Canadian Communities Gather for Prayer as Concerns Deepen over Fate of Baha’is in Iran
Baha’i communities across Canada are gathering for prayers this week for the safety of Baha’is in Iran after learning last Wednesday that seven members of the committee that managed the affairs of Iran’s largest religious minority, the Baha’i community, are being brought before the Iranian Revolutionary Court on charges of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the system.”
According to Amnesty International and former Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, the charges can lead to lengthy prison terms and execution. This has brought back memories of the more than 200 executions and brutal attacks on Baha’is after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The charges have been denounced by governments and organizations around the world, as well as the Baha’i International Community, as completely false.
After more than nine months in prison under conditions which Amnesty International reports have been “cruel, inhuman or degrading”, and without formal charges or access to lawyers, it appears that even Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi’s courageous offer to defend the Baha’is may be difficult if not impossible since the Government of Iran closed her offices in late December and revolutionary court trials are often conducted behind closed doors with no legal representation.
The last while has seen a severely and rapidly escalating campaign of attacks against the Baha’i community that has included the circulation of lists of Baha’is with instructions that their activities be secretly monitored; dawn raids on Baha’i homes; a dramatic increase in the number of Baha’is arrested; daily incitement to hatred of the Baha’is in all forms of government-sponsored media; the holding of anti-Baha’i symposia and seminars organized by clerics followed by orchestrated attacks on Baha’i homes and properties; destruction of Baha’i cemeteries throughout the country; demolition of Baha’i Holy Places and Shrines; acts of arson against Baha’i homes and properties; denying Baha’is access to higher education and vilification of Baha’i children in their classrooms by their teachers; the designation of numerous occupations and businesses from which Baha’is are debarred; refusal to extend bank loans to Baha’is; the sealing of Baha’i shops; refusal to issue or renew business licenses to Baha’is; harassment of landlords of Baha’i business tenants to force their eviction; and threats against Muslims who associate with Baha’is.
Governments and Iranian Intellectuals Voice Concern
Canadian Baha’is are hopeful that the Iranian Government will pay heed to the wave of concern voiced by governments over the past few days. Strong statements of concern were made in Canada’s Parliament on Thursday 12 February by MP Deepak Obhrai, Secretary to the Foreign Affairs Minister, and then on Friday by MP Irwin Cotler. The United States Government has “condemned the Iranian government’s decision to level baseless charges of espionage against” the Baha’is in a strongly worded statement from the State Department on Friday, and a U.S. Congressional Resolution was introduced that same day. The British Government’s Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell expressed strong concern on Monday 16 February, and the European Union Presidency issued a very strong statement on Tuesday 17 February.
Of particular interest has been a historic and unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and support from non-Baha’i Iranians around the world. An open letter, circulating widely on the internet, has been signed by over 250 leading Iranian intellectuals, writers and artists who, though not themselves members of the Baha’i community, have offered a remarkable public apology on the part of the Iranian people to the long-persecuted Baha’i community of Iran.
Canada’s Government, among the first to respond to the persecutions after the revolution in 1979, has continued through the past three decades to denounce the lack of religious freedom in Iran. Over the past few years, the Canadian Government has tabled a resolution condemning Iran’s human rights record. The resolution won the endorsement, at a time when country-specific resolutions are rare, of the majority of the U.N. member states. The resolution has identified the persecution of Baha’is among a range of other human rights abuses in Iran.
Contact: Gerald Filson 416-587-0632 (cell)Director of External Affairs, Baha’i Community of Canada