From: FG <FG@hotmail.com>
Subject: To UHJ #6 (Juan Cole: Protest to Islamic Authorities
Date: Saturday, December 13, 1997 8:26 AM
Dear Members of the Universal House of Justice:
I ask you to consider this forwarded message, from some
of today's most widely recognized writers of international stature,
including one Nobel laureate. The oppressive atmosphere that has
developed in the Bahai Faith during recent memory, as Dr. Juan
Cole suggests here, and others have testified elsewhere, seems
appallingly reminiscent of that in present day Iran.
As a published poet and literary critic, having edited the poems
and prose of Robert Hayden, I deeply feel the irony and poignancy
of this critique and comparison. Indeed, it was the initial conviction,
born of 21 years of membership in the Bahai Faith, that no real
artistic work of worth could ever be written in the present Bahai
environment that has compelled me to sacrifice myself, my
membership in the Bahai Faith, if need be, to help create an
unmoderated forum on Usenet.
I beg you again with all my heart and soul to give evidence to the
world that the Bahai Faith lives up to its own teachings on human
rights and free speech and respects the conscience with which
God has endowed humankind.
--
FG
UseNet: alt.religion.bahai
The RFD for talk.religion.bahai can be found on news.groups,
news.announce.newgroups, or at <https://www.baha.demon.co.uk/rfd2.htm>
------begin forwarded message from talisman:
The following letter written to the heads of states participating in
the Islamic Conference Organization meeting in Tehran groups
some wll-known progressive intellectuals and addresses issues
of concern also to those on the present list.
It should be remembered that the same regime responsible for
these crackdowns on writers has persecuted the Iranian Baha'i
community. Ironically, there is every evidence that many in the
Baha'i administration would also not allow freedom of speech to
writers if they gained control of the machinery of state.
cheers
Juan Cole
History
U of Michigan
--------------------
OPEN LETTER
From: Edward Albee, Homero Aridjis, Yasar Kamal, Edward Said,
Michael Scammell, Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Nadine Gordimer,
Arthur Miller
To Heads of States participating in the Islamic Conference
(December 8-11, 1997, Tehran)
December 8, 1997
We speak today as writers engaged in the constant struggle to
defend our right and the right of our colleagues around the world to
express ourselves freely without fear of reprisal. This week, two
significant events coincide: International Human Rights Day
(December 10th) and the Islamic Conference in Tehran
(December 8th-11th).
In light of the rich literary heritage of the participating countries, we
wish to draw attention to the plight of many writers who must struggle
every day with the unacceptable choice to either protect their own
safety and remain silent; or to speak their minds and risk imprisonment,
torture and even death. In Tehran this week, many people will speak,
and many will be spoken of: we wish to mention a few who will not.
We turn our attention first to the host country of the conference, the
Islamic Republic of Iran. By censoring many of its brightest literary
figures and silencing all dissent, the government has gone to great
lengths to undermine Iran's long and distinguished tradition of letters.
The editor, Faraj Sarkuhi, is imprisoned today for nothing more than
attempting to speak his mind. He will not be on any agenda at the
Conference, but his presence in a cell somewhere nearby will surely
cast a cloud over the proceedings. So will the deaths of writers and
intellectuals such as Soltanpoor, Saidi-Sirjani, Mir'ala'i, Tafazzoli, and
Zalzadeh. The recent suppression of Simin Behbahani shows that the
signatories of the 1994 Declaration of 134 Iranian Writers remain in
danger today.
It is not only in Iran that writers have been censored, imprisoned, exiled,
or killed by official and unofficial groups. In Algeria, Abdel Kadr Alloula,
the playwright, filmmaker and actor was gunned down for his
denunciation of violence. In Syria, the poet, Faraj Birqdar, has been
imprisoned for ten years. In Kuwait, Iraqi poet Khalaf Alwan Jallud
Al-Maliki is serving 15 years in prison. In Iraq, Aziz Al-Syed Jasim,
journalist and author, is imprisoned indefinitely for refusing to write a
book about Saddam Hussein. In Turkey, Recep Marasli, a publisher,
was arrested in March 1997 for xpressing his views on Kurdish
culture and identity. Even writers of international stature, such as
Turkey's Yasar Kamal and Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, have been
targeted in recent years.
We condemn these violations irrespective of the perpetrator. We
appeal to the participants in the Islamic Conference to put an end to
these abuses and to promote freedom of expression which will
inevitably enrich their cultural heritage.
We believe that the coincidence of International Human Rights Day
and the 1997 Islamic Conference points to a larger truth in which the
caprices of chance play no part: try as they may, governments who
repress their own citizens cannot escape the standard of freedom set
forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As we celebrate the
declaration*s forty-ninth anniversary this week, we reaffirm our
commitment to human rights and our conviction that all leaders who
violate such principles as freedom of expression shall witness the
erosion of their power, and shall be defeated by the strength inherent
in words.
Signed
Edward Albee, Homero Aridjis, Yasar Kamal, Edward Said,
Michael Scammell, Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster,
Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller
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