"They say they have noticed an increase in the persecution of Bahais since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
Funny how that keeps happening: the increasing Islamization of government and society is accompanied by visibly and violently decreasing levels of religious tolerance. "Iran's Bahai community fear rise in persecution," from BBC News, July 2:
First there are the images of wooden beams on fire. Then buildings come into view, some without windows and doors, others reduced to rubble.
The shaky mobile phone footage posted on YouTube by Iranian human rights activists shows scenes of destruction filmed secretly from inside a car.
The activists say the footage shows the results of an attack on the properties of Bahai residents in Ivel, a village in northern Iran.
They also say that non-Bahai residents supported the demolitions.
Bahai groups outside Iran have also received eyewitness reports from Ivel.
The witnesses said that several days before the bulldozers moved in, some people in the village signed a petition demanding the expulsion of their Bahai neighbours.
Many Bahais had left already: a number of families had fled previous attacks on Bahai property in Ivel. In 2007, for example, six houses were torched.
However, this time the Bahais left in the village complained to the police in the nearest town, Kiasar.
The police denied that there was a petition against them and refused to provide any protection.
The reports from Ivel residents say that by June 22, almost 50 houses belonging to Bahais had been flattened.
Not recognised
Bahais have lived in the area in Iran's Mazadaran province for more than 100 years, says Diane Alai, the representative of the Bahai community at the UN in Geneva.
Bahai groups warn that life is becoming harder and harder for the 300,000 followers of the religion in Iran.
They say they have noticed an increase in the persecution of Bahais since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....
Well, it is to ensure community cohesion no doubt.
When I crave a bit of fun I visit the websites of the Shia "Young Muslims Group" here in Denmark. http://www.ungemuslimer.dk/portal/index.php. Intro is all about harmony and mutual understanding, but when I link into their book section it suddenly becomes a world of Jizya, temporary marriages and subjugated infidels. Obvious lying gits have always amused me.
It would seem to me the Muslims want the land...and the quickest way to get it...is to force the landowners to make a quick choice...leave or die...
This is the way it has always been with Islam...
"It would seem to me the Muslims want the land...and the quickest way to get it...is to force the landowners to make a quick choice...leave or die..."
That, and they simply want the non-believers either dead or clearly subjugated and degraded. Any non-believers, whether Bahais, Jews, Christians, or others, who lead normal, productive lives are a constant example of the possibilities of life without Islam, and thus are a constant temptation to the Moslems around them, and thus must be either removed or persecuted and humiliated to the point that no Moslem would want to join them. Islam is a very brittle faith; its teachings and values are so childish and immoral that most people would never follow it if they were not forced to, and if they had an example of a real religion before their eyes. Hence the example must be eliminated.
"Iran authorities chop off man's hand for stealing"
http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20940:authorities-chop-off-mans-hand-for-stealing&catid=5:human-rights&Itemid=27
And Israel has been soundly condemned for bulldozing some terrorist homes in the past...But of course Israel is a wretched nation where everything they do is evil, where Iran gets special passes for brutalizing it's people because...well because the Mullah's and Ahmadinejad are 'special' that's why...Does Israel have any supernatural beings to bring forth? Do they have anything approaching Mahdi?
"Iran's Bahai community fear rise in persecution...
The chief ayatollah is house cleaning in expectation of the arrival of the most important guest ever...Mahdi...When Mahdi gets here he does not want to see any Bahia's hanging around, nor kufr of any kind...Mahdi is kufr sensitive, sort of like Superman is sensitive to kryptonite...A little kufr weakens him like sticking a cross in Drac'ulla's face...
When the magician constructs a ritual to evoke a spirit or dis-embodied entity of some kind, it is like taking a fish out of water, so a ritual environment is built to accommodate...
Iran is busy creating such an environment for Mahdi...
Where is international amnesty on this??? where is the outcry by the UN??? the silence is deafening!
While I would prefer not to suffer such persecution, if I did I would take heart in the fact that the clergy and authorities have been trying, quite unsuccessfully, to stamp out the Bab'i and subsequently the Baha'i Faiths since their inception in 1844. This is because they have stood up to proclaim a new spiritual authority to the prevailing order. Early Christians faced the same challenges?
Those who closely follow Jihadwatch might take interest in the fact that the Baha'is point out that Muhammad in verse (Ali) 3:40 of the Qur'an will state that he is the Rasul-Allah (Messenger of Allah - Greater Prophet with a Book, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad, etc.) but only the seal of the Nabi (Lessor Prophets such as Daniel or Issiah). Thus Baha'is maintain that "God's hands are not chained up" (Rodwell, 5:69, Muhammad's response to the Jews of Medina stating there would never be another Messenger after Moses) so there is the potential for another Messenger of God after Muhammad. Indeed much of the Qur'an involves significant discussion of great spiritual events to come: Two trumpets will sound (Ali, 3:68) then the "earth will shine with the glory of its Lord", the Day of Judgement and the Day of Resurrection, etc. That the Bab and Baha'u'llah claimed to be Rasul-Allahs clearly has drawn, and will continue to draw, the ire of traditional thinkers in Islam.
That said, there could be significance in such a claim if its truth is established as Christ's Message emerged in the fullness of time despite the various persecutions it faced. It is one thing for me to stand up in Times Square or write to the New York times and proclaim that "Jihad, as an incarnation of holy war, should be ended". It is a very different matter if it can be established that someone is indeed speaking with the authority of a Rasul-Allah/Messenger of God to proclaim to the Sultan of Turkey and the Islamic World while being held in the Sultan's version of the 'Abu-Ghraib Prison (the Citadel of Akka/Acre) that:
"O people of the earth! The first Glad-Tidings which the Mother Book hath, in this Most Great Revelation, imparted unto all the peoples of the world is that the law of holy war hath been blotted out from the Book. Glorified be the All-Merciful, the Lord of grace abounding, through Whom the door of heavenly bounty hath been flung open in the face of all that are in heaven and on earth. 22
"The second Glad-Tidings It is permitted that the peoples and kindreds of the world associate with one another with joy and radiance. O people! Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship. Thus hath the day-star of His sanction and authority shone forth above the horizon of the decree of God, the Lord of the worlds."
(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 21)
That Baha'u'llah, after 9.5 years in the Penal colony of Akka, was so well respected that the Mufti of Akka would totally ignore the Sultan's Farman of Baha'u'llah's life imprisonment, would go to Baha'u'llah and beg Him for an hour to take his hand and walk out of the Prison City, and actually accomplish this feat, ads credence to such a claim as per above. (This would be akin to the Archbishop of San Francisco walking into Alcatraz, taking its most famous prisoner by the hand and leading him out to freedom?)
A further interesting historical process is that several years later Baha'u'llah is able to put in motion events that would lead to the sacred remains of Bab being placed in the heart of Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel 1.5 km North of the caves of Elijah in what is now called the "Shrine of the Bab", and the Baha'i World Center established around it.
We live in interesting times?
I had a prolonged conversation with a Bahai about 5 years ago. Although he was obviously educted, I was struck by his misconceptions. Among them was a belief that even though international Bahai headquarters is located in Israel, the Israelis forbid Bahais from proselytizing in the Jewish state. The truth is that the Bahai religion itself is non-proselytizing and that there are absolutely no restrictions on them in Israel.
In point of fact, the reason the Bahai are headquartered there is because Israel is the only tolerant society accepting of them in the entire Middle East. The "crime" of the Bahai as seen through Muslim eyes is that their Prophet came after Muhammad, violating the theological dictate that the latter was the "seal of the Prophets".
Having visited Haifa and Akka, Israel, and walked freely through the streets of both cities, I am very appreciative of the circumstances of that environment, to say nothing of what is made possible for the Baha'i World Center.
Don't you people remember? The Ra-fool Bama had given a blank check for all Muslim nations to persecute all nonmuslims minorities. After all he did say that he will stand with the Muslims. That he wants the Muslims to feel good. That we owe Muslim practically for everything. So the Muslims are letting the good times roll. This means full persecution of minorities. They now the Bama will say and do nothing.