Iran's Khamenei Issues New Anti-Baha'i Edict

Iran's religious head honcho Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is making things even worse for followers of the banned Bahai faith, if that's at all possible. They're already severely persecuted for their religious beliefs- they are jailed for no reason, and earlier this year were banned from access to higher education.  Now Khameini is telling Iranians to "avoid all dealings" with the Baha'is.  Many fear this will lead to more arrests.

Khamenei was said to have called Baha'i adherents "deviant and misleading."  Ironic, since Sunnis consider Shiites (of which Khamenei is one) to be "deviant."

Sources: Baha'i Rights, Al Arabiya

UN Report: Iran Escalating Persecution Of Non-Muslims- Nursing Moms Jailed

The UN is acknowledging that the Iranian government is continuing its persecution of religious minorities (including Bahais and Christians) in a just released report by Ahmed Shaheed. In fact, according to the report, it's escalating.

“The persecution of Christians has increased,” said Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s expert on human rights in Iran. “It seems to target new converts and those who run house churches.”

At least 13 Protestant Christians are currently in detention centers across Iran, and more than 300 Christians have been arrested since June 2010, according to the report. In addition to Christians, the nation’s 350,000 Bahai, who form Iran’s largest non-Muslim faith, have suffered under Tehran’s repression.

[snip]

There is a “new Islamization in part of the government” that might explain the spike in repression targeting Christians, he added.

The UN report is the latest evidence that Iran’s clerical leaders seek to stamp out religious freedoms for minorities and dissent in the authoritarian Islamic Republic.

Dwight Bashir, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says of the situation:

"Over the past year, the Iranian government has stooped to new lows by incarcerating infant children with their Baha'i mothers and more brutally, clamping down on Christian converts from Islam,” Bashir said. “The U.S. government also should sanction Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for their culpability in committing serious human rights abuses.”

Shaheed found “that 110 Bahais are currently detained in Iran for exercising their faith, including two women, Zohreh Nikayin (Tebyanian) and Taraneh Torabi (Ehsani), who are reportedly nursing infants in prison. It was further estimated that 133 Bahais are currently awaiting summonses to serve their sentences, and that another 268 Bahais are reportedly awaiting trial.”

He called the Bahai group the “single most important persecuted community in country.”

Bahais also happen to constitute the largest non-Muslim minority group in Iran. Founded in 1863 by Bahá'u'lláh in Iran, there are approximately 350,000 Bahai living in the Islamic Republic, many of whom are incarcerated for their faith, and all are marginalized and discriminated against. They are even banned in Iran from higher education.

Ahmadi Muslims Charged With Blasphemy In Pakistan

Four Ahmadis are being charged with blasphemy for publishing books about their Ahmadiyah faith, because even though they are Muslims, they're not the right kind of Muslims. Ahmadis are as persecuted as Christians and Hindus in Pakistan (and elsewhere) because some of their beliefs diverge from mainstream Islam.

Moeed Ayaz, Asmatullah, Razaullah and Ghulamullah, employees of Black Arrow Printing Press, were arrested on January 7 as they loaded a small truck with thousands of books and CDs. The four accused are Ahmadis. Arrest warrants have been issued for the printing press’s owner, who is at large.

The lawyer for the accused, in their post-arrest bail pleas, said that local police had acted illegally against his clients as they had arrested them on the basis of a call made to 15 before an FIR had been registered, as was evident from the statement of the complainant.

He said that even if the complaint were true, his clients should have been charged under Sections 6 (literal distortion of ayah text), 7 (translation or interpretation of Holy Quran contrary to belief of Muslims) and 9 (penalty) of the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act of 2011 – which carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison – rather than Sections 295B (defiling the Holy Quran) and 298C (an Ahmadi calling himself a Muslim or preaching his faith) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

At their remand hearing before a magistrate, Advocate Chaudhry Ghulam Mustafa, the lawyer for the complainant, contended that the accused were planning to distribute the “blasphemous literature” in various markets. The magistrate remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Muhammad Tayyab. Islampura police confiscated the material and truck and registered a case against the men on January 7 under Sections 295B and 298C of the PPC, as well as Section 24A of the Press and Publications Ordinance, though the ordinance was repealed in 2002.

Advocate Mustafa, the lawyer for the complainant, told The Express Tribune that his client, who lived in the same area as the printing press, had heard about the material being published and called the police when he saw books being loaded into a truck there on January 7.

He said that he had filed an application with the magistrate seeking the inclusion of Section 295C (making derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (pbuh)) of the PPC – which is punishable by death in the charges against the accused. On his application, the magistrate had ordered the investigation officer to proceed in accordance with the law.

Unbelievable in this day and age.

Persecuted Baha'is Banned From Education in Iran and Egypt

Considered apostates of Islam the Baha'is are severely persecuted and discriminated against in Iran, the country where it originated. Founded in the mid 1800s- with roots in Shia Islam- in Persia (as Iran was called at the time), believers are often jailed, and denied access to higher education. Those who have formed underground universities to educate their young have been arrested and imprisoned. Some even liken the treatment of Baha'is to apartheid in South Africa. Ironic that liberals around the world call Israel an apartheid state, which it is clearly not, but remain literally mum on the horrific treatment of the Baha'is in Iran. Their treatment is so bad, the U.S. House even passed a resolution condemning the persecution, not that the Iranian government cares.

But it's not just Iran that persecutes the Baha'is,  Egypt is ramping up its efforts to discriminate against them, as well.  Education Minister  Ibrahim Ghoneim  has said that Baha'is are not allowed to enroll in public schools in that country:

“The Constitution only recognizes the three Abrahamic religions,” Ibrahim Ghoneim told Akbar Al-Youm newspaper Saturday. “And as religion is a subject taught in schools, they do not meet the requirements for enrollment.”

Ghoneim had told Al-Sabah newspaper the same statement in November, when he was asked, “What is the position of the ministry concerning the children of Bahais? Do they have the right to enroll in a [ministry-affiliated] school?”

The minister responded by saying, “The state only recognizes three religions, and the Bahai faith is not among them. Thus their children do not have the right to register in government schools.”

But education isn't the only battle they are fighting in Egypt. According to Egypt Independent, they were also being denied birth certificates and ID cards, which are necessary for all citizens 16 and older.

These cards indicate religion, and are a must for any other formal transaction, such as applying for a driver’s license or a birth certificate, or opening a bank account.

In 2008, an Egyptian court granted Bahais the right to obtain ID cards without mentioning their religion, thereby ending four years of debate over that issue.

But tensions between Bahais and the state predate the ID card issue.

In 1960, the government confiscated their assets, including land on the banks of the Nile intended for building a house of worship, and sold them in a public auction. At that time, the government accused the Bahais of being loyal to Israel, which hosts the faith’s main place of worship.

An interesting note, the Baha'is are now headquartered in Haifa, Israel.