With feelings of deep sorrow we relate to the Bahá'í world
the distressing circumstances surrounding the murder of three Iranian Bahá'í
students, pioneers to the Philippine Islands.
Parviz Sadiqi, Faramarz Vujdani and Parviz Furughi were
among a number of Iranian Bahá'í youth who answered the call for pioneers. With
eleven others they registered at the Universities in Mindanao with the
intention of completing their studies and proclaiming the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh.
These three had conceived the plan of making teaching trips to a rural area
inhabited by Muslims. When on 31 July the authorities of Mindanao State
University were notified that they had left the campus the previous day and had
not yet returned, search parties were immediately formed and the assistance of
the police and local authorities obtained. After inquiries and search, led
entirely by President Tamano of Mindanao State University, the bodies of the
three young men were found in a shallow grave. They had been shot, grievously
mutilated and two had been decapitated. The bodies were removed and given
Bahá'í burial in a beautiful plot donated for the purpose.
Immediately upon receipt of the tragic news, Vicente Samaniego, Counsellor in Northeast Asia, in close co-operation with the National Spiritual Assembly of the Philippines, acted vigorously on behalf of the Bahá'ís and was given the utmost co-operation and sympathy by the authorities, police, military and civil. A convocation was called, attended by more than 900 students, faculty members and University officials. Prayers were said in English, Arabic and Persian. The President of the University gave a talk in which he said that the murdered Iranian students are not ordinary students, for with them is the Message of Bahá'u'lláh which is the way to unity. The Council of the Student Body asked that their new Social Hall be renamed Iranian Student Memorial Hall. Three thousand people marched in the funeral procession and six hundred went to the burial site to attend the interment.
A dignified burial was conducted by the Bahá'ís in the
presence of University authorities and friends.
The relatives and friends of these three young men, who gave
their lives in the service of the Blessed Beauty, are assured of the loving
sympathy and prayers of their fellow believers. The sacrifice made by these
youth adds a crown of glory to the wonderful services now being performed by
Bahá'í youth throughout the world. Bahá'u'lláh Himself testifies:
They that have forsaken their country in the path of God and
subsequently ascended unto His presence, such souls shall be blessed by the
Concourse on High and their names recorded by the Pen of Glory among such as
have laid down their lives as martyrs in the path of God, the Help in peril,
the Self-Subsistent.
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal
House of Justice 1963-1986)
