“May Allah preserve, protect and bless Ayatollah Masoumi-Tehrani all his days” is not a sentiment one expects to hear from a Christian cleric in Canada about a Muslim cleric living in Iran. Yet those are the words recently written by University of Winnipeg Professor James Christie, an ordained minister. He refers to a gesture of reconciliation by the Ayatollah that he feels reflects a sentiment more and more common among religious leaders around the world, one that may overcome some of the damage done to religion by extremism and prejudice.
The particular action that inspired Dr. Christie was not just another instance of Christian-Muslim understanding, however welcome this might be. In April, Ayatollah Masoumi-Tehrani presented to the Baha’is a gift expressing his apology for their persecution, and making a gesture of reconciliation. For Iran’s ruling regime, that is apparently a bridge too far. Even as the Ayatollah and others in Iran’s civil society speak up in defence of Baha’is, Iran maintains the 20-year jail sentences imposed on Baha’i leaders – sentences that enter their seventh year this month. In addition, the regime’s Revolutionary Guards are currently destroying a large and historic Baha’i cemetery in the southern city of Shiraz, and Baha’is continue to be denied access to higher education and other human rights.
The brave gesture from a senior Muslim cleric towards the Baha’i community, whose emancipation is considered a litmus-test of genuine reform in that country, is a promising light in the otherwise sombre tableau that Iran presents to the world. The largest per-capita executioner on the planet, the regime continues to hold in prison many reformers, human rights defenders, journalists, and leaders of women, students and workers. Its actions have spurred denunciations from the UN General Assembly in December, and from the UN Secretary General and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran in March, but to no avail.
Yet, if an Ayatollah can speak out, others can surely follow. While the nuclear negotiations with Iran may headline the news, his gesture testifies to a tragedy that has already taken place in Iran and continues every day. It is the domestic tragedy of human rights abuse heaped on a nation whose history, culture and creativity will nevertheless outlive the appalling actions of a regime whose ideology is an entirely fabricated and warped version of Islam.
Around the world, in India, Pakistan and the UK, a number of Muslim leaders have spoken out, joining the Ayatollah in his call for religious coexistence and harmony among all religions, including the Baha’is. Joining Professor Christie in Canada, the President of Canada’s World Sikh Organization, Dr. Amritpal Singh Shergill, has written, “We believe that the foundation of religion must be compassion and Ayatollah Tehrani has illustrated this … We are hopeful that this move will inspire others in Iran and across the world to work to end the persecution of religious minorities.”
Former Canadian Senator and Moderator of the United Church, Lois Wilson, commented: “The recent generous gesture of a senior Islamic religious scholar in Iran of presenting to the Baha’i community an illuminated calligraphic rendering of a passage from their sacred scriptures is noteworthy. By this act he affirms his support of the importance of the gifts of the Baha’i community to the common good in a country whose current government refuses to recognize the Baha’i community as a religion. His courageous action is celebrated by those religious communities worldwide who work to affirm the validity and integrity of all faith communities who seek the common good.”
In his comments, Professor Christie quotes Shakespeare: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Those words, he said, compelled him to write, for the Ayatollah’s “words and his gift augur a rising tide of reconciliation, peace and hope among religions upon which all people of good will must surely comment and act, not for fortune, but in faith.”
“After the better part of two centuries of intolerance and persecution (of Baha’is) by authorities, the Ayatollah’s graciousness and courage is a demonstration of the peace and mercy which lie at the heart of Islam and which, as in all our faiths, are too often set aside for reasons of power, politics and prejudice.”
Read Professor Christie’s letter in full here.
Perhaps in the seventh year of the imprisonment of the Baha’i leaders, the light beginning to burn in Iran will shine bright enough to open prison doors.