Iran Press Watch is pleased to re-publish Dr. Christopher Buck's brilliant study, "Religious Minority Rights", in both English and Persian. This thought-provoking analysis is highly recommended to every student of religion and human rights studies.

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Iran Press Watch: The Baha'i Community

Religious Minority Rights

Posted: 03 Dec 2008 03:43 PM CST

By Christopher Buck

In an increasingly globalized world, Islamic identity is ultimately a legal as well as a religious issue. This is especially true where the identities of religious minorities stand in tension with Islamic orthodoxies within Islamic states.

"Religious Minority Rights" is the capstone chapter in a prestigious reference work, The Islamic World (London & New York: Routledge, 2008), edited by one of the world's leading Islamicists, Andrew Rippin. In "Religious Minority Rights," three of the most controversial religious minorities within the contemporary Islamic world are examined in their respective socio-historical contexts: (1) the Alevis in Turkey, (2) the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, and (3) the Baha'is of Iran. These three faith-communities provide ideal subjects for a comparative study of the rights of religious minorities within the present-day Muslim world. In this chapter, it is argued that, in the twenty-first century, the legal "right" of each minority to its own religious identity may be as important as the "truth" it identity.

It is further argued that Islamic identity and praxis must now withstand the scrutiny of the international community – a relatively new situation that certainly did not exist when Islam was the world's superpower during the so-called Dark Ages of Europe. International canons of religious human rights, in theory, protect the right of each minority to its own religious identity – event when that identity stands in tension with the majoritarian Islamic identity of a given Islamic state. By international standards, it is now wrong to be "right" – if the rights of others are wronged. Inevitably, it is predicted, Islamic law will be measured against international law, and will increasingly be constrained by it.

buck_islamic-world_2008

buck_islamic-world_2008_persian

Discrimination Of Minorities In Iran

Posted: 03 Dec 2008 10:45 AM CST

There are at least 28 Baha'is in jail in different parts of Iran who are imprisoned because of their religion. At any given moment, there may actually be more than this number, but sometimes Baha'is are detained overnight and released, or they may be allowed out on bail after depositing with the court a sum in cash or surrendering business licenses or titles to property.

Among those in prison are all seven members of the Baha'i coordinating committee, and three young adults in Shiraz whose case was the subject of an internal investigation — the results of which completely vindicated the prisoners.

Harassment of Baha'is is pervasive and includes many incidents of all of the following:

Arrests and detention, with imprisonment lasting for days, months, or years. In cases where the Baha'i is released, substantial bail is often required.
Direct intimidation and questioning by authorities, sometimes with the use of high-intensity lights and physical mistreatment.
Searches of homes and business, usually with Baha'i books and other items confiscated.
School expulsions and harassment of schoolchildren.
Prohibition on Baha'is attending universities.
Court proceedings where Baha'is are accused of promoting propaganda against the government "for the benefit of the Bahaist sect."
Monitoring of the bank accounts, movement, and activities of Baha'is, including official questioning of Baha'is requiring them to give information about their lives, actions, neighbors, etc.
Denial or confiscation of business licenses.
Denial of work opportunities in general.
Denial of rightful inheritances to Baha'is.
Physical assaults, and efforts to drive Baha'is out of towns and villages.
Desecration and destruction of Baha'i cemeteries, and harassment over burial rights.
Dissemination, including in official news media, of misinformation about Baha'is, and incitement of hatred against Baha'is.
Evictions from places of business, including Baha'i doctors from their offices and clinics.
Intimidation of Muslims who associate with Baha'is.
Attempts by authorities to get Baha'is to spy on other Baha'is.
Threatening phone calls and letters to Baha'is.
Denial of pension benefits.
Denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha'i literature.
Confiscation of property.

Source: http://folsomtelegraph.com/detail/100171.html

International: A Brief Look at Iran's Bahá'í Religious Minority

Posted: 03 Dec 2008 06:42 AM CST

By James Gilman for Mcgill

Since 1979 revolution, persecution of progressive faith has intensified

The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded in mid-nineteenth century Persia (present-day Iran) by Mirza Hoseyn Ali Nuri, also known as Bahá'u'alláh (Glory of God), and is one of the youngest independent religions in the world. The Bahá'í Faith grew out of the Babi movement, which split from Shia Islam earlier in the nineteenth century.

Bahá'u'alláh was believed to be a new messenger of God, following in a line of divine prophets that included Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad. Bahá'u'alláh's teachings stress the unity of religions and mankind, as well as a progressive vision of God. The Bahá'í Faith places emphasis on social equity, including the equality of genders. It has no clergy, and its administrative institutions are all democratically elected.

In 1852, Bahá'u'alláh was arrested by Iran's ruling Qajar dynasty and imprisoned after a government crackdown on the Babi movement. While incarcerated in Tehran, Bahá'u'alláh first came to believe he was the next prophet. A year later he was exiled to Baghdad, where he spent the next decade, before being further exiled to Constantinople. He was later exiled for a final time by the Ottoman Empire to the penal colony of Acre, in the then-Ottoman province of Palestine, where he died in 1892. It was there, near modern-day Haifa, Israel, that the Bahá'í's supreme governing institution, the Universal House of Justice, was established.

When the State of Israel was created in 1948, the government allowed the Bahá'í's, the Universal House of Justice, and their spiritual centre, the Shrine of the Bab to remain, a fact that would be used as propaganda against Iranian Bahá'ís over 30 years later following the Iranian Revolution.

After 1979, when Iran was transformed into an Islamic theocracy under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Bahá'í minority in Iran became victims of increased persecution by the government, which promoted fears that they might be Israeli spies.

There are an estimated 300,000 Bahá'ís in Iran today, making them the largest religious minority in the country, except for Sunni Islam. Yet the Bahá'í Faith is not recognized by the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the country's ruling mullahs consider the religion to be a heretical offshoot of Islam. Only Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism are constitutionally recognized as legitimate religions.

"During the 1980s dozens of [Bahá'í] leaders were executed . . . their properties were routinely confiscated, and they have very much been shut out of public life in Iran," said Hadi Ghaemi, the coordinator of International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "Their economic activities are very much monitored and limited. There are cases of their cemeteries being destroyed, and even individuals being targeted in communities and attacked."

According to The Bahá'í Question: Cultural Cleansing in Iran, a Bahá'í International Community publication, Bahá'ís in Iran have faced intimidation, violence, and attempts to destroy their livelihoods and cultural heritage since 1979. They are routinely denounced as agents of foreign interests, and are often accused of spying for Israel, the "evidence" being the location of the religion's spiritual and adminitrative headquarters in Israel.

The Bahá'í International Community cites a number of leaked documents in which government officials order the identification and monitoring of Bahá'ís in Iran as proof of a government controlled persecution of the group.

Bahá'ís in Iran are denied access to post-secondary education and, according to the Bahá'í International Community, Bahá'í children are often targeted for harassment in schools throughout Iran.

Bahá'ís are also routinely attacked in the pro-government media, including the Islamic Republic News Agency and newspapers like Kayhan.

"There has been a vilification campaign by the government and government controlled media," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations. "They have on a regular basis been publishing articles defaming the Bahá'ís and [making] really wild accusations against the Bahá'ís of Iran, against the Bahá'í state in general."

According to a number of human rights activists, violence and government persecution of Bahá'ís has increased significantly in recent years, and there is a great deal of concern over the security of the Bahá'í minority.

Source: James Gilman at http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2008/12/02/News/International.A.Brief.Look.At.Irans.Bahaacuteiacute.Religious.Minority-3565011.shtml

Iranian Press Targets Nobel Prize Winner Ebadi

Posted: 03 Dec 2008 06:23 AM CST

By James Gilman for Mcgill

McGill University has been at the centre of a number of allegations made by the official media of the Islamic Republic of Iran this year.

The Islamic Republic News Agency, the Iranian government's official state media outlet, published a pair of articles earlier this year attacking Nobel Prize-winning lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi.

The IRNA also targeted Ebadi's daughter, who is a former McGill LL.M. student, McGill law professor Payam Akhavan, and the McGill Association for Bahá'í Studies, a Students` Society club. Ebadi, her daughter, and Akhavan have all been the targets of threats for their opposition to certain policies of the Iranian government.

The first IRNA article, published on August 7, claimed that one of Shirin Ebadi's two daughters had converted to the Bahá'í Faith-a crime in the Islamic Republic, where conversion from Islam can be punished by death. However, the article did not say which daughter purportedly converted, nor did it go into much detail.

The following day, the IRNA published a longer piece expanding on its claims. The allegations were picked up by other pro-government media, including the hard-line newspaper Kayhan, the editor of which is appointed directly by the country's Supreme Leader.

Iran has been a theocracy since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Shia Islam is the official religion, and the highest state authority is the Supreme Leader-currently Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i.

The August 8 article, entitled "Shirin Ebadi: Trapped in the net of Bahá'ísm", made claims about Ebadi, who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights work in Iran, and her family's links to the Bahá'í Faith, Iran's largest religious minority, which is not recognized by the Iranian constitution.

The article attacked Ebadi's links to the Bahá'í Faith and accused her of seeking support from the West. It also criticized Ebadi for defending homosexuals, appearing without the Islamic headscarf abroad, questioning Islamic punishments, and "defending CIA agents."

The IRNA claimed that Akhavan, who is a Bahá'í, converted Ebadi's daughter Nargess Tavassolian to the Bahá'í Faith while she was studying at McGill.

"Nargess Tavassolian converted to Bahá'ísm in 2007 under the direction of Payam Akhavan and started her activities in the Association for Bahá'í Studies," the article stated.

Akhavan, a former UN war crimes prosecutor, supervised Tavassolian's thesis on "inhuman punishments and the possibilities for their reform in Iran."

"On Friday, August 8, IRNA came out with an article which specifically stated my name as the daughter who had converted to the Bahá'í [Faith]," Tavassolian, who graduated this summer, told the Tribune in an email. "It also claimed that because I had not responded to the previous article in IRNA within 24 hours, I was acknowledging my conversion to the Bahá'í [Faith]."

A charge of this sort is serious. Conversion out of Islam is considered apostasy in Iran, and conversion to the Bahá'í Faith carries with it an added stigma. Iran's ruling clergy considers the Bahá'í Faith a heretical sect, and it is not recognized as a legitimate religious minority by the constitution.

"Bahá'ís in Iran have been the target of very widespread persecution and prosecution since the revolution," said Hadi Ghaemi, coordinator of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. "There's great sensitivity towards Bahá'ísm [in Iran], and there is much cultural bias and attempts [by the regime] to portray them in a wrong light for the general population."

The significance of the IRNA's allegations is not lost on Tavassolian.

"The capital punishment for conversion from Islam to the Bahá'í [Faith] is death in Iran," she said. "I believe the government wanted to scare my mother with this scenario."

A well-informed source?

The allegations came after Ebadi offered to represent seven Bahá'í community leaders that were arrested in Iran earlier this year and accused of spying for Israel.

"Because of the fact that she accepted this file, I think they began to try to portray her as an agent of Bahá'í foreign interests," said Akhavan. "And, of course, in the sort of demonology of the Islamic Republic, the Bahá'ís are there to basically destroy the Islamic Republic and to pave the way for the Zionist-American agenda."

In April, Ebadi announced that she had been receiving death threats expressing anger with her human rights campaigning and warning her against making speeches abroad. Ebadi has been the victim of threats for years, but the most recent death threats accused her of "serving the foreigners and the Bahá'ís." Many of the threats have been made by a shadowy organization calling itself the "The Association of Anti-Bahá'ís."

The August 8 IRNA article repeatedly cites a "well-informed source" whose identity is not given.

"The level of detail that is included in the IRNA article clearly shows that they've spent months doing research, to the point where they know the thesis subject of my student," said Akhavan. "The article itself indicates that there's a 'well-informed source.' Well, where is that well-informed source, if not right here at the university?"

Tavassolian did not comment specifically on the source, but said that one McGill student has been the subject of suspicion among some students.

Tactics of intimidation

When the articles attacking Ebadi were published by the IRNA and Kayhan, a number of prominent organizations and individuals publicly expressed concerns for her safety.

"It was a very strange attack, and it was an attack really designed to put Shirin Ebadi in danger," said Gerald Filson, the director of external affairs of the Bahá'í Community of Canada. "[She] said that she would defend our leadership that's in prison, and that took a lot of courage on her part. She had in the past been much quieter about it, but it was a very bold thing to do, and that's why these articles came out."

Abdol-Karim Lahiji, the president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, pointed out the parallels between the regime's treatment of Ebadi and other dissidents in the past in an interview with the reformist news website Rooz Online.

He told Rooz that because of these similarities, he was now concerned about Ebadi's life, as the tactics being used against her are similar to those used by government groups to target Iranian dissidents in the past.

Ghaemi also expressed concern for Ebadi, saying that it was worrying to see the regime's mouthpiece repeating and sanctioning the threats against her.

Ebadi herself has claimed that the regime is providing its supporters with justification for her assassination.

"Those who disagree with my work and the principles that I stand for will use any method to engage in character assassination against me, and thus prepare the groundwork for my physical assassination," she said in an interview with Rooz.

The threats have also extended to Tavassolian, with Ebadi being warned that "even your daughter is involved. So we will kill her, so you understand" in a message received earlier this year.

"A badge of honour"

Akhavan has also been the subject of the regime's aggression, although he stressed that he has received many messages of support from the Iranian community.

"There are a handful of messages which I've received which have ranged from sort of insults-basically calling me a traitor, saying that I'm a traitor to the Iranian people, to the Islamic Republic-all the way to what I would consider to be threats of physical harm," he said.

The IRNA article referred to Akhavan as a CIA agent whose aim is to bring down the regime.

Akhavan is a co-founder of the New Haven, Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre. He has published numerous articles on human rights and international law in leading journals, and has been a strong critic of the Iranian regime's human rights record.

"[The regime is] sensitive to Professor Akhavan because he is also a well-known international human rights lawyer, and they hope that through this association they would undermine and silence Shirin Ebadi and her family," said Ghaemi.

According to Akhavan, the IRNA and Kayhan publishing these articles suggested that many of the threats he and Ebadi had received were probably the work of the Iranian government.

"In a sense, it's a badge of honour to be the target of such a regime, because it shows that you're beginning to have an effect-you're beginning to bother them," said Akhavan. "They're intimidated because they know that if this project of exposing the truth of the crimes that have been committed … becomes a matter of common knowledge, and if there are international measures to hold these people individually accountable, that it could seriously threaten their grip on power."

The Association for Bahá'í Studies

The IRNA also attacked the Association for Bahá'í Studies at McGill University, McGill's branch of a continent-wide academic organisation. The IRNA article linked Tavassolian with the McGill club.

The article claimed that McGill is one of the most prominent centres for Bahá'ísm in North America, and that it is a centre of "Bahá'í subversion."

ABS Vice-President External Nadim Roberts, U3 political science, argued that the claims about McGill and the ABS are completely false.

"These accusations all fall into the same agenda the current government of Iran has for persecuting Bahá'ís in Iran, and trying to defame and slander any who have relations with them," said Roberts. "There is nothing about the McGill ABS that is different from any other chapter across Canada or the United States. The McGill Bahá'í community is by no significant means larger or more active than any other ABS."

According to its website, the ABS "is an organisation founded to promote academic inquiry into religious, ethical and moral responses to the social crises threatening our society," with an emphasis "on the teachings, history and philosophy of the Bahá'í Faith."

Karrie Hammond-Collins, U1 arts and science, and a member of the ABS, said she found the accusations against the organization and Akhavan ridiculous.

"Obviously Dr. Akhavan isn't a CIA agent and he's not converting people at McGill," she said. "And I think that point is the most important thing, because in the Bahá'í Faith we are forbidden to proselytise."

"A litmus test for human rights"

According to many observers, the Iranian government has cracked down on dissidents, human rights, and religious minorities since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, his rise fueled by an entrenchment of power by hard-liners within the regime.

"From the time Ahmadinejad comes into power-and Ahmadinejad is just a sort of facade of the regime, it's the Supreme Leader and his cohorts that are really in power-you see increasing arrests of dissidents, of student movements, labour union leaders, human rights activists, women's rights activists [in addition to arrests of Bahá'ís]," said Akhavan.

According to Akhavan, many human rights activists, such as Ebadi and Lahiji, now see the case of the Bahá'ís as "a litmus test for human rights in Iran" because of the Bahá'ís' lack of constitutional protection and the increase in persecution seen in recent years.

"It's really sad that [the regime] wastes so much of their time in persecuting a particular minority," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations. "So rather than unifying its community, they're creating dissension and hatred, and creating disunity in a sense."

Yet, according to Akhavan, the length the Iranian regime goes in attacking someone like Nargess, or someone like him, is a sign of the problems it faces.

"It is simply another reflection of their own desperation- that the only thing they can offer their people is hate-mongering and paranoia, rather than prosperity, freedom, and hope for the future," he said.

Source: James Gilman at http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2008/12/02/News/Iranian.Press.Targets.Nobel.Prize.Winner.Ebadi-3564990.shtml

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