From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: What was Mr. M.H. Ma'soomi's crime? (was: are Baha'is innocent)
Date: 5 Nov 92 10:10:03 GMT
Organization: British Telecom

In article <habibi.720842384@tasman> habibi@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Daryoush Habibi) writes:

> I posted this article yesterday but it still has not been received at my
> site. Anyhow, I re-read the article and found hundreds of spelling
> mistakes. I also found my language to be slightly abusive and I
> made it a little bit milder this time. My apologies to anyone who
> receives this article for the second time.


> seyyed@wuee1.wustl.edu (Sayyed Mahdavian)  in soc.culture.iranian writes:

> ...........
> >aware of the CRIME they are doing! Yes Mr. Hakim, those dishonest "kind
> >and polite" Bahai's are the BIG criminals. They are involved in a big
> >conspiracy against Islam and Iran. They are being funded by Israel.
> >Now tell me, what's the punishment of such a conspiracy? I tell you
> ............

> I'm almost fed up with this thread of discussions on SCI. I can't see
> what is the point of it all. I beg all the parties involved to take this
> subject out of SCI and perhaps to a more relevant forum.

> Well, I'm a Baha'i myself, but when I turn to SCI I don't want to be
> reminded of all these arguments that were like a pain in neck in every day
> of my school years. I don't want to be reminded of people like you sayyed
> who threw stones at me on my way to primary school, every day I
> had to sneak my way and watch the streets for guys like you before I took
> that direction. I cannot count the number of times that I was beaten in the
> hit and run style at school. Though with all that I consider myself to
> have lived a comfortable childhood compared to many other Baha'is that I
> know.

> I cannot even compare myself with my friend whose father was beaten and then
> burnt alive. If you think this is an old story, it's not, it was only
> 1981 that it happened. Please don't tell me that only ``CERTAIN
> GROUP'' of Baha'is are being prosecuted for non-belief related reasons.
> This Baha'i who was so brutally murdered was only an old farmer living in a
> remote village with a population less than 100. He was by no means rich as
> you seem to think all Baha'is were in Iran. His only wealth were a small
> mud brick farmhouse and a tiny bit of farmland (if you can call desert of
> NAMAK farmland).

> I was at high school that day when one of my Baha'i friends told me that
> he has heard that Mr. Ma'soomi and his wife have been attacked in their
> village. I cannot recall the exact month (I can find the exact date if you
> wish, but I don't want to wait, I can see those scenes in front of
> my eyes), but it was during the harvest of
> almonds (I will tell later how I recall that). We quickly ran around the
> school to find other Baha'i fellows and find out whether it was true. To
> the disappointment of all of us, it was true.

> I left the school and got to one of friends who had a car and three of us
> headed to that remote village. By the time we got there it was about
> 1 O'clock in the afternoon. In that day I witnessed something that I can
> never forget. Even now that I'm writing this I'm crying. For years I
> couldn't talk about it or even be somewhere where they make a mention of
> that incident. I bursted into tears every time. Though the incident has
> already been recorded, this is the first time I'm writing about it.
> (because I've got it up to my neck now)
> There were two ``jandarmeri'' soldiers and a sergeant present at the scene.
> No one else was around, all the doors and windows were shut, as if
> no one lived there for a long time. The village was surrounded by
> small hills, all so dry, with only scattered thorns here and there.

> In the square of that village we saw a shallow ditch where Muhammad Hossein
> (Mr. Ma'soumi) gave his last breathes for the love of his Master. We couldn't
>  see his body as it was covered with a coarse cotton rug, but the air was
> full of the smell of burnt flesh and hair.....

> Glancing at the scene, it wasn't difficult to realise what had happened.
> There were a lot of ash in and around the shallow ditch in that
> square. A little bit further up in the steep lane leading to the entrance of
> Mr. Ma'soomi's farmhouse there was another relatively thin pile of thorn
> ash. A few meters further up the lane there was a kerosene lamp fallen on
> the ground with no bulb and with its lid open, and only a few meters
> further, very close to the entrance, there was a pick with dried blood on its
> metal and the handle....................

> We entered the house and witnessed where it had all started. The doors of the
> living room were open. There were a lot of almond nuts and shells
> scattered in the room. It was in that room that Muhammad Hossein and his wife
> Shekar Nesa were sitting around the ``korsee''(a large stool which, in most old
> persian houses were (and still in many villages are) used as a heating
> means, in place of stove. Under it is place hot red coal and over it is
> spread a large quilt or blanket which also covers the four sides).

> They were taking the almonds out of shells (almonds and plums were their
> main produce) when the crowd attacked their house. Muhammad Hossein had been
> threatened before to convert to Islam or leave the village,
> something very usual for the Baha'is
> who lived in the villages. It was in the anticipation of such event that he had dug a hole at the corner of his living room leading to his sheep-cote
> (``Aghol''). As soon as the crowd poured in their living room he jumped down
> the hole to go to neighbours and ask for help. This part of the story has
> been told by his wife who died four days later in the Hospital from severe
> burns. The crowd grabbed Shekar Nesa, poured kerosene on her and set her
> alight and rushed out to capture Muhammad Hossein. Shekar Nesa, burning
> in the fire, dropped herself on the ``korsee'' and and pulled the quilt
> to wrap it around her. Shekar Nesa passed away as a result of the burns
> after four days in hospital.

> Muhammad Hossein was captured almost at the entrance of his farmhouse.
> How they beat him I don't know, but he had definitely been hit several
> times with the pick. Then they poured kerosene of the lamp on him and set
> him alight. Again they put thorn piles (this is used as fuel for cooking
> bread in the villages) on him and set that alight. Obviously he did not
> pass away that second time,  and they threw him in the ditch in the middle
> of the square and again burnt him with thorn piles.

> The sergeant (Sarkar Ostavar) did not allow us to uncover the body until
> a coroner (pezeshke ghAnooni) arrived. We had a camera and we took
> photos of all the scenes. When they wanted to uncover the body, of course
> we wanted to photograph the body as well, but the sergeant warned me that
> he does not allow it and that we can take the photos but we have to give the
> film to him and that will be appended to the files.

> Finally the rug was removed, I saw the body of Muhammad Hossein that could not
> be recognised. It was all  black..... He was lying on his stomach, his hands
> under his head, his fingers wide open and his right leg bent under his chest,
> it was as if he was asleep comfortably. Even now that I remember that scene
> I start shaking and I cannot control my emotions. I remember his 17 years old
> son who was there when they removed the rug from the body and I can never
> forget the pain that was so obvious in his face. We took photographs while
> the coroner kept examining the body, finding broken bones and many deep
> holes in his burnt body.

> This horrible incident was a direct result of the instigations of the
> local mollah in the
> next village which had several hundred population and which also had several
> Baha'i residents. Their houses had also been attacked over that period of time
> and many of them had been injured. The sergeant said that he will not let those
> who were responsible for that event to get away. Later on they arrested two key
> figures who had been involved in that murderous event. They confessed to the
> crime they had committed. They even said that when Muhammad Hossein was under
> the lit thorn piles, they were around the fire, keeping their hands close to
> the fire to get warm......

> So what happened? Police (shahrbAni) acted very fairly and the guys went
> under trial, but, before the trial was over, orders came from somewhere
> to stop the trial. The two fellows were released after a couple of months.

> This wasn't the first or the last time that such an unfair ruling was
> made by authorities. It was only
> less than a year prior to that incident that in that same region an
> 83 years old Baha'i shepherd was beaten to death when he was out
> in the mountains for grazing the sheep. Even then, the people responsible
> for it were arrested by ``jandarmeri'' and they testified to their crime.
> They were imprisoned for a few months and were released (only a few days
> before Muhammad Hossein was martyred). Some of the muslims living in the
> nearby village told their Baha'i friends later on that when one of the guys
> in-charge of the murder of Mr Mokhtari (the 83 old shepherd) was released,
> he came to mosque that night and addressed the audience:
> "... why are you scared of killing Baha'is? We killed Mokhtari and for a few
> months we were living in nice clean rooms (He was referring to prison) and
> we were fed rice and meat every day and now we are back...."


> Daryoush Habibi
> Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Tasmania
> GPO Box 252C, Hobart                    Voice: +61 02 202137
> Tasmania 7001, Australia                Fax. : +61 02 202136

Now, where is Mr. Khamene-i, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, who once echoed a well-known phrase by Ali-ebn-e
abi-Taleb who said, upon hearing that the mob has attacked a woman Jew
in a far corner of his Islamic empire (I rekon, it was in Egypt) and
pulled away a "khalkhal" (a ring like bracelet worn on foot) from her,
that if a zealot (baa gheirat) moslem dies as a result of hearing
about this incident, it would be in order?

-hossein
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian