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Religion . Society . Poli’ry . ARTs
In this issue...
Never Again? The Genocide in Darvur Editorial
Persecution o! the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt: An Update Robert H. Slockvnan and Betty .1. Fisher
Persecution and Protection: Documents about Bahá’ís, 1867, 1897. and 1902 An 1867 Peti’rion from Bahá’í's in Shushlor, Iron, To The U.S. Congress
plus
Russian Documents about Iranian Bahá’í’s in Ashgabat and Baku, introduced by Firuz Kazemzodeh
Matters of Opinion A Review of God Speaks Again: An Introduction 10 the Bahá’í Faith by Firuz Kazemzadeh
A Review of In Service to the Common Good: The American Bahá’í Community's Commiimem to Social Change by Robert H. Slockman
w
5 urviving Persecution. V W ""7 77777777
Serving the Common Good 2006
Volume 37. No. 3
Religion - Society - Polity - Arts
2006 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3
WORLD ORDER AIMS TO
STKMULATE, INSPIRE, AND SERVE
ITS READERS IN THEIR SEARCH
TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATWONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY UFE AND
CONTEMPORARY REUGIOUS TEACH‘NGS
AND PHILOSOPHY
EDITORIAL BOARD
Beh‘y J. Fisher
Arosh Abizodeh Monireh Kozemzodeh Diane Loffi
Roben‘ H. Sfockmon Jim Stokes
REVIEW EDITOR Kevin A, Morrison
CONSULYANY IN POETRV Herbert Woodward Monin
INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
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comment INFORMAHON
Copyright © 2007 by 01: National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís or me Unimd sum: all rights tcservcd. WM 0rd” is pmlccud Ihmugh nadcmark rcgismrion in (he us, pm.“ Office mmd in the U.S.A‘ ISSN 0043—3304.
4,Al" CREDITS
Cover design by Rick During; covu phomgrdphs. “The Mall," courlesy, Darkn Navakovic. and “Earth," cuuncsy Emmh Turudu; p. 3. photograph 0F Alli! plzms, lsmcl. courtesy Darius Hime: p. 6, phomgraph. coum'sy Glcnl’uffl’ E0 Mitchell; p‘ 9. photographs. courtesy Imcmauionzl Bah: I Audic-Visual Ccmcr. © Bahá’í World Centre: pp. 30. 41, phmographs, courKL‘sy SKCVC Ganigucs; p. 48. phmogmph, courtesy Shari Meyer.
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2006 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3
Never Again? The Genocide in Darfur Editorial Interchonge: Letters from and lo the Editor
Persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt: An Update Robert H , Stackmlm and Betty], Fixhtr
Persecution and Proteclion: Documents about Bahá’ís, 1867, 1897, and 1902
An 1867 Petition from Bahá’ís in Shushtar, Iran, to the us. Congress
Russian Documents about Iranian Bahá’ís in Ashgabat and Baku, 1897 and 1902 introduced and translated by
Firuz Kazemzadeh
Markets of Opinion—A Review of Kenneth E. Bowers’ God Speaks Again: An Infroduction to the Bahá’í Faith
5) Firuz Kazmzmde/J
Maflels of Opinion—A Review of In Service to the Common Good: The American Bahá’í Community’s Commitment to Social Change
by Robe)? H. Sizn'knnm
Editorial Never Again? The Genocide in Darfur
It is no secret that unspeakable scenes of horror are unfolding daily in The Sudanese region known as Don‘ur, although The events there Tend to be crowded out by less grievous but more eye-cotching news. Some two hundred Thousand people have been killed by militias in
the past three—and-a—half years, and many more have been raped, brutalized, and violently displaced from their homes. Aid workers are routinely attacked, rendering humanitarian relief efforts almost futile.
While occasionally decrying that Catastrophe, the world is in egect merely standing and watching as a vast Conl‘lagration of suffering lays waste to an entire human landscape (and much of the physical landscape as well). The response to Darfur is not unique. It is merely symptomatic. In the face of massive suflering and injusticeiwherever it might occur—the “community” of nations seems gripped by a curious stasis. Frozen by indecision, disunity, and parochial self-interest, the nations of the world seem utterly incapable of responding with moral authority and sufficient force to deter the perversities and evils (political, social, military, and religious) that are raining down like so many human-made plagues upon a weary and despairing humanity.
Every few years, it seems, we have witnessed another horror—Bosnia and Rwanda are but two recent examples—and yet the world community fails to intervene in any meaningful or timely way. With the events safely past, we say, “Never again,” and yet over and over we stand by passively and let events play out.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide declares genocide a crime under international law, whether committed during war or peacetime, and binds all signatories of the convention to take measures to prevent and punish any acts of genocide committed within their jurisdiction. If any country is unwilling or unable to prevent genocide, it behooves the rest of the world to intervene on behalf of innocent people.
‘Abdul-Bahz'l reminds us that the causes of war and violence are deep—rooted and that “the breeding ground of all these tragedies is prejudice: prejudice of race and nation, of religion, of political opinion; and the root cause of prejudice is blind imitation of the past—imitation in religion, in racial attitudes, in national bias, in politics.” He reminds us, too, that Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings about preventing war require that we acquire knowledge and investigate truth. for only then will we ube freed from the darkness of continually repeating the past"; that we recognize that all humanity comes from one God, Who favors no person or race or nation above another; that we understand that religion “must engender love, not malevolence and
2 World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3
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EDITORIAL
hate,” because, should “it lead to malice, spite, and hate, it is of no value at all”; and that “as to religious, racial, national and political bias: all these prejudices strike at the very root of human life; one and all they beget bloodshed, and the ruination of the world.”
Even if we are able to stop the atrocities being carried out today, we will not have done enough. We cannot simply lurch from crisis to crisis, raking halfhcarted police action, if that. We must also act now to ensure that such horrors are not repeated. We must address the underlying issues that plague humanity: prejudice, poverty, hunger, ignorance, and lack of education. For ‘Abdul-Bahá has said that we uought day and night to strive and endeavor with the utmost zeal and effort to accomplish the education of men, (0 cause them day by day to progress and to increase in science and knowledge, to acquire virtues, to gain good morals and [O avoid vices, so that crimes may not occur." Until this is accomplished, the world will continue [0 suffer violence. Meanwhile, the slaughter of innocents must stop.
World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3 3
Interchange
Letters from and to the Editor
Speaking out against the plight of the persecuted has been a theme that has run through World Ordersince the magazine was revived in 1966. In our Fall 1966 issue (Vol. 1, N0. 1) we published excerpts from dispatches written between 1848 and 1852 by Prince Dmitrii Ivanovich Dolgorukov, Russian Minister in Tehran Translated and introduced by Firuz Kazemzadeh, then a professor of Russian history at Yale University, the excerpts contain details about the persecution of the Bath, the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh, and of His followersi At first the dispatches reflected the views of the Persian persecutors, but gradually, Kazemzadeh observes, as the butchery of the massacres revolted Prince Doigorukov, they reflect Dolgorukov’s distrust of the information supplied by the Persian government and his admiration for the Bábi martyrs’ courage and dignity.
Some 158 years later the Bahá’ís in Iran (and also in Egypt) are still being persecuted for their religious beliefs and frequently are still being denied the simple rights of citizenship. The several documents that we began publishing in 1966 became, after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, a steady stream of editorials, articles, book reviews, and documents about the imprisonment, torture, and execution of Iranian Bahá’ís. But unlike Prince Dolgorukov’s handwritten dispatches that were archived in Russia, today the persecution of the Bahá’í’s in
4 World Order, 2006,V01‘37, N0,3
P
Iran and Egypt, with the dissemination of information by e—mail, is instantly public.
Yet information about persecutions and human-rights violations does not always make headlines. Hence we felt impelled to prepare an update on the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt between 2004 and 2006 and to supplement it with a series of documents, including ominous letters written by departments in the Iranian government and examples of support for the Bahá’í's in the Middle East.
We are also publishing the original and a new translation of an 1867 Petition from the Buhé’l’s in Shushtar, Iran, to the U.S. Congress. As in the Dolgorukov dispatches and the update on the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt, the 1867 Petition deals with persecution~the imprisonment and banishment of Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.
We are grateful to several people who brought the Petition to our attention: Robert Stauffer, who researched the document, wrote a short introduction, posted it on the Web, and then undertook additional research about the document's fate (which turned up no new information); Geoffry \V. Marks, who brought the Web posting to our attention; and Mehrdad Bashiri, who shared a longer introduction to the Petition. To clarify awkward and unclear phrases in
the original translation, we asked Manuchehr Derakhshani to prepare a new translation. We also found in discussions with Derakhshani that the Petition came, not from Bahá’ís in Baghdad, but from Bahá’ís in Shushtar. Iran.
The final section of the translations about Bahá’ís was prepared and introduced by Firuz Kazemzadeh from documents he found in the archives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All three documents deal with Bahá’ís seeking the protection of the Russian government: first, the Iranian Bahá’ís who had settled in Ashgabat in Trans-Caspia and were enjoying the freedom of practicing their religion openly but who were being threatened by Iranian Muslims and, second, the Bahá’ís in Baku in the Caucasus. Both seem to have been granted protection by the Russian government.
In March 2006 IVarldordtrreceived from the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) an Award of Excellence in the category of “Periodicals—Single Issueh for its issue (Vol. 36, No. 3) devoted to Alain Locke. The Award of Excellence is part of the RCC’S DeRose—Hinkhouse Memorial Awards, which are presented to members of the Council who demonstrate excellence in religious communications and public relations. Christopher Buck’s article about Locke, the first African-American Rhodes scholar, the Dean of the Harlem Renaissance, and a member of the Bahá’í Faith, made available newly discovered archival materials that shed fresh light on his
INTERCHANGE
Bahá’í connections and his contribution to race-unity work for the Bahá’í Faith and For the country at larger
To the Editor
THE aAHA‘i ELECTION PROCESS
l thinkAmsh Ahimdch [in “Democratic Elections without Campaigns? Normative Foundations of National Bahá’í Elections," Vol. 37. No 1] has done a fine job of covering relevant background and taking critical and interesting questions for discussion and research.
A small thing: I noticed that Abizadeh didn't mention the additional interesting fact mat in Bahá’í elections certain categories of Bahá’ís. by virtue of holding Certain elected offices or having been appointed to a particular administrative role, may be ineligible either to vote at to be elected for the duration of holding that office/role.
In addition, one of the noticeable weaknesses in our worldwide Bahá’í‘ development is a low level ufparticipation in vating in Bahá’í elections. This is true of veting participation in must non-Bahá’í elections as well (unless voring is required by law and enforced with penalties for not voting)t This general apathy (some interpret lack of voter participation as an im plied acceptance oFthe incumbents. but I do not. since, to me, it reflects passivity in community affairs in general) measures the degree of fulfillment of the virtue of participation ln my own local Bahá’í community we track the statistic of the level of participation in voting in our annual local Bahá’í electionsi I believe voter participation is a key index of the level of development ofa Bahá’í community. As our communities grow, and involvement in community aCtivities becomes even more critically important (in order to get to know each other to be able to choose effectively for whom to vote in eleCtions). more attention needs to be paid to examining ways to increase the will and ability of individuals to participate in the election process.
I thank Atash Abizadeh for giving us a good Foundation for addressing some of the key components of the Bahá’í’ electoral process and pointing to areas for research.
SHEILA BANANI Santa Monica, California
World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3 5
_—_——l
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN AND BETTY J, FISHER
Persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt: An Update
The persecution of Iran’s Bohé‘l’s Tends to be cyclic with periods of greater intensity followed by ones of less intense oppression. The lost Two years have seen 0 recrudescence of discrimination and violence directed at The Three hundred thousand—s’trong Iranian Bchd’t’ com munity. Coinciding with the attacks in Iran has been an intensification of the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Egypt. The troubles faced by both communities have sparked a remarkable defense from many individuals and a wide range of national and international organizations and institutions. This update is the latest of many pieces “70er Order has published about the situation in Iran, and it probably will not be the last.‘ For the Islamic world must traverse a long and difficult path before it gives the Bahá’í Faith complete emancipation.
Copyright © 2007 by the National Spiritual Assembly Of the Bahá’ís of the United States.
L In response [O the increased persecution of the Iranian Bahá’ís after the 1979 Revolution, World Orderhas published. From the late 19705 to the present, editorials; articles; book reviews; documents; transcripts and reports of US. Congressional hearings about the torture, executions, and imprisonment of Iranian Bahá't’s; and details of the day»to—day discrimination against them‘ An article about the psychological dimensions of martyrdom appeared in the magazine’s Spring/Summet 1986 issue and one on health care in the persecuted Iranian Bnhé't’ community in cut Summer 199‘) issue‘ In that same issue, we also reported on the attempt to break up the Bahá’í Institute For Higher Education (BlHE), a private institution established by Iran's Bahá’í’ls to provide their youth with an education after all of the country's universities were systematically closed to them.
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN
Is an Instructor of religious studies of DePaul University In Chicago and 0 member of the Editorial Board of the Bahá’í Encyclopedic Project He has published many articles and reviews and three books about The history of the Bahá‘t’ Faith in North America: The Bahá’í Faith in America: Origins, 1892— 7900. Volume 7; The Bahá’u’lláh in America: Early Expansion, 7900-1912, Volume 2; and Thornton Chose: First American Band?" In World Orders Summer 1999 issue Stockmon inftoduced and edited “The American Defense of Iran‘s Bohé'l Institute fot Higher Educofion. BETI'Y J. FISHER holds a Ph.D. in medieval English literatute from The University of Wisconsin, Madison.
and has taught at several universl’riesi The General Editor of the Bohé‘l' Publishing Tvust from 1971 Through 1995, she is on the Board of the Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project and is a member of its Editorial Team. She has been a member of World Orders Editorial Bootd slnoe 1968 and now serves as the magazine‘s Managing Editor.
World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3 7
i +,
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETl'Y Jr FISHER
Ominous Developments in Iran
The year 2004 did not begin well for the Iranian Bahá’í’s. In February the Bahá’í cemetery in the small central Iranian city of Yazd was desecrated. In June, in Tehran, the home of Bahá’u’lláh’s father, Mirza Abbas Nuri, a site of historical and architectural significance, was demolished. But it was clear that institutions and organizations in other parts of the world were monitoring the human-rights violations in Iran. In November 2004 the European Parliament, while proresting Iran’s treatment of journalists, nongovernmental organizations, and religious minorities, mentioned the “‘demolitions of Bahá’í holy sites and the discrimination of Bahá’ís, notably denial of access to universities unless they renounce their faith, and has urged for a solution to the educational needs of the Bahá’í’s.m In December 2004 the United Nations General Assembly, adding to similar resolutions it has passed since 1985 (and Which, with the exception of one year, continue to the present), passed a nonbinding resolution expressing (“serious concern," about the “‘continuing violations of human rights in Iran’” that mentioned discrimination against minorities, including Bahá’í’s.
The Iranian Bahá’í's also protested the strictures on their rights by writing, on November 15, 2004, an open letter to the Government of the Islamic Republic, addressed to President Khatami, seeking an end to the abuse of their human rights and religious freedom.2 Immediately after widespread distribution to government officials of the letter to President Khatami, Bahá’ís began to be arrested and imprisoned in several cities around the country. For example, in Yazd nine Bahá’ís were arrested and briefly detained in December 2004 and early January 2005, their homes searched, and some possessions confiscated. On January 14, 2005, authorities questioned and released another Yazd Bahá’í. Four days later four individuals came to his home and beat him with batons, causing serious injuries. They also attacked the home of another Bahá’í and went to the home of a third Bahá’í', attacking its owner and causing serious head wounds. This third Bahá’í was attacked again on January 25, and on January 27 his shop was set on fire.
Between September 2005 and june 2006 the influential, religiously conservative, state—run Kayhmz newspaper ran more than three dozen anti-Bahá’í articles. They claimed that the Bahá’í Faith was intentionally established by colonial powers to subvert Islam and to bring about the subjugation of Muslims, presenting as evidence forged historical documents that have been repeatedly exposed by academics as antiBahá’í fabrications. The articles also intentionally distorted Bahá’í ethical and spiritual principles in ways to make them unrecognizable to anyone familiar with the Faith’s teachings and repellant to Muslims. Condemnatory radio and television programs have reinforced the Kayban articles. It is not possible for Bahá’í's to respond to such attacks in Iran because of the government’s control of the media, raising the specter of hate crimes and acts of violence perpetrated against rank—and-file
2. Eleven years earlier, in 1983, the Iranian Bahá’í: wrote a moving letter to the Iranian Government after the Attorney General banned all Bahá’í institutions
8 World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, Not 3
[Page 9]
Bahá’ís. This risk was highlighted in the U.St State
Department’s 2005 International Religious Freedom
Report, issued in November
of that year, about religious
freedom in Iran. It noted
that “Government actions"
have “created a threatening
atmosphere for some religious minorities, especially
Bahá’ís, Jews. and evangelical Christians."
A month later, Zabihollah Mahrami, a fifty-nine—yearold Bahzi’l’ imprisoned un
One of the many graves in the 33112“ cemetery in Yazd, Iran, that
were dcsecrated in February 2004.
der harsh physical conditions for ten years in Yazd, died under mysterious circumstances. His death was widely publicized in the world media. His funeral on December 16, 2005, coincided with a nonbinding resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly that expressed “serious concern” over the human rights situation in Iran, including the “escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and
A view of the demolition! of the house in Tehran belonging to Bahá’u’lláh's father, Mirza Abbas Nuri, A site ofarchitectural and historical importance, the house was demolished in june 2004.
other human rights violations against the Bahá’íls] , including cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs, the disregard of property rights, the destruction of sites of religious importance) the suspension ofsocial, educational and community—related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits. . . .”
On February 24, 2006, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom again referred to the situation of Iran’s Bahá’ís, noting that the “Bahá’í Faith, in particular, and its community—the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran—have no legal recognition and are viewed as ‘heretics‘ and ‘infidels’ who face repression on the grounds of apostasy, an offense which carries the death penalty in Iran.”
In March 2006 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Reli World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, N0. 3 9
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J. FISHER
gion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, described in a press release “‘a confidential letter sent on 29 October 2005 by the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Iran to a number of governmental agencies” stating that “‘the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamanei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify persons who adhere to the Bahá’í faith and monitor their activities” (see pages 1617 for the letter). She also stated that “‘such monitoring constitutes an impermissible and unacceptable interference with the rights of members of religious minorities.’“ On March 20 the Bahá’í International Community requested from the Ambassador of Iran an explanation of his government’s actions. On March 28 a spokesman for the President of the United States stated, at a press briefing in response to questions about the UN Special Rapporteur's report, that “We share those concerns. We call on the regime in Iran to respect the religious freedom of all its minorities, and to ensure that these minorities are free to practice their religious beliefs without dis. crimination or fear. And we will continue to monitor the situation of the . . . Bahá’ís in Iran very closely, and to speak out when their rights are denied.” To a question about pressure the United States would urge other countries to put on Iran, the spokesman added that “we will talk with ambassadors ofother countries in the region and raise this issue with them, and with their governments. We will continue to speak out and to raise this issue, the treatment of the Bahá’ís, in the United Nations and other organizations, and to ask all those who have any sort of influence in Tehran to continue to defend the rights of the Bahá’í and other religious minorities.” On April 3, Abraham H. Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the directive issued in the October 29 letter “‘sets a dangerous precedentm and is (“reminiscent of the steps taken against jews in Europe and a dangerous step toward the institution of Nuremberg-type laws.”
The month of May 2006 brought more bad news On May 2 a letter from the Trades, Production, and Technical Services Society of Kermanshah to the Iranian Union of Battery Manufacturers asked the Union to provide a list of members of “‘the Bahá’í sectm in their membership. On May 1‘) fifty-four Bahá’ís in the city
of Shíráz were arrested, the
ON MAY 19, 20064 FIFRV-FOUR BAHA’I'S largest single group of Bahá’ís IN THE CITY OF SHIRAZ WERE ARRESTED, arrested since the 1980s. Most
THE LARGEST SINGLE GROUP OF BAHA'IS ARRESTED were Bahá’í' You‘ll teaching SINCE THE 19805. English, math, and other non religious subjects to underprivileged children in Shíráz. Some were imprisoned for as long as four weeks. Three more Bahá’ís were arrested in Hamadan on june 18 and jailed for three days. The bail demands sometimes were high, requiring the Bahá’ís to pay considerable sums of money and to surrender deeds to property and business or work licensesr On June 29 Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, presented a report to the news media nuting that the pattern of confiscating Bahá’í sacred places, including shrines and cemeteries, and houses and farms belonging to individual Iranian Bahá’ís has continued. On August 19, 2006, Iran’s Ministry of Interior (in a letter reminiscent of the directive of October 29, 2005, from the Command Headquarters of the Armed
10 World Order, 2006,Vo!. 37, No 3
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PERSECUTION OF THE BAHA’iS IN IRAN AND EGYPT
Forces of Iran) ordered provincial officials throughout the country to increase the surveillance of Bahá’ís and to complete a questionnaire about the circumstances and activities of local Bahá’ís, including, among other things, their “financial status,” msocial interactions,” and massociation with foreign assembliesm (see pp. 17—18 For the letter).
The international community has spoken out strongly about the deteriorating situation in Iran. For example, the U.S. State Department’s 2006 International Religious Freedom Report on Iran, released on September 15, 2006, stated that there was a “further deterioration of the extremely poor status of respect for religious freedom during the reporting period, most notably for Bahá’ís and Sufi Muslims.” On September 19, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 393 to 2, House Concurrent Resolution 415, which condemns the government of Iran for the ongoing persecution of the Bahá’ís.
On September 26, Rome'o Dallaire, Lieutenant—General in the Canadian Armed Forces and a member of the Canadian Senate, issued a statement saying that he was “alarmed by the picture emerging from Iran that reveals systematic religious persecution and human rights violations against the 350,000 followers of the Bahá’í faith, Iran’s largest religious minority." “Too often,’1 he added, “since the Holocaust in World War II have governments repeated the phrase ‘never again.‘ Yet atrocities continue to occur." “In Iran, as in other areas like Darfur where evil is at work," he concluded, “the international community must be ready to act before Civilians are harmed‘ Although punishing evil-doers after the fact is critical, it is a sadly insufficient international response to ethnic cleansing or other crimes against humanity.”
On November 16 the US. f ON NOVEMBER 16, 2006, THE US SENATE
Representatives, September 19 ADOPTED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT VOKC, adopted by Unanimous A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE REPRESSION OF THE Consent a resolution condemn— IRANIAN BAHAIi COMMUNITY AND CALLING FOR ing the repression of the Iranian THE EMANCIPAT|ON OF lRANlAN Bahá’ís. Bahá’í community and calling for the emancipation of Iranian Bahá’ís. The House and Senate resolutions are the ninth joint congressional resolution on the situation of Bahá’ís in Iran since 1982. On November 21 the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which considers human-rights issues for the General Assembly, passed a resolution once again expressing mserious concernm about human rights in Iran and calling for Iran to eliminate “in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination based on religious, ethnic or linguistic grounds, and other human rights violations against persons belonging to minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Bahá’ís, Bauluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, and Sunni Muslims." The resolution particularly noted the worsening situation facing the Iranian Bahá’í’s, who are being identified and monitored, subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, and denied religious freedom and the opportunity to carry out communal affairs. On December 19 the UN General Assembly plenary passed the resolution, the nineteenth since 1985, by a vote of seventy—two to fifty, with fifty-five abstentions. The resolution also expresses concern
Senate. following the House 0
World Order, 2006, VOL 37, No. 3 I I
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J, FISHER
about the destruction of Bahá’í holy sites; the suspension for Bahá’ís of social, educational, and community activities; and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing, and other benefits. According to Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations, in November 2006 more than 129 Bahá’x’s were awaiting trial on
false charges solely because of their religion.
Higher Education for Iran’s Bahá’í Youth
In spite of mounting pressure in most facets of their lives, the Iranian Bahá’í community has continued to develop the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education as a peaceful and noble response to persecution. As W/orld Order reported in 1999, the Iranian government’s September 1998 raids on the BIHE temporarily disrupted the institution and its more than nine hundred students. But the BIHE has continued to expand, and the advent of the Worldwide Web has enabled it to use new distanceeducation technologies (as a perusal of its Web site http://www.bihe.org will demonstrate). The international faculty are determined to offer the best university courses available in Iran and are dedicating the institution’s future expansion to serving the needs of that country, such as offering courses in drug-abuse prevention (drug abuse being a major problem in contemporary Iran). The students, raised in a Bahá’í culture that strongly emphasizes education, are determined to excel in their courses, partly as a nonviolent civil response to the persecution they experience daily. A hundred or more of them have graduated from the BIHE and have come to the West, where many have been accepted by some of the best graduate schools in the worldiin spite of the fact that the BIHE is not and cannot be accredited because of the circumstances under which it functions.
The BIHE is one response to the systematic exclusion of Bahá’ís from Iran’s universities, an exclusion that began in 1980. The campaign to pressure Iran to grant the Bahá’í’s access has made some progress. In late 2003 and early 2004 the government Changed the policy—perhaps in response to a demand from the European Union that the Bahá’ís receive improved access [0 education—by leaving out the “religion” line in the application to take the obligatory university entrance examinations. About one thousand Bahá’í’s signed up for the 2004 exams, and Some eight hundred passed. But they were dismayed when the results came back and “Islam" appeared on the forms as their religion. Since Bahá’ís refuse to deny their Faith, they protested to government officials and met with them several times to have the religious identification removed. Even though many Bahá’í’s received high scores on the exam, only ten were admitted to the university. Out of solidarity with their eight hundred fellow students who were passed over, no Bahá’ís registered at universities for the 2004—05 school year.
The Bahá’í students followed the same procedure in 2005. The apparently cynical attempt of Iran’s education officials to manipulate the educational aspirations of Iran’s Bahá’í youth was publicized by the Bahá’ís in a booklet entitled Clamz'Doarx: Iran’s Campaign to Deny Higher Edzzmtion to Bahá’í': and posted to a Web site (http:/ /denial.bahai.org/). The result was a remarkable international outcry. The Spanish House of Deputies (the Lower House of Parliament) passed a strongly worded
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resolution condemning the persecution of Iran’s Bahá’ís and called for the Iranian government to abolish all barriers for Bahá’í’s to university entrance. Students at the University of Brasilia, Brazil, questioned the president of the Iranian Parliament, when he visited their city, about the denial of access to Bahá’ís to higher education. The presidents of Stanford and Princeton universities sent letters of protest to such officials as the Iranian Representative to the United Nations and the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations (see pages 18—19 For the letter From Princeton University). The Faculty Senate of Oregon State University and the Graduate Student Assembly at the University of California, Berkeley, both passed resolutions in support of Iran‘s Bahá’í students (see pages 19—20 for the Berkeley resolution), while the Palomar College Faculty Senate in San Marcos, California, sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner. These were followed by the adoption of a resolution by the New York University Student Bar Association. Scores of university faculty worldwide have written letters of protest, including a remarkable joint letter by French academics and scientists that included Nobel prize laureates and that produced a significant article in the December 14, 2005, issue of Le Monde (see pages 20—22 for the article). As of this writing, the outpouring of protest continues. One of the latest prominent mentions was that of Dr. Abbas Milani, a professor of Persian Studies at Stanford University, who. on September 18, 2006, mentioned the Bahá’í situation on the Voice of America's Persian-language service.
As of this writing, the Iranian government continues to arrest, imprison, and harass Iranian Bahá’ís, while other groups continue to speak out in defense of the Iranian Bahz’t'l’s’ achieving their full and equal rights, including their right to attend Iranian universities.
Ominous Developments in Egypt
The recent news about the Bahá’ís in Egypt, as with that of the Bahá’ís in Iran, continues to be ominous. The Egyptian Bahá’ís have faced persecution since the late nineteenth century, though they were legally allowed to function as a religious community and to elect their local Spiri tual Assemblies and a National Spiri- THE RECENT NEWS ABOUT THE BAHA’I‘S IN EGVPT, tual Assembly. In 1960 a Presidential As WITH THAT OF THE Bahá’ís 1N IRAN, Decree banned their local and national CONIINUES TO BE OM|NOUS. governing bodies and all Bahá’í activi ties and confiscated all Bahá’í properties. For the ensuing forty-six years the Egyptian Bahá’ís have endured an ongoing campaign of harassment, searches of houses, confiscation of Bahá’í books, and arrests. Nevertheless, the Bahá’ís have continued to hold to their personal faith in private and to teach it to their children.
But in the 19905 a new threat emerged when the Egyptian government decided to computerize the national identification card system. The religious-affiliation field in the computer software was set up to accept only lslam, Christianity, and Judaism. On previous cards, Bahá’ís had left the field blank or had placed a line or the word “other” in it. A few Bahá’ís had even written “Bahá’í” in it. Some local officials issued identity cards, which were essential for passing through police roadblocks without arrest; attending universities; withdrawing money from bank accounts; receiving
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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J. FISHER
medical treatment at public hospitals; registering marriages, births, and deaths; and purchasing items from government stores. But the new, computerized cards would not be issued to Bahá’ís unless one of the three official religions was listed. Hence they were deprived of their most elemental and essential privileges of residency in the country.
Between 2003 and 2006 the courageous efforts of individual Egyptian Bahá’ís to obtain identification cards and other government documents—including taking the government to court—stirred a series of anti-Bahá’í attacks in newspapers and magazines. Yet another anti—Bahá’í fatwa (a judgment based on Islamic law—one of at least fifteen in Egyptian Bahá’í hiStory) was issued, which said that the Faith was “‘a lethal spiritual epidemic in the fight against which the state must mobilise all its contingencies to annihilate it.'” Growing international concern about the situation led to testimony, on June 30, 2006. by Kit Bigelow, the Director for External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations (see pages 23—28 for the testimony).
On April 4, 2006) the Egyptian Administrative Court ruled in favor of the Bahá’ís and ordered the government to issue them identification Cards that stated their religion correctly (see pages 28—29 For the Court decision). In May the government appealed, and Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court set a date to hear the appeal, a date that was postponed three times.
In the interim, a lively debate about the Bahá’ís and their civil rights has broken out, not only in Egypt, but across the Arab world. Various Egyptian Bahá’ís have bravely gone public about their problems and have been interviewed in newspapers and on television. The media has published both positive and negative articles about the Egyptian Bahá’ís. There have even been live television interviews that included Bahá’ís defending their rights, and Muslim clerics attacking them as apostates. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human—tights organization that serves as legal counsel for the Egyptian Bahá’í’s and their case, which is still in the Egyptian courts, has supported the Bahá’ís in public. The Muslim Brotherhood and Al Azhar University have raised an outcry against the court decision, and some Muslim legal scholars have sought a compromise through a distinction between letting the Bahá’ís identify their “belief” and legally recognizing the existence of their religion. Arabic-language blogs have also gotten involved. A personal English—language Web site by an American Bahá’í of Eyptian origin, httpz/lbahai—egypt .blogspot.com/, was launched to provide a personal perspective on the crisis. In August Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, a government-appointed advisory board, held a symposium in Cairo to discuss the government’s policy requiring citizens to declare their religion on their national identification cards. Human-rights and civil-society groups urged the Egyptian government to reverse its policy.
On November 16 the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release on the appeal of the April 4 court decision that would allow Bahá’ís in Egypt to obtain a national identity card and to list the Bahá’í Faith as their religion. “Current Egyptian policy essentially turns Bahá’ís into non—Citizens because without an identity card they cannot gain access to government services
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PERSECUTION OF THE BAHA'lS IN IRAN AND EGYPT
like education and employment, or engage in basic financial transactions, such as opening a bank account or obtaining a driver’s license,” Commission chair Felice D. Gaer is quoted as saying. On December 2, 2006, Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court heard the case and on December 16, 2006, ruled against the right of Bahá’ís to be properly identified on government documents, thus depriving them of most rights of citizenship unless they lie and say they belong to one of the three recognized religions, Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. The Court’s decision violates an extensive body of international law on human rights and religious freedom to which Egypt 15 a Signatory.
“Today’s regrettable decision throws the ball in the government’s court,” Hossam Bahgat, Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which represented the Bahá’ís in the case. was quoted as saying by All Headline News. The ruling received abundant media coverage, from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France—Presse wire services to the International Herald Tribune and the Wzslaington Times. On December 18 a spokesman for the State Department mentioned the ruling at the Daily Briefing, stating that it “flies in the face of stated Egyptian commitments to freedom of expression. freedom of religion” On December 19 the US. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement that expressed its regret at “the decision by the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt on Saturday to uphold the Egyptian government’s discriminatory policy of prohibiting Bahá’ís from obtaining a national identity card" and “strongly” encouraged “the US. government to urge the Egyptian government to protect the rights of all citizens without discrimination on the basis of religion. . . .”
“Since this was the last avenue of appeal in this particular case,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations, “the Court's decision threatens to make non-citizens of an entire religious community solely on the basis of religious belief.“
A selection of recent statements, letters, and judgments about the persecution of Bahá’í’s in Iran and Egypt follows.
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A. OMINOUS STATEMENTS BY THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT
1. A Lettertrom the Chairman of the Command Headquaners onhe Iranian Armed Forces, October 29, 2005
Translation from Persian
Urgent/Immediate [Stamp]
Logo of the Armed [The Office of] the Logo of the IR] Forces Commander in Chief
Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces
Highly Confidential [Stamp]
From: Command Headquarters Number: A/3/2/47/15
of the Armed Forces
To: Recipients Listed Below Date: 7/8/1384 [29/10/2005] Subject: Identification of individuals of the Enclosure: Salamati Rahbar misguided Sects of Bahaism and Babism [Health of the Supreme Leader]
With salutations and praise to Muhammad and his descendants (S) [May the Blessing of God be Upon Him and His Descendants], while we express our deepest sympathy on the occasion of the martyrdom 0F the Lord of believers in divine unity and the Commander of the faithful (MI’UH) [May Peace be Upon Him], and wishing for the acceptance of [our] obligations and worships, further to the reports received concerning the secret activities and meetings of the misguided sects of Bahaism and Babism, in Tehran and other cities in the country. and according to the instructions of the Exalted Rank of the Supreme Leader, His Holiness Ayatollah IG'iamenei (may his exalted shadow be extended), the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces has been given the mission to acquire a comprehensive and complete report of all the activities of these sects (including political, economic, social and cultural) For the purpose of identifying all the individuals of these misguided sects. Therefore. we request that you convey to relevant authorities to, in a highly confidential manner, collect any and all information about the abovementioned activities of these individuals and report it to this Command Headquarters.
This [either this information, or the reports to be received] will be submitted for the blessed consideration of the Exalted Rank of the Supreme Leader, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces (may his exalted shadow be extended).
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Signed: Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces Basij Major General. Dr. Syyed Hossein Firuzahadi
Recipients: — The Ministry of Information of the Islamic Republic of Iran — The Belief-Political [organization] of [the office of] the Commander in Chief - The Commander of the [Revolutionary] Guard — The Commander of the Basij Resistance Forces of the [Revolutionary] Guard » The Commander of the Police Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran — The Deputy 0Fthe Intelligence Branch of the Police Force of the Islamic Republic
of Iran
- The Representative of the Jurist Cleric [Ayatollah Khamenei] in the [Revolutionary] Guard
— The Chairman of the Belief-l’olitical Organization of the Police Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran
- The Chief Commander of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran
CC:
The Esteemed Chairman of the Judiciary—His Holiness Ayatollah Shahrudi for information and necessary action.
The Esteemed Chairman of the Office of the Exalted Rank of the Supreme Leaderfi Basij Brigadier General Mehdi Shírázi for information.
2. A Leh‘er trom the Iranian Ministry of the Interior, August 19, 2006
[TRANSLATION FROM PERSIANTranslator’s notes appear in square brackets [ ].]
28 Murdéd 1385 [19 August 2006] Islamic Republic of Iran
Number: 70878/43
Ministry of the Interior
In the Name of God
To the honourable political-security deputies of the offices of the Governors’ General
of the country
Greetings.
Respectfully. we have received reports that some of the elements of the perverse sect of Bahaism are attempting to teach and spread the ideology of Bahaism, under the
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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETI'Y J1 FISHER
cover of social and economic activities. In view of the fact that this sect is illegal and that it is exploited by international and Zionist organizations against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we therefore ask you to order the relevant offices to cautiously and carefully monitor and manage their [the Bahá’ís’] social activities. In addition, Complete the requested information on the enclosed form and forward it to this office for its use by 15 Shahrivar [6 September 2006].
Siyyid Muhammad-Rida MaWéJi’zédih [Seyyed Mohammad—Reza Mavvalizadeh] Director of the Political Office [Signature]
B. STATEMENTS BY ACADEMICS AND SCIENTISTS ABOUT THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENTS DENYING EDUCATION TO IRANIAN BAHA’I YOUTH
3. A Letter from the President of Princeton University, May 15, 2006
May 15, 2006 His Excellency Mohammad Javad Zarif Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations 622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor New York, New York 10017
Dear Mr. Ambassador:
I am writing to express my dismay at the de facto exclusion of Iran’s Bahá’í community from your nation’s universities. As a scholar and teacher who received his postsecondary education in this country, I am sure you appreciate the critical role that higher education plays in broadening the minds and nurturing the talents of young men and women. I would also like to believe that you recognize the injustice of preventing qualified students from enjoying these benefits for no other reason than their religious convictions.
While I gather that Iranian students are no longer required to declare their religion when applying to take the national university entrance examination, Bahá’ís who have taken this examination and, for want of choice, have completed the Islamic portion of the religion subject test, are being wrongly classified as Muslim when notified of their results. Bahá’í students are understandably opposed to matticulating on this basis, especially in light of their community‘s long and painful history of religious persecution.
As you know, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iran is a signatory, explicitly states that “higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means,” and I would urge both you and the government you represent to ensure
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PERSECUTION OF THE BAHA’TS IN IRAN AND EGYPT
that this principle is honored in the case of the Bnhz’l’l’ community. I would also ask that forceful steps be taken to halt the systematic discrimination and harassment [0 which Bahá’ís are subject in Iran. Such behavior is morally indefensible and socially destructive, and it can only undermine your nation‘s standing in the international community‘
Thank you for giving this letter your thoughtful consideration.
Since rely, [signature]
Shirley M. Tilghman
cc: Secretary-General Kofi Annan Mrs. Louise Arbour
bc: Pedram Roushan (GS—I’hysics) Dessi Dimitrova (GS-WWS)
Secretary—General Kofi Annan
United Nations
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-Gencral United Nations, 5378
New York, NY 10017
Mrs. Louise Arbour
High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the Commissioner For Human Rights United Nations Office 21: Geneva
1211 Geneva 10
SWTZERLAND
4. A Resolution Passed by the Graduate Student Assembly, the University of California, Berkeley, May 4, 2006
May 4. 2006
Whereas according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, access to education is a fundamental human right. Whereas the Government of Iran is a signatory to this and other human rights instruments. Whereas it has come to our attention that the Government of Iran continues [0 systematicallydeny access [0 higher education to Bahá’í students in Iran on account oFtheir faith. Whereas as graduate students in an institution of higher education we feel moved ‘ to speak our against the denial of such access to fellow graduate students in Iran.
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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J. FISHER
Be it resolved that we express our deep concern and voice our opposition to this blatant discrimination and extend our hopes that attention he focused on urging the Government of Iran to comply with the obligzuions of international human rights instruments to which it is a party.
University of California, Berkeley
Graduate Student Assembly
5. An Article Published in la Monde, December 15, 2005
Newspapers have recently reported the indignation of numerous governments, including our own [France] in reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s intentions to wipe Israel off the map, expressed on October 26, 2005. However, this declaration by the newly elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran should come as no surprise. It merely highlights what lies at the basis of the new Iranian society. For the past 25 years the Iranian Islamic regime has denied the existence of those it does not want to see, whether living outside Iran or within its own borders.
Thus, the current regime in Iran practices religious discrimination. It recognises two categories of citizens: Shiite Muslims—and. to a lesser extent, Sunnis—and the followers of religions which pre-datc Islam (Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians), relegated to the status of second—class citizens. All others, particularly the Bahá’ís, agnostics and atheists, are non-citizens.
In the “Chronique d’Amnesty" of February 1993, Antoine Spire described the Bahá’ís as seeking to “reconcile science and religion“ and promote both “the equality of men and women, the abolition of class, racial and religious prejudices, by emphasising compulsory universal education, each individual encouraged to search personally for the truth.” In Iran, Bahá’ís are victims of segregation at every stage of their lives There is one aspect that particularly concerns us as teachers and researchers: they are denied access to higher education.
For the last 25 years, a generation, the sons and daughters of the country’s largest religious minority have had [0 content themselves with a high school diploma. [n Iran, as a matter of fact, one must declare to be Muslim, jew. Zoroastrian or Christian to have the right [0 register at a university. Bahá’ís, as a matter of principle, refuse to Feign conversion. Thus have they no right to higher education. This pattern has been going on for 25 years, the life of an entire generation, and the 2005—06 academic year is no exception. We, teachers and researchers in France and elsewhere, refuse to accept this situation.
We who have had the opportunity to pursue studies which have made us who we are, wish to underline the obvious: access to knowledge is a Fundamental human right. It is unfortunate that following its promise [0 “make higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of individual Capacity. without any discrimination”, including “religious" discrimination, by signing the UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education, the Iranian government has failed to honour its word
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PERSECUTION OF THE BAHA'lS IN IRAN AND EGYPT
What does this mean.> Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, the approximately 300,000 Bahá’ís in Iran are considered “unprotected infidels, (. . .) non-persons" with un0 legal rights or protection”, according to the International Federation for Human Rights' (FIDH) 2003 report on religious discrimination in Iran. They have no right to receive pensions, be employed in the civil service, inscribe a name on the tombs of their dead, inherit. or gather for religious worship. Their holy sites and cemeteries have been destroyed Many Bahá’ís have had their belongings confiscated. Employers are pressured to dismiss their Bahá’í employees.
Why? Their Faith, originating in Iran in the 19th century, postdates Islam and is therefore not considered by the government to be a religion. It is worth noting that the status of other religions also leaves much to be desired. The FIDH emphasizes that Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, and to a lesser degree, Sunnis, are “second—class citizens". Primarily victims of employment discrimination> they enjoy, however, the right to worship, to attend university and, as far as we are aware, are not under constant pressure to recant their faith.
During the years that followed the revolution, repression againsr the Bahá’ís was ferocious. In the early 1980’s over 200 Bahá’ís, hand—picked from among their most active members, were executed for refusing to convert to Islam. The indignation of the international community slowed this repression, but never managed to stop it: the persecution of the Bahá’ís has since become latent. An internal document personally signed in 1991 by Ali Khamenei, supreme guide of the Islamic Republic, lists a series of recommendations [0 deal with what the authorities refer to as “The Bahá’í Question": “The Government’s dealings with them must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked. (. . .) They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies (. . .). Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Bahá’ís.”
France ranks sixth among countries hosting Iranian scholarship holders. Cooperative exchanges between the two countries include inter-university partnerships such as the Gundishapur programme which develops high-level scientific and technical co-operation between research teams of both countries by supporting the mobility of researchers. We Can be certain that, on the Iranian side, not a single Bahá’í will be among the beneficiaries. Of course we rejoice in the fruitful exchanges between these two countries. We refuse, however, to sanction this discrimination against Bahá’í students, male or female, by remaining silent. This has prevailed for too long.
The intellectual and professional life of Bahá’ís in Iran has been put to sleep in the most subtle of manners. The majority of Bahá’í doctors, lawyers or engineers in Iran today are close to retirement and their children have no future. This unspoken form of violence is all the more painful because the followers of this religion consider the acquisition of knowledge as a sacred duty: according to Bahá’í teachings, knowlEdge, particularly that of the arts and sciences, constitutes the foundation of human progress.
Moreover, they have not renounced educating their sons and daughters. Since 1987 they have been acting on their own, setting up a tuition—free university run by volunteer teachers in the intimacy of their homes with their own personal
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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J. FISHER
computers, libraries and even exams. This virtual university is subject to the harassment of the State, which confiscates equipment, examination papers and even arrests those running it. In spite of this, its diplomats in psychology, computer sciences, accounting, literature, biology, pharmacy, law and dentistry are recognized by certain employers in Iran as well as by certain universities abroad. However, their resources are meager compared to the thousands of youth to be trained each year. Today only one out of ten Bahá’í high school graduates can benefit from this facility: only the most self-sufficient and gifted are trained in these make-shift universities. The remaining 90 percent fill the ranks of a sacrificed generation.
The fate of Bahá’í students in Iran is not cast in stone. First of all because lran has the ambitions and means of a modern society: the educational level of its population, in the country of Avicenna. Hafiz and Some of the greatest contemporary film directors, is among the highesr in this part of the world. The quality of its university system is well—known. Moreover. it grants significant access to women: contrary to popular belief there are more female than male students in Iran. Finally, the fate of Bahá’í youth is not inevitable because the Iranian government is more sensitive than generally believed to the pressure of human rights defenders.
Every human being has the right to access knowledge, whatever his or her origins may be. We declare our solidarity with these young people who are thirsty for knowledge. We ask the Iranian government to welcome into the country's universities all youth, without exception, who have successfully passed the entrance examination, so that cultural segregation may cease at last.
[The initial signatories are:]
Dr. Rosine Haguenauer, CNRS Research Director in Biology
Professor Jean-Pierre Vernant, Historian, Professor at the Collége de France
Dr. Pascal Lederer, CNRS Research Director, Physicist
Professor Pierre—Gilles De Gennes, Professor at the Collége de France, Physics Nobel prize winner
Dr. Stéphane Robert, CNRS Research Director, Linguist
Dr. Jean—Antoine Lepesant. CNRS Research Director in Biology
Dr. Myriam Chimenes, CNRS Research Director, Musicologist
Professor Sophie Vriz, Biology researcher—teacher
Miguel Angel Estrella, Pianist, UNESCO Ambassador, President of the Fédération Internationale Musique Espémnee
Professor Michel Volovitch. Biology researcher-teacher
Dr. Sophie Vassilaki, Researcher-teacher, Linguist
Professor Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Professor at the College de France, Physics Nobel prize winner
Professor Frangois Jacob, Professor at the College de France, Medicine Nobel prize Winner
Professor Frangois Gros, Professor at the Collége de France in Biology
Professor Isabelle This-Saint Jean, Researcher-teacher, Economist International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
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PERSECUTION OF THE BAHA’lS IN IRAN AND EGYPT
C. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY ABOUT THE PERSECUTION OF THE IRANIAN AND EGYPTIAN BAHA’IS
6. Testimony before a Subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives, June 30, 2006
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. KIT BIGELOW, DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA'lS OF THE UNITED STATES
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 30, 2006
My name is Kit Bigelow, director of the Office uf External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. We would like to thank the House Committee on International Relations’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Relations for asking us to testify today about the situations of the Bahá’í communities in Iran and Egypt.
We would like to take this opportunity also to thank Congress for its longtime support oflran‘s beleaguered Bahá’í community. In 1982, 1984 and 1988 there were hearings on the persecution of the Iranian Bahá’í’s. Since 1982, Congress has passed eight concurrent resolutions calling for the emancipation of that Bahá’í community. Representatives Kirk and Lanms have just introduced H.Con.Res. 415, once again condemning the deliberate mistreatment of the Bahá’í’s in Iran.3 We hope as many Members as possible will become cosponsors. We wish to express our particular gratitude to Congressman Smith, who has cosponsored six of those resolutions and has been a main supporter in Congress’ efforts to assist the Iranian Bahá’í community.
Iran has been designated a “Country of Particular Concern” by the U.S. Government for its “egregious violations of religious freedom.” Egypt is on the Watch List of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The Bahá’í communities in Egypt and Iran are both threatened by deliberate, long—term and well-documented government strategies dedicated to their eventual destruction. In both cases, the threats have recently become more dire, and the situa tions more urgent.
3. On September l9. 2006, the resolution passed the US. House of Reptesentatives by a van: of 393 to 2. On November l6. 2006. the US. Senate adopted the resolution by Unanimous Consent, the ninth such Congressional Resolution since 1982 condemning the repression of the Iranian Bahá’í’
community—Eu Nm‘F. Wotld Order, 2006, Vol, 37, No. 3 23
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F—f l ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J, FISHER
l Persecution in Iran I In Iran, where the Bahá’í Faith began in the 19th century, Bahá’í's constitute the
l largest religious minority. Some 300,000—350,000 Bahá’ís live in all regions of the country. However, the Bahá’í Faith is not recognized as a legitimate religion: the Islamic regime regards it as apostasy and as a conspiracy. As “unprotected infidels," Bahá’í's have no legal rights.
By order of the Iranian Government, Bahá’ís are not permitted to elect leaders, and they have been barred from institutions of higher education since 1980. According to Iranian law, Bahá’í blood can be spilled with impunity. They are not allowed to worship collectively. Bahá’ís are also denied jobs and pensions: more than | 10,000 have been dismissed from government and university posts since 1979. All
cemeteries, holy places and community properties were seized soon after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many properties have been destroyed, and none have been l returned. The right of Bahá’í's to inherit is denied. Since 1996, Bahá’ís have been strictly forbidden (0 seek probate. In the years immediately following the Islamic l Revolution, more than 200 Bahi’l’s were killed or summarily executed, and thoul sands more were jailed. The elimination of the Bahá’í community of Iran is explicit government policy. A secret Iranian Government document published by the URN. Human Rights l Commission in 1993 outlines the official strategy to suppress the Babe“ community Written by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and signed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, this document dated February 25, 1991, set forth specific guidelines for dealing with Bahá’í’s so that utheir progress and development are blocked.”
During the past two years, there has been an increase in arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, the destruction of historic religious sites, defamation campaigns in governmem—sponsoted media, and other pressures of a type not experienced since the years immediately following the Islamic Revolution. In 2005, the Iranian Government initiated a new wave of assaults. home raids, harassment and detentions. More than 120 Bahá’í’s are awaiting trial after having been imprisoned, most of them without having been Charged. However, one charge has been “creating anxiety in the minds of the public and those of the Iranian officials." In December 2005, 59-year-old Mr. Zabihollah Mahrami died of unknown causes after 10 years imprisonment on charges of apostasy. Bahá’ís have been barred from institutions of higher education since 1980‘ Despite assurances by the Iranian Government that Bahá’ís would be able to attend university in 2005, authorities have continued to exclude Bahá’í’s From attending university due to their religion. From October 2005 to the present, the government-sponsored newspaper, Kayhan, has been running a campaign of vilification and distortion on the Bahá’í Faith to arouse public antipathy against the Bahá’ís. In 2004 and 2005, two important Bahá’í' holy places were destroyed and a cemetery was desecrated.
One of the most ominous signs of the government’s intentions was exposed on March 20, 2006. The UN. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief revealed the existence of a confidential letter from the Command Headquarters of
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Iran’s Armed Forces to several Iranian government agencies.“ The letter stated that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify persons who adhere to the Bahá’í Faith and to monitor their activities. The letter went on to order the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard and the Police Force to collect, in a highly confidential manner, any and all information about members of the Bahá’í Faith. The White House subsequently expressed its concern for the “worsening” situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran. The AntiDefamation League called the Iranian Government's actions “reminiscent of the steps taken against Jews in Europe and a dangerous step toward the institution of Nuremberg—type laws.“
On May 19, 2006, 54 Bahá’ís were arrested in the city of Shíráz while they were engaged in humanitarian service with underprivileged children. Most of the Bahá’ís who were arrested were young people. It was one of the largest mass arrests of Bahá’ís since the 19805. On that same day, the houses of six of those arrested were raided. Notebooks, computers, books and documents were confiscated. The Bahá’ís who were arrested were later released, but all await trial.
Persecution in Egypt
The most urgent issue that faces the Bahá’í community in Egypt is the Government’s decision to require all of its citizens to obtain mandatory identification cards. At present, Bahá’ís are not legally permitted to obtain these cards.
The Bahá’í community in Egypt traces its roots to the 18605. The first National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt, the Bahá’í national governing body, was elected in 1924, and legally incorporated in 1934.
In 1925, the Supreme Religious Court of Cairo annulled the marriage between a Bahá’í man and a Muslim woman on the grounds that the Bahá’í Faith was a “heresy.” The court also acknowledged that the Bahá’í Faith was “a new religion, [and] entirely independent.” This was the first official recognition of the Bahá’í Faith as an independent religion in the Muslim world.
In 1960, President Nasser signed Presidential Decree 263 banning Bahá’í activities. The ban dissolved “all Bahá’í Assemblies and Centers.” “Individuals, bodies and institutions” were forbidden from engaging “in any activity.” All Bahá’í properties, including the national headquarters building, the libraries, and cemeteries, as well as all Bahá’í funds and assets were confiscated. These properties and assets have never been returned. The ban on Bahá’í organization and activities remains law today.
In keeping with the Bahá’í principle of obedience to government, the Bahá’ís of Egypt immediately disbanded their religious institutions in 1960. The Government promised that individuals would remain free to practice their religion, and Bahá’ís
4. For a translation of the October 29. 2005. letter, see pages 16717. On August 1‘), 2006. a second letter. this one from Iran’s Ministry of the Interior, ordered provincial officials to increase surveillance of Bahá’ís and to record information about their acrivitiest For a translation of the second letter, see pages
17—18,v—ED. NOTE.
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l ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J, FISHER
l accordingly replaced community services with worship by individuals and families. Nevertheless, they have faced several episodes of arrests, detentions, and imprisonl ment, the most recent being in 2001. Bahá’ís remain under constant police surveillance. Their homes are periodically searched. Bahá’í’ literature is taken and destroyed. Over the last several decades, the Egyptian Bahá’í community has diminished in i size by 90 percent, to 500 people.
Along with Christianity and Judaism, the Bahá’í Faith has been regularly vilified and misrepresented in the Egyptian media. The attacks in the media appear designed to inspire popular hostility against the Bahá’ís. Recurring themes are that Bahá’í’s are spies of foreign powers and that they indulge in immoral activities. These
‘ calumnies have no basis in fact, but for many Egyptians this is the only information about the Bahá’í Faith they have ever encountered.
The Bahá’í community of Egypt has also faced persecution and harassment from
‘ the religious orthodoxy in Egypt. Over the years, the Bahá’í Faith has been the subject of numerous “famas” that deride it as 2i heresy and accuse its followers of apostasy. a charge which is punishable by death under traditional Islamic law. Most recently, on December 15. 2003. a fatwa by the Islamic Research Academy of Al ‘ Azhar University described the Bahá’í Faith as “a lethal spiritual epidemic in the fight against which the state must mobilize all its contingencies to annihilate it.” The statement goes on to demand: “those [Bahá’ís] who have committed criminal acts against Islam and our country must disappear from life and not be allowed to announce their deviation from Islam."
The crisis that immediately confronts the Egyptian Bahá’ís concerns the identification cards that must be obtained by each Egyptian citizen by the end of 2006. The cards must be presented for any type of government service, such as medical care in a
public hospital or processing for a property title or deed. They are required to obtain
employment, education or banking services. They are needed to pass through police checkpoints, and individuals without cards are deprived of their freedom of movement.
These identification cards require citizens to state their religious aH-iliation. The current system allows for only one of the three recognized religions of Egypt to be entered: Islam, Christianity, 0r Judaism.
In the past, Bahá’í’s had been permitted to leave the religious affiliation space blank, or to make a dash, or to write “other." A few were even permitted to list “Bahá’í." Now only one of the three recognized religions can be entered.
The Bahá’ís in Egypt have approached their government on numerous occasions to plead for a change in the identification card. Their requests for a change have been repeatedly denied.
We wish to emphasize that the Bahá’ís of Egypt are not asking for special treatment. They wish [0 follow the regulations of their government. Bahá’ís are willing to continue to write a dash, or leave the religious afl'iliation space blank. It is evident that the Challenges facing the Bahá’ís could be faced by any Egyptian Citizen who also is not a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew.
What the Egyptian Bahá’í’s are not able to do is to lie to their government by claiming to be members of a religion they are not—both because it is a matter of
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religious principle to them and because they do not wish to perpetrate a fraud against their government.
On April 4, 2006, an Egyptian Administrative Court found that Bahá’ís have the right to obtain government-issued documents that state their religion as Bahá’í.S Notably, the court found that Bahá’ís have a right to accurate documents regardless of whether or not the government recognizes the legitimacy of their religion for “open practice.” The Ministry of the Interior has appealed that ruling. The Ministry of Justice has requested the Council of Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar to provide its opinion on the subject of the legitimacy of the Bahá’í’ religion. On May 15, the Supreme Administrative Court suspended implementation of the lower court ruling pending the Government’s appeal. On June 19, that same court postponed the appeal hearing until September 16, 2006.
Moving forward
In Egypt, the ultimate hope of the Bahá’í community is the rescinding or nullification of Presidential Decree 263—lifting the ban on their Faith. The Egyptian Government is signatory to several international human rights treaties, including the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees religious freedom. Our urgent plea is for the Egyptian Government to allow all of its citizens, including the Bahá’ís, to be treated as equal. The May 4 Administrative Court ruling provided a positive first step toward teaching that goal. We hope that the Supreme Administrative Court upholds on appeal the lower court’s ruling."
In 1996, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief recommended actions that the Iranian Government could take toward the eventual emancipation of the Bahá’í community. They were: allowing full access to education and employment; providing the right to citizenship, burials, freedom of movement, and security of the person; allowing Bahá’ís to reestablish their banned administrative institutions; and nondiscrimination against the Bahá’ís and the restoration of Bahá’í community properties. None of these steps has yet been implemented. Given the recent crackdown on the largest religious minority in that country, we appeal once again to the Iranian Government to stop arresting and harassing Bahá’ís, not to implement its plan to record the names and monitor the activities of all Bahá’ís, and to permit Bahá’í’s to practice their religion in Complete freedom.
Before we conclude, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the various agencies of the U5. Government—the White House, the State Department, the Congress, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom—for speaking out in the US. and internationally at the UN. about the persecution of the Bahá’í’s in Iran and Egypt. We believe that a government’s repressive policies and actions must not be allowed to remain hidden. We thank Senators Reid and Brownback and Congressmen Kirk and Lantos, along with the many co-sponsors
5, See pages 28—29 for the ruling of the Egyptian Administrative Court.—En Non; 6‘ On December 16, 2006. Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the light of Bahá’í’s
(o be properly identified on government documents.——ED. Non:
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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN & BETTY J. FISHER
who are supporting the current Congressional resolutions calling for the emancipation of the Bahá’í’s in Iran. We hope Congress will continue to voice its concern and will work with Parliamentarians worldwide For the religious freedom of all people. The Bahá’ís of the U5. thank Congress for affirming the right of the long. suffering Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt to practice Freely their religion.
D. AN EGYPTIAN CIOIURT RULING IN FAVOR OF AN EGYPTIAN BAHA’I FAMILY, APRIL 4, 2006
7. A Decision by the Egyptian Administrative Court, April 4, 2006
Summary translation of a judgment rendered by the Egyptian Administrative Court delivered by the learned trial judges Faruq ‘Ali ‘Abdu’l-Qadir Salah-u-ddin Algruani And Hamed AI—Halfawi On April 4 2006
In the case no. 24044 of the forty-Fifth judiciary year Husam lzzat Musa & Ranya Enayat Rushdy
V. The Ministry of Interior The Department of Civil Status The Department of Passports and Immigration The National Council of Human Rights
The Facts:
The plaintiffs are Bahá’ís and Egyptian citizens. They requested the Department of Passports and Immigration to add the names of their daughters Bakinam, Farah and Hana to their passports. The said department refused to give them their passports back and withdrew their ID cards in violation of their legal rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The plaintiffs requested the annulment Of the decision of the Department that is refusing to issue them Identity Cards on which their religion, the Bahá’í Faith, is mentioned and birth certificates for their daughters in which the Bahá’í Faith is shown.
The Court:
Considering the established fact throughout existing precedents that authoritative reference books on Islamic jurisprudence indicate that Muslim lands have housed non-Muslims with their different beliefs; that they have lived in them like the others, without any of them being forced to Change what they believe in; but that the open practice of religious rites was confined to only those recognized under Islamic rule.
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In the customs of the Muslims of Egypt this is limited to the peoples of the Book, that is Jews and Christians only. The Shari’a provisions (Islamic jurisprudence) requires, as explained by Muslim scholars, a disclosure that would allow a distinction to be made between Muslims and non—Musiims in the exercise of social life, so as to establish the range 01" the rights and obligations reserved to Muslims that others cannot avail [themselves] of, for these [rights and obligations] are inconsistent with their beliefs. Thus, the obligation prescribed by the Civil Registry Act n01 143 of 1994 concerning personal status to issue every Egyptian an identity card on which his name and religion appears and the same on birth certificates is required by the provisions of Islamic Shari‘a. It is not inconsistent with Islamic tenets to mention the religion on this card even though it may be a religion whose rites are not recognized for open practice, such as Bahá’ísm and the like. On the contrary, these [religions] must be indicated so that the status of its bearer is known and thus he does not enjoy a legal status to which his belief does not entitle him in a Muslim society. It is not for the Civil Registry to refrain from issuing identity cards or birth certificates to the followers of Bahá’ísm, nor it is up to such a Registry to leave out the mention of this religion on their identity cards.
(judgment of the Administrative Supreme Court delivered on 29/1/1983 in mm 210‘ 1109 of the twemy—nint/I judiciary year).
This [opinion] is not affected by the plea of the administration submitted in its memorandum of 5/1/2006 mentioning that the Islamic Research Academy of AlAzhar issued a statement on 21/1/1986 implying that the Bahá’í Faith is not a religion, is not endorsed by Islam and sows the seeds of discord among the Muslim nation. The reason for this ineffectiveness is that the scope of the case under consideration is merely confined to mentioning the Bahá’í Faith on the identity card of the plaintiffs and the birth certificates of their daughters. Nothing in the papers submitted to the court shows that the plaintiffs are engaged in spreading the Bahá’í Faith or proclaiming it in any manner.
Considering the aforementioned, and because the plaintiffs are followers of the Bahá’í Faith, the refusal of the Administration to give them identity cards on which this religion is mentioned and its refusal to give them birth certificates for their daughters Bakinam, Farah and Hana on which the Bahá’í Faith is recorded constitute an illegal negative decision that the court declares null and void With the ensuing consequences, particularly to give the plaintiffs identity cards and birth certificates on all of which the Bahá’í religion is written.
Whereas the party that loses his case is bound to pay its costs in accordance with article 184 of the code of procedure.
For these reasons _ The court declares the Case is admissible as to its form and in the substance to annul
the decision under consideration with the ensuing consequences as explained in the reasoning and to enjoin the Administration to pay the costs.
[Signature] [Signature] President of the Court Secretary of the Court
Worid Order, 2006, VOL 37, NO. 3 29
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Persecution and Protection: Documents about Bahá’í‘s, 1867, 1897, and 1902
Ever since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century, the Bahá’í Faith has been subjected to attacks conducted largely, though not exclusively, by Muslim clergy. Such attacks invariably include calumnies and falsifications of the history of the Faith. World Order is pleased to present to its readers translations of Four documents, one circulated in an early translation on the Internet and three never before published. All of these documents shed light on the attitudes and actions of Bahá’ís more than a century ago.
—THE EDITORS
AN 1867 PETITION FROM BAHA’iS IN SHUSHTAR, IRAN, TO THE U.S. CONGRESS
1"!“ -I l I
- . On March 16, 1867, fifty-three Bahá’ís in Shushtar—a small city in southwestern
E [ran some 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Ahvéz and around 180 miles (300 .5 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad stamped their personal seals on a petition to the
‘ United States Congress in a bold and remarkable effort to ameliorate the imprisv onment and exile of Bahá’u’lláh (1817792), the Founder of their faith. After being
- forgotten For nearly a century, the petition, written in Arabic, was found in the
! United States government archives over two decades ago by Roger Dahl, archivist i, for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States.1 Now Writ! i Order is publishing both the original inadequate translation (see pages 35—36) and a new translation prepared by Manuchehr Derakhshani and Nesreen Akhtarkhavari i (see pages 37—38). E According to Henry Harris Jessup (1832—1910), a prominent Presbyterian misa sionary residing in Beirut, 21 German traveler in Baghdad sent the petition to Beirut . with a letter that spoke "admiringly of~ the reformer [Bahá’u’lláhT’ and asking “for i his release on the ground of religious liberty which is now granted by the Sultan " to all his Subjects.": How the petition traveled from Shushtat to Baghdad is not I known; presumably the Bahá’ís thought its delivery to the United States would be more likely if it were routed through Baghdad than through Tehran. Jessup added I that a number of other documents accompanied the petition. How Jessup saw the g E 5
Copyright © 2007 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. . 11 U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, "Petition from the Persian Reformets" 1n
“Dispatches from United States Consuls in Beirut, 1863—1906, Volume 5, February 15, 1864—July 22,
1867" (National Archives Microfilm Publication, Microcopy T 367, Roll 5) Roger Dahl, personal
communication. August 30. 2006. 2. Henry Harris )essup, F/fiy— 777m Ymr: In Syria (New York: Revell, 1910) 329. The reference [0 teligious liberty probably alludes to various decrees of the Turkish Tanzimat period. when legal reform
by the state included granting religious freedom.
World Order, 2006. Vol. 37, No. 3 31
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petition is not known. The German traveler may have sent the package to him or to any of the other Americans in Beirut (a small group, mostly missionaries and merchants, who knew each other). The petition may have been Jessup’s first encounter with the Bahá’í Faith. Later he wrote a talk, delivered in 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago by the Reverend George Ford, which was the first major public mention of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States.‘
The petition arrived in Beirut on April 3, 1867, and found its way into the hands of]. (Jeremiah) Augustus Johnson, American Consul General in Beirut from 1858 to 1870.“ He had it translated into English. On May 15 Johnson left for the United States for a vacation he had requested several years earliert After visits to Boston and New York, he forwarded the petition and translation. on July 22, 1867, to William 1-1. Seward, Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson. Accompanying the petition were documents about the legal and financial problems in :1 colony of American millennialists in Jaffa (near modern-day Tel Aviv), which Johnson had meticulously investigated and described. In his cover letter Johnson asked for time with Seward to discuss the JaH‘h colony but said nothing substantive about the petition, which presumably was read and filed in the archives. No action is known to have resulted.
The petition states that the Bahá’ís in Shushtar “wished to write this information to the kings of the governments," raising the possibility that similar petitions (possibly using the same generic language) may eventually be found in other are chives.S The petition’s fifty—three signatory seals, presumably representing most or all of the city’s active Bahá’í men, suggest a community of one hundred to two hundred It is unclear from existing records whether the Bahá’ís were taking an independent action or were responding to a directive from Bahá’u’lláh. The petition was produced during a time when Bahá’u’lláh, from His place of exile in Adrianople (modern Edirne, Turkey), was addressing letters to various kings and rulers to proclaim His mission and teachings.“
To build a bridge to, and to find common ground with, its audience in Washington, D.C., the petition begins with a lengthy opening paragraph about God’s creating, among other things, innate moral principles such as umercy, friendly admonition, love, and giving solace to people" Then it describes “a perfect man
3. See Henry H. Jessup, “The Religious Mission 01‘ the English Speaking Nations,w in T17! WWW} Parliament ufRe/igiam: An Il/tzxtm/wl and Popular Story of 1/)1' \Y/arld': First Parliamm! affillgilmi, HIM ”1 Chicago in Connem'un with the Colmn/Iiuu [itporiliyn if 1893, ed. John Henry Barrows (Chicago: Parliament Publishing C0,, 1893), Vth 2. 1122726.
4. Johnson’s appointment as Consul General (where his name is entered as G. Augustus Johnson) 15 mentioned in the Journal of the executive proceedings of. the Senate of the United StatEs of Ainetica, 1855—1858, entry for Saturday. March 14. 1857. httpzllmemorv.lomgov/cghbin/query/t?ammcm/ hlaw:@field(DOClD+@lit(ei01097)). His twelve years of service. :ihd his subsequent life, ate summarized in Alden Bryant (grandson of Augustus Johnson), letter to President Bill Clinton.}anuary 7. 1996, h([P2”WWW‘1mIlia.COm/aS/CI1Vi1’0nmCht/L‘l's/[,L‘UL‘I’T'OPI’CSidL'HLhll‘nii
St The quotations are from a new translation of the Petition (see pages 37—58). not from IhE translation that Consul General J. Augustus Johnson had made in 1861 See petition 381
6. See Bahá’u’lláh. Tl]? Summon; If the [.0er of Hans: 771/11!” ofBa/ni'uYIa'h (Haifa, Bahá’í World Centre, 2002).
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and a learned sage" who appeared in Persia in 1843.7 It does not state that He was called Bahá’u’lláh, nor does it mention or distinguish Him from the Báb (181950), Bahá’u’lláh’s forerunner. The summary of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is perhaps the earliest one From a Bahá’í that we have:
That learned and wise man wrote many books containing the rules of unity of human beings in harmony and love and the way of eliminating differences, hypocrisy, and affectation between them, so that people may unite and agree on one way and walk on the straight and congruent path, and that there should be no aversion or repugnance toward anyone, not should anyone avoid others, whether Jews, Christians, Muslims, or others.fl The use of the word “unity“ is particularly striking, as it is generally regarded
to be the central teaching of the Bahá’í Faith, and it clearly was understood as such by the Shushtar Bahá’ís in 1867. One is struck by the parallels with Edward Granville Browne's mote eloquent summary of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, penned twentyfout years later after an interview with Him in 1891: We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment. . . i That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annullediwhat harm is there in this? . . . Yet 50 it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the “Most Great Peace” shall come. . . . Do not you in Europe need this 21150? Is not this that which Christ foretold.>9 The petition then turns to the opposition to Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings and to Him, leading to His imprisonment; the massacre of “some thirty thousand” of His followers (presumably a reference to the thousands of Babis executed in the 18405 and 18505); and His exiles to Baghdad, Istanbul, and Adrianople. It also notes that there are “some forty thousand individuals in Persia and some other kingdoms who ate devotees and followers of the wise man,” one of the earliest known estimates of the numbers of Bahá’ís.” The petition concludes with a simple plea:
If any of you would like to investigate the case of the wise man, let him send a judicious representative to Adirnah [Adtianople, now Edime] to inquire about that incarcerated wise man so that the truth of His case may be became known.
. . we agreed to present and describe the situation of that wise man to the Congress of the Republic that perchanee God may grant Him relief and deliverance and that you may render help and find a way to bring that oppressed person relieT from tyranny and oppression. . . .
7. See the petition 37, 8. See the pctitiun 37. 4 , 9. [‘Abdu'l—Bnhd]. A Trmml/er} Nanmiw Written 10 Il/Iumzze I/Jl’ Epuudt of 2/1: Bah ed., trans.. and
intro.. Edward CL Browne (Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 1891) x]. 10. See the petition 38,
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Thus it was imperative for us to write and describe for you the facts, praying that God will aid you and grant you victory over the opponents.”
The Translation of the Petition Mode in 1867
[Envelope] Enclosure with despatch n" [no number included]
U.5. Consulate General Beirut, Syria
Petition from the Persian Reformers
Translation Enclosed
[Cover letter] Received Mr. J. Smith
[stampedz] Dept. of State July 24, '67
Ack July 29
Bethany, West Virginia July 22, 1867
Hon. \W. H. Seward Secretary of State
Sir;
I have the honor to enclose herewith a petition, with translation, from a reformed community in Persia, who represent that more than thirty thousand of their body have been massacred by the Persian government, and that about forty thousand remain on the borders of that country. They further represent that their leader is now held a prisoner at Adrianople by the Turkish Authorities at the request of the government of Persia.
They pray for the intercession Of the Government of the U. States in behalf of their leader, and for greater toleration in behalf of themselves.
1L See the petition 38.
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I forward this petition at the urgent request of the leading members of this Persian reformation.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most Obt [Obedient] servant, J. Augustus Johnson U.S. Consul General
Trunslflllon: May the most high God be praised.
It is well known by all enlightened people, that, the wise learned, those that believe in the Bible, New Tesmment, Koran, 8a; nay, all human beings unanimously believe, that the origin of the world, the stars, the four elements, mines [minerals], Animals and man is one, of which all the creation is benifeted [rid according to its disposition, aptitude, nature, essence, reason and quality, as declared in the books of all the [religious] communities; also all the inhabitants of the globe unanimously agree upon natural principles, that, intelligence, learning, wisdom, arts and perfection are better then [tit] ignorance, folly, immorality and error, that mercy, admonition, love and tranquillity are better then [sit] hatred, obstinacy, envy, ambition and corruption and that truth, honesty, justice and impartiality are honored more than lying, theft, tyranny and violence as wtiten [sic] in the moral books of all religions. And no one disagrees on these two points i.e. in acknowledging a creator to the world & the general knowledge of natural principles. The inhabitants of the globe differ on the manner of worshiping BC on the individual regulations and customs.
During the year 1843 of the ascension of Christ, a perfect, wise and virtuous man [Bahá’u’lláh] appeared in Persia. he had knowledge of all religions, laws and knew the history of wisemen[,] kings and the rules [tic] of nations; he saw that the people oppose, hate and kill, abstain and avoid to mix with each other.12 Nay, they consider each other unclean, though they are all human beings, having different and numerous religions; and that the people are like unto Sheep without a shepherd.
That learned and wise man wrote many works containing the rules of union, harmony and love between human beings, and the way of abandoning the differences, untruthfulness, and vexations between them, that people may unite and agree on one way and to walk straightforwardly in the straight and expedient way, and that no one should avert or religiously abstain from intercourse with another, of Jews, Christians, Mohamedans [Sit] and others.
That wise man revealed himself till he appeared like the high sun in mid day. When the Shah of Persia heard of these rules, he feared that his religion will be
12‘ Bahá’u’lláh (the Glory of God) declared in 1863 that He was the Promised One foretold in the books of all religions‘ He was preceded in 1844 by the Báb (the Gate), His forerunner‘
World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, N0. 3 35
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PERSECUTION AND PROTECTION
disturbed, so he gathered together the learned men of his religion, who saw that their interests will be disturbed, and their rules changed, as the public are anxious, desire and are inclined to follow that wise man; [fit] The Shah therefore agreed with his learned men to order the execution of that wise man and his disciples, so they imprisoned the wise man and masscared [sic] about thirty thousand men of his Followers, may more than thirty thousand not saving women not infants, after that, with the interference of the Consuls of the Powers, not to kill the wise man, they banished him from Persia and plundered his goods, he came to Bagdad, [Sit] and the news of his docterine [tic] spread in lrak [sic] and almost all the Arabs and the subjects of the Shah of Persia emigrated from Persia and came & followed the wise man;” the Shah of Persia was again afraid and beged [sit] the Turkish Government to banish him so it sent him away With his family [and a] few of his friends to Constantinople, and the Turkish Government imprisoned him with his family in a town named Adrinah [:ic, Adrianople] without examining the matter not questioning him about his rules.M
If any of you would like to know the true state of the wise man, let him send a wise commissioner to Adrinah [sic] to enquire [sit] after the state of that imprisoned wise man that his state may be made known. We wished therefore to write this information to the kings of the various Governments in the belief that all Powers need each other and that relations and obligations exist between them, but every Government that has relations with Persia or territorial connection does not take interest in this important matter, and they are all bound with the chains of need.
Consequently we unanimously agreed to report and inform the Congress of the Republic,15 of the state of that wise man, that God may prepare for him relief and acquittal, and that you may help and find out a way to deliver that oppressed person from under tyranny and oppression. Notwithstanding what we have said of the slaughter, imprisonment and plundering the true fact is that there are about forty thousand individuals in Persia 8c other kingdoms desiring to follow the wise man, but being affraid [sic] of the Governors and Sultans, they dare not manifest their religion.
It has been of our duty to write 81 inform you of the facts; praying that God will preserve you and grant you victory over the enemies.
From Shoshter, 10 Zel-Kedey 1283
(March 16, 1867) (seal, etc.)
13. In 1853 Bahá’u’lláh was banished (with His family and a few of His Followers) from Persia to Baghdad,
14‘ In 1863 Bahá’u’lláh was banished from Baghdad to Constantinople and in the same year [0 Adrianople, where He remained until 1868. His Final banishment was From Adrianople [0 Acre in Syria.
15. The United States of America.
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A New TranslaIion of Ihe 1867 Petition Prepared by Monuc‘mehr Derokhshch 0nd Nesreen AkhIorkhovorI
May the most high God be praised!
It is well known by all wise and enlightened people that the inhabitants of the earth—the wise, the learned, the sage, and those of all nations that believe in the Bible, the New Testament, the Qur’án, etc.—nay, all human beings, unanimously believe that the world and its component parts, the stars, the four elements, the three kingdoms of natureaminetals, animals, and man—are of but one universal origin, and all the creation and its parts benefit according to their disposition, aptitude, nature, essence, reason, and quality from that universal, bountiful source as expounded in the books of all the religious communities. Also, all the inhabitants of the globe unanimously agree upon the innate, moral principles: that intelligence, learning, wisdom, arts, and perfections are better than ignorance, folly, immorality, and error; that mercy, Friendly admonition, love, and giving solace to people are better than hatred. obstinacy, jealousy, greed, and corruption; and that truth, honesty, justice, and equity are more noble than lying, theft, injustice, and coercion as written in the books of morals of all religions. And no one disagrees on these two points: acknowledging a creator for the world and a general knowledge of innate moral principles. The inhabitants of the globe differ in their manner of worship and in minor ordinances and religious practices.
During the year 1843 of the ascension of Christ, a perfect man and a learned sage [Bahá’u’lláh] appeared in Persia, Who had knowledge of all religions and revelations and knew the history of wise men and kings and the conditions of nations. He saw that people oppose, hate, and kill one another and avoid, and are wary of, consorting with each other. Nay, some even consider others unclean, although they are all human beings, having many different religions, and they are like unto sheep without a shepherd.
That learned and wise man wrote many books containing the rules of unity of human beings in harmony and love and the way of eliminating differences, hypocrisy, and aFfectation between them, so that people may unite and agree on one way and walk on the straight and congruent path, and that there should be no aversion or tepugnance toward anyone, not should anyone avoid others, whether Jews, Christians, Muslims, or others.
MANUCHEHR DERAKHSHANI . who was educated in Iron, Great Britain, and Ihe United States, hoId§ a doctorate In educational psychology from The University of Utah. Born in Iron, he has lived In Morocco and for many years in The United States.
NESREEN AKHTARKHAVARI
recered a BA. degree in low from the University of Amman, Jordan, and an MA. in crimInoIogy and a PhD In multilingual and multicultural education fvom Florida State UnIversIty, She Is now In charge of the Arable Ionguoge program of DePoul Universlty In ChIcogo.
World Ordef, 2006, Vol. 37, Nov 3 37
PERSECUTION AND PROTECTION
That wise man revealed His cause till it appeared like the high sun at midday. The Shah of Persia heard of these teachings and feared that his own religion would be disturbed So he gathered together the learned men of his religion, who saw that their affairs would be disrupted, and their rules changed, as the people were eagerly desirous and inclined to accept the cause of that wise man and to follow Him. The Shah then, with the agreement of his learned men, ordered the execution of that wise man and His disciples. So they imprisoned the wise man and massacred some , thirty thousand men of His followers, nay more than thirty thousand, even women ‘ l and little children. After that, with the opposition of the Consuls of governments to killing the wise man, they banished Him from Persia and plundered His belong‘ ings. 50 He came to Baghdad, and His cause spread in Iráq, and many Arabs and subjects of the Shah of Persia are emigrating and joining the wise man and following
Him. Once again the Shah of Persia became afraid and pleaded with the Turkish l Ottoman government [to banish him], so He was sent away with His family and a few of His friends and companions to Constantinople, and the Turkish government imprisoned Him with His family in a town named Adirnah [Adrianople, now Edime] without examining His case and inquiring about His circumstances. ‘ If any of you would like to investigate the case of the wise man, let him send a judicious representative to Adimah to inquire about that incarcerated wise man ‘ so that the truth of His case may become known. We wished to write this information to the kings of the governments, but observed that all governments need each other and that dealings and obligations exist between them; that every government that has relationships, dealings, or common borders with Persia does not take an interest in investigating this important matter; and that they are all bound by the chains of need.
Consequently, we agreed to present and describe the situation of that wise man to the Congress of the Republic that perchance God may grant Him relief and deliverance and that you may render help and find a way to bring that oppressed person relief from tyranny and oppression. Notwithstanding the slaughter, impris‘ onment, and plundering, at this time there are some forty thousand individuals in l Persia and some other kingdoms who are devotees and followers of the wise man, but, being afraid of the Governors and Sultans, they cannot manifest their faith. ‘ Thus it was imperative for us to write and describe for you the facts, praying ‘ that God will aid you and grant you victory over the opponents.
From Shoshter, 10 Dhi—al-Qa‘dah 1283 (March 16, 1867) (seal, etc.)
38 World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3
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PERSECUTION AND PROTECTION
RUSSIAN DOCUMENTS ABOUT IRANIAN BAHA’1S IN ASHGABAT AND BAKU, 1897 AND 1902
lmroduced 0nd tronsbted by Firuz Kozemzodeh
For over one hundred and sixty years Iran’s Shiite clergy, frequently assisted by the government, has been making every effort to extirpate the Bahá’í Faith in the country of its birth. The persecutions that the Bahá’í’s have suffered since 1979 under the current Islamic regime are well known. However, it is not so well known that in the nineteenth and early twentieth century certain Iranian fanatical elements were set [0 disrupt or destroy Bahá‘t’ communities in countries adjacent to Iran. After the assassination in 1896 of Nasiri’d—Din Shah by a Pan—Islamist follower of Jamalu’dDin Afghani, an assassination immediately Attributed to the Baibfs, as the Bahá’í’s were then called, a wave of arrests and killings spread over Iran and spilled over its borders into Central Asia.
In the small settlement of Ashgabat, the administrative and military center of the recently conquered Trans-Caspian region, Russian authorities had created civic institutions and established control that rapidly attracted a mixed population of Turkmen, Azerbaijanis, Russians, Armenians, and Iranians, among the latter hundreds of Bahá’ís who suddenly found themselves free to practice their religion openly. Some Muslim Iranians, determined not to permit the Bahá’ís to enjoy this new Freedom, attacked Bahá’ís in public and on a number of occasions threatened them with death. Russian authorities, though anxious to preserve order, were but poorly informed of the beliefs and practices of the Bahá’ís. Two 1897 documents from the archives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Afiairs throw light on the situation.
Rumors that Bahá’ís had assassinated the Shah had reached General A. N. Kuropatkin, Chief of the Trans—Caspian Region. He asked Russia’s Minister in Tehran, Yevgenii Karlovich Butzow, for information:
A. N. Kuropatk'm to Y. K‘ Butzow, No. 171, Askhabad, June 30 [July 12], 1897.16
Gracious Lord, Yevgenii Karlovich!
The Chief of the Askhabad [Ashgabat] District, on the basis of a report of the town Police Department, reported to me that many Shiite fanatics who arrive From Persia via Julfa on Uzun Aga [sic] in Askhabad, on the pretext of further travel to Meshed [Mashhad] to pray, carry With them firearms and sidearms,
16. The dates are given first in the standard Julian calendar used in pretevolutionary Russia and then. in brackets. in the Gregorian calendar,
FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH
ls Professor Emeti’tus of history. Yale Unlverslty, and Senior Advisorto the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, He is the author of several books and many articles on Russia, Central Asia. and the Mlddle East He sewed for many years as an editor of World Order.
World Order, 2006. Vol. 37, Not 3 39
¥_A___
PE RSECUTION AND PROTECTION
which they are prohibited by law from bearing, and remain in Askhabad where
they plot against the Babists, whom they threaten with murder. The existence
of the plot was to some extent confirmed by eyewitness reports during an inquiry in the case of the attempted murder of the Babist, Haji Abu-Taiib Sadykhov‘
Having on my part ordered the establishment of vigilant surveillance of all Muslims who enter the district and the protection of the Babists. 1 humbly beg Your Excellency to inform me whether the Babists have been involved in the murder of His Majesty the Persian Shah, and how we are to treat the Babists: permit them as before to live without hindrance in the district or, out of fear that they would build here a source of a new plot, forbid them to live in the district. If you should recognize the latter measure as the most appropriate, kindly let me know how in your opinion that large measure could be carried out.
I beg Your Excellency to accept assurances of my exceeding respect and similar devotion. A. Kuropatkin.”
General Kuropatkin apparently was unaware that his subordinate, Aleksandr Alekseyevich, Assistant Commander of the Civil Sector, whose last name is not given in the relevant documents, had asked the same questions three months earlier on March 4 [March 16] and had received a communication from Butzow that answered those questions:
The followers of the Báb’s teachings do not pursue political goals, and if they have suffered persecution at the hands of the Persian government in the reign of Nasiri’d-Din Shah, at present they enjoy toleration, although they do not openly confess their doctrine for fear of persecution on the part of Shiite Clergy, which uses every opportunity to excite the people against them. The teaching of the Babides is very widespread in Persia, and there is reason to believe that the number of its adherents must exceed a million; included in their ranks, secretly of course, according to people who maintain relations with these sectaries, are even the highest representatives of the Shiite clergy.
The absence in the Babide teachings of any political aspirations, proved by those sectaries who live within the borders of Russia, their reliability as obedient citizens, point to the fact that they deserve tolerance and protection equally with the followers of other Muslim sects.1K Five years later the Governor of Baku studied the issues that Kuropatkin and his
subordinate had raised in 1897. In an opinion rendered on December 5 [December 18] probably in 1902 (the document is damaged, a piece bearing the year having been tom 05), the Governor states that the Babis in Baku had asked for protection:
Since until that time there had existed no information about the existence of that
sect in Baku, and because the newspapers had written that the Shah of Persia
had been killed by a member of that sect. . , . I decided that it was necessary
17. AVPR [Archive of the Russian Ministry of Foreign AEaits] F 194,0p. 528, ed. Khr. 2049. 18481897.
18‘ Ye, K. Butzow to Aleksandr Alekseyevich, Tehran, March 4 [March 16], 1897 AVPR, F 194, op. 5283, ed. khr. 2049. 1848—1897.
40 World Order, 2006, Vol, 37, No. 3
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PERSECUTlON AND PROTECTION
first of all to discover all the details concerning the existence of that sect in Baku province, the time of its appearance there, the degree of its development, and also what aims that sect pursues, how its members behave, does its existence constitute any danger for public tranquility and order, and can it be tolerated in general. Therefore, I ordered Staff Captain Voino—Oranskii, attached to the Commander of the troops of the Caucasian Military District, who, as a graduate of a course in Oriental languages, had the requisite preparation for this task [sentence illegible]. From the report new received from Staff Captain Voinooranskii the following appears:
In general the sect of the Babides had existed since 1843,'9 and was founded in Persia in the city of Shíráz in the reign of the grandfather of the present Shah, Shah Mamed [Muhammad Shah] by Sayid Ali Muhammad [Sayyid Ni-Muhammad, the Báb]. who during the course of nine years freely preached his doctrine, but then was deprived of freedom and executed. By that time the number of the members of the above sect had reached more than twenty thousand, among whom were four hundred mullahs.
After the execution of Sayid Ali Muhammad, one of the followers of the executed one, Behi Ulla [Bahá’u’lláh] (in translation “God’s Light” [the Glory of God]) was recognized as the leader of the Babists, against Whom the Shiite mullahs also arose, insisting on his execution; but instead it was proposed to him that he leave Persia. Having settled in Baghdad, Behi Ulla lived there for nineteen years, and then moved to Constantinople, whence, after half a year, he was exiled by the order of the government for four years to the town of Adime [Adrianople, now Edirne], and from the latter he was sent to the town of Acre near Jaffa, where he died on May 16 [May 28], 1892.
Behl Ulla left to the followers of the “Babi” sect an instruction known as “Kitab Ekhdi,” [Kitáb—i-‘Ahd] in translation “The Charter of My Testament,” and in addition he wrote several other books of ethical-religious content. The “Babi” teaching contains all the principles of the Christian religion such as love of one’s neighbor, forgiveness, etc. They do not believe in blood feud, are distinguished by religious tolerance, a complete absence of fanaticism, and in general by striving for progress.20
The Russian government oflctcials both in Trans—Caspia and the Caucasus must have been satisfied that the Bahá’ís posed no threat to public order and granted them the same status as that of other non—Russian Orthodox religions. The three documents presented above and dating from more than a century ago, offer additional testimony, if such testimony were needed, to the peaceful, nonpolitical, and civically responsible character of the Bahá’í Faith.
_/1‘). The Bahá’í era began on May 23, 1844. 20. The Governor of Baku to [?J, December 5 [December 18] 1902[?] AVPR, F 194, op. 528a, eds kl". 2049. 184871891
World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3 41
Moffers of Opinion Reviews of Books
BOOK REV|EW BY FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH
GOD SPEAKS AGAIN: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE Bahá’í FAITH
BY KENNETH E. BOWERS
(WILMETTE, IL, USA: Bahá’í PUBLISHING, 2004): XI + 296 PAGES)
Writing an introduction to the Bahá’í Faith is no simple task. More than eighty years ago one of the Faith's early Westem adherents, J. E. Esslemont, published his 311/713 ’u 714% mm' the New Era, a survey of the history and the teachings of the
Copyright © 2007 by Firuz Kammladeh.
1‘ The first edition of Esslemont‘s Bab/iu 111”] and 1/76 New Era: An Intradm'tinn m [be Balm? Faith was published in 1923 by George Allen 8c Unwyn, Ltd.. in London. it has since been reprinted numerous times and has been translated into many languages. A trade paperback edition was published in 2006 by Bahá’í Publishing (Wilmette. IL, USA),
2. See John Ferraby. All T/Jings Made New: A Cumyre/umiu: Outlin: of ti]: Bahd'x’Fditb, rev. ed. (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust. 1975), and William S. Hatchet and ]. Douglas Martin, The Bahá’í Faith: The Emerging Glabal Rz/igion (San Francisco. Harper. 1985; rev. ed. \Vilmette. IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002).
FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH
Faith.1 Esslemont had the unique advantage of being close to both ‘Abdu’l—Bahz’t and Shoghi Effendi, whose invaluable advice he sought on many matters. The book became a classic. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that most of those in Europe and the Americas who have acquired a more-than—cursory acquaintance with the Faith did so with Esslemont’s help. However, the passage of time and the radical change in the state of humanity have made parts of Esslemont’s book obsolete. A generation later John Ferraby in England, and William S. Hatchet and J. Douglas Martin in Canada, produced excellent introductions intended for serious students Of religion.2
Kenneth E. Bowers has not attempted to supplant these works. His purpose is more modest, to introduce the Bahá’í’ Faith to the average American reader of
Professor Emerims of hmory, Yale Unlversfly, is the author of books and articles on Russia, Central Asla, and The Middle E051, He served for many years as on editot of World Order, writlng editoricls articles. and reviews for the magazine
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World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3 43
FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH
the early twenty—first century and more particularly to a Christian reader whose religious concerns have been influenced by the views and opinions proclaimed daily to the masses over the radio and on television by a variety of preachers. The structure of God Speak: Again: An [ntrodurtion ta the Balm’ ’z'Fait/J is b0 th chronological and topical, giving indispensable information on the Founders of the Faith and on their teachings. Part 1 tells in just a few pages about midnineteenth century Iran, which was still an essentially medieval society, seemingly stagnant but full of messianic expectations that were not unknown to the contemporary West either, particularly to the United States. Shiite expectations of the return of the twelfth Imam helped tens of thousands of Iranians to accept the claim of Siyyid Ni Muhammad of Shíráz, known as the Báb, to be the recipient of a new divine revelation. Bowers does not dwell on the Bábi period, devoting to it only three short chapters. There follow in rapid succession chapters on Bahá’u’lláh’s life before exile to Baghdad and His Baghdad years, interspersed with chapters on His wtitings of that period: The Hidden Words and the Kitáb-i-Tqan (The Book of Certitude). Further exile in Constantinople and Adtianople culminates with banishment t0 the penal colony of Acre. Part 2 discusses “Some Basic Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh”: progressive revelation, spiritual and ethical principles, and the concept of justice, all fundamental to Bahá’u’lláh's vision of society. Again Bowers weaves together the story of Bahá’u’lláh’s life and His works, implicitly making the point that the person of the Prophet is inseparable from His teachings. Part 3 discusses the principle of the Covenant centered in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
44 World Order, 2006,Vo|, 37, No. 3
Bahá’u’lláh’s son and successor as Head of the Faith. Bowers then resumes the presentation of ”other basic teachings”: prayer. fasting. the harmony of religion and science. world peace, the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth, health, marriage, and the arts. The first chapter of Part 4 deals with the organization of. the Bahá’í community, its operation, and the building of a World Orders The rest of Part 4 concentrates mainly on topics of special interest to Christians such as the relationship between the Bahá’í Faith and Christianity, the Bahá’í view of the mission of Jesus, Bahá’í interpretations of Biblical prophecy, the Day OFJLIdgnient, and the Kingdom of God. The book ends with a discussion of Bahá’u’lláh’s call to humanity and the individual’s response to that call.
The organization of the book presents certain problems. The discussion of the principles of the Faith is broken up into segments that make it difficult to see them as a unified whole. The abundance of quotations gives the reader an opportunity to experience the authentic writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’, but the length of the quotations is at times excessive. Here and there the author makes statements that can be questioned. The Biblical Daniel lived in Babylon rather than in Persia. When the haStinado is infliCted, the victim is not “suspended upside down" but lies on his back. The person with whom Bahá’u’lláh was staying in the vicinity of Tehran, Mirzá Majid fian, was not a “minister” but the dtagoman of the Russian iegation and Bahá’u’lláh’s brother—in-iaw. Who were the “some religious leaders of the time” in nineteenth century Persia who atgued that “women did not even possess a soul”? It is a pity that the copy editors
4..
[Page 45]
did not exercise enough care to catch
errors of grammar and syntax. However,
these minor blemishes do not detract
from the value of the book.
3. Bahá’u’lláh. KitábAiA’Ahd (Book of the Covenant), in Rblnx of Bahá’í: 7111/1 rwm/nl ufizr IIIe KiuibJ-Aqum, comp. Research Department of the Universal House 0|» Justice. trans, Hubib Taher‘ladeh er all, 15! pockebsizc ed. (Wilmette. IL. USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988, 2005 priming) 220‘
BOOK REVIEW BY ROBERT H, STOCKMAN
MATTERS OF OPINION
1n the last decades, religion has emerged from the realm of personal and private belief to which it had been long relegated, at least in the West. Unfortunately its public manifestations have often led to violent confrontations among the followers of various faiths, each claiming monopoly of truth. GodSpea/esAgain is a timely reminder that religion is for creating “love and unity” and must not be made a "cause of enmity and dissension.“ This book offers a fresh and timely insight into a religion whose goals are universal peace and the unity of human kind
IN SERVICE TO THE COMMON GOOD: THE AMERICAN Bahá’í COMMUNITY'S COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL CHANGE
OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA’lS OF THE UNITED STATES (EVANSYON, IL, USA: BAHA’I NATIONAL CENTER, 2004: | + 54 PAGES)
The Bahá’í Faith’s commitment to social and economic development should be well known to anyone reading erd
Copyright © 2007 by Robert H. Stockman.
1. Bahá’u’lláh, Cleaning: from the Writing; of Ra/m' 'u'll/i/I. rrans‘ Shoghi Effendi, lst pockepsize ed. (Wilmelle, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983, 2005 printing) 213‘
ROBE“ H. STOCKMAN
Om’er. Bahá’u’lláh stated that a principal Function of religion is to “carry forward an ever-advancing Civilization," thereby making social change and progress a priority of the Bahá’í Faith.1 The Bahá’í commitment to the oneness of humanity also implies a common responsibility of all to assist fellow humans in their efforts to better themselves and society.
received his Master's degree In planetary geology from Brown University and hls M.T.S. and ThD. degrees In ‘rhe hlstory of reIlgion in The United States fiom Howard Divinl’ry School. The dlrector of the Wi|mefie |nsfltute and the |nsfifule for Bohé'l’Sfudies. Stock man has published thtee books about American Bahá’í history‘
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World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, Nos 3 45
ROBERT H. STOCKMAN
To tell the story of American Bahá’í’s translating their principles into deeds, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States is publishing a series of annual magazine—style booklets to document Bahá’í’ efforts in the areas of development and social change. The first is a 55—page work entitled In Seruite to the Common Goad: The American Ba/M’t’ Community} Commitment to Syria] Change} Its five—page introduction begins by emphasizing the principles that make Bahá’í social-development projects “faith in action" and by noting the central role of the Bahá’í’ concept of unity and unity’s u‘creative power.’” It then describes a Bahá’í' “framework for social advancement” involving five "tenets and practices”: (omulttztion (an inclusive and cooperative method of collective decision making); partitipator] learning (generating and applying knowledge in the course of each project to strengthen and develop it); organic growth (the engagement of the people most affected by a project in identifying and addressing the needs the project will meet); morala'eyelopmem (creating moral
2. The second in the series is called In Srruire t0 the Common Good: Bali!” Youth in Their Own 1%ris(Evanston, IL, USA: Bahá’í National Center, 2005). The third booklet is In Service to the Common Good: Aligning Dn/e/Hpmm! with the Forte: afPragrm (Evansron, IL. USA: Bahzi'l' National Center, 2006).
3. Bahá’u’lláh, 77:51:25 qf Bahá’u’lláh revealed 4 er the I(itdlz—i—Aqdas, comp, Research Depnnmerit of the Universal House of Justice. trans. Habib Taherzadeh et 21.. |sr pocket-size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust. 1988, 2005 printing) 67.
4. Bahá’u’lláh, Epixtle m the Sun of 2b: Wnlfi trans. Shoghi Effendi, lst pocket—size ed. (Wilmette, IL, USA: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988, 1999 printing) 115.
46 World Order, 2006,Vo|, 37, No. 3
awareness and moral responsibility in those implementing and benefiting from the project); and unity, equality, and juxtitr (three principles that Bahá’ís view as inseparable because “the purpose of justice is the appearance of unity” among people and because unity is impossible without the fair and equal treatment of all). The introduction closes with a discussion of the principle of service, quoting an exhottation by Bahá’u’lláh: uStrive thou, that haply thou mayest achieve a deed the fragrance of which shall never fade from the earth.”
The introduction to In Service to the Commzm Good is Followed by an essay entitled “Social and Economic Development and External Affairs: A Framework for Local Bahá’í’ Communities.” Even though oriented toward a Bahá’í' audience, the essay is of interest to a broader readership. It defines external affaits—diplomatic and public information work—and provides quotations from the Universal House of Justice, the Faith’s supreme governing and legislative council, that lay out the priorities and ground rules for carrying it out. Because the Bahá’í community is still relatively small, external affairs has two primary objectives: defending the Bahá’í’ Faith against attacks, primarily in areas of the world lacking freedom, and influencing “‘the processes toward world peace)" Efforts are concentrated in four areas: human rights, the status ofwomen, global prosperity, and moral development. The essay, which summarizes the major external-affairs accomplishments of the American Bahá’ís since 1984, is perhaps the best préeis yet published on the subject.
The essay on social and economic development and external affairs is followed by short descriptions of eleven
g; , ,,—_—_—_i k
projects carried out by Bahá’ís or Bahá’í institutions across the continental United States. The Children’s Theater Compa ny (CTC) in New York City provides “spiritual instruction” for “young performers and their families through a multidisciplinary program of drama, dance, music and the visual arts, which culminates in a performance for the whole community." Parents unable to pay for their children's participation donate service to the CTC. The organization has expanded beyond New York; five chapters have been formed in the United States, and two are in the process of being Formed in Canada.
The Bahá’í Institute for Race Unity in Gaithersburg, Maryland, provides an educational forum for sharing “Bamfu’lláh’s message of unity" and For focusing on the “disease of racism." lt sponsors monthly presentations and a large annual Martin Luther King Day commemoration.
Focusing on the realization that “the equality of women and men is overlooked as a prerequisite to world peace," Women on the Move, in Rancho Cucamonga. California, sponsors monthly multifaith gatherings called “Spiritual Connections”; annual conferences; a quarterly luncheon series; writing seminars for women; mentoring for junior youth and women in their twenties on issues of low self—esteem, social pressures, and relationships; and coaching for young mothers on their education and career options.
Women for International Peace and Arbitration, based in Glendale, California, is a twenty-yeat-old nongovernmental organization recognized by the United Nations. It sponsors “Sitting Room Seminars” (informational meetings held in living rooms that center on mediation
MATTERS OF OPINION
concepts and techniques and their application in homes and local communities); carries out bridge—building efforts among women from various countries; sponsors three schools for poor rural girls in China; and has helped orphaned Children find next of kin in war-torn Sierte Leone.
For ten years the Voicemail Project of Danville, California—sponsored by eleven Bahá’í Local Spiritual Assemblies in the greater San Francisco Bay areahas provided free voice mail for local homeless people, thereby enabling them to obtain housing and jobs otherwise unobtainable when one cannot be telephoned. In Jefferson County, Colorado, Bahá’ís are actively involved in the Jegco Partners for Interfaith Action, 3 group that builds houses for people in need. A Bahá’í in Savannah, Georgia, played a central role in establishing the Parent University, a volunteer nonprofit organization that seeks to train parents in parenting skills, technical skills such as helping children do their homework, and broad concerns, including understanding cultural diversity.
The Native American Bahá’í Institute, on the Navajo Reservation in Houck, Arizona, was established by thirty Navajo Bahá’ís in 1977 and now sponsors Navajo cultural and craft events for children and young people, classes on parenting, Bahá’í children's classes, devotional meetings, and Bahá’í group tutorials. Its staff spends much of its time providing services all across the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Health for Humanity, based in Wilmette, Illinois, sponsors projects involving the donation of medical equipment and services by volunteer medical professionals and some untrained persons. Currently it has projects in Albania, Bolivia,
World Order, 2006, VOL 37, No. 3 47
ROBERT H‘ STOCKMAN
Cameroon, China, and the United States focusing on international exchanges, maternal and child health and wellness, blindness prevention, and HIV/AIDS prevention and education. One goal is to “develop an improved model" for doing “health development” work.
The Bahá’í’ Unity Center in South DeKalb County, Georgia, housed in a former church owned by the local Bahá’í community, hosts devotional programs, property-development and maintenance get—togethers, and extensive service programs, such as Supporting Our Sisters (semiannual conferences for girls age eleven through eighteen with a variety of educational workshops), Umoja Souljahs (a program for boys and girls stressing recreation, leadership, and moral education), and a computer lab.
The Táhirih Justice Center in Falls Church, Virginia, registered as a nonprofit in 1997, exists to help women and girls through pro bono legal advocacy. Its first major successes involved helping women and girls fleeing female genital mutilation overseas to remain in the
United States, but it has also begun pioneering work against the mail-order bride indusrry. As of 2004, it had helped more than five thousand women and girls.
One thread runs through all the Bahá’í projects: the central importance of consultation, a process of active listening to everyone and detached consideration of all relevant facts and principles in deciding which actions to take. Consultation was crucial to the bonding of stafl: and volunteers and in serving Clients. It was used to Clear up misunderstandings, clarify policies. and establish vision. Consultation also helped to build a collaborative relationship with others that often seemed to make miracles occur. Both Bahá’í's and non-Bahá’í’s commented on its importance in the case studies. Thus In Service to the Cammzm Good underlines a central aspect of the Bahá’í’ approach to social-and-economic—development work and highlights an important Bahá’í contribution to the development ofa more peaceful and harmonious global society.
48 World Order, 2006, Vol. 37, No. 3
CALL FOR PAPERS
WANTED—SHORT ARTICLES ON THE DESTINY OF AMERICA
AND ACHIEVING WORLD PEACE DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: JULY 1, 2007
W’or/dorder is seeking short articles (circa 1,0001,500 words) on the topics of the destiny of America and achieving world peace. This is your chance to write on a topic close to your heart without writing a long article that seems like a chapter for a book Think short, tight, and focused. The topic could be poverty, education, global warming Or terrorism, religious tolerance. health issues, freedom from prejudice, some aspect of the advancement of women, the maturation ofhumankind,
To get your juices flowing, you may want to revisit Shoghi Effendi’s Advent of Divine junior, The sections on the acquisition) ofqualities North American Baltzfis need for fulfilling their destiny (pp, 16—43 in the 1990 pocket-size edition) and on “The Destiny of America" (pp. 85—90 in the same edition) are bound to give you ideas. For thinking about issues related to world peace, you may want to reread T/arPromiJe Hferdem
In short, we invite you to write about an issue that you feel needs urgent auenrion—and that will contribute to the health of the nation and of the world.
Manuscript Submission Information:
For a copy of the Wild Orderstyic sheet for preparing a manuscript (and other tips), send an c-mail t0 <woridorder@usbnc.org>, or write [0 the address below.
Submissions to the journal will be subject to external blind peer review if they fall outside the expertise of the Editorial Board or upon request by the authot.
Manuscripts (in Word or WordPerfecr) should be sent to World Order, Dr. Betty]. Fisher, Managing Editor, 7311 Quail Springs Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113-1780, USA or to <worldorder@usbnc.org>.
Warldortler has been published quarterly since 1966 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. i
Forthcoming...
Mooian Momen discusses “The Bohd'l’s 05 o Mysfical Community”
Alexandra Humphrey reviews Building Susfainable Peace, edited by Tom Keoting and W, Andy Knight
Anne Gordon Perry reviews The Russodaponese War in Culfuro/ Perspecfive, 7904—05, edited by David Wells and Sandra Wilson
ISSN 0043-8804
