HRANA – Religious Minority Rights: On Wednesday, the 18th of Azar of the current year [9 Dec. 2009], a son of a Baha’i in Mashhad was arrested with the purpose of exerting pressure on [the Baha’i father].
According to the Baha’i Committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran, on the morning of Wednesday, the 18th of Azar [9 Dec. 2009], the son of a Baha’i [father] named “Ghanvati” was arrested by security agents and taken to an unknown location.
His family has not been able to obtain any news on his condition. [The Baha’i father’s] wife and children, including the son who was arrested, are Muslims. It is suspected that the arrest of the son is for the purpose of exerting pressure on the father, who is a Baha’i.
Editor’s Notes:
1. Mashhad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashhad
[Source(s): HRNA, http://www.hra-news.org/news/10767.aspx]
December 27, 2009 9:50 pm
The Baha’is have been persecuted for many years in Iran for their religious beliefs.
It is long overdue that this end and they be allowed to live peacefully. Iran has a relatively progressive constitution but it is clear from many events that there needs to be a more progressive constitution. An example of such a constitution is available for viewing at http://NextConstitution.org . For more information about Baha’is check Wikipedia. Stoning is something else which seems uncivilized in a modern society yet it still occurs. I recently watched the DVD of The Stoning of Soraya M. The movie will be released for public viewing sometime in 2010 but the book is presently available. It seems clear to me hat Iranian people want some change in how the Islamic government runs the peoples lives.
December 28, 2009 4:36 am
Maybe I’m not familiar enough with the psyche of most Iranians, not being one myself, but I should think arresting a Muslim because he has father who is Bahá’í (which he could hardly be responsible for anyway) would tend to turn the Muslim away from Islam because of the extreme unfairness of such a situation. Aren’t those people shooting themselves in the foot?
December 30, 2009 11:15 am
Despirate attempt and the last convulsive disorder of the ignorants,named themself “Moslem” to convert a group of steadfast Baha’is to the fenatic Islam.Bahai’s beleive the truth of Islam beyond the imagination of these ignoant who are ruining the name of Islam.The filty attitude of those people fit the way they live.Cowared and thief,do every things in dark of the nite and always deny the dirty action,even themself are ashamed of what they are doing,as they are concealing their on action.
January 3, 2010 3:24 pm
The Baha’is in Iran are guilty of nothing more than having a steadfast belief in Baha’u’llah and in the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Religion, and the Oneness of humanity. Baha’is recognize Islam and the Quran and in fact defend Muslims against anti-Islamic prejudice. It is a shame that the government of Iran cannot bring itself to reciprocate (although many Iranian Muslims do in fact defend the Baha’is).
January 6, 2010 6:41 pm
When the Islamic Republic arrests and persecutes a Muslim, one of their own, to exert pressure on the Mulim’s father, who chose independently of his son and the rest of the family, to become a Baha’i (and you can believe that was no easy decision, at least on a social level), it reminds me of a motion-picture scene familiar to American viewers.
The movie was “Blazing Saddles,” a Mel Brooks comedy of several years ago. In this send-up of Western movie stereotypes, the black sheriff stages a comic kidnapping, then points his six-shooter at his own head, shouting “Do what he says, or the n—-r gets it!”
That sounds exactly like this ridiculous situation: “Renounce the Baha’i Faith or the Muslim gets it!” One hopes that the father was able to muster a dignified reply and to keep from laughing at the fools who made such a joke of a tragedy, or vice-versa.
Where are the comedians when we need them?