Source: Malden Observer
h ttp://w ww2.townonline.com/malden/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=105114
On October 17, 2004 Malden Observer reported, "In recent months, government authorities in Iran have demolished historic sites of great artistic and cultural significance, which are also sacred to the country's Baha'i religious minority. In response to the demolitions, the United States Baha'i community has placed a statement in the Sept. 12 edition of The New York Times calling on Iranians in particular to protest the destruction of their country's cultural heritage. The recent destruction of Baha'i sacred sites is the latest tactic employed by Iran's ruling clerics in their decades-long effort to destroy the country's Baha'i community. In June, a wrecking crew demolished a stately home in Tehran that had belonged to Mirza Abbas Nuri, the father of Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith. Mirza Abbas, who was born and died a Muslim, was a renowned 19th-century statesman, scholar and calligrapher. His home had been preserved as an exquisite example of Iranian-Islamic architecture. Iranian newspapers carried articles expressing shock over the demolition. 'How is it,' one of them wrote, 'that in the middle of the day... the very essence of our cultural heritage is being destroyed?'"