As the world anxiously watches the dramatic developments in Iran, Iranian authorities are already looking for scapegoats. Denouncing foreign media coverage of socio-political unrest in Iran, Qolam Ali Haddad-Adel, Iranian MP and head of the parliament’s cultural commission, told IRIB 2 TV channel on Wednesday night that ‘BBC is run by a bunch of Bahais who are seeking revenge on Iranians’. Haddad-Adel, whose daughter is married to Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest son, went on to suggest that BBC stands for ‘Bahai Broadcasting Company’. A neo-Thomist philosophy professor at Tehran University and head of the state-sponsored Academy of Persian Language and Literature, Haddad-Adel is known to have strong ties with the semi-clandestine Hojjatiyeh Society to which Ahmadinejad is believed to belong. Founded in 1953 to fight against the Bahai community, Hojjatiyeh sees the Bahai Faith as the most serious threat to Islam. The society, which takes its name from the the title of Twelfth Imam whom Shi’a Muslims expect to return in ‘the Latter Days’, rose to prominence when Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. Bahai persecutions have intensified since then. Although Bahais are not doctrinally allowed to participate in partisan politics, they have often been accused of inciting sedition in the country. Darker days are ahead for Iran’s 300,000-strong Bahai community should the ruthless hardliners manage to crush the protests. Read full story here, here, here and here.
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Tags: Ahmadinejad, anti-Bahaism, Apocalyptic movements, Ayatollah Khamenei, Baha'i Faith, demonstrations, electoral coup, Haddad-Adel, Hojjatiyeh, Iran, Iranian Government, Islam, Karroubi, Mahdi Khazali, messianism, Mousavi, political Islam, Political participation, political power, political religions, presidential election, religious freedom, religious persecution, Shi'a Imams, Shi'ism, subversive groups, Tehran
June 21, 2009 at 5:36 am |
[...] http://religioncompass.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/news-bahais-accused-of-plotting-the-protests-in-iran… [...]
June 21, 2009 at 10:55 am |
BBC just covering lot of places now days.. amzing.
May 23, 2011 at 9:31 am |
Thanks for sharing. What a pleasure to read!