Author:
Publication: Bahá'í
World News Service
Date: September 12, 2004
URL: http://news.bahai.org/story.cfm?storyid=323
The destruction of yet another Baha'i
holy place in Iran has prompted an outcry by Baha'is around the world,
who see that the Iranian Government is persisting in a campaign of persecution
so extreme in the fanaticism driving it that it even jeopardizes invaluable
assets of the country's cultural heritage.
The demolition in June of an historic
house in Tehran, which followed the leveling of a Baha'i holy place in
Babol earlier this year, has spurred national Baha'i communities in several
nations to place a statement in major newspapers decrying the destruction.
The statement, which ran in the
New York Times today, is set to run soon in newspapers in Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The Baha'i community of Iran, with
about 300,000 members, is that country's largest religious minority.
With some five million members in
more than 180 countries worldwide, the Baha'i Faith is an independent religion
that promotes such teachings as the oneness of humanity, the underlying
unity of the religions, the equality of women and men, and the need to
eliminate prejudice.
Since 1979, despite their peaceful
character, more than 200 Iranian Baha'is have been killed, and hundreds
more have been tortured and imprisoned. Tens of thousands have lost jobs,
pensions, and access to education, all solely because the clerics who rule
Iran declare them heretics.
"The hatred of the extremist mullahs
for the Baha'is is such that they, like the Taliban of Afghanistan who
destroyed the towering Buddhist sculptures at Bamiyan, intend not only
to eradicate the religion, but even to erase all traces of its existence
in the country of its birth," says the statement, which took the form of
a paid advertisement in the New York Times.
The house that was destroyed in
June had been owned by Mirza Abbas Nuri (also known as Mirza Buzurg), the
father of Baha'u'llah, Who founded the Baha'i Faith. Mirza Abbas Nuri was
an eminent provincial governor and was widely regarded as one of Iran's
greatest calligraphers.
The statement in the Times notes
that Mirza Abbas Nuri's house was an "historical monument, a precious example
of Islamic-Iranian architecture, 'a matchless model of art, spirituality,
and architecture.'"
"In their determination to rid Iran
of the Baha'i community and obliterate its very memory, the fundamentalists
in power are prepared even to destroy the cultural heritage of their own
country, which they appear not to realize they hold in trust for humankind,"
the statement continues.
"Surely the time has come for Iranians
everywhere to raise their voices in protest against such willful desecrations,"
concludes the statement.
Placing the statement in newspapers
around the world is part of a coordinated effort by Baha'is outside of
Iran to call the world's attention to the destruction of cultural landmarks
that are part of the heritage of the entire world, said Glen Fullmer, director
of communications for the Baha'i community of the United States.
"The places that are being demolished
are significant to all humanity," said Mr. Fullmer. "They reflect unique
elements of Iran's cultural history. So we are calling on Iranians around
the world to protest the destruction of their own culture."
The statement will also be printed
in one of France's premier newspapers, said Brenda Abrar, a spokesperson
for the Baha'i community there.
"There are a great many Iranians
in France," said Ms. Abrar. "We want to alert them that their own cultural
heritage is in danger. The house that was demolished in June actually represents
a great work of Islamic architecture."
In July, the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri
published a lengthy article about the life of Mirza Abbas Nuri and the
architecture of his house.
"As he had good taste for the arts
and for beauty, he designed his own house in such a style that it became
known as one of the most beautiful houses of that period," wrote Iman Mihdizadih
in Hamshahri on 13 July. "The plasterwork and the tile-work in the rooms
as well as the verdant veranda, the courtyard with its central pool, and
the trees planted in the flowerbeds, all created a tranquil atmosphere
in this house."
The house was demolished over a
period of about one week in June. The demolition order was issued in April
by Ayatollah Kani, director of the Marvi School and the Endowments Office,
ostensibly for the purpose of creating an Islamic cemetery. When the demolition
started on 20 June, officials from the Ministry of Information were present,
and by 29 June more than 70 percent of the structure had been destroyed.
[See photographs]
The destruction of Mirza Abbas Nuri's
house represents just the latest in a series of demolitions that appears
to be aimed at systematically destroying Baha'i holy sites, said Bani Dugal,
principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United
Nations.
In April, despite international
protest, the gravesite of an early apostle of the Faith was destroyed in
Babol. The house-like structure marked the resting place of Mulla Muhammad-Ali
Barfurushi, known as Quddus.
Quddus was the foremost disciple
of the Bab, the Prophet-Herald of the Baha'i Faith.
In 1993, more than 15,000 graves
were bulldozed at the well-kept Baha'i cemetery of Tehran on the pretext
of constructing a municipal center.
In 1979, shortly after the Islamic
revolution, the house of the Bab in Shiraz, one of the most sacred sites
in the Baha'i world, was demolished. The house of Baha'u'llah in Takur,
where the Founder of the Baha'i Faith spent his childhood, was also demolished
soon after the revolution and the site offered for sale to the public.
"We see all this as part of a concerted
plan on the part of the Iranian government to gradually extinguish the
Baha'i Faith as a cultural force and cohesive entity," said Ms. Dugal.
"Over the years, the government's strategy has changed, from outright killing
to methods that are less likely to attract international attention, such
as the destruction of holy sites.
"But the end result is the same:
to completely destroy the Baha'i community of Iran, along with its history
and heritage," said Ms. Dugal.