Abstract
Many books and articles have been written in recent years emphasizing the naiveté of those who crudely categorize ‘Islam’ as a unitary phenomenon in world politics.3 Of course, Islam can be seen as a unitary phenomenon in terms of its acceptance of certain shared beliefs, norms and the assignment of special spiritual and cultural significance to specific historical events. In terms of its implications for political practice across a variety of Islamic cultures, however, little commonality can be perceived, other than to vague concepts that are used as the hue and cry of Islamic terminology across cultural and political borders.
‘The Bahá’í community, persecuted from its very inception… probably represents the clearest case of religious persecution in the world today.’2
The author would like to thank Professor Patrick Thornberry, Mr Dan Keohane and Dr Rosemary O’Kane for their valuable comments.
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Notes
Criticizing the mullahs’ abuse of their power, Zakaria writes, ‘The mulla tried to strangle others, not only the secularists but also his theological opponents…on none of the basic issues involving religion and politics, was there at any time consensus among the ulama. Their views depended on the exigencies of the situation…’ Zakaria 1988, pp. 288-9.
Farhang, Mansour, in response to a letter about his article, ‘Khomeini’s Reign of Terror’, published in: The Nation, 30 January 1982, said in: The Nation, 27 February 1982: ‘The Iranian Baha’is are the only people whose persecution, which includes confiscation of property as well as summary arrests and executions, is motivated solely by fascistic aggression without any provocation whatsoever. For the Baha’is in Iran pose no threat at all to the regime.’
Shah Abbas, the leader who had established the Twelver branch of Shi’ism in Iran, had also declared himself deputy of the hidden twelfth imam decades earlier, ‘Because of his powerful personality the ulama gave in, and acknowledged his supremacy.’ Zakaria 1988, p. 148.
Khomeini, Zendegi-nameh-ye Imam Khomeini (The Life of Imam Khomeini), 12 Moharram Publications, Tehran 1357 (1978), pp. 81-2, quoted in ibid., p. 26.
Najafi, Siyyid Muhammad Baqir, ‘Baha’iyan’, Kitab Khaneh Tahuri, Tehran, 1979.
Allen 1987 (vol. 20.337), ‘The Baha’is’ persecutions are tantamount to systematic genocide.’
Glaser, ‘Droit International Penal Conventionnel’, vol. I, 165, in Thornberry 1991, p. 58.
Whitaker, Benjamin C. G., ‘Special Rapporteur’, requested by the Economic and Social Council from the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, UN Doc. E/C.N.4/Sub.2/ 1985/6.
Harff, B. and Gurr, T. R., ‘Genocides and Politicides since 1945: Evidence and Anticipation’, paper to have been published in Issues II of the ‘Internet on the Holocaust and Genocide’, Winter 1987-88, quoted in Schmid 1989, p. 61.
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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Ghanea, N. (2000). Islam, Human Rights and Religious Intolerance: The Case of the Bahá’ís of Iran. In: Dark, K.R. (eds) Religion and International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403916594_6
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