Biden Admin and EU Silent on Iran's Rising Persecution of Religious Minorities
by Majid Rafizadeh • February 9, 2022 at 5:00 am
In 2021, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi signed two alarming amendments to Articles 499 and 500 of its Penal Code, making it easier for the authorities to crack down on religious minorities. The amendments impose prison sentences and fines on whoever insults "divine religions or Islamic schools of thought recognized under the Constitutions with the intent to cause violence or tensions in the society," as well on whoever conducts "any deviant educational or proselytizing activity that contradicts or interferes with the sacred law of Islam."
Persecution of Christians in Iran has especially been on the rise. While Iranian leaders celebrate and publicize those who convert to Islam, those who convert to Christianity are severely punished.
Another religious minority that faces persecution in Iran is the Baha'i faith... [Others] include Zoroastrians, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Yarsanis.
Meanwhile, the European powers are not only failing to hold the Iranian regime accountable, they are busy appeasing the ruling mullahs of Iran and doing business with them.
Since the Biden administration lifted the "maximum pressure" imposed by the previous administration, the ruling mullahs have only escalated their persecution of religious minorities. Instead of incessantly lecturing the world on human rights, the EU and the Biden administration would sound more credible if they would stop appeasing the human rights catastrophe that Iran's regime has become, and hold the ruling mullahs accountable.
While turning a blind eye to the Iranian regime's increasing persecution of religious minorities, the Biden administration and the European Union are focusing only on lifting the sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The move will help to revive the disastrous nuclear deal that will empower the ruling mullahs to race toward nuclear weapons breakout; strengthen Iran's internal militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and expand the country's proxy militias abroad: the Houthis in Yemen, and the designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That does not even include any plans Iran might have to expand its operations, which threaten America, in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
