%0 Journal Article
%T Baha¡¯is in Post
%A Ankita Sanyal
%J Contemporary Review of the Middle East
%@ 2349-0055
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/2347798918812286
%X Abstract Since the inception of the Baha¡¯ism as an independent faith in Persia, its adherents came under attack from the religious clergy which perceived the growing popularity of this new faith as a threat to their monopolistic position in the society. Education and economy were the two dominant fields where the Baha¡¯is prospered in pre-revolution Iran, thereby contributing to the modernization of Persia. However, being a post-Abrahamic faith in its origin, the Islamic clergy viewed the Baha¡¯is as apostates and an enemy of Islam, which led to the persistent targeting and attacks on the Baha¡¯is over the faith¡¯s origin and as an essentially incompatible and contradictory disposition in the Baha¡¯i¨Culema relations. While the pre-revolution Iran show an ulema¨Cmonarchy convergence in their attack on the Baha¡¯is, the post-revolution Iran witnessed the same through consolidation of state¨Culema powers in the form of the new Islamic Republic. The discrimination and persecutions of the Baha¡¯is in the post-1979 Iran increased considerably, and one can witness a deviation of the homogenous perception on the Baha¡¯is by the religious clergy class. The conservative reformist faction of the ulema has given rise to newer and opposing perspectives on the Baha¡¯is, the largest non-recognized religious minority in Iran
%K Ayatollah Khomeini
%K Ali Khamenei
%K ulema
%K reformists
%K recognized religious minorities
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2347798918812286