Recently in Baha'is Category

Baha'is' very existence may soon be illegal in Egypt, under Islamic law. By contrast, the country that has allowed Baha'is to worship freely and maintain their headquarters in peace and security is none other than Israel. If the jihadists ever get their way regarding Israel, that will not continue. "Egypt’s Baha’is face more attacks from Salafists," by Joseph Mayton for Bikya Masr, February 19:

CAIRO: Egypt’s small Baha’i Faith community has faced attack upon attack in its less than 200 year existence in the country. The latest has come from prominent ultra-conservative Salafist leader Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, who called on the government to “protect itself” from the faith by denouncing the faith and calling its followers “blasphemous.”

“We will prosecute the Bahai’s on charge of treason,” said Shahat via telephone on Dream 2′s al-Haqiqa TV program.

“We as Salafists refuse to deal with Baha’is, because they do not exist by virtue of their faith.”

According to Shahat, Bahai’s are not entitled to rights under Islam because they are not recognized by the religion, and any new constitution should not include an amendment protecting their rights.

He cited previous Al-Azhar – the Sunni Islamic world’s most prestigious institution – rulings that said Baha’is are blasphemous.

The world’s newest monotheistic faith, and one that has been oppressed vehemently in Islamic countries, including Egypt, where in the early years of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Baha’i temples and places of worship were closed, and the Baha’i cemetery in the country largely destroyed, continues to face such attacks by the likes of Shahat and others in the country.

In 2009, the Egyptian Baha’i community hoped they had ushered in a new era for identification cards in the country after the first batch of the religious minority was granted new ID’s without a religion written on them. The move came after years of struggling against the state in order not to choose one of the “big three” religions Judaism, Christianity or Islam.

The new ID’s came months after an Egyptian court granted the Baha’i community the right not to list a false religion on the paperwork, something the small minority community had been pushing for in recent years after discrimination has been reported.

The lawsuit against the government was filed by a married couple, Hussam Izzat Musa and Ranya Enayat Rushdy, who wanted to add their daughters to their passports, which had listed the Baha’i Faith as their religion.

The couple won the initial case against the government, which granted them the ability to register their children in schools, receive marriage licenses, birth certificates and proclaim their faith on state identification cards.

“We were ecstatic about the case that allowed our community to be fully accepted Egyptians,” one married Baha’i man, after the initial court victory, told Bikyamasr.com.

His optimism was short-lived, however, as the government appealed and won, leaving the community struggling to find a place in Egyptian society....

Too late for a deathbed conversion? No problem! Islamic supremacists are standing by to "help!"

As bizarre as this case seems, we have seen similar ones in Turkey and Malaysia. Two apparent motives in this case are the desire to deny the existence of the Baha'i movement in Iran at all, as well as to lord the subjugated status of this Baha'i community over them even as they are grieving. There may well also be an attempt to make a grab for the worldly possessions of the deceased.

"In new affront, authorities say they will bury an Iranian Baha'i as a Muslim," from the Baha'i World News Service, August 11 (thanks to Twostellas):

In an outrageous new incident of religious discrimination, authorities in the city of Tabriz, Iran, have refused to allow Baha'is to bury a relative in accordance with Baha'i law - and instead have promised to entomb the deceased woman without a coffin under Muslim rites.

"To anyone who understands the culture of the Middle East, the idea that the government would force a family to bury their loved one according to the rites of another religion is beyond the pale," said Diane Ala'i, the representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

She noted that according to Baha'i rites of burial, the deceased must be interred in a coffin, whereas under Muslim law, no coffin is used.

"This incident demonstrates the almost unbelievable length to which Iranian authorities are willing to go to express their prejudice and animosity against Baha'is," she said.

Like darn near everybody else who doesn't adhere to the establishment's school of Shi'ite Islam, Baha'is are marginalized as unbelievers. But they are subject to additional abuse as an offshoot of the Shi'ite tradition that recognizes prophetic figures after Muhammad. As we have also seen with Ahmadi beliefs, that never goes over well under Sharia.

The incident began on Monday when authorities in Tabriz told the family of Mrs. Fatemeh-Soltan Zaeri that they would be unable to bury her in the local cemetery according to Baha'i law. Instead, they said, she would have to be interred according to Muslim customs.

The family objected, noting that the cemetery has always been accessible to members of all religions in the area to bury their dead as they wished.

In response to this protest, authorities demanded that Mrs. Zaeri be buried without a coffin - and they withheld her body for 48 hours, preventing them from taking her body somewhere else.

Yesterday, when the family member contacted cemetery authorities again, pleading that her body be released so they could bury her elsewhere, they were advised that she would be buried on Thursday anyway, without a coffin, in a Muslim ceremony - and that only her husband would be allowed to be present.

This is but the most recent incident in a long history of problems facing Baha'is over the proper burial of their dead. In many cities in Iran, Baha'is have long been blocked from using Muslim cemeteries, but have instead been allowed to create their own.

However, these Baha'i cemeteries have been frequently vandalized and desecrated.

In the past year or so, Baha'i cemeteries in Tehran, Ghaemshahr, Marvdasht, Semnan, Sari, and Isfahan have been defaced, bulldozed, or in some way blocked to the Baha'i community. In late April, a small Baha'i cemetery in Gilavand with only four graves was desecrated by intruders using a tractor; all four tombs were destroyed. Earlier, in March, a Baha'i family in Najafabad was prevented from burying a loved one in the Baha'i cemetery there, despite their having secured a permit to do so.

"Iranian officials repeatedly deny that their government persecutes Baha'is on account of their religion. Harassment over Baha'i burials and the desecration of cemeteries are clear indications that the persecution is based solely on religion and not the result of any threat posed by Baha'is," said Ms. Ala'i.

This year has seen redoubled efforts in Iran at terrorizing the Baha'i out of existence. In January, a wave of firebombings was accompanied by warnings not to propagate the Baha'i faith (even on the Internet), or hire or make friends with Muslims. The regime could perhaps claim plausible deniability for that campaign, but is now openly rounding up Baha'i educators. "For Baha'i educators, a lesson in power from Iran," by Mitra Mobasherat and Joe Sterling for CNN, May 31:

(CNN) -- The three Iranian security officers rang the doorbell, politely informed the man of his arrest, thoroughly searched the house, confiscated high-tech gear and books, and whisked him away to the nation's notorious Evin Prison.

The early Sunday morning raid took three hours. Now, every second seems like an eternity for the man's anguished family members, praying for his physical safety, hoping for his release, and getting their heads around the prospect of a long stint in prison, his relatives told CNN.

His family says the reason for his arrest is his religion.

The man is one of 16 Baha'is swept away in raids on or after May 21 targeting educators dedicated to teaching members of their community who are denied entry to universities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Of those 16, nine have since been released. But this educator remains in prison, a Baha'i official told CNN.

The crackdown is the latest example of the Shiite Muslim regime's relentless persecution of those who adhere to a faith deemed heretical by the ruling ayatollahs.

The Baha'i faith, founded during the 19th century in Iran and now with 5 million to 6 million adherents worldwide, is a monotheistic religion that focuses on the spiritual unity of humanity.

The clerics who hold sway in Iran regard the Baha'i faith as blasphemous because its founder, Bahá'u'lláh, declared himself to be a prophet of God. Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet of God.

Iranian security officials in Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz raided as many as 30 homes of Baha'is who were part of the Baha'i Institute of Higher Education, or BIHE, established in 1987 to help their co-religionists get undergraduate and graduate degrees. More than a dozen people were arrested in the raids, the most sweeping against the education initiative since 1998.

"The BIHE university was a cover for the propagation of the Baha'i faith and was used to trap citizens in the Baha'i spy network and to gather information from within the county," the Iran Daily, an official government newspaper reported.

The fact that the Baha'i world headquarters is in Haifa, though it had been there decades before the founding of the modern state of Israel, constitutes enough of an excuse for Iran to brand them as spies for Israel and America.

"Authorities have discovered Baha'i propaganda, CDs and books in the possession of those who have been arrested," according to the newspaper....

Will the Muslim spokesmen in the West who insist on pain of charges of "Islamophobia" that we all must believe that Islam is tolerant condemn this action by the Islamic Republic?

I didn't think so.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Iran arrests Bahai followers for proselytising faith," from Reuters, March 15 (thanks to Daniel):

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has arrested a number of adherents of the Bahai religious minority for proselytising their faith in schools, student news agency ISNA reported on Saturday quoting a court official.

The arrests were the outcome of nine months of undercover investigation in the capital Tehran and the city of Bam, in south-eastern Iran, said Mohammad Reza Sanjari, the prosecutor-general of the revolutionary court in Bam.

He did not indicate how many and when the arrests were made.

“The investigation indicated the existence of a wide and intricate network, members of which undertook measures at the order of a central organisation,” he said.

Sanjari said the adherents of Bahai, which Shi’ites consider a heretical offshoot of Islam, took advantage of a powerful earthquake that rocked Bam in 2003 killing thousands and destroying 70 to 90 percent of homes and schools. Bam is 610 miles southeast of Tehran.

“The abuse by the Bahai organisation of the 2003 post-earthquake in the city of Bam, which was in need of cultural, social and educational measures is very obvious,” he said....

Exiled Bahai leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the 1979 Islamic Shi’ite revolution. The Iranian government denies it has detained or executed people for their religious beliefs.

If the Baha'is comply with the Muslim demands, the Muslims "guarantee not to wage any attack on your life and properties."

This is echoing Muhammad: "I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah." (Sahih Muslim 30)

More on this story. "Arsonists threaten reprisals if Baha'is befriend Muslims," from the Baha'i World News Service, January 16 (thanks to Daniel):

GENEVA -- A recent wave of arson attacks on Baha'i-owned businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran, appears to be part of a campaign to fracture relationships between Baha'is and Muslims in the city.

After around a dozen attacks on shops - carried out since 25 October 2010 - some 20 Baha'i homes and businesses have been sent a warning letter addressed to "members of the misguided Bahaist sect."

The anonymous document demands that Baha'is sign an undertaking to "refrain from forming contacts or friendships with Muslims" and from "using or hiring Muslim trainees." The Baha'is are also told not to teach their Faith, including on the Internet.

Should the conditions be accepted by the recipients, the letter states, "we will guarantee not to wage any attack on your life and properties."

"For more than two months now, innocent Baha'is have been having their businesses fire-bombed," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i International Community representative to the United Nations in Geneva. "Some of them have suffered more than one arson attack on their properties."

"Now, in addition to their livelihoods, their very lives are being threatened unless they promise to isolate themselves from their friends and neighbours," she said.

"What are the perpetrators of such attacks and threats hoping to achieve?" asked Ms. Ala'i. "All it demonstrates for the whole world to see is the religiously motivated hatred being fomented by certain elements in Iranian society."

Ms. Ala'i noted that Baha'is have approached local authorities asking for an investigation. "But nothing has been done," she said.

"Unbelievably, they've even been accused by some of starting the fires themselves, under instruction from foreign governments."

The attackers have particularly targeted household furniture repair businesses, home appliance and optical stores owned by Baha'is.

On 15 November, for example, fires were started in two appliance sales and repair shops, causing damage that exceeded tens of thousands of US dollars. One of the shopkeepers subsequently rented a neighboring property to continue his trade and installed a security door. One month later, despite the precautions, attackers managed to force an explosive substance into the shop through a hole they made in the roof, resulting in a blast that blew the door five meters into the air and shattered windows.

Most recently, on 2 January, another repair shop was set ablaze when a hose pumped a flammable liquid past metal sheets the owner had installed for protection.

A newsletter published by a Muslim cultural foundation in Rafsanjan stated that the attacks have been provoked by the fact that some trades have been "monopolized" by Baha'is in the city. A Muslim-owned coffee shop was also set ablaze after the newsletter mistakenly identified it as Baha'i-owned....

Whoops!

The Baha'i faith has its headquarters in Haifa, Israel. Its presence there, established after its followers were persecuted in Iran and other Muslim lands for heresy, predates the State of Israel by decades (worth noting: whose tolerance has allowed a flourishing Baha'i presence since 1948, and whose "tolerance" has not?), but that certainly won't stop Iran from accusing them of being Zionist agents. And it won't stop them from persecuting the Baha'i as infidels.

The subjugation of unbelievers under the glorified protection racket of dhimmitude is condescendingly presented in the threat letter below as proof of Islam's "enlightened" ways. Of course, if the Baha'i fail in any way to live up to the terms of "protection," the consequences will be dire.

All of this is in accordance with Qur'an 9:29, which offers unbelievers conversion, subjugation, or war. And the authors of this threat are eager to demonstrate that they are playing by the book. "Another Baha'i-Owned Business Fire Bombed, Threatening Letter Left Behind," from Iran Press Watch, January 9 (thanks to David):

The Association Against Educational Discrimination (AAED)- On December 30, 2010, the business and shop of yet another Baha'i citizen in the city of Rafsanjan (Province of Kerman, southeastern Iran) was fire bombed and the assailant(s) left a threatening letter at the shop.

Based on reports received by AAED, this was the ninth Baha'i-owned shop attacked in the city of Rafsanjan. The culprits threw a letter inside the shop that threatened if the Baha'is refuse to sign the enclosed treaty, "they [the assailants] will uproot the base of imperialism in the city".

Prior to this attack, eight other shops belonging to Baha'i citizens were set on fire over 14 attacks.

The shop owners have taken their grievances to the Kerman Governor's office, Rafsanjan's Member of Parliament, National Security Commission, and the Kerman provincial police, but to no avail. Even the insurance companies refused to cover the real cost of the damages incurred by the shop owners.

Governmental involvement on some level in these cases would not be at all far fetched. Iran has long engaged in the systematic persecution of Baha'is.

Below is part of the text of the threatening letter thrown in the shop that was attacked:

In the Name of God

Warning and Commitment letter

Members of the Baha'i cult in the city of Rafsanjan:

Fighting against disbelief (rejection of religion) and polytheism, especially against a cult whose supporters are the biggest enemies of Islamic Iran- Israel and the US is the duty of each and every Muslim. Since you, contrary to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, preach and propagate [your religion], you will not be entitled to any citizenship rights or security. However, since the enlightened Islamic religion permits entering into contracts between Muslims and non-Muslims to guarantee protection of the lives and properties of the latter, we inform the Baha'is of this city that if you accept our conditions mentioned below, we will not aggress your life and properties. But if you do not accept the terms of this treaty, it will be interpreted as your insistence on hostility toward the Muslim and Shiite residents of the city, and we shall uproot the basis of imperialism in this city through our Jihadi actions. Inshallah (God willing)

The terms of the treaty

1. Refraining from propogating and preaching the Baha'i faith even in cyber space (internet)

2. Refraining from relationships and friendships with Muslims except in the work and business context

3. Refraining from hiring Muslim employees by Baha'i shopkeepers

Since in the books of Rouhi Foundation, friendship with Muslims has been greatly encouraged as a means of preaching, any unnecessary friendship and ties outside the business framework will be considered an attempt to preach [your religion], and will be deemed violation of the terms of this treaty....

"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....

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic. Watch for CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper, Honest Ibe himself, to dash off a CAIR Action Alert about how the Islamic Republic is Misunderstanding Islam, and calling for the release of these Baha'is. It's coming right up, isn't it, Honest Ibe?

"Five Baha'i followers arrested in Iran," from Reuters, February 14 (thanks to Kambiz):

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Five members of the outlawed Baha'i faith, which has been a target in a security crackdown sparked by post-election violence in Iran, have been arrested on unspecified charges, an Iranian newspaper said on Sunday.

"Iran's security forces have arrested five members of the outlawed Baha'i faith in Tehran," the pro-government Javan newspaper said, without giving a source.

It identified the fives detainees as Niki Khanjani, Ashkan Basari, Maria Jafari, Houman Sisani and Romina Zabihian.

"Some of the Baha'i leaders have escaped to Dubai and Turkey while others went to border cities to find human smugglers to get them out of Iran illegally," Javan said....

Seven Baha'is went on trial last month on charges of spying and collaborating with Israel. One Baha'i is among 16 being tried on connection with opposition protests that turned violent on December 27.

Exiled Baha'i leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since 1979. The government denies it has detained or executed people for their religion....