This is particularly sad in that of the many ways to search for meaning, Baha'i has always represented one of the sanest, with tolerance and co-existence with others built into its fabric. While Christians and Muslims particularly have never been slow to persecute non-believers or apostates, the believers of Baha'i seem to represent a sincerity without aggression that really has to be admired.
Of course, one can see how their existence is a threat to the mullahs, who cannot be accused of sanity and who never shrink from aggression. I wish the Friends well and hope that they are not forgotten and at least their current problems may help publicize the plight of the large Baha'i community in Iran.
>A group of seven Bahá'ís, in prison since 2008, have been sentenced to 20 years of jail each. Those seven had some kind of informal leadership role, if I understand correctly (the usual Bahá'í administrative have been closed for years now). It is obvious that they are in prison for not having the officially approved belief. Any other accusation against them are but silly excuses.
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http://news.bahai.org/story/786
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.