UN Religious Freedom Official expresses fears for Baha'is in Iran

This is too urgent and dire not to post.

For as long as the Bahá'í Faith has existed (since 1863), its adherents in Iran have been ridiculed, harrassed, persecuted, fired from jobs, mugged, robbed, denied rights, torn apart, killed ... This meagre mention cannot pretend to begin to remotely describe the treatment the Bahá'ís have recieved and continue to peacefully endure. Their only provocation has been their belief in Bahá'u'lláh as the Manifestation of God for today – a decision includes dedicating one's life to service to humanity. (Yes, I am a Bahá'í, so one could assume that this is a biased statement, but I dare such an assumer to prove otherwise. Even the persecutors themselves cannot refute these facts.)

In recent times, namely 1955 and 1979, this mistreatment in Iran has come in waves of increased intensity. If we apply harmonic motion metaphorically, the period is up and a new wave of hardships is due. This is the case. Within the past three years Bahá'í holy sites have been demolished, a building significant in Bahá'í history has been destroyed, Bahá'í college students have been denied higher education, and Bahá'ís have undergone arbitrary detentions in prison, and a wrongly imprisoned Bahá'í died of "unknown causes" while serving a life sentence. This is not the full picture, but it should be clear that it is obviously gettin worse.

"[A] confidential letter sent on 29 October 2005 by the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Iran to a number of governmental agencies" has been exposed.

"The letter," [United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir] said, "which is addressed to the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard and the Police Force, states that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify persons who adhere to the Baha'i faith and monitor their activities. The letter goes on to request the recipients to, in a highly confidential manner, collect any and all information about members of the Baha'i faith."

Personal opinion: Evidence suggests that the situation in Iran is tailspinning into (God forbid!) another period of arbitrary unjustified mass persecution, like the ones that have been happening at an increasing rate throughout the world these days in this Day. If humanity does not step up to the plate wicket, it will be their own loss.

On a much more joyous note, today is Naw-Rúz – the Bahá'í new year. Last night there were fastivities for it all over the world. May this be a fruitful year for all your efforts to make this world more unified.