Destruction of prominent B

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Destruction of prominent Báháí historic sites
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• FOR
• TWENTY-FIVE
• YEARS
• the government of
• the Islamic Republic of Iran
• has persecuted the Baháís,
• a peaceful, law-abiding religious minority.

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• In the last 25 years,
• more than two hundred leading Baháís have been
  put to death,
• tens of thousands have lost their jobs,
• tens of thousands more have felt compelled to
  leave their homeland

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In the last 150 years of systematic persecution
more than 20,000 killed.
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An Austrian officer, Captain Von Goumoens, in the
employ of the Shah at that time, was, it is
reliably stated, so horrified at the cruelties he
was compelled to witness that he tendered his
resignation. "Follow me, my friend," is the
Captain's own testimony in a letter he wrote two
weeks after the attempt in question, which was
published in the "Soldatenfreund," "you who lay
claim to a heart and European ethics, follow me
to the unhappy ones who, with gouged-out eyes,
must eat, on the scene of the deed, without any
sauce, their own amputated ears or whose teeth
are torn out with inhuman violence by the hand of
the executioner or whose bare skulls are simply
crushed by blows from a hammer or where the
bazaar is illuminated with unhappy victims,
because on right and left the people dig deep
holes in their breasts and shoulders, and insert
burning wicks in the wounds. I saw some dragged
in chains through the bazaar, preceded by a
military band, in whom these wicks had burned so
deep that now the fat flickered convulsively in
the wound like a newly extinguished lamp. Not
seldom it happens that the unwearying ingenuity
of the Oriental leads to fresh tortures. They
will skin the soles of the Bábí's feet, soak the
wounds in boiling oil, shoe the foot like the
hoof of a horse, and compel the victim to run. No
cry escaped from the victim's breast the torment
is endured in dark silence by the numbed
sensation of the fanatic now he must run the
body cannot endure what the soul has endured he
falls. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 65)
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Give him the coup de grace! Put him out of his
pain! No! The executioner swings the whip, and --
I myself have had to witness it -- the unhappy
victim of hundredfold tortures runs! This is the
beginning of the end. As for the end itself, they
hang the scorched and perforated bodies by their
hands and feet to a tree head downwards, and now
every Persian may try his marksmanship to his
heart's content from a fixed but not too
proximate distance on the noble quarry placed at
his disposal. I saw corpses torn by nearly one
hundred and fifty bullets." "When I read over
again," he continues, "what I have written, I am
overcome by the thought that those who are with
you in our dearly beloved Austria may doubt the
full truth of the picture, and accuse me of
exaggeration. Would to God that I had not lived
to see it! But by the duties of my profession I
was unhappily often, only too often, a witness of
these abominations. At present I never leave my
house, in order not to meet with fresh scenes of
horror... Since my whole soul revolts against
such infamy ... I will no longer maintain my
connection with the scene of such crimes." Little
wonder that a man as far-famed as Renan should,
in his "Les Apotres" have characterized the
hideous butchery perpetrated in a single day,
during the great massacre of Tihran, as "a day
perhaps unparalleled in the history of the
world! (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 65)
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Mona, a high school girl, taught children classes
when Bahais had been denied access to schools.
For this, and because Bahai meetings had been
banned by the government, she was arrested.
They told her she could go free if she would but
deny her faith. She said a prayer for unity and
prosperity of mankind before she was hung.
16 yr. old Mona was executed in 1983.
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• Baháí youth have been denied access to higher
  education, and retired workers have had their
  pensions summarily canceled.

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• In 1991 an official government document signed by
  Supreme Leader Khamenei spelled out measures
  aimed at strangling the Baháí community.

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• A photocopy of the 1991 memorandum from the
  Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council on
  the Bahá'í question.

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Members of the Iranian army participating in the
destruction of the National Bahá'í Center,
Teheran, Iran, May 1955.
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One of the Bahá'í Cemeteries destroyed, soon
after the 1979 revolution in Iran. Many were
completely bulldozed.
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• The hatred of the extremist mullahs
• for the Baháís
• 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.

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• It was for this reason they demolished the
• House of the Báb in Shiraz,
• center of pilgrimage
• for the Baháís of the world
• and a gem of the citys cherished past.

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The Baháí Faith began here in 1844 with the
Bábs declaration
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Destroyed The House of the Báb in Shiraz one
of the holiest shrines in the Bahá'í world
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Also House of the Bábs maternal uncle,
connected to the Bábs house. (destroyed)
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House of the Bábs maternal uncle, where the Báb
was raised.
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Room where the Báb was born
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Upper room where the Báb declared His Mission
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His own house was in a complex of houses
belonging to His uncle and other relatives.
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Seeds from this orange tree in the Bábs
courtyard have born offspring on Mt. Carmel (in
Haifa, Israel).
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Mt. Carmel, Haifa Israel
Resting place of the Báb martyr Prophet
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Room above courtyard, where the Báb declared His
Mission
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The upper room
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Enter therein in peace, secure. (The Bábs
words to Mulla Husayn, to whom He declared His
mission)
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Stairs leading to the Declaration Chamber
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Upper room where the Báb declared His Mission to
mankind.
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Upper room
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His sitting room
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His bedchamber
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The House of the Báb was demolished by Iranian
authorities soon after the Islamic revolution.
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The House of the Báb in Shiraz
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The House of the Báb in Shiraz
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Destroyed House of Mirza Buzurg in Takur,
Mázindarán Bahá'í holy site
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Interior of Baháulláhs room kept in its
original condition
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Exterior of Baháulláhs room
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Interior of room occupied by Abdul-Bahá
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Exterior of room occupied by Abdul-Bahá
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Inscription over front door, placed by
Baháulláhs father
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In their determination to rid Iran of the Baháí
community and obliterate its very memory, the
fundamentalists in power are prepared even to
destroy the cultural heritage of their own
country, which they hold in trust for humankind.
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Destroyed House of Mirza Buzurg in Tehran,
Iran Bahá'í holy site
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The demolished building was the house of a great
nineteenth-century statesman, calligrapher and
literary figure, Mirza Abbas Nuri. Although he
was born and died a Muslim, his son,
Baháulláh, founded the Baháí Faith.
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In June, 2004, a wrecking crew descended upon a
historical monument, a precious example of
Islamic-Iranian architecture, a matchless model
of art, spirituality, and architecture. How
is it, a brave Tehran newspaper article asked,
that in the middle of the day... The very
essence of our cultural heritage is being
destroyed?
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Destroyed Sacred Gravesite of Quddus, prominent
apostle of the Faith. Destroyed in April, 2004,
by the Islamic Clergy in Iran
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The destruction and desecration of this holy
place were carried out with the knowledge of the
national government to which appeals had been
made beforehand. http//news.bahai.org/story.
cfm?storyid293
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The house-like structure marked the resting place
of Mulla Muhammad-'Ali Barfurushi, known as
Quddus (The Most Holy). Quddus was the foremost
disciple of the Bab, Prophet-Herald of the Faith.
"It would be the least that the Government
could do at this point to return to the Baha'i
community his sacred remains." Stated by Bani
Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá'í
International Community to the United Nations.
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Bahai House of Worship in Ashkabad, Turkmenistan
Cornerstone laid December 2, 1902
Completed 1908 Seized by
government June, 1928 Damaged by an
earthquake 1948 Demolished by government
1962 Source http//bahai-library.com/?filehass
all_babi_bahai_russia.html
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In the East the light of His Revelation hath
broken in the West have appeared the signs of
His dominion. Ponder this in your hearts, O
people, and be not of those who have turned a
deaf ear to the admonitions of Him Who is the
Almighty, the All-Praised... Should they
attempt to conceal its light on the continent, it
will assuredly rear its head in the midmost heart
of the ocean, and, raising its voice, proclaim
I am the life-giver of the world! Bahá'u'lláh
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Samoa Pacific Ocean
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Australia
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Panama
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Uganda
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Chile
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Europe
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North America
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India
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Bahai World Center Haifa, Israel
The Holy Land
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Today the light of Truth is shining upon the
world in its abundance the breezes of the
heavenly garden are blowing throughout all
regions the call of the Kingdom is heard in
all lands, and the breath of the Holy Spirit is
felt in all hearts that are faithful.
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Produced by Greg Kagira-Watson For more
information contact Greg_Watson_at_post.harvard.edu
Or click heregtgt http//news.bahai.org/story.cfm?s
toryid323