Silence Of The Lotus India should use its new bonhomie with Iran to crusade for the Baha'is By Prem Shankar Jha

Laws can, perhaps even should, be judged not by what they decree but by the effect they are intended to have on society. The proposed revision of the Islamic penal code in Iran is clearly intended to stop religious conversions by means of extreme deterrence. That such a bill should be contemplated three decades after the revolution reflects how severely the theocrats, the ultimate guardians of the Islamic state, consider themselves to be under siege. But even after allowing for that, the bill goes too far, for it violates human freedom in the most fundamental way possible.