Dr. Hamid Dabashi, Professor für Iranwissenschaften und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft an der Columbia University in New York, bringt heute in einem Kommentar für CNN Online die Auseinandersetzung um die Menschenrechte der Bahá’í im Iran in Verbindung mit den Bemühungen muslimischer Gemeinden in den USA und Europa um Respekt und Anerkennung. Ihre eigene Ausgrenzung nach den Terroranschlägen des 11. September 2001 müsste sie eigentlich in die Lage versetzen, den Verfolgungen der Bahá´í – „Multiply that experience many times and extend it back to the late 19th century“ – entgegen zu treten.
The experiences of Muslims as a minority here in the United States, or in Europe for that matter, gives them a unique position to raise their voice against the abuse of non-Muslim minorities in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world.
In a world now defined by the presence of multiple faiths inside many nations and as American Muslims learn to come together to protect their own constitutional rights in an old democracy, it would only be fitting if they were to raise their voice in defense of other religious minorities seeking to secure their basic rights to religious liberties in countries aspiring to become democracies.
The fate of Iranian Baha’is is not only a matter of their fundamental civil rights in the context of any republic, Islamic or otherwise. It is the very cornerstone of democratic citizenship without which the Muslim majority of Iranians is denied their constitutional protection. Watch the fate of the Iranian Baha’is carefully.
The day they are free to practice their religion without fear, Iranians at large will have finally secured their civil liberties.