{"id":1146,"date":"2008-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/news\/fears-mount-for-lives-of-bahai-leaders\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T04:49:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T04:49:28","slug":"fears-mount-for-lives-of-bahai-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/fears-mount-for-lives-of-bahai-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears mount for lives of Baha&apos;i leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/Portals\/0\/friends%20in%20iran.jpg\" alt=\"Fears mount for lives of Bahai leaders\" \/><figcaption>The seven arrested Baha&#8217;i leaders in Iran: Standing L to R: Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, and Mahvash Sabet Seated L to R: Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fears for the lives of seven Baha\u2019i leaders in Iran have mounted after reports of allegations made against them, a spokesperson for the Australian Baha\u2019i Community, Tessa Scrine, said today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe allegations are so serious that we are now very apprehensive that the lives of these innocent people are at real risk,\u201d Ms Scrine said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe categorically deny the allegations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Scrine was reacting to reported allegations by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, that seven Baha\u2019is detained this year have \u201cconfessed\u201d to operating an \u201cillegal\u201d organization, and took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-political<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Baha\u2019is in Iran, like their counterparts around the world, scrupulously adhere to our religion\u2019s longstanding and well-known principle of non-involvement in political affairs, let alone seditious activities,\u201d Ms Scrine said.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Scrine said allegations of collusion with the state of Israel are false and misleading.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIranian authorities know full well that the world headquarters of the Baha\u2019i Faith have been in the holy land since the 19th century, long before the establishment of Israel, and Baha&#8217;is have never been involved in political activities there or anywhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBaha\u2019is in Iran are being persecuted for the practice of their religion, the proof of which lies in the fact that they are offered their freedom if they convert to Islam,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a well-documented and shameful plan to eliminate the 300,000 strong Baha\u2019i community in Iran, and these latest allegations are repetitions of charges the authorities know to be false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Australian Government<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ms Scrine said the Australian Baha\u2019i Community is grateful for two recent statements by the Australian Government condemning the arrests and the continued detention of the Baha\u2019i leaders, who are being held without access to lawyers and only minimal telephone contact with their families.<\/p>\n<p>On 6 June, an Australian Government representative to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Guy O\u2019Brien, said Australia was \u201cdeeply concerned by news of the arrests of the Baha\u2019i leaders,\u201d and called upon the council to play an active role in ensuring the protection of the right to freedom of religion.<\/p>\n<p>A week earlier, a spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that Australia was \u201cdeeply concerned by the continuing discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Baha&#8217;is on the grounds of their religion\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe regularly make representations to the Iranian Government on human rights issues and have raised our concerns about the treatment of the Baha&#8217;i<strong>,\u201d<\/strong><strong>the spokesman said, adding:<\/strong> \u201cWe will monitor this situation closely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Scrine also noted that on 2 August 2008 the United States Congress passed House Resolution 1008, condemning the persecution of the Baha\u2019is in Iran, by a vote of 408-3.<\/p>\n<p>Condemnations of the recent upsurge in persecution of the Baha\u2019is in Iran have also come from Canada and the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>Visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.bahai.org\/story\/648\">Baha&#8217;i World News Service<\/a> for further information.<\/p>\n<p>Read a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/email\/idUSBLA32246920080803\">Reuters<\/a> report on the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fears for the lives of seven Baha\u2019i leaders in Iran have mounted after reports of allegations made against them, a spokesperson for the Australian Baha\u2019i Community, Tessa Scrine, said today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-releases","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fears mount for lives of Baha&amp;apos;i leaders - Australian Baha&#039;i Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/fears-mount-for-lives-of-bahai-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fears mount for lives of Baha&amp;apos;i 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