It seems like a movie plot.A corrupt & religious intolerant government puts 7 people in Iran's most notorious jail, a country with an unjust legal system decides the fate of 7 individuals based on pathetic lies that don't even make sense.The clock ticks while the fate of these 7 men & women rests in the hands of the world.Its not a movie. Its real life.
Who will come to their rescue?
Who can take on this country? For years the Iranian government has gotten away with endless atrocities occurring against Baha'i of Iran with egregious human rights violations. For years Baha'i have been denied the basic human rights and little progress for a religion that strives only to promote world peace! Enough is enough!
[below is copying and pasting of things i've been sent ] Please read the commentary by Rainn Wilson
These 7 friends made up the membershaip of an informal committee attending to the needs of the 300,000-strong Baha'i community, the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority.
The "seven friends in Iran", as they were known, were arrested in dawn raids last spring. Since that time, they have been detained without charge in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. No evidence against them has been brought to light, and they have been denied access to their legal counsel, the Nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, who has been threatened, intimidated, and vilified in the news media since taking on their case.
Along with four of their colleagues, their lives may now be in danger. This week, it has been reported, will see a case against them sent to the revolutionary court in Tehran. They are accused of "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic".
Such spurious allegations against the Baha'is are not new – but they are extremely serious. Even during the years prior to 1979 under the Shah, history has sadly shown that when Iran feels threatened, it inflames deep-rooted prejudice against Baha'is and other religious minorities to mobilise mass support. The Iranian government is well aware that, as articles of faith, Baha'is honour Islam as a divine religion, are obedient to the laws of the land and do not engage in political activity. The presence of their world headquarters in modern-day Israel is an historical consequence of the Persian and Ottoman authorities themselves banishing the faith's founder to the penal colony of Acre, 80 years before the state of Israel was formed.
Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this case alone belies a contemptuous, continuing abuse by a sovereign government against one of its minorities. While such targeted violations are taking place within the context of pressures over all civil society organisations in Iran – including students, journalists, women's rights activists, lawyers groups, health practitioners, trade unions, and even the British Council last week – those against the Baha'is give rise to particular concern because of the systematic pattern of violations that are so regularly been resuscitated against them.
By Rainn Wilson
Special to CNN
Editor's note: Actor Rainn Wilson plays paper salesman Dwight Schrute in the television comedy "The Office."
Rainn Wilson says fellow members of his Baha'i faith are being persecuted in Iran.
(CNN) -- Why is Rainn Wilson, "Dwight" on "The Office," writing a news commentary for CNN? Good question.
It's a bit strange for me, to say the least; a comic character actor best known for playing weirdos with bad haircuts getting all serious to talk about the persecution of the fellow members of his religious faith.
Dear readers of CNN, I assure you that what I'm writing about is no joking matter or some hoax perpetrated by a paper-sellin', bear-fearin', Battlestar-Galactica obsessed beet farmer.
I am a member of the Baha'i faith. What is that, you ask? Well, long story short, it's an independent world religion that began in the mid-1800s in Iran. Baha'is believe that there is only one God and therefore only one religion.
All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine.
This constantly updated faith of God, Baha'is believe, has been refreshed for this day and age by our founder, Baha'u'llah. There. Nutshell version.
Now, as I mentioned, this all happened in Iran, and needless to say the Muslim authorities did not like the Baha'is very much, accusing them of heresy and apostasy. Tens of thousands were killed in the early years of the faith, and the persecutions have continued off and on for the past 150 years.
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Why write about all this now? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see there's a 'trial' going on very soon for seven Baha'i national leaders in Iran.
They've been accused of all manner of things including being "spies for Israel," "insulting religious sanctities" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic."
They've been held for a year in Evin Prison in Tehran without any access to their lawyer (the Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi) and with zero evidence of any of these charges.
When a similar thing happened in 1980, the national leadership of the Iranian Baha'i community disappeared. And this was repeated again in 1981.
In fact, since 1979, more than 200 Baha'is have been killed, holy places and cemeteries desecrated, homes burned, civil rights taken away and secret lists compiled of Baha'is (and even Muslims who associate with them) by government agencies.
It's bad right now for all the peace-loving Baha'is in Iran who want only to practice their religion and follow their beliefs. It's especially bad for these seven. Here's a link to their bios. They're teachers, and engineers, and optometrists and social workers just like us.
This thought has become kind of a cliché', but we take our rights for granted here in America. Imagine if a group of people were rounded up and imprisoned and then disappeared not for anything they'd done, but because they wanted to worship differently than the majority.
There is a resolution on the situation of the Baha'is in Iran being sent to Congress. Please ask your representatives to support it. And ask them to speak out about this terrible situation.
Thanks for reading. Now back to bears, paper and beets!
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rainn Wilson.
An Iranian news agency has reported that the seven members of the “Friends in Iran,” the ad-hoc group that supervised the affairs of the persecuted Baha'i community in that country until their arrest in early 2008, will be put on trial in an Iranian revolutionary court on charges of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”*
The trial could begin any day now.
These charges are an attempt on the part of the Iranian government to justify through fabrications its documented and reprehensible intention to bring harm not only to the Iranian Bahá'í leadership, but to the whole of the Iranian Bahá'í community.
We're calling on people around the world of all religions and those of none to keep these leaders in your thoughts, to gather in prayer, and, most of all, to contact your congressional and parliamentary leaders to speak up on behalf of those wrongly imprisoned in Tehran.
In the European Union, find your MEPs by visiting: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members.do?language=EN
In the United States, a House Resolution 175 is now in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Contact the committee and urge them to address the resolution quickly by visiting: http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/contact.asp
In the United States, find your representatives in the U.S. House by visiting: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Find your senators in the U.S. Senate by visiting: http://www.senate.gov/
When you contact your representative, encourage him or her to "co-sponsor
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