I just got the news that David Hofman, the producer of Education Under Fire documentary has appeared on New York Nightly News to talk about the violations of the human rights of the Baha’is of Iran by the Islamic Republic Regime of Iran for over 30 years. i suppose the media hopes to let the public know that human rights to education for all is not respected by the Islamic Republic; the Islamic government does not believe that education is a human rights. Many are just learning that for Iranian regime, some two leggeds are more human than others base on their arbitrary decisions. To my surprise some people have become used to the boiling waters of human rights violations all over the world and find it fruitless to speak up. One such person remarked; who do you think will listen;  the Islamic Republic has power so they can violate others as they please! In Iran one religion is of God and the rest are enemies of God deserving to be punished.  On the other hand, one of my colleagues asked, with great sense of frustration, how long will the rest of the world sit and watch a government such as Islamic Republic Regime of Iran be subjecting its citizens to the inhuman and outdated values and practices of the Dark ages?

NY Nightly News – David Hoffman | Education Under Fire from Education Under Fire on Vimeo.

It has been quite a while since the civilized world has accepted and signed the Declaration of Human Rights. Amongst these human rights is the right to education for all. The statement declares:

Education is a right, like the right to have proper food or a roof over your head. Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to education”. Education is not only a right but a passport to human development. It opens doors and expands opportunities and freedoms. It contributes to fostering peace, democracy and economic growth as well as improving health and reducing poverty. The ultimate aim of Education for All (EFA) is sustainable development.

In the year 2000, the world’s governments adopted the six EFA goals and the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the two most important frameworks in the field of education. The education priorities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are shaped by these objectives.

Many have come to realize that the Baha’i community and its progressive values must be viewed as a threat by the Islamic Regime and its authors from the very inception of the Revolution in Iran and every attempt is made to crush and decapitate the Baha’i community and what it stands for. Depriving the Baha’i youth of education is part of this orchestrated plan of decapitation and dehumanization of the Baha’i community of Iran.

Ironically the outcome seems to be proving just opposite of what Iranian Regime had in mind! The civilized world is increasingly taking an active role in shedding light to what is supposed to happen in Iran under the cover of Darkness and by the Dark forces.

We take pleasure to be joining the civilized world and help voice the cry of the meek and defend the rights of all to education.
It is encouraging to see the outrage of Australian MP’s in regards to the violations of human rights of the Baha’is of Iran. Australian MPs call upon Iran to protect human rights; “There must be no more serious and heinous act in this world than a government turning on its own people and committing violent atrocities on its own citizenry,” said Ms. O’Dwyer.

Please join with us in this campaign of Education Under Fire by talking to all who care and making sure more and more are aware. Darkness is no match for light, but to eradicate this much darkness, we need a whole lot more light to shine. “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole world”, assures us all Baha’u'llah.

Keyvan

بهاییان ساکن شهر سمنان از سال 1387 شاهد شدت یافتن برخوردهای قهرآمیز دستگاه های امنیتی و قضایی کشور بوده اند. این برخوردها شامل بازداشت، احضار و صدور احکام برای بیش از 30 تن از آنان بوده است. محل کسب تعدادی از شهروندان بهایی در این شهر پلمب شده و برای بسیاری از آنان محدودیت های اقتصادی زیادی به وجود آمده است.

در این گزارش افرادی معرفی شده اند که براساس اطلاعات به دست آمده در برخورد و سرکوب های سازماندهی شده بر علیه بهائیان در شهر سمنان نقش داشته اند.

1- قاسم دولتخواهی دادستان کل سمنان در سال 1387، وی دستور تفتیش منازل 20 نفر از بهائیان سمنان در 25/9/87

و پویا تبیانیان در 18/12/87 را صادر کرده است. ادامه‌ی این نوشته را بخوانید

زندانیان بهایی را آزاد کنید

A few days ago I was driving, listening to NPR and reflecting on the tragic situation of the Baha’is of Iran and feeling a sense of hope to hear how Iranian people play a special role in defending the human rights of their neighbors and shielding their Baha’i brothers and sisters from the ignorant and malicious. All of a sudden I heard on NPR the amazing story of the Christmas 1914 where the yearning for peace and humanity conquered the heart of the German and British soldiers and brought the two together much to the opposition and anger of their superiors.

Christmas 1914

British and German troops meeting in No man’s land during the unofficial truce (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector)

Though there was no official truce, about 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front.^[8] The first truce started on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium.^[9]

The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man’s Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. The fraternisation was not, however, without its risks; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year’s Day in others.^[7]

Bruce Bairnsfather, who served throughout the war, wrote: “I wouldn’t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything. … I spotted a German officer, some sort of lieutenant I should think, and being a bit of a collector, I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons. … I brought out my wire clippers and, with a few deft snips, removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket. I then gave him two of mine in exchange. … The last I saw was one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck.”^[10]

General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, was irate when he heard what was happening, and issued strict orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops.^[8]

Adolf Hitler, then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, was a notable opponent of the truce.^[8]

An eyewitness account of one truce, by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, recorded that after a night of exchanging carols, dawn on Christmas Day saw a “rush of men from both sides … [and] a feverish exchange of souvenirs” before the men were quickly called back by their officers, with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match. It came to nothing, however; the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline, and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon.^[12] Another member of Griffith’s battalion, Bertie Felstead, later recalled that one man had produced a football, resulting in “a free-for-all; there could have been 50 on each side”, before they were ordered back.^[13]

In an adjacent sector, a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions; a company commander, Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards, was court-martialled for defying standing orders to the contrary.

آتش‌بس کریسمس

آتش‌بس کریسمس ^[۱] اشاره به توقف کوتاه مدت جنگ و خاموشی تفنگها در سال ۱۹۱۴ در جریان جنگ جهانی اول است.

ارتش‌های آلمان، بریتانیا و فرانسه در جریان جنگ جهانی اول در بلژیک با هم می‌جنگیدند.

هفته منتهی به کریسمس، شماری از سربازان آلمانی و انگلیسی… با سلام و دست تکان دادن، به‌همدیگر نزدیک شدند و گویی با هم دشمنی ندارند، غذا و هدیه رّد و بدَل کردند و عملاً یک آتش‌بس نانوشته را به اجرا گذاشتند.

آنها با هم آواز خواندند، ورزش کردند و مسابقه فوتبال دادند و مثل کسانی‌که بعد از مدتها همدیگر را می‌بینند، آدرس و عکس به هم دادند و قرار گذاشتند بعد از اتمام جنگ همدیگر را ملاقات کنند! دیداری که به دلیل قربانی‌های بیشمار جنگ اول، شاید هیچ‌وقت پیش نیامد.

البته فرماندهان جنگ و به‌ویژه ژنرال سر هوراس اسمیت ^[۲]، فرمانده سپاه بریتانیا بر سربازان خشم گرفت و سالهای بعد که جنگ ادامه داشت جز نمودهای اندک، دیگر تکرار نشد.

از این واقعه در چندین شعر و داستان یاد شده و سال ۲۰۰۵ هم «کریستین کاریون» با استناد به مدارک آن, فیلمی بنام “کریسمس مبارک” ^[۳] ساخته است.

نویسنده ای گفته است: در جنگ کسانی کشته می‌شوند که نه همدیگر را می شناسند و نه می دانند چرا، اما کسانی آنرا راه می‌اندازند که هم همدیگر را می شناسند و هم می‌دانند چرا.

آتش بس زیبا در کریسمس ۱۹۱۴ لحظه ای نمادین از صلح و انسانیت را در میان یکی از خشن ترین وقایع تاریخ مدرن به نمایش گذاشت.

I thought what an amazing and sad story. Humanity in all of us has been crying for a chance to have a voice.

The true story of Christmas truce in 1914 was after Baha’u'llah had raised the tabernacle of unity for all humanity in 1844 and the world of humanity, for most part chose to remain ignorant of His great announcement and the healing prescription of the Divine Physician. Baha’u'llah declares:

“O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that marketh the preeminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that We have … laid down the essential prerequisites of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity. Well is it with them that keep My statutes. “

Although humanity had heard, learned and appreciated the virtue of peace and love through the teachings of the messengers of the past such as Moses, Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna and Zoroaster but the value of the need for global application of the virtues of peace, the declaration of oneness of all humanity, that we are all cells of one body, waves of one sea, stars of one heaven disregard of what background, nationality, religion, color, class, we come from was not yet taught and remained quite foreign to all. Baha’u'llah had brought new and global values to revolutionize the expression and application of old virtues of love and humanity. The Guardian of the Baha’i Faith puts the matter most eloquently saying: ”

Let there be no mistake. The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve 43—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. Its appeal is not to be merely identified with a reawakening of the spirit of brotherhood and good-will among men, nor does it aim solely at the fostering of harmonious cöoperation among individual peoples and nations. Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It constitutes a challenge, at once bold and universal, to outworn shibboleths of national creeds—creeds that have had their day and which must, in the ordinary course of events as shaped and controlled by Providence, give way to a new gospel, fundamentally different from, and infinitely superior to, what the world has already conceived. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.

The sad story of Christmas 1914 during this period of celebration of Christmas is tragically and pathetically a loud witness to humanity’s ignorance of the new Divine Call  and therefore an ongoing repetition of the past and outdated values and believes that a few strong can run with the ball and leave the majority behind. Shoghi Effendi calls our attention to the plight of humanity with these strong words:

“How pathetic indeed are the efforts of those leaders of human institutions who, in utter disregard of the spirit of the age, are striving to adjust national processes, suited to the ancient days of self-contained nations, to an age which must either achieve the unity of the world, as adumbrated by Baha’u'llah, or perish.

stories, songs and Words to teach spiritual character

There is nothing like a story to capture every corner of human imagination. When we hear a story, we are not just listening, we take our place on the stage and become one of the characters and experience the whole action as if we were there. This experience which captivates our mind and heart like all other experiences in life lodges itself in the depth of our psyche and begins to tech us new ways of understanding reality and expanding our vision of humanity.

I just received an e-mail about a special site, in Persian that has edifying and educating stories from the Baha’i and Muslim period of human history. The stories enrich our heart and expand our imagination of what it means to be human and express our humanity. The site is designed to invite the visitor to think and explore این سایت فضائی است برای تفکر و تامل. تفکری فارغ از هیاهوهای روزانه جامعه و به دور از روزمرّگی های تمام نشدنی! دعوتی است برای گفتگو و مشارکت و اظهار نظر.

Following is one example that is worth many hours of contemplation and exploration of human capacity for nobility, love, trust, faith, growth, sanctity, leadership, humanity, deceit, ignorance, greed, justice in this world as well as next, fear and love of God, forgiveness of self, power of love and example in uplifting and revolutionizing human civilization.It is also an opportunity to witness how the crisis created by one ignorant and malicious soul can be an opportunity for victory of a radiant and noble soul.

There is nothing like a story for teaching children about spiritual character and morals.

The example of these stories make manifest the source of nobility of the character of the Baha’is of Iran in the face of the ignorance expressed in cruel oppression by the government of Islamic Republic Regime towards its Baha’i citizens.

Hope you enjoy the following example:

ر

قوه یقین

در ایام سجن عکا، مردی نزد حضرت عبدالبها رفت و وانمود کرد که از احبا است همه حضرت عبدالبها را می شناسید ایشان هرگز به کسی نمی فرمودند، نه تو مومن نیستی . فرمودند خوش آمدید . بعد یکی از احبای قدیم موسوم به حاجی ابراهیم را صدا زدند ،وارد شد. فرمودند، حاجی این میهمان تو است. او را به خانه ات ببر. حاجی خیلی مسرور و متباهی بود که حضرت عبدالبها میهمانی را به او سپرده اند. حاجی او را به خانه برد و آنچه که در توان داشت برای راحتی و سرور او در خانه اش انجام داد. بعد از یکی دو هفته میهمان نزد حضرت عبدالبها آمد و گفت من بیست سکه طلا داشتم که گم شده است . اطمینان دارم که میزبانم آنها را دزدیده است. حضرت عبدالبها حاجی را فراخواندند و به او فرمودند: حاجی برو سکه ها او را به او بده. حاجی بلافاصه به خانه رفت، هر چه داشت فروخت و به بیست سکه طلا تبدیل کرد و هنگام ظهر نزد حضرت عبدالبها آورد و گفت اینها را به او بدهید. حضرت عبدالبها سکه ها را به مرد دادند. مرد رفت و حاجی به خانه اش برگشت و دیگر در جلساتی که در بیت حضرت عبدالبها تشکیل می شد شرکت نکرد. ماهها گذشت و شخصی از نظمیه به بیت حضرت عبدالبها آمد و گفت دزدی را گرفته اند که به خانه های بسیاری دستبرد زده از جمله منزل یکی از ایرانی ها که بیست سکه طلا دزدیده است. گفت می خواستم عبدالبها را امتحان کنم و می خواستم بهایی ها بدانند که عبدالبها همه چیز را نمی داند. وقتی حضرت عبدالبها موضوع را شنیدند فرمودند درست است عبدالبها همه چیز را نمی داند.

This is the first time that a well respected Iranian documentary film maker has chosen to shed light on the 160 years of the  persecution of the Baha’is of Iran calling the conscience of all Iranians to choose their position. Hiding in the dark is the way of the forces of darkness to  commit their act and get away with it.

Let us hope the Iranian community take the responsibility of defending the human rights of the Baha’i community of Iran a serious and moral responsibility.

Keyvan

Some of the 48 Deans and Senior Vice-Presidents of American medical schools who have signed an open letter condemning the Iranian government’s persecution of Baha’i students and educators. Pictured are, top row from left to right: D. Craig Brater, Betty M. Drees, Philip Pizzo, Valerie Montgomery Rice; Bottom row, from left to right: Pamela B. Davis, James Woolliscroft, Mark S. Johnson, and Marsha D. Rappley.

Islamic Republic Regime of Iran, not knowing and much against its intent, is serving the emergence of a global and just civilization Baha’u'llah has promised over 160 years ago. If you look carefully, you can see the silver lining! The Baha’is of Iran have been and continue to be the Dawn Breakers!

Recently another bugle was lauded against the injustice of the Iranian Regime by a very special and most respected group in the stage of human rights; Heads of medical schools urge Iran to release jailed Baha’i educators. You can read the open Letter, this most amazing expression of uprising of the academia in defense of global justice and humanity both in English and in Persian for yourself. The letter was published on the Persian-language “Association Against Education Discrimination” website on 7 December – the day that Iranian student movements annually commemorate Student Day. The open letter was published on the same day that the situation of Baha’i educators and students was raised in a joint statement by an international group of lawmakers – US Senators Mark Kirk and Joseph Lieberman, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, British MP Denis MacShane, Australian MP Michael Danby, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, and Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris. These latest actions come just days after Senator Mobina Jaffer, Canada’s first Muslim senator, told a Canadian Senate enquiry that it was “unprecedented” that Iran has now criminalized the education of young people. Add to this list Philosophers and Theologians Worldwide Condemn Iran’s Attack on Baha’i Students.

It is unprecedented and most encouraging. This is crisis and victory in action in a global scene.

Iranian Baha’is have proven to be the history’s longest lasting example of meekness, forbearance, patience, nobility and perseverance in the face of 160 years of unparalleled oppression, brutality, barbarism, ignorance plus power equated in viscous prejudice by the Islamic authoritarian regimes especially the Islamic Republic Regime of Iran.

The atrocities although heinous and brutal were concealed from the eyes of the civilized world, mostly because Iran has been a small and backward country living in the margins of rapidly evolving human civilization embracing universal human rights and the rewards of the latest discoveries in science.

Iranians women were kept behind a black shroud in order for the Muslim male do not violate them with their eyes and other parts which is out of control! Being a minority in Iran, especially if that minority be the shining example of civilization and humanity felt like a big dagger in the eyes of those who benefited from the mass ignorance of the faithful. Islamic Regime of Iran with all its antiquated laws makes every miserable attempt at any price to keep the masses in the dark, and save a religion they claim is in danger and perhaps they are right!

The Baha’i community of Iran has emerged, evolved and prospered in the midst of a pitch dark background of a society that continues to be governed by the heavy hand of the antiquated and outdated laws and customs of a thousand years ago; the age of no electricity, no running water, no modern medicine, no telephone, no radio, no mass media, no INTERNET and no  human rights as God given rights.

The Baha’i Teachings introduced 160 years ago the new and evolutionary laws and principles of religion for peace and progress towards an ever advancing civilization for a global community that embraces equality of men and women, harmony of religion and science, the oneness of all humanity, the oneness of God and the oneness and ever progressive nature of religion of God revealed to humanity ever since we can remember.

Baha’i Teachings has introduced to the human consciousness The spiritual solution to the economic problems of the world so many people are now in need of its miraculous and healing touch. The Baha’i Teachings has offered to the entire humanity the healing art of Baha’i consultation and consensus building to bring the best of human governance in all affairs of humanity, social political, personal, business, academic, moral, etc.

The reaction of the Islamic Republic regime of Iran towards the Baha’i community is the reaction of Dart Wader to Luke Sky-walker, the forces of darkness fighting the forces of light, the battle between Evil feeling threatened by emergence of Good. So far the force seems to be with Dart Wader but the world is waking up and the balance is shifting. This marks the beginning of a global awareness, awakenness, uprising and protest against ignorance, injustice, and defense of real progress, humanity, civilization, morality, justice, and eventually global peace.

I see this moral and justice crisis mitigated by the unavenged sufferings of the meek Baha’i community of Iran as the impetus for the rest of the world to rise up and claim victory of good over evil in the global stage and for the global community. In this light the open letter of the heads of medical schools in Us and around the world and the anger of human rights advocates all over the globe makes great and significant sense. We, as humanity, are rising to emerge from the tribal and petty loyalties of the past to claim our universal human rights, what Baha’ullah frames as a new and vital consciousness ready to rise in the minds and hearts of all humanity. Thanks to the explosions of science in mass communication we can see with our own mortal eyes that we are cells of one body, leaves of one branch, fruits of one tree, waves of one sea, one organic human family.

This is indeed crisis and victory and as a dear Baha’i friend in prison once said, if our imprisonment and suffering would awaken the world of humanity to its promised reality and closer to its spiritual glorious destiny, our days, years and lives in prison is a price well accepted and gladly paid!

Please God, we may achieve it.

Keyvan

Our beautiful planet is a small homeland which we can see from one end of it to another in a single click. We must give everyone on it a fair chance to live and to love. “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens” has declared Baha’u'llah in the past century.

Our emotional attachment to our religious beliefs is not and must not be a ground for oppressing others and depriving ourselves of our own humanity. if religion be the cause of disunity, if the medicine makes the patient sicker, then toss it out have no religion.

The Baha’is of Iran and their daily increasing suffering at the hand o the Islamic Republic Regime in the name of a religion is a shame on the brow of the word religion. The Baha’i children and youth and their human rights is in the forefront of our thoughts. May the Divine providence give them a superhuman perseverance and patience.

Keyvan

Human Rights Concert in Defense of Education Under Fire in Iran campaign

Education is under fire in Iran. When the Islamic Republic Regime of Iran banned the Baha’i students from attending university 30 years ago, the Baha’i community fought back by creating the on line university called the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE). Humanitarians in Iran and around the world jumped in and offered the instruction and resources for these students whose government had deprived them of their basic human rights to education. The faculty and administrators of BIHE has been continuously harassed, threatened and recently their offices and homes raided, computers and belongings confiscated,all imprisoned, their children left without loving parents to embrace them and educate them.

We need your support and all people who are free, to fight back and to speak up for their rights using the civilized channels of  awareness and protest until everyone of them is free to learn and teach.

Please join us in our humble effort to speak up for their human rights in Iran.

A Human Rights Concert in Support of BIHE  ‘Education Under Fire in Iran”

Presented by: Quartet Euphoria

Rachel Vetter Huang, violin I, Cynthia Fogg, viola; Tom Flaherty, cello Jonathan Wright, violin

&

SANTAR Ensemble: Mystical Music of Persia

 Keyvan Geula, vocals;  Iraj Kamal-Abadi, Tar;  Arsalan Geula, Tonbak

 &

 Baha’i Children Choir directed by Ruhiyyih Yuille

 Friday November 18, 2011

6:30 doors open

7:00Pm potluck

8:00 PM concert

For more information, please call

Keyvan Geula (909) 626-2569 or keyvan@cgie.org

Sponsored by the Baha’i Club of Five Claremont Colleges, Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Claremont and Center for Global Integrated Education

Fire Tablet of Baha'u'llah

“The suffering heaped on our Baha’i friends is neither isolated nor peripheral. It is systematic and brutal, especially when the Baha’i are known as a peaceful faith that embraces the sanctity of all religions. The official Iranian oppression of Baha’i is more than the canary in the mineshaft. It is a clarion call to humanity and to free peoples and democracies everywhere to look directly at the harsh colours of the Iranian reality and not look away until the challenge is faced head on.”

The above is the closing of a very powerful, most alarming and straight forward talk on October 5, 2011 by Senator Urges of Canada and published on The CANADIAN BAHA’I NEWS SERVICE

Senator Urges warns “about what evil and malevolent intent guides the present leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He asks for “specific actions to be taken by the Canadian government to  to contain this vile and sadistic administration. ”

Our duty, as allies of various partners in the region, including Sunni Arab states or our Turkish NATO allies, including the people of Lebanon, Palestine and Israel, who seek the freedom to make their own decisions about their own countries and futures, is to be clear and outspoken about what evil and malevolent intent guides the present leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. To ensure that in every way at all levels, with our allies and with respect to our geopolitical interests, we are preparing for and planning all that may be necessary to contain this vile and sadistic administration. This aggressive and inhumane administration, if unchecked and unpunished for every excess and inhumanity, will be the cause of a third world war as sure as we serve together in this upper chamber this afternoon.

What is necessary here is not just the reactive contact group’s continuing best efforts on some measure of nuclear restraint and international inspection. Canada’s new office of religious freedom should join with other similar units around the world to promote a collective course of action on behalf of the Baha’i faith community in Iran and erect a series of serious challenges in different bodies around the world for the Iranian government to face. This should be known as the Baha’i sanctions so that our Iranian friends understand precisely our collective humanitarian and principled intent. Religious oppression is always the first and most consistent instrument of the tyrant; failing to engage it directly only feeds the beast.

It goes without saying that Canada’s military, intelligence, diplomatic and other networks at home and abroad should be focusing on the granular threats posed by various Iranian forces around the world. These include places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. We must work with friendly military, diplomatic and intelligence forces amongst our partners in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, who have diverse relationships with the Iranians, in order to achieve a coherent and concerted effort to frustrate the wilful domination of the region and a world that depends on that region by the Republic of Iran’s leadership. I leave the specific measures, dynamics and aspects of that joint initiative and plan for defence and engagement to the experts in uniform and the various military, diplomatic and clandestine services around the world. I say simply that we must all prepare now, and we must all do our part.

In an earlier talk given by Hon. Senator Mobina S. B. Jaffer called “Baha’i People in Iran” and published on Liberal Senate Forum web site on June 21, 2011, the attention of the Canadian citizens and the people of good will everywhere, is drawn on a very dangerous and critical cancer progressing in the vitals of the global body politics the like of which humanity has painfully witnessed in the past at the hands of Hitler and Stalin. Hon. Senator Jaffer says:

“The human rights situation in Iran continues to worsen day by day…

Some groups have been particularly affected, including women, journalists, human rights activists, ethnic minorities and religious minorities. Arbitrary arrest, lack of due process and torture are experienced all too frequently by Iranian citizens. A Canadian, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, still sits on death row because of spurious charges.

The Baha’is in Iran: Who are they and what is their history?

Despite the persecution of the Baha’i community in the country of its birth, Iranian Baha’is were on the forefront of the efforts to bring progressive change to the country. They were involved in the pro-democracy and social reform movements at the turn of the century. They founded the first schools for girls and eradicated illiteracy among Baha’i young women in the 1970s. The community in Tehran founded a hospital that brought modern medicine to excluded religious minorities.

Around the world, Baha’is today are engaged in working for social progress. In their grassroots activity, they are dedicated to helping the social development of villages and neighbourhoods. Baha’is join with others to promote the spiritual and material advancement of their communities. Their approach to social change focuses on transforming communities rather than political agitation.

This is a principle that is important to understand with respect to the ongoing persecution of the Baha’is in Iran. This is a community that believes in the power of non-violence and positive action as a response to oppression. While claiming their rights through legal means in the court of public opinion, they have never resorted to force. Baha’is believe that the most reliable pathway to liberation is to openly serve their country side by side with other Iranians.

Honourable senators, I turn now to the persecution of Baha’is in Iran. The persecution faced by Baha’is in Iran today has few parallels in human history. This is a community of more than 300,000 people that for more than 30 years has been subject to an often explicit state policy focused on its destruction. The intensity of pressure felt by this religious minority is almost impossible for us, as Canadians, to imagine, yet it is our duty as senators, indeed as fellow human beings, to raise our voices in solidarity with their cause.

Baha’is face prosecution in Iran because a hardline clerical elite views their religion as illegitimate, and they are therefore considered to be apostates or opponents of Islam. This attitude toward Baha’is is spread by lies and misinformation channelled through state-controlled media. Baha’is are often falsely accused of being foreign agents working secretly against the nation. The result of such disinformation campaigns is widespread ignorance that perpetuates a culture of prejudice.

Honourable senators, I have been a refugee lawyer for over 30 years, and never in my experience have I known our country not to accept refugees who claim to be Baha’is, as we have done. As a refugee lawyer, all I had to show was that an Iranian was a practising Baha’i and my client received immediate acceptance to settle in Canada. This was as a result of well-documented evidence that the Baha’is are persecuted in Iran.

The global outcry against this brutality appeared to have an effect as the sensational forms of persecution gradually declined in the late 1980s, only to be replaced by a new phase of persecution in the form of social and economic pressure.

A 1991 confidential memorandum approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stated clearly the position of the Islamic Republic toward the Baha’i community. The memorandum specifies that the Baha’is should be treated in such a way “that their progress and development are blocked.” It specifies that the Baha’is should be denied access to higher education, prevented from holding government jobs, and that their children should be sent to schools “with a strong religious ideology.”

In this environment of intensifying pressure, the Baha’i community has been compelled to develop innovative ways to meet basic needs. Among these responses is the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, an educational initiative launched in 1987 to provide for the education of Baha’i young people who are deprived of access to higher education by official government policy. The New York Times called it “an elaborate act of self-preservation.”

Today, the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education operates through a blend of online instruction and small seminars and labs, with an affiliate global faculty that stretches around the world, including here in Canada. It offers 17 university-level programs across three faculties, and continues to develop and offer academic programs in sciences, social sciences and the arts.

I am proud to say that seven Canadian universities have recognized the quality of education provided by the Baha’i education institute and they have accepted dozens of graduates for advanced study here in Canada. Most of them took their master’s degrees and Ph.D.s back to Iran, where they joined the institute’s faculty and have continued to teach others.

Honourable senators, on May 21, Iranian authorities launched yet another attack on the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, this time raiding more than 30 homes and arresting 16 people. Among those arrested were two graduates of Canadian universities. These are attacks not only on the students and the faculty of the Baha’i education institute, but on the cherished idea that education is the birthright of all.

This latest incident underlines the intention of the Iranian government to carry out its policy to block the well-being of the Baha’i community, because when they deny a people the means to educate their youth, they deny them a way of earning a livelihood and deny them a good life.

This attack follows a worrying trend over the past several years of increasing pressure. In 2004, there were four Baha’is in prison, whereas today there are 93 in jail, for no reason aside from their religion. Arbitrary arrests are used in an attempt to keep the community in a condition of uncertainty and fear.

In 2008, the authorities also jailed the ad hoc Baha’i leadership in Iran, seven individuals who formed a body called the Yaran. I have spoken to you before about these men and women, who have now been held in prison for more than three years. They face a sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Their lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, a well-known Nobel laureate, has insisted that there is not a shred of evidence to support the charges against them, which include the type of false accusations that Iran has used to vilify Baha’is for decades.

Notwithstanding repeated requests, neither the prisoners nor their attorneys have ever received official copies of the verdict or the ruling on appeal.

While these seven individuals languish in prison, the Baha’i community remains deprived of its leadership.

Honourable senators, I have conveyed to you a situation of clear injustice and oppression, perpetrated against a peaceful people for no reason other than their religious beliefs. The Baha’i community conducts its affairs with transparency and honesty; it keeps no secret about its beliefs and intentions, with members who want nothing more than to practise their religion and serve their country.

We Canadians are privileged to live in a country where diversity is valued and where we enjoy freedom of religion and belief. I believe that we should all speak out where these same freedoms are denied elsewhere, giving hope to our brothers and sisters who live under constant state pressure, in the name of humanity.

Honourable senators, all my life I have worked with Baha’is. Today I stand before you and I ask you to also stand up for the rights of Baha’is.

Honourable senators, Canada’s support for the Baha’is in Iran has been an example of how supporting freedom of religion and beliefs can play a role in our foreign policy. In view of our new emphasis on promoting religious freedom abroad, let us take new steps to call Iran to account for its unacceptable treatment of the Baha’is. Let us stand for the religious rights of Baha’is in Iran.

Canada has played a special part in bringing the human rights violations of the Islamic Republic Regime into the global focus.Articles such as the one on September 22, 2011 on NAITONAL POST is one of many that confirms a global alarm:

“Under Ahmadinejad, Iran has intensified its persecution and prosecution of religious minorities, especially the Baha’i – its largest religious minority – whose members are subject to harassment, repression, torture, imprisonment and execution. As for Christians, whose persecution has also accelerated, even praying together is a criminal act. These assaults on the religious rights of his own people, combined with the many other repressive acts carried out by his regime, are crimes against humanity.”

When you see how powerful is the light in removing darkness, pick up your light and shine it, share it, talk it until there is no darkness of violations of human rights.

Keyvan

Human Rights Concert in Support of BIHE students and faculty in Prison In Iran and the Campaign of "Education Under Fire" In Iran. CELLIOLA of Pomona Faculty of Music and SANTAR Ensemble performing Sept. 9,11

“Iran’s War Against Knowledge — An Open Letter to the International Academic Community”  

is the title of an open letter published by Huffington Post and written by two global leaders of peace and humanity Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town; 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and President José Ramos-Horta President of East Timor 1996 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

I must command the HUFFINGTON POST for its proactive stance for human rights and the unique role the Baha’i community plays in setting an example of creating peace and never let it go in life or death.

The open letter is part of a human rights campaign called “Education Under Fire” to liberate the cause of education from the dark web of ignorance wherever it appears. I am most encouraged by any attempt to make the cause of education universal and acknowledge everyone’s right to education as a basic human right. Our global village has a long ways to go and millions of children and youth are deprived of this basic human right. It reminds me of the proverbial story of the millions of star fish being washed ashore and dying. The act of one single person of picking one or two or three and throwing them back in the ocean might seem futile. But the thought of we making a difference to just one, gives me hope that we do good no matter how impossible the dream. Our world will change and must rise out of this dark some night one star at a time, one heart at a time, one breath at  time. I have hope!

A special website that contains various supplementary campaign materials (at www.educationunderfire.com).to support the human rights activists with their campaign to restore the rights of all people in Iran to education and knowledge.

The open letter concludes with a special line of action to be taken for desired outcome. They state:

And while we believe that both historically and in today’s “wired” world it is futile to suppress the quest for knowledge, there are many in Iran whose lives are being threatened or damaged by the attempt.

They need our support.

CELLIOLA of Pomona College Faculty of Music (Tom Flaherty, Cindy Fogg, and Rochelle Huang) perform at the Human Rights Concert on Sept. 9, 11 in Claremont in support of BIHE students and faculty imprisoned in Iran because of being of the Baha'i Faith. The concert is part of the national campaign of "EDUCATION UNDER FIRE" in Iran.

We call on the international academic community to come to the aid of those whose lives are being subjected to these oppressive laws.

Specifically we, the undersigned, ask that the international academic community:

1. Call on the government of the Iranian Republic to release unconditionally and drop charges against the BIHE educators currently under arrest and facing charges related to their educational activities.

Everyone wanted to know how and what they can do to raise awareness and make a difference about BIHE faculty and students in prison in Iran and that "Education is Under Fire" in Iran

2. As academic leaders, administrators and professors, register through any possible channels in the Iranian academic community their disagreement with and disapproval of any policy which would bar individuals from higher education based on their religious background or political persuasion, or which would remove or corrupt any established fields of study from a university curricula for religious or political reasons.

3. Encourage their own universities to review the educational quality of the BIHE coursework for possible acceptance of its credits, so that those who have had the benefit of its programs can continue at higher levels of study.

4. As possible, offer available online university level curricula, through scholarships if needed, to students in Iran who would otherwise be deprived of the right to higher education or who, due to government limitation on social sciences, would not have a full array of educational options available to them in their own county.

Thank you for your support.

And please also watch this video.

With warm regards,

Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, O.M.S.G, D.D., F.K.C.
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town
1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient

President José Ramos-Horta
President of East Timor
1996 Nobel Peace Prize recipient

SANTAR Persian Mytical ensemble performing at the Human Rights Concert on Sept, 9, 11 in support of "Education Under Fire in Iran" Campaign.

We must remember that our breath is a gift to be used to make a difference for a worthy cause. Speaking in defense of defenseless BIHE is one amongst many worthy causes. Thank you for making a difference.

You can read the open letters in Farsi by refering to the  دو برندۀ جایزۀ صلح نوبل خواستار آزادی مدرّسان بهائی شدند

Keyvan