Posted on 01/12/2010 3:51:16 PM PST by reg45
Bahá'í leaders are being made scapegoats. We must press Tehran to grant them a fair trial
Cherie Blair
The Guardian, Tuesday 12 January 2010
As the Iranian government struggles to contain growing demands for freedom and democracy from its courageous people, it is flailing around trying to deflect blame for the protests. Foreign media and other countries, including Britain, have been accused of encouraging unrest. But the regime is also worryingly turning on all too familiar scapegoats within Iran.
Once again, followers of the Bahá'í faith within the country are in the firing line. Fresh arrests and harassment of Bahá'ís in recent days have been accompanied by increasingly extreme proclamations in the state-run media against this gentle and unifying religion. Bahá'ís find themselves once more accused of co-operating with Israel to undermine their own country.
What is even more disturbing is news that the long-delayed trial of the country's seven-strong Bahá'í leadership is about to start. Lawyers acting for the five men and two women have been told that the revolutionary court will begin to hear the case today.
This is an extract - use link to read the entire article.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
FYI: Cherie Blair is the wife of the former Prime Minister.
Iran ping
Ouch. Some of our Iranian ex-pat friends here are Bahais.
The 3rd Reich 1936!
I knew an Iranian-American Bahai whose father was killed by the Muslims. The surviving family members had to flee to India. The Bahai was strikingly different from the Muslim Iranians I’ve met; very conscientious and nonaggressive.
See: Iran Press Watch
Interesting, because the Muslim Iranians I know are similar to the Bahai -- not to the same degree, but similar. Then again, the Iranian Muslims I know are not "fundamentalist" Muslims, some are roughly equivalent to "Christmas & Easter Christians."
The Bahais here also keep a low profile. One also speaks Arabic and works as a translator -- but on the job never mentions being Bahai because of the hatred of the Muslims.
ping again
ping
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