Tehran
\nIran\u2019s intelligence ministry said on Monday it had arrested a number of adherents of the banned Baha\u2019i faith for links to a centre in Israel, and for proselytising in schools and kindergartens.
\nThe ministry statement, carried by state media, did not say how many people were arrested or when the arrests were made.
\nThe Baha\u2019i International Community\u2013which represents the faith worldwide, and operates, according to its website, under a governing council based in Israel\u2013tweeted on Sunday that \u201ca significant number of Bahais,\u201d including three of its former leaders, had been arrested in Iran.
\nIt said the arrests were part of the \u201cgovernment\u2019s escalating persecution of Iran\u2019s Baha\u2019i community.\u201d
\nThe Islamic Republic considers the Baha\u2019i faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
\nIts faithful see Baha\u2019i as an independent religion and its 5 million followers are spread across more than 190 countries.
\nThe intelligence ministry statement said the detainees \u201chad been carrying out extensive propaganda missions to propagate Baha\u2019i teachings\u201d and to \u201cinfiltrate various levels of the educational sector across the country, especially kindergartens.\u201d
\nThey were also promoting a campaign of women\u2019s unveiling in Iran, it said.
\nIt accused them of spying for a centre in the Israeli port city of Haifa, where a holy Baha\u2019i shrine was built last century.
\nThe shrine of the faith\u2019s 19th century founder, the Persian nobleman Baha\u2019u\u2019llah, near the Israeli port city of Acre is considered the religion\u2019s holiest site.
\nExiled Baha\u2019i leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
\nIn June, reports circulated of the sentencing of 26 Baha\u2019is by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Court in the southern city of Shiraz to prison terms ranging from two to five years. They were charged with \u201cconspiracy to disrupt internal and external security,\u201d according to the reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tehran Iran\u2019s intelligence ministry said on Monday it had arrested a number of adherents of the banned Baha\u2019i faith for links to a centre in Israel, and for proselytising in schools and kindergartens. The ministry statement, carried by state media, did not say how many people were arrested or when the arrests were made. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-275077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n