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and included the spreading of anti-Bahá'í propaganda in national radio stations and official
newspapers. [61] In the late 1970s the Shah's regime, due to criticism that he was pro-Western,
consistently lost legitimacy. As the anti-Shah movement gained ground and support, revolutionary
propaganda was spread that some of the Shah's advisors were Bahá'ís. [65] Bahá'ís were portrayed
as economic threats, supporters of Israel and the West and popular hatred for the Bahá'ís
increased. [61][66]
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian Bahá'ís have regularly had their homes ransacked or
been banned from attending university or holding government jobs, and several hundred have
received prison sentences for their religious beliefs, most recently for participating in study
circles. [60] Bahá'í cemeteries have been desecrated and property seized and occasionally
demolished, including the House of Mírzá Buzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father. [32] The House of the Báb in
Shiraz has been destroyed twice, and is one of three sites to which Bahá'ís perform
pilgrimage. [32][67][68]
Even more recently the situation of Bahá'ís has worsened; the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights revealed an October 2005 confidential letter from Command Headquarters of the
Armed Forces of Iran to identify Bahá'ís and to monitor their activities [69] and in November 2005
the state-run and influential Kayhan [70] newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, [71] ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í
Faith. [72] Due to these actions, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights stated on March 20, 2006, that she "also expresses concern that the information
gained as a result of such monitoring will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and
discrimination against, members of the Bahá'í faith, in violation of international standards… The
Special Rapporteur is concerned that this latest development indicates that the situation with
regard to religious minorities in Iran is, in fact, deteriorating." [69]
The Bahá'ís in Egypt also face persecution; on December 16, 2006, the Supreme Administrative
Council of Egypt ruled the government may not recognize the Bahá'í Faith in official
identification numbers. Consequently, Egyptian Bahá'ís are unable to obtain government
documents, including ID cards, birth, death, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports, all of
which require a person's religion to be listed. They also cannot be employed, educated, treated in
hospitals or vote, among other things. The Egyptian Initiative for Private Rights stated that the
press release issued by the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court did not respond to any of the
evidence or arguments presented by the EIPR in the case, and that the release only discussed the
tenets and beliefs of the Bahá'í Faith, which should have not have affected the court's decision. [73]
Reactions
Bernard Lewis states that the Muslim laity and Islamic authorities have always had great difficulty
in accommodating post-Islamic monotheistic religions such as the Bahá'í Faith, since the followers
of such religions cannot be dismissed either as benighted heathens, like the polytheists of Asia and
the animists of Africa, nor as outdated precursors, like the Jews and Christians. Moreover, their
very existence presents a challenge to the Islamic doctrine of the perfection and finality of
Muhammad's revelation. [74]
See also
Bahá'í Faith Portal
• Bahá'í apologetics—for critical viewpoints.
• List of Bahá'ís
• Bahá'í orthography
• Bahá'í Faith in fiction