UPI October 1 1998 Report on Baha'is in Iran
TORONTO, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Iranian authorities are reported to
have arrested at least 27 Bahais, in the latest crackdown against the
largest religious minority group in that country.
Gerald Filson, a spokesman for the Bahai Community of Canada, says
word of the crackdown filtered down today to members of the community
in other parts of the Middle East.
Details of the arrests were not immediately available, but the report
comes after an Islamic court in Iran sentenced two more Bahais to death
this week, after finding them guilty of converting a Muslim woman to the
Bahai faith.
The woman has denied the allegation, saying she was brought up as a
Bahai.
The latest death sentences, handed down in Mashad, some 500 miles
(800 km) east of Tehran, brings to six the total number of Bahais facing
execution in Iran.
On July 21, Iranian religious authorities executed Bahai prisoner
Ruhollah Rowhani, after an Islamic court found him guilty of converting
the same woman to the Bahai faith.
The Supreme Court of Iran had refused to endorse the sentence, but
Rowhani was hanged anyway.
There are some 300,000 Bahais in Iran, making them the largest
religious minority in the Islamic state, which does not officially
recognize them as a minority group.
©Copyright 1998, UPI
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