and official newspapers.[10]

During the month of Ramadan in 1955, Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Falsafi, a populist preacher, started one of the highest-profile anti-Bahá'í propaganda schemes.[10] After receiving permission from the Shah to state anti-Bahá'í rhetoric in his sermons, he encouraged other clergy to discuss the Bahá'í issue in their sermons.[15] These sermons caused mob violence against Bahá'ís; Bahá'í properties were destroyed, Bahá'í centres were looted, Bahá'í cemeteries desecrated, Bahá'ís were killed, some hacked to pieces, Bahá'í women were abducted and forced to marry Muslims, and Bahá'ís were expelled and dismissed from schools and employment.[2][10] During the third week of the sermons the National Bahá'í Centre in Tehran was occupied by the military and its dome later destroyed.[10] The Minister of the Interior, Amir Asadollah Alam, wrote in his memoirs:

"Falsafigovernment ministers who, while they were sympathetic to the anti-Bahá'í sentiment, feared that the violence would get out of control and cause international criticism.[14]

Also during the 1950s, the fundamentalist Islamic organization named Hojjatiyeh, whose central aim was to combat the Bahá'í Faith, was founded.[17] Members of the group entered Bahá'í communities, and many of the Bahá'í arrests, imprisonments and executions are often attributed to Hojjatiyeh members having access to Bahá'í registration books.[17] Also during the Pahlevi era, the Hojjatiyeh seem to have cooperated with SAVAK, the Iranian government's intelligence agency who had gathered information about the religious affiliation of Iranian citizens, to attack the Bahá'ís.[10]

Eliz Sanasarian states that while many Iranians blamed the Bahá'í persecution on Hojjatiyeh, which was the most visible anti-Bahá'í force, the silent Iranian majority