EYEontheUN adds a new human rights voice from Iran. As reported on CNN.com on July 28, 2008, a string of arson attacks have been carried out against the Baha'i minority in Iran.
The
voices of these latest human rights victims need to be contrasted with
UN inaction on human rights in Iran. EYEontheUN has compiled all UN
actions condemning human rights violations the world over. For the
abysmal UN record on Iran in all of 2007, click here.
Iran is the 14th country most condemned for human rights violations by
the UN - Israel is number one and the United States is tied for fourth
place with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (The details on UN
action on Iran can be found here.)
For a reality check of other non-UN views of what human rights violations are taking place in Iran check out this EYEontheUN page.
Iran: Religious minority reports arson attacks 
From CNN
"Iran's
Baha'i community -- a religious minority that has faced persecution in
the Islamic republic -- is reporting a string of arson attacks
targeting homes and vehicles.
A house "went up in flames" in
Kerman on July 18 only weeks after the residents' car had been torched,
said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International
Community to the United Nations. Those incidents followed a series of
threatening phone calls, Dugal said.
"As would be expected in
the light of the mistreatment Baha'is in Iran are routinely receiving,
the officials who investigated the fire either ignored or dismissed
obvious signs of suspicious activity, including a muffled explosion,
simply saying that it was the result of an electrical problem," she
said.
The group also listed several incidents since February,
and Dugal said there had been at least a dozen cases of arson targeting
the Baha'is in the last 15 months.
...The attacks, reported on
Monday by the Baha'i movement, come on the heels of the arrests of
seven members of Iran's national Baha'i coordinating group in March and
May. The Baha'is say the seven have been jailed in Evin Prison in
Tehran without charge.
"These latest attacks follow the authorities' attempts to deprive the Iranian Baha'i community of its leadership," Dugal said.
"As
Baha'is worldwide watch with alarm this escalation in violence ...
their fears that a sinister plan of persecution is unfolding become
increasingly confirmed. Their only hope is that enough voices of
protests are raised around the world to compel the government in Iran
to put an end to this violence."
...
The government has said
that the seven people recently detained were held for "security issues"
and that the Baha'is are members of a group working "against national
interest," a claim denounced by the Baha'is.
The Baha'is say the
latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution that
began in 1979. That's when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled
and an Islamic republic was created.
The Baha'is say members of its community have been killed, jailed and "otherwise oppressed" because of their religion.
Dugal
has said the government's philosophies were based largely on the idea
that there could be "no prophet following Mohammed" and that the faith
"poses a theological challenge to this belief."
The Baha'is
regard their founder Baha'u'llah as the most recent in the line of
Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that
includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and
Mohammed.
The Baha'is-- regarded as the largest non-Muslim
religious minority in Iran -- say they have 5 million members across
the globe, and about 300,000 in Iran."
Photo Source: Baha'i World News Service
