04-01-2021: As the orchestrated removal of the US Trump Administration nears its end, the Israeli state is likely behind multiple attempts to trap President Trump into attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran, again. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated that its intelligence via Iraq indicated that Israeli agents-provocateurs were planning attacks on Americans in the region, in the hope that the US Empire would have no choice but to launch strikes on Iran.^[1] While the Trump Administration largely faced down relentless pressure from the Democrats and the Deep State to wage war against Russia, it has remained bellicose towards Iran, even assassinating top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at the start of 2020. Any and every excuse is used to agitate for a regime change war on Iran, the largest independent power in the Middle East. An ongoing one is supposed “repression” of the Baha’i.

Innocent religious beliefs?

Some on the left fall for the liberal imperialist “humanitarian” war agenda, such as the appalling proxy war against the Syrian Arab Republic from 2011 to the present day. Many of the same actors make wistful but entirely deceitful claims that the Baha’i in Iran are simply being persecuted for innocent religious beliefs that differ from those of the predominantly Shiite Islam held by the Iranian governmental system. An ABC News Australia report would even claim that arbitrary arrests and home raids of Baha’i believers are currently “escalating”. The accompanying blurb would claim that Baha’i beliefs include “truthfulness, equality and human rights, and an emphasis on the essential worth of all religions”.^[2] In reality, there could not be a greater distortion of the political role of the Baha’i in Iran.

Many in Iran who still back the overwhelmingly popular 1979 revolution view the Baha’i as “Zionist spies”. Is this an unfounded suspicion? Hardly – when one considers the fact that the Zionist Israeli state has allowed the Baha’i to establish their spiritual authority – the Universal House of Justice (UHJ) of their religion on a large property in Haifa, without subjecting it to any tax. The Israeli government has issued a postage stamp featuring the UHJ, and numerous Israeli Presidents and Prime Ministers have visited the World Baha’i centre in Haifa. This includes Izhak Ben Zvi in 1954, Zalman Shazar in 1964, Chaim Herzog in 1984, Yitzhak Rabin in 1994, Shimon Peres in 1994 and the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.^[3] Just these “visits” alone, from top representatives of the Zionist Israeli state which has never hidden its outright hostility to Iran, should at least raise eyebrows.

The Baha’i make the deceptive claim that they are “persecuted” in Iran because they are not allowed to practice their religion, but in fact they are only prohibited from proselytising their religion. They are entitled to practice their religion amongst themselves, get married (and divorced), pray etc – which is in fact the exact same situation in Israel itself. In Iran and Israel, the Baha’i practice is banned in terms of being able to be publicly taught and disseminated, while the private practice of the Baha’i faith is not subject to legal or governmental restriction.^[4]  Despite this, the Baha’i claim to only be repressed in Iran, but not in Israel. This is just the start of a series of glaring hypocrisies.

Given the actual or claimed religious beliefs of the Baha’i, it is only logical that not only Iran and Israel, but ANY government in any country could not allow the Baha’i faith to be openly practiced. If they did, they could find themselves overthrown, or have a potential world war on their hands. Some of the Baha’i doctrine is directly political and explicitly calls for: a world super state, a world legislator, the unification of all the world’s religions under the umbrella of the Baha’i faith (!), a world parliament, a world police force, a single world currency, a world taxation system and a single auxiliary world language.^[5] Alongside these, the claims that the Baha’i believe in the unity of the human race, the equality of men and women, and the need for world peace are scarcely credible, and appear to be a covering credo to obscure the actual agenda.

Any government in any country, likewise, could not allow other Baha’i views such as the abolition of all non-Baha’i legal systems^[6] to be openly promulgated. Can one imagine what would happen to a group in Australia, the US and Europe openly calling for the removal of their legal systems, and its replacement with one run by their own religion? Furthermore, the Baha’i even view non-Baha’i education as “death incarnate” which leads to “stagnation”.^[7]  That is, they do not wish for their children to be educated alongside other members of the community in a state or private school not run according to the Baha’i religion. This is flagrantly in breach of their professed belief in the unity and oneness of all humanity, and even of their supposed view that all religions should be equal!

No to war on Iran

A fantasy narrative about Baha’i persecution in Iran is being peddled to once again beat the drums of war against Iran, on the anniversary of the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. Workers the world over have a vital interest in opposing any drive to war by US/EU imperialism, no matter what the claimed justification. Even though the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has entertained the false Covid-19 “pandemic” hysteria in an effort to assuage world imperialism, this has not had any effect in deflecting the threats of war. The wars of regime change against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were catastrophic and unjustifiable – as will be a war on Iran. War propaganda retailing false allegations of Iranian government “repression” is a key component of regime change war. All tenets of it must be exposed and rejected. NO TO REGIME CHANGE WAR ON IRAN!

WORKERS  LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

[1] Iran’s foreign minister urges Trump to avoid Israel ‘trap’ to provoke war | Reuters (03-01-2021)

[2] Australia’s Baha’i community pleads for help as arbitrary arrests and home raids escalate in Iran – ABC News (03-01-2021)

[3] Home – Baha’i-Israel Relationship (webs.com) (03-01-2021

[4] Bahai Israel Relationship | The Bahai Insider (03-01-2020)

[5] Global Governance and the Baha’i Faith – The Real Agenda News (real-agenda.com) (03-01-2020)

[6] Shut down Nauru! For an Anti-Empire Refugee Rights Movement! | Red Fire (redfireonline.com) (03-01-2020)

[7] How Baha’is View non-Baha’i Schools – Baha’i principles (bahaibahai.com) (03-01-2020)