"cannot avoid personal and communal responsibility for the persecutions of the Bahá'í in this extreme manner. To provide tacit support, to remain silent, ... do not excuse the majority for the actions based on prejudice and hate against an Iranian religious minority group."[17]

In the late 1970s the Shah's regime, due to criticism that he was pro-Western, consistently lost legitimacy. As the anti-Shah movement gained ground and support, revolutionary propaganda was spread that some of the Shah's advisors were Bahá'ís.[18] Bahá'ís were portrayed as economic threats, supporters of Israel and the West and popular hatred for the Bahá'ís increased.[10][19]

Islamic Revolution and Republic

The 1979 Islamic Revolution has refocused the persecutions against the Bahá'í Faith. Amnesty International and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (seefreedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."[21]

During the Iranian revolution attacks against the Bahá'ís increased. In 1979 Hojjatiyeh members took over the Bahá'í National Centre in Tehran and other cities and expelled staff and seized personnel files and membership lists.[22] These files were later used by Hojjatiyeh including sending flyers in the mail warning Bahá'ís of the consequences of continuing to believe in the Bahá'í beliefs.[22] Also, once again, there were reports of mob attacks, arson, and deaths and murders against the Bahá'ís across Iran; twenty-two Bahá'í cemeteries as well as hundreds of Bahá'í homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.[10] During December 1978 in Sarvestan, a city south of Shiraz, it was reported that several hundred Bahá'í houses were set on fire,