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Religious violence is as old as religion itself. Now more than ever, we are confronted by images and stories of religious violence from across the world. Whether it is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, hostility between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, violence between Christians and Muslims across Africa, or elsewhere, these and other attacks on religious freedom are brought to our collective attention on a daily basis, and are harder to avoid or ignore. This widespread evidence of the perversion and corruptibility of religious belief has coincided with the polarization of religious identity in the west—great numbers of people either loosening their ties with religion or turning more fundamentalist.
The Baha'i faith is a modern anomaly—a monotheistic religion, borne out of Islam in 19th century Iran, with just 6 million followers in nearly 200 countries. Their followers are recognized as devout yet peaceful, and despite their modest numbers, they maintain steady growth in an increasingly secular world. This growth is not only in spite of changing religious mores, but also in the face of consistent persecution in their ancestral home. In 175 Years of Persecution, historian Fereydun Vahman examines the plight of the Baha'is in Iran, detailing the decades of violence and oppression they have faced at the hands of the Iranian government. Vahman argues that Iranian Muslims see Baha'is not merely as a rival faith, but as an affront to Islam, making it a convenient scapegoat for any number of the government's failings.
For the author, the subject is a personal one, as Vahman himself is living testament to the struggles that Iranian Baha'is have faced. Born to a prominent Baha'i family during the Shah's regime, he experienced discrimination and abuse from a young age. Despite this, he harnessed the nonviolence that Baha'is practice and sublimated his energy into a career as an academic in exile, writing and teaching at universities in Euro