Bahai faith battles for survival
Religion considered heresy by fundamental Moslems

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday, October 16, 2004.
By WES TIBBS
Valley Press Staff Writer

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The Bahais of Iran are seeking the world's support to ensure their survival.
In a country with little religious freedom or tolerance, this religion which prohibits followers from political lobbying for change has recently experienced a surge in government violence against its religious heritage.

Since Bahais teach that religious figures such as Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ and Mohammed, and Bahai's own Bàb and Bahà'u'llàh, were all manifestations of one God, and Islam teaches that Mohammed was the final prophet, the religion is considered heresy by fundamental Moslems - including the Islamic government of Iran. The faith also is seen as a creation of outside powers - such as the United States or the British - allegedly conceived to destroy Islam.

Persecution of the Bahais began just after the religion's emergence when its forerunner Bàb was imprisoned and killed in Iran in 1850.

"As with any new religion, people already in the religious establishment feel threatened, so 20,000 Bàbí lost their lives in the beginning," said Farivar Roshanian, chairman of the Palmdale Spiritual Assembly, and whose parents fled Iran in 1979 when their property was confiscated by the government.

Roshanian said since the beginning the Bahais in Iran have experienced surges of persecution, increasing since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

"After the revolution, the clergy came into power in Iran and it's a form of active government policy to persecute the Bahais," he said.

After the revolution, Bahai leaders, teachers and community leaders were arrested. Some 200 of these were killed, including national assembly leaders of the Bahais. The Bahais elected new leaders who also were arrested and executed.

Executions waned when international pressure increased against the Iranian government but in the end, Iran passed a law making the Bahai institution illegal, and excluded it as a recognized religion.

"Since the Bahai obey the rule of the government, they disbanded all the crucial assemblies," Roshanian said.

Property was confiscated and a policy of slow "strangulation of the community" began. Bahais were denied government jobs, inheritances, pensions and higher education.

This past year has seen an increase in aggressive persecution.

"The other form of persecution going on is the destruction of Bahai properties and holy sites," Roshanian said.

Recent demolitions include a Bahai cemetery of 15,000 graves in 1993, the grave site of a key figure in Bahai religion in April, and the house of Mirza Abbas, Bahà'u'llàh's father in June of this year.

"They just want to destroy any memory of the Bahais in Iran, the only thing that is really protecting the Bahais so far is pressure from the international community," Roshanian said. "And that's why we want to bring this to the attention of the world communities. And because our brethren in Iran are not allowed to talk, what we can do is to use our freedom where we have freedom to raise our voices when they cannot talk."

Public statements decrying the Iranian persecution have been published in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and in major newspapers across the world rallying global support for Iran's Bahai in hopes of pressuring the country to relent.

Not only is the government of Iran trying to snuff out the religious icons, but it has made efforts to exclude Bahai students from higher education. In response, Bahais have established their own universities, which are tolerated by the government, but academic credit is not recognized and the schools are subject to raids and confiscation of equipment.

"The government really makes some obstacles for Bahai students. For example, in 1998, the government attacked and rushed into the (pharmaceutical) lab where I was working, gathered together the students and interrogated us, and took everything, the books - everything," said Azita Zaer, who has since left Iran and attends University of Southern California where many of the academic credits she earned at her Bahai university have been counted toward her pharmaceutical degree.

To enter an Iranian University, 2 million applicants per year take entrance exams. Of these, 150,000 are allowed into schools. Zaer said the government toys with Bahai students by saying they can enter the universities, allowing them to take the test, then withdrawing the offer.

"For the first time they told the Bahai they could take the exam and enter the universities because up until then, unless you were a recognized religion, you cannot enter the universities," Zaer said. "So this year they told them they can enter the universities and they can leave the part that asks about religion blank. So Bahais participated in the exam and actually out of the 150,000 people, 10% of the people who passed the exam were Bahai."

Zaer said though the top scorer was Bahai, the government dashed the hopes of the students in an attempt to make them lose faith. Roshanian said theBahai institutes survive only by donations from other countries.

And it's to other countries the Bahais of Iran are looking for support. Because of their passive nature, Bahais are unable to stage a revolution or uprising.

"Basically the Bahais are - I'm not sure what term to use - like sheep, really, because the government can do anything they want to do because we do not rise up," Roshanian said.

Valley Bahai member Itibari Zulu said Americans might call Bahais pacifists; the last thing they would want is violent or military action against Iran.

Roshanian said the Bahais are calling for world leaders to do more in the way of passing resolutions to encourage Iran to grant them more rights. Roshanian said ignoring the problem will only cause more trouble.

"If there's one thing humanity can learn from the 20th century, it's that when this kind of inhumanity happens, if you do not raise your voice, things get worse and worse. The 20th century is filled with millions of people dying because people did not do anything."

wtibbs@avpress.com