Free Republic

NEW YORK — Six Bahá’í leaders in Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison yesterday in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Bahá’í leaders were summarily rounded up and killed. The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away.The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March...

The news that the Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar will be visiting Armenia mid-January might come as a surprise to some. Yet, Iran has always seen its Armenian population as well as its links with Armenia as an important asset. Armenians are the most favoured and relatively privileged of all non-Muslim communities in Iran today. It is tricky to establish the exact number of ethno-religious minorities in the country since the official numbers are politically shaped and minority communities guard such details and often are not clear themselves. However, various sources estimate that there are around 300,000 Baha'is, 110,000...

'Arab Spring': The chilly cruel winter reality of Arab racism and Islamic bigotry Not that ethnic racism and religious bigotry weren't rampant before the so-called "Arab spring" sprung about. But the intolerance tide seems to be only worsening, and without an Arab dictator to "hold" various factions together, vulnerability expand, risks rise. --- RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY: As the D.B. puts it: "Violence Against Egypt's Copts in an Intolerant Arab Spring.. The elephant in the room of the Arab Spring is now the mistreatment of minority communities—Christians and others—across the Arab world." FPM asks: Hillary Clinton Promises to Save Egypt's Christians? ......

Iran’s most repressed religious minority is also its largest. Members of the community are routinely imprisoned, frequently executed, banned from universities, and ruthlessly repressed economically. Tens of thousands have been murdered by one regime after another. The current government—the Khomeinist “Islamic Republic”—goes farther than any other by vowing to crush these people wherever they live and erase them from the face of the earth. There are only six or seven million in the entire world, and their spiritual home is in Israel. I am not, however, referring here to the Jews, but to the Bahais. Their world headquarters is in...

Arson investigators were looking Tuesday into two fires in three days that destroyed the Orlando Bahá'í Center in Orlando. The first fire in the one-story wood building on Hillcrest Street was reported at 4:48 a.m. Sunday. When the Orlando Fire Department responded to the second blaze at 12:55 a.m. Tuesday, flames were shooting through the roof. "It is unusual for something like that to happen, especially this much down time between the two," said Orlando Fire Department Commander Vicki Robles. A spokesperson for the Bahá'í Center said the fires are baffling to the members, who number about 300 in the...

U.S. panel demands release of Baha'is facing trial in Iran Story Highlights Seven Baha'is in Iran to face trial Saturday, could face death penalty U.S. panel on religious freedom urges their release, calls charges "baseless" The seven leaders are accused of spying for Israel and religious offenses Rights groups say the seven have spent a year in jail without access to lawyer (CNN) -- Seven Baha'i prisoners face a death-penalty trial Saturday in Iran amid calls for their release from a U.S. panel on religious freedom. Responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who spent four months...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Tuesday said more than 50 followers of the minority Baha'i faith were convicted of distributing propaganda against the country's Islamic regime, state media reported. Ali Reza Jamshidi, Iran's judiciary spokesman, said three people, who were in custody in southern city of Shiraz, were sentenced to four years in prison. Another 51 Baha'i followers were given one-year suspended prison terms, Jamshidi said, according to the official IRNA news agency. Last year, Baha'i communities abroad had reported that a group of followers were detained in Shiraz, located about 550 miles south of Tehran, while helping poor communities...