, but on the first day of
of the 19 months Bahais are urged to
-r for a meeting where Bahai and other
•. d texts are read, communal matters
uscussed and a small meal is taken.
hose meetings are usually at members'
f -s. although in Europe and North
: ca Houses of Worship (domed
.r ings with nine entrances.t have been
in addition, pilgrimages should be
c i i ' to Baha Allah's house in Baghdad,
the Bab's house in Shiraz and to the tombs
of the Bab and Abdel-Baha in Haifa as well
as to Baha Allah's tomb near Acre.
Bahaism's success in gaining adherents
throughout the world is mainly due to its
acceptance of all previously revealed
religions as part of one evolving faith (with
its own doctrines regarded as the most
suitable for the present age). But its
international character and Westernised
attitudes have only served to deepen
antipathy towards it in some quarters.
Because Bahai women are neither veiled
nor segregated from men at Bahai
gatherings, tales of ranipant immorality
have spread in some Middle Eastern states.
In Iran Bahai marriages are not
considered valid and their children are
therefore deemed illegitimate. Successive
Iranian constitutions have recognised only
followers of the Jewish, Christian and
Zoroastrian faiths who have protection as
dhirnrnis (non-Muslims living under
Muslim domination).
Bleak prospects for
the Bahais'future
The Bahais are oftei viewed as belonging
to a clandestine network of mutual
assistance, similar to the Freemasons, and
charged with working in the interests of
Western imperialism and Zionism. Because
the Bahai faith developed during the
British mandate in Palestine, a connection
with Britain is inevitably made, and
Abdel-Baha's knighthood is regarded as
proof of this. Charge of Zionist ties arise
from the fact that the Bahai headquarters is
located in Haifa. Iranian Bahais often
travelled to Israel and sent regular
contributions there. Since 1979, however,
when travel and the transfer of funds from
Iran to Israel became illegal, these activities
have ceased, but the Bahais see no reason to
relocate their world ‘headquarters for
reasons of immediate political expediency.
Tension . has - sometimes been increased
because of the political stands taken by the
Bahais. Because of Baha Allah's injunction
to support any government in pq s'er and
their preference for monarchy, Iran's Bahais
did not support demands for a constitution
and saw Muhammad Au Shah, who tried to
overthrow the 1906 constitution, as a ‘just
king”. During the 1978-79 revolution, they
said prayers for Muhammad Ra.za Shah and
made no denunciations of Savak. These
attitudes flew in the face of: popular
sentiment and the views of the Shiite
clergy, who believe monarchy to be
fundamentally unjust.
The situation of the Bahais in Iran is
therefore complex. They hope one day to be
recognised as a separate religion and so be
granted constitutional protection, but this
would be likely only if a secular goverment
were established in Iran. Meanwhile,
prejudices against the Bahais run deep,
especially among those who have had no
personal contact with them. U
Sayings
of the Month
“The presence of warships sometimes
seems to have a deterring effect on Libyan
adventurism”
Jeane Kirkpatrick
US ambassador to the UN
“Well, I don't believe there has been any
naval movement of any kind”
Ronald Reagan
US President
“My country is being vunished by
Arneric'a today because ofj&'adherence to
the principles of the non-aligned. It is
pr',ving the price of its non-alignment”
Major Abdel-Salam Jalloud
Libya's second-in-command
‘7 see no sign of a crisis or a possible
aggression against Sudan at the moment”
Marshal Abu Ghazaia
Egyptian Defence Minister
“For the moment Qadda.fi is back in his
box, where he belongs”
George Shullz
US Secretary of State
‘P/hat we do most certainly share with
the Opec countries and indeed with.. the
rest of the world is a desire not to see an
exaggerated fall in ‘the world oilprice now
which would inevitably be fOllowed by a
sharp and damaging rebound later on”
Nigel Lawson
British Secretary of State for Energy
“I don't think Mrs Thatcher would be
disappointed to see the price disappear
through the floor if that is what the
market dictates”
British government source
quoted in the Sunday Times
“The Gulf Co-operation Council states an
easiLy flood the internationalmarket with
cheaper oil without being affected,
because the cost of production is very low.
This means that the new oil producers in
industrial countries, who entered the field
because of the high price of oil., will face
economic catastrophe along with their
investors if oil prices are reduced sharply”
Al-Seyassah, Ku aiti newspaper
“If Lebanon does not triumph over the
present situation, its environment will
fall into chaos and loss. If Lebanon is
divided, then every united political
presence in the entire area will be divided
Lebanon has become a key to war in
the area just as it is a key to peace”
Amin Gemayel
Lebanese President
The Middle East April 1983 37
