[Jewish] UMass Panel on Persecution of Baha'is in Iran]

[Steven Nathan]

I am writing on behalf of the UMass Baha?i Club to invite you to attend a panel
on the persecution of Baha?is in Iran on Tuesday, March 10th at 7 p.m. in the
Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union. The panel will include Dr. John Woodall, a
psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School with a long history of human rights
activism and advocacy, and a Baha?i couple currently living in Connecticut who
will speak about their personal experiences as Baha?is in Iran.

The Baha?i Faith is a world religion that began in the mid-1800s in Iran. A
central teaching of the Baha?i Faith is that all of the major world religions
come from the same God and that each brought essentially the same eternal
spiritual truths of love and peace at different points of man?s existence.
Baha?is believe Baha?u?llah is the newest in the line of messengers of God.

Since the early years of the faith, Baha?is have endured brutal and systematic
persecution in Iran. Presently the situation has reached even greater urgency,
as a new wave of persecution saw the arrest of seven national Baha?i leaders who
are now on trial with unsupported charges of treason and heresy. Meanwhile,
Iranian Baha'is are being denied higher education and their livelihood while
their homes are raided, gravesites desecrated and Baha'i properties destroyed.
These actions against a small, peaceful minority have deep implications on basic
human rights and freedoms on a worldwide level.

The UMass Baha?i Club and the regional Baha?i community would greatly appreciate
your presence and the support of any Jews groups on the Hampshire College
campus, which recognizes the importance of compassion, kindness and the
sacredness of human spirituality.

We invite you to attend an interfaith prayer vigil for the Baha?is of Iran to be
held immediately following the event in the Cape Cod Lounge, as well. We also
ask for your help in contacting state representatives about supporting the
resolution concerning the situation of the Iranian Baha?is, and asking
representatives to speak about this infringement of human rights and dignity.

The following links provide more detailed information on the Baha?i Faith and
the persecution of Baha?is in Iran:

Rainn Wilson, the actor best known for his role as Dwight in The Office and a
member of the Baha?i Faith, speaks out on the persecution of Baha?is in Iran in
his article published on CNN:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:0_h7UIjdOjgJ:www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/17/wilson.faith/index.html+rainn+wilson%27s+article+about+the+persecution+of+bahais&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Visit http://www.bahai.org/ for more information about the Baha?i Faith and more
recent news articles on the persecution of Iranian Baha?is.

Sincerely,

Kimya Hedayat-Zadeh
Secretary of the UMass Baha?i Club






-- 


 


Steven P. Nathan

Campus Rabbi

Interim LGBTQ Advisor

Hampshire College 
                                                           

Office of Spiritual Life -- Box SA

Amherst, MA 01002

Phone: (413) 559-5282

Fax: (413) 559-5663

snathan at hampshire.edu <mailto:snathan at hampshire.edu>


 

/"The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the 
more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets 
sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern 
one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to 
me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, 
some are guilty, all are responsible."/

/-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel/


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