For almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured. Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.
For decades, history ignored the Nazi persecution of gay people. Only with the rise of the gay movement in the 1970s did historians finally recognize that gay people, like Jews and others deemed “undesirable,” suffered enormously at the hands of the Nazi regime. Of the few who survived the concentration camps, even fewer ever came forward to tell their stories. This heart wrenchingly vivid account of one man's arrest and imprisonment by the Nazis for the crime of homosexuality, now with a new preface by Sarah Schulman, remains an essential contribution to gay history and our understanding of historical fascism, as well as a remarkable and complex story of survival and identity.
The shocking story of the legal persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the dangerous implications for the whistleblowers of the future. In July 2010, Wikileaks published Cablegate, one of the biggest leaks in the history of the US military, including evidence for war crimes and torture. In the aftermath Julian Assange, the founder and spokesman of Wikileaks, found himself at the center of a media storm, accused of hacking and later sexual assault. He spent the next seven years in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fearful that he would be extradited to Sweden to face the accusations of assault and then sent to US. In 2019, Assange was handed over to the British police and, on the same day, the U.S. demanded his extradition. They threatened him with up to 175 years in prison for alleged espionage and computer fraud. At this point, Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, started his investigation into how the US and UK governments were working together to ensure a conviction. His findings are explosive, revealing that Assange has faced grave and systematic due process violations, judicial bias, collusion and manipulated evidence. He has been the victim of constant surveillance, defamation and threats. Melzer also gathered together consolidated medical evidence that proves that Assange has suffered prolonged psychological torture. Melzer’s compelling investigation puts the UK and US state into the dock, showing how, through secrecy, impunity and, crucially, public indifference, unchecked power reveals a deeply undemocratic system. Furthermore, the Assange case sets a dangerous precedent: once telling the truth becomes a crime, censorship and tyranny will inevitably follow. The Trial of Julian Assange is told in three parts: the first explores Nils Melzer’s own story about how he became involved in the case and why Assange’s case falls under his mandate as the Special Rapporteur on Torture. The second section returns to 2010 when Wikileaks released the largest leak in the history of the U.S. military, exposing war crimes and corruption, and Nils makes the case that Swedish authorities manipulated charges against Assange to force his extradition to the US and publicly discredit him. In the third section, the author returns to 2019 and picks up the case as Ecuador kicks Assange out of the embassy and lays out the case as it currently stands, as well as the stakes involved for other potential whistleblowers trying to serve the public interest.
In 1844, a young merchant from Shiraz called Sayyid ‘Ali-Muhammad declared himself the ‘gate’ (the Bab) to the Truth and, shortly afterwards, the initiator of a new prophetic cycle. His messianic call attracted a significant following across Iran and Iraq. Regarded as a threat by state and religious authorities, the Babis were subject to intense persecution and the Bab himself was executed in 1850. In this volume, leading scholars of Islam, Baha’i studies and Iranian history come together to examine the life and legacy of the Bab, from his childhood to the founding of the Baha’i faith and beyond. Among other subjects, they cover the Bab’s writings, his Qur’an commentaries, the societal conditions that underlay the Babi upheavals, the works of Babi martyr Tahirih Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, and Orientalist Edward Granville Browne’s encounters with Babi and Baha’i texts.
Excerpt from The History of Persecution: From the Patriarchial Age to the Reign of George II IT is now upwards of seventy years since this excellent treatise was first presented to the public by the author, and, considering his celebrity as a writer, (especially among the Dissenters) it is presumed no apology is necessary for sending it again into the world: especially at the present interesting crisis, when the subject of religious toleration, is become the topic of general con versation and discussion. This work comprises every thing of importance connected with the dreadful persecutions which have disgraced human nature, both in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad and is designed to prove that the things for which Christians have persecuted one another have generally been of small importance that pride, ambition, and covetousness, have been the grand sourses of persecution; and that the religion of Jesus Christ absolutely condemns all persecution for conscience sake. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Excerpt from The History of Persecution: From the Patriarchial Age to the Reign of George II It is now upwards of seventy years since this excellent treatise was first presented to the public by the author, and, considering his celebrity as a writer, (especially among the Dissenters) it is presumed no apology is necessary for sending it again into the world: especially at the present interesting crisis, when the subject of Religious Toleration, is become the topic of general conversation and discussion. This work comprises every thing of importance connected with the dreadful persecutions which have disgraced human nature, both in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad; and is designed to prove that the things for which christians have persecuted one another have generally been of small importance; that pride, ambition, and covetousness, have been the grand sourses of persecution; and that the religion of Jesus Christ absolutely condemns all persecution for conscience sake. In this Edition, I have wholly omitted Dr. Chander's "Preface," which contains "Remarks on Dr. Rogers' vindication of the civil establishment of religion," and have substituted Memoirs of Dr. Chandler in its room: which I thought would be more generally acceptable to the reader. I have also omitted all his marginal notes of a controversial nature, being answers to Dr. Berriman, who had written a pamphlet entitled, "Brief remarks on Mr. Chandler's Introduction to the History of the Inquisition." These I conceived would be at present of little use. And as the republication of this volume is intended chiefly for common readers, I have also left out all the Greek and Latin sentences interspersed in the work, judging that they would be of no real advantage to such persons. I have however retained Dr. Chandler's authorities, so that the learned reader may refer to them when he thinks proper. As to the body of the work, I have neither altered the sense nor the language. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Religion is a matter of the highest importance to every man, and therefore there can be nothing which deserves a more impartial inquiry, or which should be examined into with a more disinterested freedom; because as far as our acceptance with the Deity depends on the knowledge and practice of it, so far religion is, and must be, to us a purely personal thing; in which therefore we ought to be determined by nothing but the evidence of truth, and the rational convictions of our mind and conscience. Without such an examination and conviction, we shall be in danger of being imposed on by crafty and designing men, who will not fail to make their gain of the ignorance and credulity of those they can deceive, nor scruple to recommend to them the worst principles and superstitions, if they find them conducive or necessary to support their pride, ambition and avarice. The history of almost all ages and nations is an abundant proof of this assertion.
From 1894 to 1924 three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region’s Christian minorities. Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi’s impeccably researched account is the first to show that the three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia’s Christian population and create a pure Muslim nation.
