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The Extraordinary Cruelty of Iran’s Religious Persecution
Iran’s treatment of the Bahá’i is a crime against humanity.
“Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench,” warns the website of the Bahá’í International Community, sharing a quote from Baha’i religious writings.
The Bahá’í International Community is probably one of the world’s foremost living authorities on the subject. The world-devouring fire of religious intolerance and persecution, bigotry, and fanaticism has been trying to consign the entire community to destruction for generations.
The Muslim faith is hardly monolithic. Sunni and Shiite are the two most familiar branches to the world at large because they represent such a vast majority of practicing Muslims today.
There are other groups who can be said to practice Islam, however. Comparing any two religions is never an apples to apples comparison, but the prominency of the Shite and Sunni groups, comparative to the prominence of other groups like the Bahá’i and the Bektashi, could be likened, in a very loose sense, to the prominence of Catholics and Protestants in the Christian faith. Most Americans are familiar with the concept of Catholics and Protestants, and the reasons for the schism, if not the specifics of same.