Alborz

This crisis began with a television program, named al-Haqiqah [The Truth], which aired on Egypt's Dream-2 channel on March 28th.  A mob went to the homes of the Baha'is in the village of Showraniyah, and began by shouting insults at the Baha'is, who were in their homes at the time, and chanted "No God but Allah" and "Baha'is are enemies of Allah," and began throwing bricks and rocks at five homes.

Some of these Baha'is were able to contact the police and reported the attack. The police then intervened and provided protective custody for the Baha'is.  On March 31st, another inflammatory article (see link below) appeared which stirred the emotions of the masses by calling for the killing of Baha'is, and also praised the villagers for their attacks on the Baha'is.

That same day, when night fell, a mob attacked the homes of the Baha'is in Showraniyah (see video), threw homemade Molotov cocktail bottles and fire bombs at the homes.

//www.gom.com.eg/algomhuria/2009/03/31/raay/detail01.shtml

They vandalized the homes and looted their property. Baha'i families and their children were desperate for a place to hide and some were able to escape the fire and hide in alley corners in the dark.

In order to spread the fire, the mob cut-off the water supply to the homes and blocked access to the village so that fire trucks would be delayed in their response.  At last, the police intervened again and this time arrested six villagers from the mob, and took the Baha'i families into protective custody again.

The Baha'i families with their children and babies were sumggled out of the village in the early dawn, Wednesday morning-only with their clothes on their backs to several undisclosed distant locations in Egypt.

Six Egyptian Human Rights Organizations in support of the Baha'is have met with Egypt's Attorney General and filed formal complaints against the author of the article and the mob in the village of Showraniyah.

The media in Egypt and international news agencies have provided extensived coverage of this most recent act of violence against the Bahai's of Egypt.

While we as the bloggers and commentators on this site engage in informative discussions, destructive accusations, and theological pronouncements, we need to occassionally be reminded that we do so from the safety of a keyboard and monitor.

The plans are now set into motion for a more wide-scale assault on the Baha'is in Iran and we can be assured the coverage will be shrowded in layers of conspiracy and espionage theories intended to mask the true nature of these attacks.

It is only then that the people of Iran will seal their fate by either arising to denounce these barbaric acts or remain silent.  With a firm belief in Divine Justice, I not only grieve for the plight of the Baha'is in Iran but also that of the Iranian people.  The Germans paid a heavy price for the attrocities that the Nazis committed, and Iranians will not be exempt from the consequences of their inaction in the face of this now not-so-secret pogrom against the Baha'is.

Ignorance will not serve as a defence for any exemption from the toll that will be exacted on the Iranian nation, and one that we all desparately wish to avoid.

With deepest regrets,

Alborz