This week, a twitter campaign was launched with a website http://free7bahais.ca. The campaign uses the twitter phrase “free7bahais”.
This initiative follows on a number of media articles that have been published in Canada since the announcement 8 August of the 20-year sentences imposed on the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran. A couple of letter-writing campaigns by two human rights organizations, “United4Iran” and the “Human Rights Activists News Agency”, under the title “We are Yaran” have also attracted widespread attention.
Such campaigns, supported and launched by individuals and non-Baha’i organizations, reflect the level of upset felt by those learning about the harsh sentences given to seven Baha’is solely because of their religious beliefs. The sentences have been seen as another violation of human rights occurring in Iran at a time when the Iranian people are suffering from a wide range of human rights abuses. The sentences are but the latest injustice in the ongoing and systematic program of persecution carried out against Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious community.
Following public condemnation of the sentences by governments and human rights organizations around the world, there have been several articles published in Canada including a commentary in the Edmonton Journal, “Iran’s outrageous Baha’i trial thinly disguised religious cleansing” by Professor Andy Knight, Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Alberta. The Daily Gleaner of Fredericton, New Brunswick featured the news article “Local Baha’i community decries the imprisonment of faith’s leaders in Iran” as a front page story while the Regina Leader Post focused on the reaction of a member of the Regina community who is a cousin of one of those sentenced. A Reuters news agency release on the sentencing was also published in more than 35 Canadian newspapers shortly after the sentencing.
For another related story, please read “Global support intensifies for Iran’s seven Baha’i leaders” at the Baha’i World News Service website.