wfn.org | Baha'i News: Bahá'í International Community rejects Iranian allegations on recent arrests

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Bahá'í International Community rejects Iranian allegations on recent  arrests

>Baha?i World News Service

http://news.bahai.org <http://news.bahai.org/

>For more information, contact: news@bahai.org

Bahá'í International Community rejects Iranian allegations on recent  arrests

NEW YORK, 21 May 2008  ? Allegations by Iran that six Bahá?ís  were arrested
last week ?for security reasons and not for their faith? are utterly
baseless and without documentation, said the Bahá?í International  Community
today.

?All of the allegations issued in a statement on Tuesday by the  Iranian
government are utterly baseless,? said Bani Dugal, the principal
representative of the Baha?i International Community to the United  Nations,
referring to statements made in a press conference given yesterday in  Tehran
by Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham, at which he
acknowledged the arrest and imprisonment of six Bahá
<http://news.bahai.org/story/632> ?í leaders last week.

?The allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well  that
they are untrue,? Ms. Dugal said. ?The documented plan of the  Iranian
government has always been to destroy the Bahá?í community, and  these latest
arrests represent an intensification of this plan.

?The group of Bahá?ís arrested last week, like the thousands of  Bahá?ís who
since 1979 have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed, are  being
persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs. The best proof of  this
is the fact that, time and again, Bahá?ís have been offered their  freedom if
they recant their Bahá?í beliefs and convert to Islam ? an  option few have
taken.

?Far from being a threat to state security, the Bahá?í community  of Iran has
great love for their country and they are deeply committed to its
development. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that the vast
majority of Bahá?ís have remained in Iran despite intense  persecution, the
fact that students denied access to education in Iran and forced to  study
abroad have returned to assist in the development of their country, and  the
recent effort by Bahá?ís in Shiraz to provide schooling for  underprivileged
children ? an effort the government responded to by arresting some 54  Bahá?í
participants in May 2006,? said Ms. Dugal.

In its coverage of Mr. Elham?s press conference, the Islamic Republic  News
Agency (IRNA) reported that the six Bahá?ís were arrested ?for  security
reasons not for their faith.? The IRNA report also quoted Mr. Elham as
saying that the six Bahá?ís were somehow linked to ?foreigners,  the Zionists
in particular.?

>Ms. Dugal addressed that issue also, saying:

?The charges linking the Bahá?ís to Zionism are a distortion of  history: The
Bahá?í Faith has its world headquarters in Israel because  Bahá?u?lláh was,
in the mid-1800s, sent as a prisoner to the Holy Land by two Islamic
countries: Ottoman Turkey and Iran.

?The charge that Bahá?ís are Zionists, which has in fact been  made against
Bahá?ís for the last 30 years by Iran, is nothing more than an  effort by the
government to stir animosity against Bahá?ís among the Iranian  population at
large. This is but the most recent iteration in a long history of  attempts
to foment hatred by casting the Bahá?ís as agents of foreign  powers, whether
of Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States?and now  Israel?all of
which are completely baseless.

?The real issue, as it relates to Bahá?ís, who are committed to
nonpartisanship and nonviolence, is the ideology of the government,  which
has undertaken a well-documented effort to utterly block the development  of
the Bahá?í community not only through arrests, harassment and  imprisonment
but also by depriving their youth of education and preventing adults  from
obtaining a livelihood.

?We would ask whether issues of state security rather than ideology  were
involved in recent incidents such as the destruction of a Bahá?í  cemetery
and the use of a bulldozer to crush the bones of a Bahá?í who was  interred
there; the harassment of hundreds of Bahá?í schoolchildren  throughout Iran
by teachers and school officials in an effort to make them reject their  own
religion; or the publication of dozens of defamatory anti-Bahá?í  articles in
Kayhan and other government-sponsored news media in recent months,?  said Ms.
Dugal.

She also noted that over the years, a number of government officials,
clerics, and members of the judiciary have in fact made statements in
private noting the nonpartisan conduct of the Bahá?í community and  the
unjustified nature of government charges against Bahá?ís.

She added that the present government?s ideology is based in large  part on a
belief that there could be no Prophet following Muhammad. The  Bahá?í Faith
poses a theological challenge to this belief.

?Freedom of religion is the issue and Iran itself is a signatory to
international covenants that acknowledge the right of individuals to  freedom
of religion or belief, including the right to change one?s  religion,? Ms.
Dugal said.

?What the Iranian government cannot tolerate is that the Iranian  people are
less responsive to the government?s propaganda, because they see the  reality
? that Iranian Bahá?ís love their country, are sincere in their  desire to
contribute to its well-being, are peace-loving, and are law-abiding ?  and
that these qualities stem from their beliefs. Consequently, there is  growing
sympathy for the Bahá?ís. Increasingly, people at all levels of  the society
are coming to their defense both privately and publicly, and there is
growing interest in and attraction to the Bahá?í Faith amongst the
population,? Ms. Dugal said.

For more information, go to: http://news.bahai.org/story/634 and
http://news.bahai.org/story/632