7 Baha'is sentenced to 20 years in Iran

[spidergoat]

Now: Why are Bahai' being legally harassed in Iran?

They support the UN.

 

[spidergoat]

Religious education in British schools consists of 1 hour per week where all the worlds major religions are taught in equal measure. Contrasted with a minimum of 6 hours science per week. The balance of which I totally agree with btw.

Yes there is still a loose connection between primary schools (pre 11 years) and the parish in rural areas, but this is more a quaint throwback to Victorian heritage then anything actively pursued in current times and not continued in more multicultural inner city areas. Hardly counts as religious persecution…

Yes, point taken, but it's still too connected for my comfort.

 

[GeoffP]

Note that the 7 Bahai were not imprisoned for practising their religion but:

- for having their religion.

"Espionage", indeed. Their Bahai-ness is just an unfortunate coincidence, perhaps?

 

[spidergoat]

I think it's because the UN is trying to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions, and the Bahais respect the idea of a one world government as part of their doctrine, so they support the UN as a means to that end. They are on numerous UN committees.

 

[S.A.M.]

They support the UN.

So does Iran. No I think it has more to do with western collaboration. The Bahais are based in the West and unlike Persian Jews [who are not harassed in Iran] are more openly anti-administration. I would bet even money that these 7 Bahai leaders have links to the west, just as those Muslims in CMU have links to "terrorist groups" in Arab countries. The Iranians are doing exactly what the Americans are doing, except that Muslims in the CMU have indefinite imprisonment with no release dates.

 

[Michael]

The Baha'i have been persecuted since well before the formation of the UN.


WIKI

The marginalization of the Iranian Bahá'ís by current governments is rooted in historical efforts by Shi`a clergy to persecute the religious minority. When the Báb started attracting a large following, the clergy hoped to stop the movement from spreading by stating that its followers were enemies of God. These clerical directives led to mob attacks and public executions. Starting in the twentieth century, in addition to repression that impacted individual Bahá'ís, centrally directed campaigns that targeted the entire Bahá'í community and institutions were initiated. In one case in Yazd in 1903 more than 100 Bahá'ís were killed. Bahá'í schools, such as the Tarbiyat boys' and girl's schools in Tehran, were closed in the 1930s and 40s, Bahá'í marriages were not recognized and Bahá'í texts were censored.

During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, due to the growing nationalism and the economic difficulties in Iran, the Shah gave control over certain religious affairs to the clergy of the country. This resulted in a campaign of persecution against the Bahá'ís. An approved and coordinated anti-Bahá'í campaign (to incite public passion against the Bahá'ís) started in 1955 and included the spreading of anti-Bahá'í propaganda on national radio stations and in official newspapers

The same thing happened to the Zoroastrians and the Buddhists. The same thing is happening to Pakistani Ahmadiyya and Indonesian Ahmadiyya.


The problem seems to be a cult of intolerance. Which, when you're marginalizing and killing people to consolidate power is quite effective. However, like racism and slavery, those ideas and institutions are not really appropriate in this day and age not matter how productive they were in the past.

Wouldn't you age?

 

[S.A.M.]

What are the corresponding figures for intolerance in 1903 in the rest of the world? What are the corresponding figures for intolerance in 2010 for the rest of the world? We could do a comparison of all nation states at both times.

I have a feeling the actions of Iranians will be quite insignificant when compared to the rest of the world.

From the CMU report:

Andy Stepanian, an animal rights activist who is the first to be released from a CMU, called it “a prison within the actual prison.” He said that the prisoners “are not there because they harmed anyone. They’re not there because they approach anything that most reasonable people would consider even close to being terrorism.”

He further stated, “From what I observed, about 70 percent of the men that were there were Muslim and had questionable cases that were labeled as either extremist or terrorist cases. But when I grew to meet them, I realized that the cases were, in fact, very different… what it appears to be is that they don’t want people that are either considered to be fundamentalist in Islam or more devout than your average American in Islam to be circulating amidst the regular prison populace in the Bureau of Prisons. Whatever their objective in doing so, I mean, that would have to come from the Bureau of Prisons. But one can surmise it’s because they don’t want the spread of Islam in the prisons or that they’re trying to silence communications from these individuals, because perhaps their cases are in question themselves, and they don’t want to allow them access to the media.”

He concluded, “At the end of this prison sentence, … I’ll look back on the fact that I had a tremendous opportunity to meet people from different cultures, to be exposed to the Islamic world and understand that it’s not something to be feared, it’s not something to be vilified.”

So it would seem that devout fundamentalist Muslims in isolated prisons do not seem to engender intolerance against others. Imagine that.

 

[GeoffP]

And devout fundamentalist Muslims in power seem to engender violence against others.

Imagine that.

The Iranians are doing exactly what the Americans are doing, except that Muslims in the CMU have indefinite imprisonment with no release dates.

True. We at least know when the Bahais were murdered.

 

[S.A.M.]

True. We at least know when the Bahais were murdered.

Have they been killed already then? All 7 executed by the state? What happened to the 20 year term?

But thats a good point. Such a repressed state and apparently their un-free media knows and tells all. And in the US, CMUs escape public scrutiny and no one knows who is in there, why and for how long.

Thats freedom of the press for you.

 

[GeoffP]

Oops - true. Only 20 years. I was thinking of the gay kid they were going to hang a couple weeks back...for spying. All these spies. Iran must be a right little Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

What did you think of my first conclusion, Sam?:

And devout fundamentalist Muslims in power seem to engender violence against others.

Imagine that.

 

[S.A.M.]

I was thinking its such a coincidence they are mostly western puppets. In fact the only two places where people vote is also the two places where they are not puppets: Iran and Palestine. [oops three places, also Lebanon]

 

[GeoffP]

Odd, that, when you consider all the effort that goes into chastising them. They must be very loosely fitting ones.

 

[S.A.M.]

Odd, that, when you consider all the effort that goes into chastising them

All the effort...ah yes, indeed. All the effort

/looks for the effort

 

[GeoffP]

You're right. Wars and sanctions mean nothing.

 

[S.A.M.]

IDK.

/Looks to right of Iran [Bagram - beaten to death].

/Looks to left of Iran [Abu Ghraib - tortured to death]

Don't you mean war or sanctions?

 

[GeoffP]

No. Is there a text on grammar that I could suggest to help you?

 

[(Q)]

So lets see...its illegal to practise the Bahai faith in Iran and those who practise it are imprisoned.

Thats usually how it goes.

If any cult/religious/political etc group is banned and they continue to practice, they are imprisoned. This happens in all countries including India and China.

Then, we should be able to ban the cult of Islam being practiced. That's just how it goes.

 

[S.A.M.]

Then, we should be able to ban the cult of Islam being practiced. That's just how it goes.

Sure many places already ban the burka. I'm sure they'll progress to banning the religion eventually. It hasn't been a little more than 60 years since the French rounded up the Jews and shipped them to Auschwitz.

 

[GeoffP]

Kettle says: Pots bad!

 

[(Q)]

Sure many places already ban the burka. I'm sure they'll progress to banning the religion eventually. It hasn't been a little more than 60 years since the French rounded up the Jews and shipped them to Auschwitz.

So, it's perfectly acceptable to ban a cult like Scientology but not a cult like Islam? You equate (strawman) the Jews being slaughtered to the banning of a cult? Funny that you would equate people to ideologies, when it suits your purposes.