Baha’is from throughout Australia are meeting in Sydney this weekend to elect the national governing council of the Faith amid an atmosphere of profound concern for the Baha’is in Iran.
Delegates attending this weekend’s national convention in Sydney will say prayers for the six leaders of the Iranian Baha’i community arrested in Iran on 14 May 2008 and the seventh, who has been detained since March this year.
Relatives of some of those arrested live in Sydney, Melbourne and other parts of Australia.
A spokesperson for the Australian Baha’i Community, Natalie Mobini-Kesheh, has strongly rejected the claim of an Iranian government spokesperson that the arrests were “for security reasons and not for their faith.”
“This is utterly baseless,” Dr Mobini-Kesheh said.
“The Baha’is arrested last week, like the thousands of Baha’is who have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed in Iran since 1979, are being persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs,” she said.
“The best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha’is have been offered their freedom if they recant their faith and convert to Islam.
“Are issues of state security involved in recent incidents like the utter destruction of a Baha’i cemetery, the harassment of Baha’i school children by their teachers and school officials, or the publication of anti-Baha’i articles in government-sponsored news media?
“The real issue is freedom of religion,” she said.
More than 90 delegates from throughout Australia will cast their secret ballots at this weekend’s annual election of the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Australia, which will be held at the Sydney Baha’i Centre in Silverwater.
The election, like all Baha’i ballots, involves no nominations or campaigning. All Australian adult Baha’is, women and men, are eligible for election.
Read more on the Baha’i World News Service