Abroad

Teheran The Terror Continues

When will there be an end to official terror in Iran? “The Islamic revolution has no other means than bloody and violent purification,” announced Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the president of parliament, the other day, and dissident Moslems, members of Marxist splinter groups, royalists, Kurds, and bazaar shopkeepers continue to be shot or hanged regularly for “anti-revolutionary activities.” The Iranian government claims that, because the country is in a state of war with Iraq, its victims are guilty of conniving with Iraqi agents to overthrow the regime. It is certain that hardly a day goes by without a violent assault against a policeman; an assassination attempt against a religious or political leader; or the bombing of a government building. Everything points to an intensification of state terror in reprisal for this “terrorism” of the opposition. Particular persecution seems aimed at the Ba’hai religious community, which is scrupulously nonpolitical and nonviolent. Five of the eight members of the Ba’hai governing assembly were killed after having been accused of “espionage on behalf of Israel and the United States.”

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Teheran The Terror Continues

When will there be an end to official terror in Iran? “The Islamic revolution has no other means than bloody and violent purification,” announced Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the president of parliament, the other day, and dissident Moslems, members of Marxist splinter groups, royalists, Kurds, and bazaar shopkeepers continue to be shot or hanged regularly for “anti-revolutionary activities.” The Iranian government claims that, because the country is in a state of war with Iraq, its victims are guilty of conniving with Iraqi agents to overthrow the regime. It is certain that hardly a day goes by without a violent assault against a policeman; an assassination attempt against a religious or political leader; or the bombing of a government building. Everything points to an intensification of state terror in reprisal for this “terrorism” of the opposition. Particular persecution seems aimed at the Ba’hai religious community, which is scrupulously nonpolitical and nonviolent. Five of the eight members of the Ba’hai governing assembly were killed after having been accused of “espionage on behalf of Israel and the United States.”