People shouldn’t turn a blind eye to religious persecution in Iran

SPARTAN DAILY

by Francisco James RendonJan 24, 2012 8:46 pmTags: Bha'is, education, Iran, Islam,peace, Persecution, Religion

Francisco Rendon is a staff writer.

“Sorry, you can’t go to college, you are a Baha‘i”

This is basically what the Iranian government and institutions for higher education in that country say whenever someone of the the most prominent religious minority, the Baha’i faith, applies for admission.

Despite there being 300,000 Baha’is in the country of Iran, since the Iranian revolution of 1979, Baha’is, along with other religious and political minorities, have been thrown into prison, had their property confiscated and been demonized throughout the media as spies for Israel.

Recently, according to educationunderfire.com, Iranian citizens who started the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, an alternate institution for people who were denied admission to colleges, were sentenced to multiple-year prison terms — for starting a school.

Under the post-revolutionary government, every time Baha’is in the country have tried to elect a National Assembly to represent their community, its members have been executed.

I myself, who share these individuals’ religious beliefs, have known of their sufferings for some time, but have been guilty of shrugging my shoulders and accepting that we live in a time where there is much injustice.

But, upon reflection, what does this say about human society, that we can rest while some of us across the globe are subjected to grievous injustice while others live complacent while it continues?

How can humans ever move past these problems if this dynamic persists?

In a world where our interconnectedness and dependence on one another is the edifying principle of any level of economic, political or social prosperity, be it at the local, national or global level, how can we turn a blind eye to the systematic oppression of a people?

Even though I have signed petitions to my representatives in the government and have attended the functions to raise awareness about these people’s plight, I still wonder if most people know or care that this is going on.

One thing related to Iran that people do seem to know and care more about recently is its political and military tension with the U.S., with rumors of invasion and declarations of war circulating with increasing frequency.

Notwithstanding the incredible woes which the Iranian government continues to pile upon the Baha’i community , and other religious and political minorities of that country, war between the countries of Iran and the United States would be an atrocity that no person of justice could advocate.

Even as a member of the community of friends that are being wronged in that land, I know war is never justified and my firmest conviction in this comes directly from my faith.

One of the fundamental teachings of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, is that humans all make up small pieces of a larger whole, just like cells in one body and were created to show love, one to another.

If the cells in a body were created to work together, yet began combating and killing each other, any competent physician would rightly observe that such a body had fallen ill. 

No matter how appealing the reasoning, how sweet the scent of revenge or bloodshed, those with eyes to see and ears to hear know such killing would fail to resolve the disease with which we are afflicted.

The illnesses that plague the body of humanity today are of prejudice and hatred, the very sentiments that take us to war, along with ignorance and apathy — those social ills that allow it to happen.

Only when we move past such infirmities will we be able to reach our full potential as a human race.

So despite the increasingly severe trials being thrust upon the Baha’is, and religious and political minorities of Iran, as well as the innumerable other accumulating injustices accruing across the continent of Africa, the regions of Central America and East Asia, and even down to the United States’ neighbor Mexico, we all, as humans, should not respond with hate, but rather with compassion and justice.

If we can learn to do this, as people, in unity and accord, this planet will know a peace and prosperity that our forefathers would never dare to dream of.