I got a very nice email from a long-time site visitor complaining in part about the frequency of features about Bahais. She noted that iranian.com has been known as a secular site and therefore it’s odd that so much attention is being given to Bahais and their faith.
It’s true that once or twice a week, at most, there are features about Bahais. And there are Bahai bloggers who publish their own stuff. My motivation is still secular and humanistic, since I do not have any religious beliefs. I think it’s important to listen to what Bahais have to say. I’m not saying you should accept their version of the truth or that the Bahai faith has more to offer than other religions. I’m just saying they are no different than followers of any other religion. We should see them not as heretics, not as British or Israeli spies, but just as Iranian and human as any.
It boggles my mind that so many Iranians don’t want to even acknowledge that for the past 150 years or so, Bahais have been grossly mistreated, persecuted and denied basic rights in their own country. Why? Because their prophet was a Muslim molla who claimed to be the messiah and started his own faith, or whatever. Who cares? What’s so great or extraordinary about Islam or Judaism or Zoroastrianism or Paganism or… and their followers? They have their own set of weird beliefs and the Bahais have theirs. But to deny any of these followers the right to choose and practice their religion or have full citizenship in their own country is cruel and archaic. How can we close our eyes to this? You don’t have to like their religion in order to accpet their humanity. The latter should be a given. Sadly, it is not.
What I am hoping for is that by reading about the persecution of Bahais and their literature, we — non-Bahai Iranians — start understanding what the Bahais are about, what they have gone through and accept them as normal people rather than outcasts. As simple as that. Nothing less, nothing more. We are adults, we can think, we can distinguish between religious propaganda and truth.
So if you see things in iranian.com about Bahais more often than you are used to, get used to it :o) Featuring stuff about them is my kind of “affirmative action” to help right a terrible wrong. It’s absolutely unacceptable to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, nationality, religion… we must know that by now. Wake up people! Barack Hussein Obama is well on his way to become the next president of the United States. Who would have guessed that in a country that is still grappling with race issues, where people are scared to death of Islam and have elected GW Bush not once, but twice?
No Bahai is going to be the president of Iran any time soon. But hameen keh we accept Bahais as fellow human beings khodesh kheyli honareh.
