Editor’s Note: Iranian authorities banned Hamshahri, the popular daily, for using a photo of the Baha’i House of Worship (temple) in an ad by travel companies to promote tourism. It appears that the widespread criticism of the ban by the international community has resulted in the lifting of the ban, but court proceedings will also be initiated. The international Baha’i community has built a total of nine Houses of Worship around the world. These elegant and beautifully architectural edifices are dedicated to the praise of God and open to every human being on earth.
(Reuters) A popular newspaper critical of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, banned for one day for publishing a photograph of a temple of the banned Baha’i faith, can publish again on Wednesday, media reported on Tuesday.
The paper, Hamshahri, did not appear on Tuesday, but the semi-official student news agency ISNA, quoting justice ministry official Zahed Bashiri-Rad, said it would be allowed to publish Wednesday’s edition.
November 26, 2009 10:15 pm
The regime in Iran can ban all they want, but in the end all attempts to muffle the Baha’i leadership and their proclamation of the Baha’i Faith to mankind will end in utter loss for those sad souls.
“Should they cast Him into a fire kindled on the continent, He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and proclaim: “He is the Lord …”
— Baha’u’llah
November 29, 2009 11:11 am
Ruling elites can make no more serious error than to imagine that the power they have managed to arrogate to themselves and, in the process, stifle the media in various ways, provides an enduring bulwark against the relentless tides of historical change. Today in Iran, as everywhere else throughout the world, these tides are rolling in with insistent urgency and tumultuous force. They are not merely at the door of the house, but they rise up irresistibly through its floorboards. They cannot be diverted inspite of all the efforts of religious and political orthodoxy.
This is the real reason why Bahá’u’lláh was so desperately opposed by clergy and rulers who recognized in Him–correctly if only dimly–the Voice of a coming society of justice and enlightenment, in which they themselves would have no place. We should have no doubt that it is this same fear that animates the successive waves of persecution in whatever form that have been endured for more than a century and a half.
November 30, 2009 2:09 pm
This is another fine example of the irrepressible Covenant of Baha’u’llah rising above mendacity and machination! My heartfelt thanks to the Iranian censors for calling attention to the Baha’i Faith yet again by meting out censorship that is clearly useless.
November 30, 2009 9:07 pm
The editors of IPW censor alter readers’s comments without informing the commentator beforehand or the readers by any normal editorial means to indicate comments have been altered.
IPW refuses to allow commentators to share letters from the Baha’i International Community office regarding the Baha’i Faith’s official relationship with the “Baha’i Committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran” used as a source on IPW.
No reason was given for refusing statements from the BIC.
Readers should be aware of this deceptive practice by the IPW editors which calls into questions the authenticity and accuracy of reports it shares .