(ENI) A U.S. religious freedom watchdog commission says it is “deeply concerned” about what it calls a worsening situation for religious minorities in Iran.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created in 1998 by the U.S. Congress to monitor the status of freedom of thought and of religious practice outside the United States. It provides independent policy recommendations to the U.S. government.
Michael Cromartie, the commission chairman, said the current pattern of rhetoric in Iran is similar to that heard during the early years of the Iranian revolution which, he said, ushered in years of severe human-rights violations against members of non-Islamic religious minorities, particularly the Baha’i community.
In recent months, he said, members of Iran’s Baha’i community have been harassed, physically attacked, arrested and detained.
“Christians in Iran increasingly have been subject to harassment, arrests, close surveillance, and imprisonment,” the commission said on its Web site on Feb. 27. “Over the past year, there have been several incidents of Iranian authorities raiding church services, detaining worshippers and church leaders, and harassing and threatening church members.”
Conditions were already severe for religious minorities before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assumed office in August, but have since worsened, Cromartie said. Ahmadinejad and other leading Iranian government officials have triggered international condemnation of their public remarks either denying or casting doubt on the Holocaust against European Jews during the Second World War.
The commission urged the U.S. government to step up its efforts to address the human-rights situation in Iran — although it acknowledged that there are few policy options because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran.
