Dear Baha'i friends,
Since you were last informed of the recent events in the Cradle of the Faith, news has been received of further persecutions directed against the beloved and steadfast friends.
Historic sites of the Faith, Haziratu'l-Quds of local communities, and other Baha'i properties in several provinces of Iran have been seized and occupied by forces of the new revolutionary government. Among the more sacred of these properties are the Most Holy House of the Bab in Shiraz, ordained by Baha'u'llah to be a place of pilgrimage for His followers and regarded by them as the most hallowed Spot in that land, the Siyah-Chal and two ancestral Houses of Baha'u'llah in Tihran and Takur. Ominous signs of the intensification of active repression of the Faith are becoming evident, and the defenceless and vulnerable Persian Baha'i community faces mounting perils to its Holy Places, institutions, properties and even the lives of its members.
We call on all believers in every land to offer special prayers for the protection of the Faith and the believers in Iran on the forthcoming anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Bab, on 9 July 1979, supplicating that through God's loving grace this fresh wave of persecution may not seriously harm the interests of His Cause, and that He may remove the obstacles from the path of the friends, and provide the means for the protection of the Holy Places and institutions of His Faith.
As soon as the Secretariat of your Assembly receives this letter, immediate steps should be taken to inform all the friends under your jurisdiction of the contents of the letter so that as many believers as possible in every land may participate in this day of prayer on behalf of their beleaguered brethren in Iran.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
