A couple of days ago I posted the US State Department’s assessment that the Gonabadi Soltanalishahi Ne’matullahi Sufi Order of Iran is considered by it to be the most persecuted of Iran’s minorities. For the past several years the regime in Iran has increasingly ratcheted up its persecution of this Order of Sufis because it is the largest of Iran’s Sufi Orders. Well over a couple of hundred dervishes have been harrassed. 200 dervishes were arrested this March, 8 were tried under trumped up charges earlier, and with each passing day the regime is getting more and more aggressive.
Yesterday one of the offices of the Order based in Western Europe put out a press release stating that the Master of the Order Nur ‘Ali Tabandeh Majzub ‘Ali-Shah Gonabadi has just received a summons by a Revolutionary Court to appear before it. A version of this press release can be found here: http://11.majzooban.biz/en/sufi-news/112-dervishes-have-two-red-lines-first-insulting-their-masters-and-second-insulting-and-breaking-into-soltani-shrine-in-beidokh-.html
As a result of the summons the Dervishes of the Gonabadi Soltanalishahi Ne’matullahi Sufi Order of Iran have unequivocally declared that they will resist the regime. It should be noted that the last Master of the Order died under mysterious circumstances, no doubt as a result of foul play by the regime.
