Back in Tehran, Roger, who doesn't speak Farsi, gleefully observes: "For months now, I've been urging another look at Iran, beyond dangerous demonization of it as a totalitarian state."
Maybe this visit, Roger, you'll have the courage to ask to meet with Iran's Baha'is, particularly their seven community leaders, imprisoned for more than a year without legal counsel, falsely charged with espionage, and facing execution.
As observed in a February 26, 2009 Voice of America editorial "reflecting the views of the United States Government" (www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-02-23-voa5.cfm):
"More than 9 months have passed since 7 leaders of the Baha'i community in Iran were arrested and sent to prison with no access to legal counsel. Now the Iran government has announced the 7 have been charged with espionage. The move is the latest in decades of repressive measures against the Baha'is, the largest non-Islamic religious minority in Iran. Those measures include barring Baha'is from attending public universities or working in public agencies, destroying or closing Baha'i places of worship, bulldozing Baha'i cemeteries, legally confiscating Baha'i property, and killing Baha'is with impunity."
This doesn't sound "totalitarian" to you, Roger?
One cannot help but draw parallels between the persecution of Baha'is in Iran and the persecution of Jews in pre-war Nazi Germany.
This savage oppression of the Baha'is , who are deemed apostates by Iran's Shiite mullahs, must not be swept under the Persian carpet. Apostacy, pursuant to pending Iranian legislation, will be punishable by death.
I am appalled that the persecution of Iran's Baha'is continues to be ignored by Cohen.
Censored by The New York Times? What else is new. However, in this instance, given how, some 60 years ago, The Times shunted news of the Holocaust to its back pages, this lack of sensitivity to the persecution of the Baha'is is nothing less than outrageous.
More worrisome still: Reference to Islam's history of religious "tolerance", but no mention by Obama of the Baha'is during his Cairo speech.
The Soviets had a term for people like Roger Cohen; Useful Idiot. He just another in a long line media drones smitten by Obama. God help us all...
ReplyDeleteI found your article all by chance on Google and am very impressed. The lack of responsiveness from President Obama towards the ongoing Baha'i persecutions in Iran is absolutely unacceptable.
ReplyDeletePlease continue to urge and press the Obama's administration and other Human Rights organizations as well as UN to take action against the brutal Islamic regime of Iran.
Many thanks!!!