Since the Islamic Revolution, recent incidences in Iran has shown that persecution of Iran’s non-Muslim religious minorities continues to intensify.
Just last week in Shiraz, Iran, Kennisah Hadash located in the ancient Jewish mahalleh-ghetto; Kennisah Hadash was broken into and vandalized. Vandals broke into the synagogue, ripped apart Torah scrolls, prayer books were thrown into toilets and the floor, and ritual objects were destroyed. Three local Iranian Jews who came to pray the following morning were the ones who discovered the damage to their synagogue.
If that was not enough, a second synagogue in Iran was vandalized the day before, Shiraz’s Kashi synagogue.
The morning after the incident occurred, the Iranian authorities came in and prohibited anyone from taking footage of the crime scene. Iranian authorities did that to ensure there would be no proof that something like that could occur to the Jewish Community in Iran. Since the incident, the regime has not issued any official statement condemning the vandalism and have yet to launch an official investigation of the crimes. Still, the Jewish community will have no choice but to rely on authorities to investigate this ominous hate crime.
The current regime’s relative support for the practice of the Jewish religion in Iran is permitted by the government to make the rest of the world believe that Iran is a tolerant regime. Jews are permitted to practice their religion in Iran however; they are considered secondary to Muslims and restricted from serving in high-ranking positions in the government. Under the current regime, it is blasphemous for a Jew to be on a higher level than a Muslim Iranian.
The Iranian regime expresses its genocidal hatred for the Jewish State daily and promotes Holocaust denial. The regime’s hateful rhetoric and policies fuel antisemitism in Iran and around the world. The more hatred the regime promotes towards the Jewish State, the more antisemitism becomes more prevalent in Iran and the Jewish community in Iran becomes a target.
Other religious minorities have also been the victims of persecution in Iran like the Christian, Baha'i and Zoroastrian Iranians. Since the Islamic Revolution the regime has constantly persecuted the Baha’i community in Iran, the government had killed more than 200 Baha’i’s while others were tortured, imprisoned, lost access to their education, jobs, and other rights, solely because of their non-Muslim religious belief. For this reason, my own family was forced to flee their homeland, Iran.
The Jewish community along with the other religious minorities in Iran are concerned for their safety, unaware of the next time their community might be under attack. I call upon the Islamic regime to protect all holy places of worship, the members of the community, as well as punish the perpetrators behind this vile act. In light of these inhumane incidences against Iran’s minorities, it is my greatest hope that the world will realize that the religious minorities living in Iran are in in clear danger under the current Islamic regime.