On the Disturbing News Received Today: Shiraz Youth Sentenced

This has been a day for disturbing news from the Middle East. -gw

Less heartening to read on my feeds was that 54 Baha'is have been sentenced to jail in Iran, simply for being Baha'is. The Baha'i World News Service reports on calls from both Amnesty International and the US State Department for Iran to release these prisoners. There is still a long way to go in both Iran and Egypt.

http://blog.r0ry.co.uk/2008/01/egyptian-courts-and-iranian-pr.html

January 29, 2008 11:27 PM EST TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Tuesday said more than 50 followers of the minority Baha'i faith were convicted of distributing propaganda against the country's Islamic regime, state media reported.

Ali Reza Jamshidi, Iran's judiciary spokesman, said three people, who were in custody in southern city of Shiraz, were sentenced to four years in prison. Another 51 Baha'i followers were given one-year suspended prison terms, Jamshidi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Last year, Baha'i communities abroad had reported that a group of followers were detained in Shiraz, located about 550 miles south of Tehran, while helping poor communities there.

Iran had been the cradle of the Baha'i faith in the middle of the 19th century. But the faith was banned after the 1979 Islamic revolution, and it is not recognized in the Iranian constitution as a religious minority.

The Baha'i faith was founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman, Baha'u'llah, who claimed to be a new prophet in the series of prophets that included Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Islam considers Muhammad to be the last of the prophets.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20080129/iran-baha-is/
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5japVd1xVwzTQ23Y-QkaPymSiftEQD8UFVQNO1

Baha'i News: Amnesty International, US State Department call for ...
Worldwide Faith News (press release), NY - 14 hours ago: GENEVA - In the wake of a US State Department call for Iran to release Baha'i prisoners, Amnesty International has issued an "urgent action" appeal on their ...

News in brief
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 3 hours ago: Associated Press in Miran Shah Iran has jailed three members of the Baha'i faith for four years for "making propaganda" against the Islamic system. ...

54 Baha’is sententenced in Iran for charity work
MidEastYouth.com - 16 hours ago: I would like to state the in all likelihood the Baha’i youth and volunteers were NOT propagating the Baha’i Faith in Shiraz. In the Baha’i Faith we firmly ...