Message from the National Spiritual Assembly

October 1, 1998

To the American Baha'i Community

Dear Friends:

Two Baha'i friends, Sirus Zabihi-Moghaddam and Hedayat Kashefi Najafabadi, recently condemned to death by an Islamic court in Mashhad were just informed that their death sentences have been confirmed. We have now received additional distressing information. In the last three days thirty-one Baha'is have been arrested in fourteen cities around Iran. The towns and cities are Tehran, Babol, Babolsar, Tonkabon, Chalus, Rasht, Zanjan, Khorramabad, Arak, Borujerd, Sanandaj, Hamadan, Birjand, and Qaemshahr. A number of Baha'i homes and other properties have been looted and confiscated. It is significant that all the thirty-one friends who have been arrested were teachers in Baha'i higher education classes that have been giving college level courses to Baha'i youth barred from Iranian universities.

The National Spiritual Assembly requests that at all unit conventions the Tablet of Ahmad be recited. We will turn to the Lord and supplicate Him to protect His friends in Iran and to grant ultimate triumph to His Cause.

NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF
THE BAHA'IS OF THE UNITED STATES

©Copyright 1998 by The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States State