{"id":248,"date":"2009-02-22T22:23:12","date_gmt":"2009-02-22T22:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/bahai-persecution-in-iran.html"},"modified":"2009-02-22T22:23:12","modified_gmt":"2009-02-22T22:23:12","slug":"bahai-persecution-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/bahai-persecution-in-iran.html","title":{"rendered":"Baha’i persecution in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine an ethno-religious group that is treated as second-class citizens by their host country, and actively persecuted, with accusations of divided loyalties and sympathies to enemies of the state. Arabs in Israel? no – the Baha’i in Iran, who have faced increased repression from Iranian authorities of late. As ‘Aqoul ably summarizes<\/a>, <\/p>\n

Several leaders in the Baha’i faith<\/a> — that other other other other Abrahamic monotheism — have been charged in Iran<\/a>
\nwith espionage and other crimes, with possible death penalty exposure.
\nThese were generally seen as pretext charges for a broad official
\nchronic program of persecution. The charges are regarded as probable
\npretext most especially because Baha’i have little access to secrets,
\nbeing denied official employment, and also because the alleged country
\nof espionagery, Israel, is naturally going to have relatively extensive
\nties with the Baha’i leaders because the city of Haifa, Israel is the
\nsite of the Baha’i Vatican<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, since the Baha’i are not Arab, and outside the muslim mainstream (being an offshoot from the Shi’a Twelver faith), their plight does not get much attention from most muslim groups in the West who concern themselves with more fashionable causes. <\/p>\n

The best resource on the Baha’i struggle in Iran is BahaiRights.org<\/a>, a project of the Middle East Youth<\/a>. I also highly recommend following @Kawdess<\/a> on Twitter for timely coverage and links, on the topic of the Baha’i as well as other topic of general interest to middle east and muslim issues.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, in my hometown of Chicago there is a magnificent Baha’i temple on the shore of Lake Michigan<\/a>. It’s a glorious structure which I’ve visited (as a tourist) many times since childhood. On my recent trip back from Colombo last year I was able to take a picture of the temple from the air, which gives a sense of the harmonious yet imposing architecture, but of course is no substitute for actually visiting in person.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0739<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine an ethno-religious group that is treated as second-class citizens by their host country, and actively persecuted, with accusations of divided loyalties and sympathies to enemies of the state. Arabs in Israel? no – the Baha’i in Iran, who have faced increased repression from Iranian authorities of late. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}