It seems to be celebrity week to speak out about a cause or in this case, a persecuted religion. No, no, Tom Cruise is not defending Scientology again; I am talking about The Office’s Rainn Wilson and Baha’i.
Rainn recently wrote a commentary for CNN about Baha’i. At first, I thought “Is this a joke?” because 99.9% of what Rainn does is (and he’s very good at it!), but no, this seems for real.
(This file, by StaceyD, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)
Rainn, who was raised in the Baha’i faith, decided to write the commentary because seven Baha’I national leaders in Iran are supposed to be going to trial. These leaders have been held in a prison in Tehran for a year with no access to their lawyer and no proof that they are guilty of the charges – being “spies for Israel,” “insulting religious sanctities,” or “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”
In his commentary, Rainn points out that since 1979, “over 200 Baha’is have been killed, their holy places and cemeteries desecrated, homes burned, civil rights taken away and secret lists compiled of Baha’is.” But, the Muslim authorities there don’t approve of the religion and over the past 150 years or so, members of the faith have been victimized.
What seems odd is that the Baha’i faith began in the mid 1800’s in Iran. The religion believes that there is only one God and that all his teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.) share the same message of love and unity.
Rainn wanted to point out in his commentary that there is a resolution being sent to Congress asking that the situation in Iran concerning the Baha’i leaders be resolved. He asked that people call their representatives, urging them to support the resolution and help bring an end to the unfair treatment of the leaders.
Rainn is also the spokesperson of the Mona Foundation, a Baha’I inspired organization that seeks to provide quality education for all children, to raise the status of women, and community building.