[PROVISIONAL TRANSLATION FROM PERSIAN]

[Translator’s notes appear in square brackets.] [Personal information has been redacted.] [The excerpt below is from the section of the article that pertains to the Baha’i Faith]

[Adapted from website:] Mashregh News [Date:] 29 Mehr 1392 [21 October 2013]

Reformist Media Honours Two Prominent Baha’is Mashregh News Agency – I was asked to contact the architect and creator of the , and if successful, and he wished [to do so], ask him to write a note to the readers of the newspaper. Hossein Amanat … accepted this interview, and with his special magnanimity and solemnity, devoted his time to this conversation. But what should he write for newspaper readers? “For an artist, an architect, a writer or a singer, and in general someone who creates a work on the scale of a social body, seeing and communicating with the audience can be enjoyable.” Hossein Amanat is an Iranian architect and designer of the Baha’i Temple whose father was a resident of Kashan who joined the followers of the perverse Baha’i sect. The above paragraph is an introduction by a reformist newspaper (22 Mehr 1392 [14 October 2013]) to one of the most active Baha’i Iranians living in Canada. As the author admits, the main excuse for this interview was not to glorify the Azadi Tower, but to glorify Hossein Amanat and to see this bankrupt Baha’i architect and a report of the perverse Baha’i sect in a reformist newspaper. In recent years, the reformist media has targeted a bankrupt Baha’i family in a targeted move. This is while the false thoughts and deviations of this perverse sect are becoming better and better known in the public mind. During the Pahlavi era, the Baha’is were one of the most influential and effective branches in the political organization of the state and, consequently, in the cultural and economic structures of the country. Reza Shah was very optimistic about the Baha’is, as he chose one of the Baha’i officers as special adjutant for his son, Mohammad Reza. During the Pahlavi regime, Hossein Amanat was still a young architect, who, with the support of the powerful Baha’i lobby in , won the [competition for] construction of Shahyad Square (now Azadi Square). Although it was practically impossible to win this competition without the support of influential Baha’is, if we ignore this lobby and pay fair attention to the architectural features of the Azadi Tower, the architecture of this tower is admirable. But did Hossein Amanat make good use of this situation? The answer is no. Amanat was never grateful for this privileged position, and after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, after insisting on his false thoughts and following the perverse Baha’i beliefs, he finally emigrated from Iran and took refuge in Canada. Contrary to his expectations, the Canadian architectural community did not welcome this Iranian Baha’i architect at all, and Hossein Amanat finally became the permanent architect of the design of special centres for Baha’i worship and wasted all his talent in this way!

IRANBAHAIPERSECUTION.BIC.ORG

Among these buildings, the following can be mentioned: * Baha’i Centre in Virginia, USA * Baha’i Centre in Texas, USA *The grand building of the Seat of the House of Justice, one of the buildings around the Bab’s Shrine in : This centre, with the extensive financial and political support of and Great Britain, decides on how to spread and expand Baha’ism. It is the most important gathering place for the Baha’is in Israel… The reformist media supports the activists of the perverse Baha’i sect, while the sect declares Islam completely obsolete and denies the principle of Mahdism. Baha’is have made individual prayer obligatory and have banned congregational prayer. They recite their obligatory prayers towards the City of Akka, the place of interment of Baha’u’llah (in the occupied Palestinian territories). In the Baha’i Faith, accepting the preachers, wearing the clerical garment and attributing special position to the clergy are abrogated and negated. Denying the divinity of God and claiming it for oneself, especially by Baha’u’llah, as well as claiming cosmopolitanism, opposing patriotism and promoting humanism are other deviant ideas of this perverse sect. Baha’is are strictly forbidden from interfering in politics, but in practice they are both involved in politics and the puppets of world politicians such as the United States, Britain, and Zionism. For example, the accolades of knighthood and the title “Sir” were awarded to Abdu’l-Baha by the British government for his services after the British establishment in Palestine.

IRANBAHAIPERSECUTION.BIC.ORG