THE ATTACK ON BAHAI • SIR,—Professor Zeine N. Zeine's tendentious
and sarcastic letter under the title 'The Attack on Baha'i,' published in your issue of June 3, has attracted my attention and has caused me both astonishment and regret.
To help this gentleman in easing his feelings and to enlighten your readers, I will now explain the points raised by him, and I shall much appreciate your publication of my letter.
(a) By the Iranian Constitution all religions with a divine origin or a moral principle, such as Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, are officially recognised, and the practice of their religious ceremonies and laws fully allowed. But the authors of the Constitution, who themselves witnessed the fabrication and followed the development of this newly created Baha'i sect in their own lifetime dur- ing the latter half of the nineteenth century, could not rightly accept it as a sect with either of the aforementioned qualities, and they accordingly and very justly refused to recog- nise its practice as legal.
(b) There is no persecution of Baha'ism or of any other belief in Iran and any action that the government has taken has been in order to prevent the subversive activities of a very small minority abusing the traditional tolerance of Iranians in the religious field for political pur- poses against the security and best interests of the great majority of the community, for whose safety and the maintenance of law and order that government is responsible.
(c) In a country ruled democratically, the government is the servant of the public and cannot but fulfil the will of the majority of the people whom it represents. When, therefore, the overwhelming majority of the community feels itself in constant danger from the activities of a small• minority and decides as a result to put an end to this danger, a democratfc gov- ernment must at once take the necessary action , to prevent disorder.
(d) There is a state of emergency in Teheran and under Iranian law when a state of emergency is proclaimed the security forces have full power to occupy any .property for the duration of the emergency or until, as is the case in this instance, an Act of Parliament has been passed dealing with Baha'i centres throughout Iran.
(e) The Declaration of Human Rights does not prevent the government of any signatory
power from fulfilling its ultimate purpose, namely the preservation of law and order and the carrying out of justice throughout the land, nor does it prevent a government from taking action against a small minority, such as the Baha'i, which is engaged in repeatedly and arrogantly breaking the law, murdering help- less widows and orphans, causing fratricide and bloodshed, insulting religious symbols (of which ,Professor Zeine's sarcastic letter is a minor example), and above all working actively to jeopardise Iran's national sovereignty.
Here I wish to put aside my official position for a moment and write as an ordinary Iranian subject. I want to make it crystal clear to Professor Zeine and other Baha'i leaders that to me and to many hundreds of thousands of Iranians—Moslems, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians—Iran is above all. No justice is greater to us than our national survival and we consider ourselves first Iranians and then Moslems, Christians and so forth.—Yours faithfully, S. H. V. SANANDAJI Second Secretary
Previous page
