[A-List] Bahais

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 8/3/07, Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> wrote:
> The Washington Post
> July 6, 1983, Wednesday, Final Edition
> Executions, Arrests in Iran; U.S. Bahais Denounce Abuses
>
> BYLINE: By Caryle Murphy, Washington Post Staff Writer
<snip>
> The executions came a month after President Reagan had publicly
> criticized "the persecution and severe repression of the Bahais in Iran"
> and appealed to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to spare the
> lives of 22 members of the religion who had been condemned to death.
> Reagan's appeal followed requests by congressmen and Bahai leaders that
> he intercede on behalf of the Bahais.
>
> Six days later the ayatollah rejected the appeal in an angry broadcast
> speech, saying Reagan's concern for the Bahais proved that they were
> spies. Reagan's statement was carefully weighed because of fears that it
> might anger the ayatollah and spur him to execute more people.
<snip>
> Charging the Bahais with Zionism, prostitution and spying for foreign
> powers, the Shiite clergy have executed most of the national leaders of
> the religion, confiscated their religious centers and bank accounts and
> allowed mobs to beat their followers and burn and loot their homes,
> according to Bahai leaders in the United States. Bahais have also been
> fired from jobs as teachers and government employes, have had their
> pensions cut off and have been forced to leave schools and universities.
> State Department officials say between 250 and 300 Bahais are known to
> be imprisoned in Iran.

You're becoming an example of left-right convergence on Iran creating
liberal consensus about it, except that leftists have little
credibility trying to present themselves as principled defenders of
freedom of religion.

<http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_contenu.php?id=300>
The Baha'is of the Caucasus: From Russian Tolerance to Soviet Repression {2/3}
Article published in 21/02/2007 Issue

By Bayram BALCI (Director of the French Institute for Central Asian
Studies IFEAC, Tashkent) and Azer JAFAROV (Baku)

Translated by Kathryn GAYLORD-MILES

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

>From 1922, the new government's caciques launched their campaign
against the Baha'is through the official organs of the Party. Concrete
measures ensued immediately, such as the deportation of certain
Baha'is to Iran and the exile of others to Siberia. Baha'i faith
publications and schools were banned, as well as collective meetings,
which were considered to be a threat to socialism. From the 1930s
onwards, repression intensified, as was the case for all other
religions. Certain intellectuals were shot by the Stalinist police.

As in other religions, Baha'i faith and practices took refuge in the
family circle and private life, as all religious expression was banned
in public spaces. The end of Stalinism relaxed the antireligious
policies but a renewal did not occur until much later during
perestroika, which, blowing a wind of liberty over all of the Soviet
Union, permitted the establishment of connections with Baha'is abroad.
This political opening, along with the independence of the republics
where the Baha'is were implanted, announced a reconstitution of the
community.
-- 
Yoshie