A few days before Christmas, jarring news made its way from Iran: Three
adherents of
the Bahai faith have been condemned to death solely because of
their beliefs. The
judicial judgment against two defendants living in Karaj, near
Tehran, accus es them of a
new kind of crime -- transmitting information that they were on
trial for their lives to the
United Nations and to Bahai groups outside Iran. Those facing
execution squads are
thus expected to collaborate in a cover-up of their own fate. They
are meant to meet
their deaths with the silence of lambs being led to slaughter. No
criminal acts are cited
in the 700-word verdict reaffirming the death sentence. The two
Bahais are simply
accused of holding feasts, owning books and being "unprivileged
infidels at war with the
Muslim nation."