‘Baha’i members persecuted in Iran’

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 7

‘Baha’i members persecuted in Iran’

Thousands of members of the Baha’i faith in Iran are being persecuted, according to a visiting member of the faith. Mr Collis Featherstone, a retired engineer from Queensland, Australia, is one of 13 people in the world who hold the high office of “Hand of the Faith” an international worker. “Newsweek” magazine recently estimated that there were 450,000 Baha’is in Iran, but Mr Featherstone says, there are probably many more. Thousands of’ these people were ■ suffering simply because of their faith. Their homes,. crops, and animals were completely destroyed .by a sect of Muslims, said Mr Featherstone. “They tear their homes apart, down to the very last light-switch,” said Mr Featherstone. The problem is that the Baha’i faith follows the prophet, Baha’u’llah (“Glory of God”) who recognised his mission in 1863. However the one Islamic sect believes that Muhammad.was the greatest and last of. the prophets, . and they see the Baha’is as a threat. Persecution is not new to the Baha’is in Iran. In 1850 a young man, who called himself The ■ Bab and is now considered . one of the founders of the faith, was shot for asserting that he was the forerunner of an important new spiritual figure. Although the international centre of the faith is in Israel, The Bab lived in Persia, which is now Iran. During the first two decades of the faith more than 20,000 Babis were martyred.’ Persecution by the Islamic heirarchy continued, and followers of the Baha’u’llah were kept in prison.

“It is sheer religious fanaticism against one

group of people,” said Mr Featherstone. It was ironic that members or the Baha’i faith were the victims of such persecution, because world and religious unity were the cornerstones of the faith, he said. “Baha’i aims at unity. How can you have the kingdom of. God without people being together?” “All the prophets — Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, and . all the rest — contain the essence of the one God. “They are mirrors, each one made to suit the needs of the age, but they all reflect the same God,” he said. The faith, which looks towards a unified earth in an era of God, was fundamentally opposed to prejudice. Members of the faith

and Governments all over the world had appealed to the Iranian Government to prevent the persecutions. However, Iran would give Baha’is no . legal status, and. so .pleas went unheeded, said Mr Featherstone,

Iran was safer for mem-' bers of 'the faith when the Shah was in power, although persecution did flare up from time to time, he said. Mr Featherstone, who has visited more than 89 countries since he became Hand of the Faith in 1957, is in New Zealand to talk to Baha’is communities and keep them in touch with developments. With this century’s good communications, Baha’i was growing rapidly. It had spread to 345 countries.

In Australia, there were 350 Baha’i communities, and in New Zealand there were more than 200, Mr Featherstone said. There was only one member of the faith in New 'Zealand in 1923.

Mr Featherstone said he found the faith in New Zealand “happy.” “Seeing Maoris and pakehas together in one community is what Baha’i is all about -— one God, one faith, one people, and no prejudices,” he said.