According to an article on May 17th, 2008 in the Iranian newspaper the Quds Daily, the reason for the recent arrest of seven Baha’is is suspicion of involvement in last month’s bomb explosion.
You’ll recall that there was an explosion in a Shiraz mosque on April 12th – at the time a part of me hoped that the Islamic Regime in Iranian would not use it as a pretense to crack down on Baha’is there.
Although initial news reports mentioned the blast as a bomb attack, the official response following the event blamed improperly stored ordinance inside the mosque and classify it as an accident.
However, less than 3 weeks later official sources in Iran changed their tune saying that it was a terrorist act. Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi blamed the blast on “monarchists” and “enemies of the Iranian people”.
Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie also mentioned that people had already been arrested in connection with the explosion.
The only group to have claimed responsibility is the UK based “Kingdom Assembly of Iran” who issued this press release.
It is very difficult to get a clear sense of anything from the Iran regime and this is mostly by design. The Islamic regime revels in confusing and befuddling everyone, including themselves on occasion. There is such varying and competing agendas within the government that it really depends who you listen to and on which day.
My personal conviction was from the very start that the blast in Shiraz was a terrorist act and that calling it an “accident” was a convenient way for the Iranian regime to appear impregnable until they could calculate a means to extract further means to use it to their advantage.
Similarly the attempt to tie this tragic event with the Baha’i community in Iran is yet another tactic which affords them the convenience of deflecting international pressure regarding the arrest of the national Baha’i administrative group. They no longer have to answer to the world community on charges of religious persecution.
They can now use the smoke screen of national security to hold the 7 Baha’is and who knows, perhaps make further arrests and ratchet up the already alarming level of persecution of Baha’is in Iran.
Of course, the Baha’i Faith does accept and prefer monarchy (as a symbolic station devoid of civil authority) but no one except the most fanatic and ignorant Muslims would believe that the Baha’i Faith would in any way shape or form condone violence. On the contrary, we have clear and repeated guidance to uphold the laws of the country in which we live and to respect civil authority. This is something that the Baha’i community of Iran has been doing since its founding, even when under severe oppression.
I continue to beg my fellow Baha’is inside Iran to leave and start productive lives in the many alternative civilized countries around the world – for themselves and their children.
UPDATE:
Thanks to Bahaisonline.net for pointing out that the Baha’i International Community has now responded to the IRI’s allegations and rejected them completely.
I don’t think they will persuade anyone but fellow fundamentalist Islamic regimes (who would support them in the UN in any case) in arguing that the Baha’is had something to do with the Shiraz explosion last month. In any case, a civilized country that respects basic human rights would swiftly bring on charges and commence a fair and transparent trial. The charges of “Zionism” ring hollow and underscore the Iranian government’s moral as well as creative bankruptcy.
