"Justifications" of the Persecution
Despite the overwhelming proof that the Bahá'í community in Iran is being persecuted solely because of its religious beliefs, the Iranian Government continues to justify this persecution by charging the Bahá'í community with a variety of offenses. All such charges demonstrate an ignorance of the basic principles and history of the Bahá'í Faith. No evidence has ever been brought forward to support any of these accusations.The principal charges advanced by the Government are:
- That Bahá'ís are supporters of the Pahlavi regime and the late Shah of Iran;
that they collaborated with SAVAK, the secret police; and that the Bahá'í
Faith is a political organization opposed to the present Iranian Government.
Bahá'ís are required by the basic principles of their faith to show loyalty and obedience to the Government of the country in which they live. The Bahá'í community in Iran thus did not oppose the Pahlavi regime, just as it does not oppose the present Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, members of the community have obeyed every law and instruction of the present Government, including the instruction to disband all Bahá'í administrative institutions in Iran.
Bahá'í principles also require the avoidance of any form of involvement in partisan politics. Accordingly, Iranian Bahá'ís were precluded by membership in their faith from accepting cabinet posts or similar political positions under the Pahlavi regime. They did not collaborate with SAVAK. On the contrary, the Pahlavi regime consistently persecuted the Bahá'í Faith, and SAVAK was one of the main agencies of this persecution. For Bahá'ís in Iran, the idea of collaboration with SAVAK would have been unthinkable.
The Iranian Government has alleged that certain SAVAK officials were Bahá'ís. These allegations are completely untrue, fabricated to mask the religious nature of the persecutions.
- That Bahá'ís are heretics or enemies of Islam.
Both charges are false. The Bahá'í Faith is widely recognized as an independent world religion even by Islamic scholars. As long ago as 1924, a Sunni appellate court in Egypt recognized that the Bahá'í Faith was an independent world religion in its judgement that: "The Bahá'í Faith is a new religion entirely independent.... No Bahá'í therefore can be regarded as Muslim or vice versa, even as no Buddhist, Brahmin or Christian can be regarded as Muslim." Accordingly, no charge of heresy can be made.
Bahá'ís revere Muhammad and His book, the Quran, as they do Jesus, Buddha, and the founders of the other great religions. Indeed, alone among the followers of the world's other major independent religions, only Bahá'ís recognize the station of Muhammad as a Prophet of God.
- That Bahá'ís are agents of Zionism.
This charge is based solely on the fact that the Bahá'í World Centre is in Israel. The Bahá'í World Centre was, however, established on Mount Carmel in the last century, long before the State of Israel came into existence, in accordance with the explicit instructions of Bahá'u'lláh, who was exiled there from Iran.
- That Bahá'ís are involved with prostitution, adultery and immorality.
This charge, like the others, is utterly without foundation. Bahá'ís have a strict moral code and attach great importance to chastity and to the institution of marriage.
The Bahá'í marriage ceremony is not recognized in Iran and no civil marriage ceremony exists. Consequently, Bahá'ís have been faced with the choice of denying their faith in order to be married according to the rites of one of the religions recognized in Iran, or of marrying in accordance with the rites of their own faith. They have consistently chosen to be married in accordance with Bahá'í law. The Government does not recognize these marriages and denounces Bahá'í wives as prostitutes.
The other charges of adultery and immorality against Bahá'ís are based solely on the fact that, in accordance with the Bahá'í principle of the equality of men and women, there is no segregation of the sexes at Bahá'í gatherings.