Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Iraqi-Jewish festival in London: an Arab view
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-17 08:08:00

The poet and author Khalid al-Kishtainy has written this fascinating report on last month’s Iraqi-Jewish festival Halahel - the word means ‘ trilling for joy’ - in the London-based Arabic newspaper Ashark al-Awsat (With thanks to Eileen K for the link and for her translation):

“The Jewish Iraqi community in London organised, under the leadership of Niran Basson-Timan and Edwin Shuker, a festival called Halahel celebrating the heritage of the Jewish community in Iraq, which is considered to be the oldest and most prominent of the Jewish communities in the world.

“Its history goes back to the Babylonian captivity when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer captured Jerusalem and took its inhabitants back to Babylon as captives. There, they absorbed the rich Babylonian heritage and blended it with their own heritage to establish the structure of their religion and culture.

“The festival included different topics ranging from politics and history to music and the arts. Many prominent personalities from Israel and Britain participated in all these topics, having one
thing in common, namely their Iraqi roots. Iraqi Jews, unlike other Jewish communities could not get rid of their Iraqi roots and their longing for Baghdad and Basra. For instance,
the musician Sarah Manasseh’s ancestors had left Iraq in the nineteenth century for India where she was born and brought up. She then emigrated to Britain without ever setting foot in Iraq. Yet
despite all that she devoted her life to Iraqi music and formed a musical group called The Rivers of Babylon.

“Wailing and lamentation are an important part of the Iraqi personality. The programme contained many such events like the Farhood ((The Looting in 1941) and the Taskit (The stripping of Iraqi nationality) and all the suffering that the Iraqi Jews had faced since the Thirties when the Palestinian problem erupted.

“I listened a lot and conversed with many of the people present. However, I did notice that the Palestinian subject was avoided in our conversation. Neither myself nor the people present breached the subject.

“To me, this is a very important point. Unlike other Middle Eastern Jews, Iraqi Jews were known for their political maturity plus their liberal and left-wing intellectual spirit. Many of them were communists and the Israeli society had a special respect for them as the grandchildren of Babylon. It was expected that they would play an important role as a bridge between the Arabs and Israel and also to direct their government towards an accord with the Arabs to achieve peace and respect the rights of the Palestinians.

“Unfortunately that never happened. Most of the peacemongers and friends of Palestine are Western Ashkenazi. The Eastern Jews supported the right-wing. That support has become an obstacle against achieving peace as the radical right-wing always get the Eastern Jewry’s vote.

“I can understand their hesitation as in the beginning they had to prove to the European Ashkenazis their loyalty and enthusiasm for the country and their complete detachment from their original Arab countries. However, it has been 60 years since the establishment of
the State of Israel and their migration there. They have shown their loyalty and attained important positions in the country.

“There is no one now in Israel that doubts their loyalty. In fact they are more zealous than the Ashkenazis. It is time for them to speak up about reality and the need for a dialogue with the Arabs based on justice, fairness and the admission of mistakes on both parts. They need to do that for Israel’s future and the future of their children and the children of all the inhabitants of the region.”

Read original article (Arabic)

My comment: For all his sympathy with Iraqi Jews Khalid al-Kishtainy misunderstands them. If they have failed to be a bridge between Israel and the Arab world over the Palestinian question, if they continue to vote for rightwing parties, it is not because the Eastern Jews have needed to prove ther loyalty to the Ashkenazi establishment. They feel angry and hurt that the monstrous injustice committed against them by Arab regimes - their uprooting, loss of heritage and stolen property - has never been acknowledged. But Mr al-Kishtainy’s view of justice is still disturbingly one-sided. His flippant line, ‘wailing and lamentation are part of the Iraqi personality’, suggests that Jewish suffering is exaggerated. If this is the best we can expect from ’sympathetic’ figures such as al-Kishtainy, who have made a valiant effort to retain their links with Jews and are a welcome sight at events such as last June’s Halalel, then what hope is there for reconciliation with Arabs and Muslims in general?

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: New Iraqi-Jewish body to claim communal property
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-14 10:28:00

With just eight Jews still living in Iraq, a new organisation has been established to safeguard the heritage and interests of Babylonian Jewry.

According to Zvi Gabay, writing in the Spring 2008 issue of Nehardea, the journal of the Babylonian heritage centre in Or Yehuda, Israel - the declared aim of the World Organisation of Jews from Iraq (WOJI) is to represent Jews of Iraqi origin in any claim to the community property in Iraq.

The organisation would also aim to preserve the tombs of the Prophets Ezekiel, Ezra, Jonah, Daniel and Nahum and the tomb of Joshua the High Priest. It would also attempt to salvage the registries of marriage, deaths, and properties, currently in the community’s offices in Baghdad, as well as Torah scrolls dispersed in synagogues, government and community offices inside Iraq and in Washington DC in the National Archives and Record Administration. Another important aim would be to locate the bodies of Jews who were executed during the regimes of Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein and grant them a proper Jewish burial.

During the preliminary discussions at the Or Yehuda centre, it was agreed to set up a General Assembly of 120 members made up of prominent public figures, heads of Iraqi communities outside Israel and non-profit organisations. Eighty would represent the Iraqi community in Israel and 40 the Jews of Iraqi origin living outside Israel.

A WOJI steering committee met in London on 23 June to fix the date for the General Assembly and determine its agenda.

According to Zvi Gabay, a former Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Jews of Iraq origin have responded very favourably to the idea of this organisation. “I strongly urge all Jews of Iraqi origin to take part in this important task of setting up the organisation”, he writes.” The recent end of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein provides us with a unique opportunity, which should enable us to reclaim our rights to Jewish property and assets in Iraq, as well as repossess artifacts and records of considerable historical value. Preserving the most influential Jewish community in the world is historically important for our generation and coming generations.”

The roots of Babylonian Jewry go back to the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC, the famous Yeshivot of Sura, Nehardea and Pumbedita and the codification of the Babylonian Talmud.

There are 240,000 Jews of Iraqi origin living in Israel and about 40,000 in other countries, from Sweden to Singapore. The Iraqi community is the third largest in Israel after the Russian and Moroccan.

Blogger: Chaldean Thoughts
Article: World Youth Day 2008 And The Iraqi Youth
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-08 01:24:00

Next week, more than 125,000 international visitors will attend World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately, the Iraqi Christians youth team has been denied the opportunity to meet with the youth from around the world.

BaghdadHope wrote on his blog:

On March 2007 Father Rayan P. Atto, parish priest of the Chaldean church of Mar Qardagh in Erbil, expressed a dream. Today, more than

Blogger: The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights
Article: Department of Civil Status leads discrimination against Baha’is
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-15 09:07:34

Dr. Basma G. Moussa, a leading Egyptian Baha’i blogger, and Assistant Professor at the prestigious Cairo University, wrote an article for the left-leaning El Badeel Newspaper on the discrimination adherents of the faith are met with in Egypt. Entitled “The Department of Civil Status Leads the Discrimination Against Baha’is”, the article is a forceful and compelling reminder of the importance of protecting the individual rights of citizens, regardless of race, gender or beliefs. For, as Dr. Moussa eloquently states, not guaranteeing these rights can weaken feelings of citizenship, thus creating opportunities for sectarianism to surface, and a return to the ignorant tendencies of the past.

Despite the January 29 ruling, the Department of Civil Status has shown signs of willingness to alter its position, justifying it by resorting to fatwas (religious edicts) that claim there are only three divine religions.

We at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights share Dr. Moussa’s amazement and confusion at the Department’s rationale, and strongly condemn this injustice.

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Relations turn deadly between Jews and Persians
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-16 07:41:00

Israel and Iran are at daggers drawn, as Iran’s missile-rattling last week testifies. But it was not always thus, declares Claire M. Lopez, an intelligence specialist, in this succinct analysis for the Middle East Times.

” Jews and Persians have, in fact, millennia of cordial relations between them; it is only in the past three decades that the relationship has turned deadly.

The historical presence of a small Jewish minority in Iran dates to the Babylonian captivity of biblical times: when Cyrus the Great freed the captive Jewish people, not all chose to return home.

At the 1948 formation of the State of Israel, there were some 100,000 Jews living in Iran — a factor that must have figured to some extent in the quick establishment of good relations with the shah by Israel’s first national leadership.

Over the next quarter century, this Jewish community in Iran prospered as they played an important role in the economic and cultural life of the country. A good fit in economic and trade matters saw a steady exchange of Iranian oil in return for Israeli technical expertise in agricultural areas and high quality military hardware for the shah’s rapidly modernizing armed forces. The development of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, discreet but hardly a secret, aroused no evident concern in the shah’s Iran.

Strains of anti-Semitism, historically an integral element of Islamic jihadi ideology in general, had begun to expand anew in the first part of the 20th century. As the Zionist movement developed from 19th century dreams into the reality of fulfillment with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, key figures such as Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, stoked latent Arab hatred of Jews as he joined forces with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi war machine.

But when Holocaust survivors actually succeeded in re-constituting the Jewish homeland, in one fell swoop, Jews achieved the impossible: they cast off their dhimmi status and established a modern nation state on land Muslims considered sacred (the waqf).

And while Iran’s deeply conservative Shiite clergy did not automatically share the Arab world’s resentment against the upstart Jewish nation, their own seething hostility toward the rule of the Pahlavi Dynasty, at once secular and repressive, had turned outward against the shah’s friends and allies long before the 1979 revolution.

The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was among a minority of Iran’s deeply traditional Shiite marjas who absorbed and nurtured the virulent anti-Semitic motifs that eddied up from early Koranic references, certain German political philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, and the full-fledged poison of Nazi ideology.

Khomeini’s mentor, the Ayatollah Abol-Shassem Kahsani, an intensely anti-Semitic cleric himself, also played a defining role.

Of course, it’s not just anti-Semitism that fuels today’s enmity between Iran and Israel. Largely a creation of European Jews whose long centuries of exile steeped them in the thinking and values of Western civilization, today’s State of Israel is also an outpost of modern, secular, democratic, civil society — which, of course, makes it anathema to the tradition-bound mores of an Islamic society hearkening back to the seventh century.

So it was that when Khomeini took power in his 1979 coup d’etat, tens of thousands of Iran’s Jews fled to Israel, Israel’s key world ally (the United States) became the Great Satan, and relations between the two countries took a nosedive.

Today, Iran’s theocracy is seized with a millennialist fervor that harnesses the bitter resentments of its IRGC Iraq war survivors to spearhead its 21st century geo-strategic ambitions. The theological inspiration draws from belief in the return of the Disappeared 12th Imam (or Mahdi), who is expected to return to earth in time of great chaos and strife to usher in the Day of Judgment and preside over 1,000 years of peace and justice. The Shahab-3 missiles project the more earthly ambitions of a would-be nuclear power.

The lines are drawn; Iran and Israel are at swords’ points. The implications for the United States and the world are incalculable. What is not known is what are Israel’s ultimate red lines, what is the final tipping point that could spell the difference between militaristic posturing and war. Jews and Persians have never fought a war. They needn’t now if tolerance and reason can somehow triumph over blind faith in thrall to seventh century zeal.

Read article in full

Blogger: Ihsan
Article: Liberal Left Islamophobia (part IV) : Lebanon
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-01 18:29:00

A number of liberal left blogs have been posting photographs of women supporters of Hizbullah who appear in “western” clothing (T-shirts etc.). The overt and subtext message of these photographs is something that I’ve addressed earlier on a blog entry titled “scantily clad orientalists.”

The message is that: “their women dress just like ours, therefore we got nothing to worry about.”

But

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Iraqi Jew tells his story in the European Parliament
Originaly Posted On: 2008-07-02 15:46:00

Flanked by Moise Rahmani and Assist. Prof Carole Basri, JJAC co-chair Iraqi-born Edwin Shuker holds up In the hell of Saddam Hussein, one Baghdad Jew’s account of arrest, torture and inprisonment. (JJAC)

Justice for Jews from Arab Countries has now taken its campaign to the European Parliament:

(BRUSSELS) July 1, 2008 - “We lost everything we had,” declared Edwin Shuker, a displaced Jewish refugee from Iraq at a hearing in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium held on July 1, 2008. The European Parliament is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union, it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world.

The hearing was organized by Paulo Casaca, MEP, with the European Friends of Israel and the B’nai B’rith in association with Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), the international coalition of organizations that are seeking justice for the up to one million Jews displaced from Arab countries since 1948. In attendance were Jews with roots in Arab countries including Moise Rahmani from Belgium (born in Cairo) and Prof. Carole Basri of the USA (family from Baghdad).

Shuker, a UK resident and co-Chair of JJAC, said, “Two refugee populations emerged from the Arab-Israeli conflict, both suffered, both were victims and justice requires equal consideration and redress.” He continued, “We want to bring the achievements that have been realized in the US, to Europe.”

Read press release in full

Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Stereotyping Islam..
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-27 11:15:48

(This topic is a message to any non-Arab muslim or non-muslim in specific, and to all in general)

When your around for Modern muslim images, You’d expect a picture of some angry mob burning down a chinese made American flag, or a turban wearing bearded fellow who’s yelling the name of Allah while waving around a sword, which are indeed some of the many images Islam is being portrayed in these days.. But Am not talking about that kind of Stereotyping, people already talked about it enough..

What am talking about is the Stereotyping of Islam that our society, Saudi Arabia, and the muslim and non muslim societies in general have of any religious figure..

(google a picture of the Religious Authority in Saudi)

When did islam turn into a dress-coded religion? Have we adopted the fact that when someone turns religious, there’s a certain uniform he has to wear?

The thobe, The Ega’al-less Shumakh, the White Ghutra, The Robe (Bisht).. All of the above, if you’re that much religious..

Mind you the inconvenience it may cause to new muslims in non-arab countries, Islam is a flexible religion that is no need of a dress code, our muslim actions and behavior speak loud enough of who we are and what we do.. Restricting our thoughts and imagination to the idea that you have to be a Thobe-Wearing muslim to be a Complete muslim is silly, to even wear that to enter Heaven is stupid.. I came across many Muslims and Muslim reverts who all agree on the fact that the Thobe is the official muslim uniform.. It’s NOT.. Simple, see?

Ok, maybe other heavenly religions already adopted certain uniforms that categorizes it’s participants.. You have the White Collared priests, the Black Hatted Jews, and the Orange-like monks of Tibet and so on.. Islam, however, never specified a certain type of clothing more than rules on what you should wear and how you should wear it, unless you’re off to Hajj or Umra.. For example, preaching of islam’s dress codes that preach modesty, as a muslim i shouldn’t let any piece of clothing i wear (if it happens to cover my legs) to exceed my ankles..This is to Avoid the image that abundance in length is a sign of luxury, in opposition of the poverty image of small shredded clothes.. I should stay away from certain fabrics that gloat of my social status and stick to practical ones that help me do my daily tasks.. i can be stylish, but fabrics like Silk for instance, shouldn’t be used by a man.. I should also refrain from clothing that doesn’t belong to my gender in the common understanding of clothing.. Yes, travesties can’t be muslims..

However, it is not mentioned in Islam nor in different sayings of the prophet PBUH that you should wear a thobe and/or a ghutra.. You can shop from Giordano, buy some Sketchers, wear a Puma and still be a muslim.. a Devoted muslim too.. See, in Islam, we don’t need clothes to speak of who we are, like i mentioned before, it’s our actions.. Like for example, the shaved Mustache and the beard (that should be as long as a closed fist placed under one’s chin) are a sign of someone who’s deeply knowledgeable in Islam and highly devoted; it’s not the Thobe..

My message now goes straight to the new muslim reverts, The thobe is not the Muslim wear, so don’t throw away your clothes just yet.. I met several new muslim reverts who told me that they actually stopped buying pants and shirts ever since they became muslim.. Some of them actually suffered going through the process of tailoring one.. Now, all this fashion journey to nowhere leads to no where.. Islam is not that hard, nor it requires all this mumbo jumbo arabian image to fully be a Muslim..

Another part of this problem lies In Saudi Arabia, Where many still believe that the Thobe and Ghutra are a sign or religiousness, while casual t-shirts and Jeans are just silly arabs trying to act American.. Not western, specifically american.. And that is both wrong and stupid.. Last time i checked, when i wore a thobe in my Engagement, it serves the point of showing that am Celebrating, since i had those textures tailored on it as ornaments, and it gives out that am a Saudi on a special occasion.. Doesn’t mean that am more muslim than anyone else.. Plus, in despite of the pros, the cons are that the thobe is very restricting in movement, not that practical and it’s highly flammable.. So, even if islam wanted a uniform, that would be my last choice.. It’s ok as a cultural trademark, The greek culture has their own set of flammable threads too, it’s just clothes.. The only clothing in Islam that has been specified in the Quran and Sunna is the Ehram.. Other than that, go wild, within the limits of course, which is another topic..

Sticking to the topic in hand..

a Fat bearded muslim, wearing the whole gear, thobe and a Ega’al-less shumakh, walking around dragging his wife behind him and beating his kids, while still having time to pray to Allah, ironically, is in no way similar to another Muslim, wearing the whole gear, and good to his wife and son..

When we actually start believing that a certain dress code is a true representation of a school of thought or a spiritual religion, subconsciously and consciously we’d start to believe that the actions of those who wear it are true representations of it.. Which is wrong..

Anyone knows if there’s a Banana Republic opening in Jeddah soon?
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Yours,

Lou..

p.s. i miss you guys

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Blogger: Point of no return
Article: The other Middle East refugees deserve recognition
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-25 06:37:00

The Jerusalem Post pegs a hard-hitting leader on Jewish refugees to the JJAC congress now meeting in London. (With thanks: Lily)

The world knows of the pain and dislocation experienced by roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs when Israel was established; it knows little about the trauma borne by some 850,000 Jews from the Arab world who were uprooted from their homes.

The precise numbers and exact impetus for the departures, in these linked cases, remain in dispute. The motivations of the displaced in promoting their respective narratives are easily suspect because both Jewish and Arab refugee conundrums are tied to claims of “inalienable rights,” for restitution and reparations, and (in the case of the Arabs) demands for repatriation.

In any journey toward genuine acceptance and reconciliation that the quest for peace demands, the two narratives will need to be mutually validated in some fashion.

The plight of Jews who left the Arab countries has drawn relatively little attention, notwithstanding the efforts of individuals such as Heskel M. Haddad, a New York-based ophthalmologist of Iraqi origin. Recently, however, this cause received a boost from a non-binding US Congressional resolution adopted in April which urged the administration to raise the Jewish refugee issue whenever the Palestinian one arises. And this week a group called Justice for Jews from Arab Countries has been holding a conference in London to ensure that the narrative of Jewish refugees is told alongside that of the Palestinian Arabs.

It would be a tragedy if this campaign were dismissed as an attempt at one-upmanship in an arena so long dominated by supporters of the Palestinian Arabs; suffering does not negate suffering.

One approach for fair-minded individuals is to consider the Jewish refugees as human beings rather than as pawns in a vitriolic political dispute.

This is why the recent publication of Lucette Lagnado’s The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit is so welcome. In telling the affecting saga of her family’s forced emigration from Cairo to New York, and by sharing memories of her proud father Leon’s decline from boulevardier, poker player and businessman - who rubbed shoulders with King Farouk - to a refugee unable to raise the few thousand dollars necessary to open a corner candy store, Lagnado puts a human face on the other Middle East refugee tragedy.

Read article in full

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt & Iran
Article: What is it Like To Be a Minority in Iran?
Originaly Posted On: 2008-06-27 04:14:00

There are very few articles in the news media that can so beautifully paint a picture of a specific situation while being clear, focused and to the point. Roya Hakakian did just that in her outstanding analysis of the struggle of minorities in Iran. Her article, published in the weekly Forward newspaper, is a perfect example of this type of good writing, remaining a pleasure to read even though the subject matter is quite sad and awful.

What is it like to be a Jew or a Baha’i in Iran these days? In order to fully understand the meaning of this, please read on this essay.

Then They Came for the Bahai
Opinion

By Roya Hakakian
Thu. Jun 19, 2008

If one must master the knowledge that even bigotry is relative and comes in gradations, then I was a premature pupil. I learned this lesson when I was only 10.

In 1977, in an eclectic neighborhood in Tehran, my Jewish family lived on a narrow, wooded alley in what was then an upscale area, alongside two other Jewish families and many more Muslims. There was also a Bahai family, the Alavis, next door.

By then, I had already intuited that my relatives, in the presence of Muslim friends and neighbors, were somehow less flamboyant creatures, quieter and more measured. But the Alavis, debonair and highly educated, were mere ghosts.

Theirs was a corner house on the alley, one of the most beautiful in the neighborhood, and the first to be sold within days in 1979, after the return of the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. In a neighborhood so closely-knit that even the mailman dispensed pearls of pedagogical wisdom to our parents, the Alavis simply vanished one day.

No chance for tears, or promises to keep in touch. Not even a forwarding address. My mother insists they said goodbye to her, but my mother considers inventing happy endings a maternal virtue.

American audiences, their eyes brimming with anxiety, often ask me about the condition of Jews living in Iran today. But the hardships they assume to be the burden of the Iranian Jews is really the daily experience of the Bahais.

In a 1979 meeting with five of the Iranian Jewish community leaders, Khomeini summarized his position on the local Jews in one of his quintessentially coarse one-liners: “We recognize our Jews as separate from those godless Zionists.” The line has served as the regime’s position on the Jewish minority ever since. So important were these words that they were painted on the walls of nearly every synagogue and Jewish establishment the day after the ayatollah spoke them.

It did not prevent Jews from being relegated to second-class citizenry, nor did it enable them to thrive in post-revolutionary Iran. But it recognized the legitimacy of the Jewish existence in Iran and allowed the community to live on, albeit extremely restrictedly.

But it is the Bahai community that has been suffering the bleak fate assumed to be that of the Jews. It is the Bahais who are not recognized by the Iranian constitution. Decades ago, Khomeini branded them, among other unsavory terms, a political sect and not a religion, circuitously defining them as plotters against the regime. Iranian Bahais have been accused of espionage for every major power save the Chinese, and simultaneously so. They are not allowed to worship. Their properties are vandalized. Even their dead know no peace, as their cemeteries are systematically destroyed.

Their children cannot attend schools, nor can Bahai academics teach. That is why in 1987, unemployed professors, in an act reminiscent of the Middle Ages, established underground universities to educate the Bahai youth.

Last month, six Bahai leaders were arrested. They had already been accustomed to routine weekly harassments and interrogations, which is why some of their wives have taken up sewing blindfolds to keep the guards from forcing dirty ones onto their husbands’ eyes. What is most alarming about this particular arrest is that they have not returned home and are being kept incommunicado.

What compels me to write these lines is the eerie similarity between this and another historical parallel to which I have been a witness. When the American embassy was seized in Tehran in November 1979, the world took the ayatollah at his word for the egregious act he vehemently supported — that it was solely against America. But for those living in Iran, the hostage taking turned out to be about everything but America.

Newspapers were shut down. Political parties were banned. Opposition group members were arrested and their leaders hauled off to stand before firing squads.

When it was all said and done, the hostages, despite their great suffering during 444 days of captivity, eventually returned home. But the secular opposition of the regime was practically obliterated, and in perfect silence, too, as all attention was focused on the news from the embassy.

The current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has taken a page from Khomeini’s book. He rails against Israel. He denies the Holocaust. Through these means he focuses all attention on Jews, and while the world remains perfectly oblivious his men assault the Bahais.

Though Ahmadinejad’s intentions against Israel are gravely alarming, in immediate terms, the community that is paying the most for his pan-Islamist ambitions is the Bahai. Since Ahmadinejad’s election to presidency, there has been a sharp rise in anti-Bahai literature in government-sponsored journals, which has, in turn, led to a rise in gang attacks against the community.

That the Bahais shy away, per religious mandate, from advocacy on their own behalf surrounds their predicament with even greater silence. But for those in the West — especially for Jews, who know the lessons of World War II — the plight of the Iranian Bahais is most urgent: It is an act of destruction, not simply promised, but already underway.

Roya Hakakian, the author of “Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran” (Crown, 2004), is a recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship.