Editor,
The Israeli and American actions against Iran have created a backlash against Baha’is now accused of being “spies” for Israel resulting in targeted arrest and renewed persecutions of the Iranian Baha’i community, the largest religious minority in Iran.
Since the beginning of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iran’s religious government has consistently and systematically scapegoated Baha’is for every national crisis resulting in executions, loss of liberty and human rights, massive discrimination including the right to work in most fields of employment as well as the right to an education.
Perhaps the biggest moral insult is the rejection by Islamic courts to acknowledge Baha’i marriage which directly resulted in Baha’i wives and mothers being reclassified as “prostitutes” and subject to Islamic law for such an infraction.
The latest outrage, among many, involve the arrest of (Baha’i) Peyvand Naimi who has been charged with the deaths of three Basij security agents at a time he was in prison at Kerman, Iran, being interrogated and beaten for other alleged criminal acts.
During this same time period, Naimi was also charged with “celebrating the death of Iran’s former Supreme Leader,” an event he could not have known.
Beaten to the point of death, Naimi signed a confession written for him by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. That confession was the led news story on Islamic State Television and generated renewed support for the country to take their anger, frustration and hostility out on Baha’is in the country.
As American and Israeli actions intensify in the Middle East, let us please call upon Congress to consider measures that would protect Iran’s largest religious minority from additional false imprisonments and executions.
During the 1980s, I distinctly remember the allegations that the Baha’i Faith was an offshoot of the American Central Intelligence Agency — it seems, in spite of the facts, that much hasn’t changed since then.
James Rhodes
Coulterville
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