Palmdale, CA, April 6, 2006- Baha’is in the Antelope Valley are dreadfully concerned for the lives and the safety of Baha’is in Iran after a United Nations official revealed that Baha’is are being threatened by a new, aggressive campaign of military, police and intelligence surveillance that places them in imminent peril.

Baha'is Antelope Valley invite the people of good will of every race, culture, religion and nationality to join them in prayers on Saturday April 15th, 2006 at the Palmdale City Youth Library (38510 N. Sierra Highway) at 2:00 p.m. The program will also include a multimedia presentation to raise awareness about the plight of Baha’is in Iran.

On March 20, 2006, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ms. Asma Jahangir, expressed high concern and apprehension about a confidential letter dated Oct. 29, 2005, from the head of Iran’s Armed Forces to the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard and the Police Force, stating that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify members of the Baha’i faith, monitor their activities and collect any and all information about them.

At the March 28, 2006 White House press briefing, Spokesman Scott McClellan said President George Bush is also concerned over last week's announcement by a UN official that government persecution of Baha’is in Iran is intensifying.

Adding to the concerns are the recent appearance of numerous inflammatory articles in official daily newspaper defaming Baha’is. Radio and television programs have joined in with broadcasts condemning Baha’is and their beliefs. Such campaigns of vilification in state-run media organs have often preceded episodes of increased persecution against the Baha’is in Iran.

This latest campaign of surveillance confirms an earlier secret Iranian Government document published by the UN Human Rights Commission in 1993, demonstrating the government’s official policy of suppressing the Baha’i community. Written by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and signed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, this “blueprint” dated February 25, 1991, sets forth specific guidelines for dealing with Baha’is so that “their progress and development are blocked.” It is a policy of slow strangulation, discrimination and persecution.

The government of Iran, as part of a larger strategy of persecution, has systematically deprived Baha’is of higher education. The Islamic Republic of Iran has also blocked Baha’i efforts to establish their own institutions of higher learning. Baha’is are also denied jobs and pensions, and more than 10,000 have been dismissed from government and university positions.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, more than 200 Baha’is have been summarily executed or condemned to death under Islamic law. Thousands more have been jailed, including Dhabihu'llah Mahrami, who died in December 2005 in a government prison in Yazd after suffering harsh prison conditions for 10 years. All Baha’i cemeteries, holy places and community properties have been seized and many have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of Iranian Baha’is have been forced to leave their homeland.

Baha’is constitute Iran’s largest religious minority, but the Faith is not accepted as a legitimate religion in that country because Baha’u’llah, the Faith’s founder and latest Manifestation of God, according to believers, was born after Muhammad, whom Muslims consider the final prophet (the Seal of the Prophets).

The Baha’i Faith is an independent, monotheistic religion.  There are more than 5 million Baha’is worldwide.  The Baha’i Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions held during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  The Baha’i community in the United States numbers about 150,000, of whom more than 10,000 are Iranian Baha’i refugees who fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  Baha’is reside in about 7,000 localities throughout the United States, including more than 100 Indian reservations.

For more information please visit: www.bahai.us.

# # # # #