wfn.org | BWNS -- Baha'ms decry cultural cleansing in Iran

[Bahá'í World News Service <bwns@bwc.org>]

Baha'i World News Service
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Baha'is decry cultural cleansing in Iran
NEW YORK, United States 12  September 2004 (BWNS) -- The destruction of yet
another Baha'i holy place in Iran has prompted an outcry by Baha'is around
the
world, who see that the Iranian Government is persisting in a campaign of
persecution so extreme in the fanaticism driving it that it even jeopardizes
invaluable assets of the country's cultural heritage.

The demolition in June of an historic house in Tehran, which followed the
leveling of a Baha'i holy place in Babol earlier this year, has spurred
national Baha'i communities in several nations to place a statement in major
newspapers decrying the destruction.

The statement, which ran in the New York Times today, is set to run soon in
newspapers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

The Baha'i community of Iran, with about 300,000 members, is that country's
largest religious minority.

With some five million members in more than 180 countries worldwide, the
Baha'i Faith is an independent religion that promotes such teachings as the
oneness of humanity, the underlying unity of the religions, the equality of
women and men, and the need to eliminate prejudice.

Since 1979, despite their peaceful character, more than 200 Iranian Baha'is
have been killed, and hundreds more have been tortured and imprisoned. Tens
of
thousands have lost jobs, pensions, and access to education, all solely
because the clerics who rule Iran declare them heretics.

"The hatred of the extremist mullahs for the Baha'is is such that they, like
the Taliban of Afghanistan who destroyed the towering Buddhist sculptures at
Bamiyan, intend not only to eradicate the religion, but even to erase all
traces of its existence in the country of its birth," says the statement,
which took the form of a paid advertisement in the New York Times.

The house that was destroyed in June had been owned by Mirza Abbas Nuri (also
known as Mirza Buzurg), the father of Baha'u'llah, Who founded the Baha'i
Faith. Mirza Abbas Nuri was an eminent provincial governor and was widely
regarded as one of Iran's greatest calligraphers.

The statement in the Times notes that Mirza Abbas Nuri's house was an
"historical monument, a precious example of Islamic-Iranian architecture, 'a
matchless model of art, spirituality, and architecture.'"

"In their determination to rid Iran of the Baha'i community and obliterate
its
very memory, the fundamentalists in power are prepared even to destroy the
cultural heritage of their own country, which they appear not to realize they
hold in trust for humankind," the statement continues.

"Surely the time has come for Iranians everywhere to raise their voices in
protest against such willful desecrations," concludes the statement.

Placing the statement in newspapers around the world is part of a coordinated
effort by Baha'is outside of Iran to call the world's attention to the
destruction of cultural landmarks that are part of the heritage of the entire
world, said Glen Fullmer, director of communications for the Baha'i community
of the United States.

"The places that are being demolished are significant to all humanity," said
Mr. Fullmer. "They reflect unique elements of Iran's cultural history. So we
are calling on Iranians around the world to protest the destruction of their
own culture."

The statement will also be printed in Le Monde, France's premier newspaper,
said Brenda Abrar, a spokesperson for the Baha'i community there.

"There are a great many Iranians in France," said Ms. Abrar. "We want to
alert
them that their own cultural heritage is in danger. The house that was
demolished in June actually represents a great work of Islamic architecture."

In July, the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri published a lengthy article about
the
life of Mirza Abbas Nuri and the architecture of his house.

"As he had good taste for the arts and for beauty, he designed his own house
in such a style that it became known as one of the most beautiful houses of
that period," wrote Imam Mihdizadih in Hamshahri on 13 July. "The plasterwork
and the tile-work in the rooms as well as the verdant veranda, the courtyard
with its central pool, and the trees planted in the flowerbeds, all created a
tranquil atmosphere in this house."

The house was demolished over a period of about one week in June. The
demolition order was issued in April by Ayatollah Kani, director of the Marvi
School and the Endowments Office, ostensibly for the purpose of creating an
Islamic cemetery. When the demolition started on 20 June, officials from the
Ministry of Information were present, and by 29 June more than 70 percent of
the structure had been destroyed.

The destruction of Mirza Abbas Nuri's house represents just the latest in a
series of demolitions that appears to be aimed at systematically destroying
Baha'i holy sites, said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i
International Community to the United Nations.

In April, despite international protest, the gravesite of an early apostle of
the Faith was destroyed in Babol. The house-like structure marked the resting
place of Mulla Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi, known as Quddus.

Quddus was the foremost disciple of the Bab, the Prophet-Herald of the Baha'i
Faith.

In 1993, more than 15,000 graves were bulldozed at the well-kept Baha'i
cemetery of Tehran on the pretext of constructing a municipal center.

In 1979, shortly after the Islamic revolution, the house of the Bab in
Shiraz,
one of the most sacred sites in the Baha'i world, was demolished. The house
of
Baha'u'llah in Takur, where the Founder of the Baha'i Faith spent his
childhood, was also demolished soon after the revolution and the site offered
for sale to the public.

"We see all this as part of a concerted plan on the part of the Iranian
government to gradually extinguish the Baha'i Faith as a cultural force and
cohesive entity," said Ms. Dugal. "Over the years, the government's strategy
has changed, from outright killing to methods that are less likely to attract
international attention, such as the destruction of holy sites.

"But the end result is the same: to completely destroy the Baha'i community
of
Iran, along with its history and heritage," said Ms. Dugal.

To see a copy of the statement placed in the New York Times, see
http://www.bahai.org/pdf/ad20040912.pdf

To see a press release from the Office of Public Information of the Baha'i
community of the United States, see http://www.bahai.org/pdf/pr20040912.pdf

For a background article on the situation of the Baha'is in Iran, see
http://bahai.org/article-1-8-3-6.html

For the history of the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran, see
http://bahai.org/article-1-8-3-7.html

For an article on Iran's secret blueprint for the destruction of the Baha'i
community, see
http://bahai.org/article-1-8-3-14.html

For an August 2004 news story on the ploy to deprive Baha'is of higher
education, see
http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/story.cfm?storyid=317