[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 24, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IRANIAN BAHAIS FACE EXECUTION

                                 ______


                        HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 23, 1996

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, we just received the distressing news that 
the Supreme Court of Iran confirmed on February 18, 1996, the death 
sentences of Mr. Kayvan Khalajabadi and Mr. Bihnam Mithaqi. These two 
Bahais had been arrested without charge in April 1989 and sentenced to 
death on November 23, 1993, by the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Karaj 
for their religious activities. The verdict had been appealed to the 
Supreme Court. If these men are executed, they will be the first Bahais 
executed since 1992.
   Mr. Speaker, just last month on March 27 I stood here calling for 
the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 102, a resolution concerning 
the emancipation of the Iranian Bahai community. In calling for its 
passage, I said that there are disturbing signals that the repression 
of Bahais has increased during this past year. Unfortunately, I could 
have not been more right.
   Mr. Speaker, since the fundamentalist Islamic regime took power in 
Iran in 1979, hundreds of Bahais, the largest religious minority in 
Iran, have been executed, and thousands have been imprisoned solely 
because of their religion. Because the regime does not recognize the 
Bahai faith, calling it a conspiracy and a heresy, tens of thousands of 
Bahais are today deprived of jobs, housing, schools, and other social 
services. Furthermore, it is common practice for Bahais to be denied 
pensions and food ration cards purely because of their religious 
affiliation. And what, you ask, could the Bahais possibly do that could 
justify this atrocious, asinine treatment? They simply ask to be able 
to peacefully practice their faith.
  Intolerance, Mr. Speaker, is the trail of the backward, the ignorant, 
and the insecure. In Iran, intolerance of Bahais, people who threaten 
no one and who accede to legitimate, civil authority wherever they 
reside, defines not the Bahais, but the Iranian fundamentalists.
   Mr. Speaker, Iran must continue to be ostracized from the community 
of nations until its conduct can begin to approach a respect for the 
basic rights of each human being to live, worship, and speak according 
to the dictates of his or her own conscience. We must continue to stand 
up and denounce each barbarous and inhumane action the Iranian regime 
takes. We must let Mr. Khalajabadi and Mr. Mithaqi know that the world 
cares about them and will not stand idly by in their time of need.

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