Iran’s non-Muslims question U.S. motives
Aiding immigration seen by some leaders as propaganda tool
Thomas Erdbrink,Karin Brulliard, Washington Post
Sunday, March 9, 2008
(03-09) 04:00 PST Tehran — For decades the United States has funded
an effort intended to help Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews escape
persecution in Iran. Now some of their leaders are questioning
American motives as sects that have endured here for thousands of
years dwindle rapidly as a result of the migration.
Since the late 1980s, the U.S. government has made it easier for
certain foreigners fleeing religious oppression overseas, such as in
the former Soviet Union or Indochina, to immigrate to America.
But leaders of Iran’s non-Muslim religious minority groups say their
communities are not mistreated by the Iranian government, whose
actions are overseen by Shiite Muslim clerics. Instead, some Christian
and Zoroastrian leaders say, their members are leaving mainly to take
advantage of the program’s offer of a streamlined path to legal
residence in the United States for a fee of $3,000.
"Christians and Zoroastrians leave because of unemployment, the bad
economy, but these problems affect all Iranians," said Yonathan
Betkolia, an Assyrian Christian leader and member of Iran’s parliament
who holds the United States responsible for his community’s
decline. "They give all those green cards to our people. Their only
goal is to propagate the idea that Iran is mistreating its
minorities."
The program is coordinated by the New York-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society, or HIAS, which traditionally has helped resettle Jews in the
United States. It received about $3.4 million in U.S. government
funding last year to help non-Muslim minorities leave Iran.
There are no reliable numbers on the sizes of those communities in
Iran, a predominantly Shiite country of 65 million to 70 million that
is also home to Muslim ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Arabs and
Baluchis. According to a census taken in 1976, there were 420,000
non-Muslims in a population of nearly 34 million. Many non-Muslims
fled the country after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Despite the Iranian government’s bellicose approach to Israel, Jews in
the country say they can practice their religion freely. More than
25,000 Jews remain in Iran, community leaders say, making it the
largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside Israel.
The State Department says 2,842 Jews have left Iran for the United
States under the program in the past decade, compared with more than
18,000 members of other non-Muslim minority groups. More than 10,000
Iranians are waiting now to travel to Vienna, where HIAS facilitates
their passage to the United States as refugees, according to a former
U.S. official familiar with the program.
"The migration is a big, big problem for all non-Muslim minorities in
Iran," said Kurosh Niknam, a parliament member representing Iran’s
Zoroastrians, adherents of the pre-Islamic national faith that he
estimates has shrunk by half since the 1979 revolution. "I wish
everybody would come back to Iran, but I guess they won’t. It looks
like there will be no Zoroastrians left in this country in 30 years."
HIAS was selected early this decade by the State Department to be the
sole agency for processing Iranian minorities from Vienna, where it
operates what it calls an "overseas processing entity." In 2004,
Congress passed a law that made it easier for religious minorities
from Iran to qualify as refugees.
U.S. funding for HIAS’ work on behalf of Iranians has almost tripled,
from $1.24 million in 2002 to $3.46 million in 2007, because of an
increase in applications. The United States, which is at odds with
Iran over its nuclear ambitions and role in the war in Iraq,
classifies Iran as one of eight "countries of particular concern"
because of what the State Department calls severe violations of
religious freedom.
This designation "provides the substantive basis for running a refugee
program for Iranian religious minorities," said Gideon Aronoff, chief
executive of HIAS. "It speaks for itself that there are people who
feel there is a need for this type of program to provide them with
safety."
One Armenian Christian businessman in Tehran, who spoke on condition
of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his family’s persecution-based
application for legal U.S. residence, struggled to come up with a list
of reasons to leave Iran. For more than a decade, he said, he had
been looking for reasons to stay.
"One, our Iranian passports are useless; we need visas for every
country.
Two, the Iranian economy is destroyed. Three, my daughters are forced
to wear the Islamic head scarf," he said. The 2005 election of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the businessman continued, had
increased the sense of uncertainty.
"There are foreign threats, there might be a war. We feel pressure
every day."
Sitting in his dining room, he took another sip of cognac, which like
all other alcoholic drinks is illegal for Muslims to consume in Iran,
and smiled wearily. "I guess our reasons for migrating are no
different from other Iranians who want to go. But as Christians, it’s
so much easier for us to leave Iran."
Betkolia, the Assyrian Christian parliament member, said he and his
co-religionists were "freer in Iran than our Muslim brothers." The
politician sat in his large office in the Assyrian club in Tehran. "We
can drink, our boys and girls can mingle in our clubs freely and we
can dance and sing," he said.
"Muslims are not allowed to do those things in here."
Members of the Bahai faith, however, face arrest and other forms of
persecution, according to U.S. and other officials. Followers of
Bahaism, which was founded in 19th century Persia and emphasizes
religious unity and racial equality, are not allowed to practice their
religion or study at universities. The government regards the faith
as heretical, while Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are respected as
being members of traditional monotheistic religions.
The former U.S. official familiar with HIAS said persecution of
non-Muslims continues. "The fact is that this regime treats religious
minorities very poorly. It has acted viciously toward some of them,"
the former official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the program.
"For Christians and others, it’s a lower grade of persecution. They’re
treated like third-class citizens, day in and day out. If you are not
a Shiite, you’re going to face severe discrimination," he said.
"Maybe people grow accustomed to it and may learn to live with it,"
the former official said. "But to say they’re living an OK life and
they’re just economic refugees is ridiculous."
The recent increase in applicants has caused a significant backlog, he
said.
"If the Iranians wanted to, they could stop cooperating and create
trouble for the program."
But according to some Iranian authorities, that would not
happen. "There is no way that the Iranian government would block
members of religious minorities from leaving. This would cause an
international outcry," said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice
president and a Shiite cleric.
"If HIAS would open its doors for Muslims, lots of Iranians would
leave for America. I guess the same would happen in Pakistan or Saudi
Arabia," Abtahi said. "I am sad people of other faiths leave Iran. But
for that to change, big problems which affect all Iranians need to be
tackled."
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This article appeared on page A – 14 of the San Francisco Chronicle