Word: baha
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most countries, believers in the Baha'i faith are looked upon as model citizens. Their religion places great stress on industriousness, peacefulness and obedience to the law. In Iran, however, Baha'is are not only unwanted but actively persecuted. Since the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, Iran's 300,000 Baha'is have suffered a reign of terror in the land where their faith was born. In the latest of many protests, the State Department's annual human rights report stated last week that believers "suffer from imprisonment, torture and execution...
Since 1979, at least 150 believers have been put to death. Though the official charges usually involve "spying" or "treason," Baha'is say that the real reason is official intolerance of a faith which the Shi'ite Muslim mullahs of Iran regard as blasphemous. An estimated 550 Baha'is are in prison. Thousands more have lost their homes and possessions, and mobs have desecrated Baha'i assembly halls, cemeteries and the faith's holiest shrine in Iran, the House of the Bab in Shiraz...
Though Iran's constitution allows Christians and Jews to practice their faiths, Baha'is have no such freedom. The U.S. human rights report says that the government has established a legal basis to "move against all Baha'is if it chooses to do so." In Wilmette, Ill., headquarters for the faith's 100,000-member U.S. branch (worldwide membership: 3 million), a spokesman fears that "unless things change, Baha'is in Iran are going to be annihilated...
...Baha'i Association also presented a collection of news broadcasts detailing Iran's current persecution of the faith's members. "They're told to recant their faith or die," McLaughlin said...
...United States, there are 100,000 Baha'is, including 250 in the greater Boston area...