{"id":18795,"date":"2026-06-09T07:44:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/qatar-spent-decades-building-its-reputation-deporting-bahais-threatens-to-undo-it\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T07:44:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:14:58","slug":"qatar-spent-decades-building-its-reputation-deporting-bahais-threatens-to-undo-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/qatar-spent-decades-building-its-reputation-deporting-bahais-threatens-to-undo-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar spent decades building its reputation. Deporting Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00eds threatens to undo it."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_zPrG2cqz8rQ?ui_title_intro=Listen+now%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.1.5\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>(RNS) \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/World\/Middle-East\/2026\/0518\/qatar-diplomacy-mediation-iran-war-lng\">For eight decades<\/a>, Qatar has positioned itself as a promoter of peaceful coexistence, mediating some of the world\u2019s most fraught conflicts, including participating in efforts to defuse the ongoing war between Iran and the United States. Yet in the past few weeks, it has inexplicably risked its global standing by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/articles\/qatars-deepening-persecution-of-the-bahai\">sharply escalating<\/a> a campaign of harassment and arbitrary deportations targeting its own tiny, peaceful and ethnically diverse Baha\u2019i community.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/qatar-bahai-dignitary-acquitted\">marked discomfort<\/a> with Baha\u2019is \u2014 a community of only a few hundred in the country \u2014 is not new. Although the Qatari Constitution includes a <a href=\"https:\/\/2009-2017.state.gov\/documents\/organization\/171743.pdf\">freedom of religion or belief provision<\/a>, Baha\u2019is have been denied legal recognition and citizenship. This is despite many Baha\u2019i families having lived in the region for generations, dating back to before Qatar\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/countries\/qatar\">recognition<\/a> in 1971. Since its creation, Doha has repeatedly reminded the Baha\u2019is, by intermittently and arbitrarily detaining and deporting them, that they do not belong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Recently, in 2025, the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2025\/07\/qatar-un-experts-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-against-bahai\">Wahid Bahji<\/a> drew international attention. Born and raised in Qatar and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha\u2019is, he was forced to leave and subsequently blacklisted \u2014 forbidden from returning to the country he called home his entire life. His case illustrates how the Qatari government operates: Over decades, the Baha\u2019is most targeted for deportation have been those more active in serving the Baha\u2019i community, all in a voluntary capacity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Also last year, a distinguished businessman and Baha\u2019i leader, 71-year-old Remy Rowhani, was detained and sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly violating a cyber crime prevention law by posting passages of Baha\u2019i teachings on a social media account. Eventually, a Qatari court reversed the baseless lower-court verdict against Rowhani, and he was released. The reversal received worldwide praise, leading some in the international religious freedom community to read it as a positive sign that the Qatari government was willing to turn over a new leaf.<\/p>\n<p>That proved not to be the case. In recent weeks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bic.org\/news\/sudden-expulsions-raise-fears-religious-erasure-qatari-bahai-community\">nearly half of the remaining Baha\u2019is<\/a> in the country have been threatened with detentions, non-renewal of work permits and forceful deportation. And this time, not only Baha\u2019i leaders are being targeted, but also its rank-and-file members.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the recent case of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscirf.gov\/religious-prisoners-conscience\/forb-victims-database\/moin-yeganeh\">Moin Yeganeh<\/a>. His father was one of Qatar\u2019s first dentists. A successful businessman at 55, Yeganeh has called Qatar home his entire life, as have two generations of his family before him. Last month, he was detained and slated for deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4262885\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 750px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4262885\" src=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-427x236.jpg 427w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-807x446.jpg 807w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-768x425.jpg 768w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-1536x850.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/webRNS-Qatar-region-map1-600x332.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text edd-enabled\"><span class=\"caption\">Qatar, red, in the Middle East. (Map courtesy of Wikimedia\/Creative Commons)<\/span><span class=\"credit\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Another case involves an elderly couple with disabilities who are cared for by their daughter. The daughter, informed by the authorities of their termination of residency, would be separated from her husband and children because they hold different passports. She knows no other home but Qatar and faces a serious risk of forcible return, along with her parents. Like many other Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00eds, her family built their business from scratch and contributed to the country\u2019s economy for decades. Being forced to leave would also require terminating their employees, causing many families to suffer financially. (To protect the family from retaliation, their names are being withheld.)<\/p>\n<p>For a country that prides itself on dialogue, this is confounding. The Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00eds who remain in Qatar are hardly a threat to national security. On the contrary, they are known for promoting peace, the unity of humanity and the equality of men and women.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The United States has taken notice. For the first time since its creation over 25 years ago, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscirf.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2026-03\/USCIRF_2026_AR_3326_NEW.pdf\">United States Commission on International Religious Freedom<\/a> added Qatar to its Special Watch List this year, signaling ongoing concerns and prompting other U.S. government agencies to take notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Historically, U.S. government agencies have closely monitored the state of religious freedom abroad because its deterioration often signals deeper political\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ned.org\/congressional-testimony-sam-brownback-on-defending-religious-freedom\/?utm_source\">instability<\/a> and social unrest. Given that Qatar hosts one of America\u2019s largest military installations in the region, it is in the strategic interest of the U.S. to understand Qatar\u2019s position. Furthermore, the Department of State and the Treasury have powerful tools \u2014 including sanctions and visa restrictions \u2014 that can be used to hold officials and their families accountable for acts of religious discrimination. The U.S. has already deployed these tools against government officials who have violated religious freedom in countries like China, Iran and Myanmar, forbidding them, among other things, from visiting the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<hr\/>\n<p>The international community has also taken notice. Last month, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2026\/05\/qatars-pluralism-risk-warn-un-experts\">a group of United Nations experts<\/a> raised concerns about administrative deportations \u201cacross different employment fields and ages,\u201d and said the acceleration of the campaign affects \u201cthe very viability of the Baha\u2019i community of Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/World\/Middle-East\/2026\/0518\/qatar-diplomacy-mediation-iran-war-lng\">Recently<\/a>,\u00a0Majed al-Ansari, the <span>Qatari\u00a0<\/span>Foreign Ministry spokesperson and special adviser to the prime minister, said that being an \u201cenergy provider and peace facilitator\u201d was a matter of Qatar\u2019s national pride. This is a lofty aspiration, but one could argue that a nation cannot aspire to be a peace facilitator if it cannot promote it in its own backyard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Qatar still has time to prove it values pluralism. Doing so would affirm the very image Doha has worked so carefully to cultivate: a small country capable of tremendous leadership worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Kristina Arriaga is a Cuban American writer and the former vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.<\/em> <i><span>The opinions expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.<\/span><\/i><span>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/06\/08\/qatar-spent-decades-building-its-reputation-deporting-bahais-threatens-to-undo-it\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(RNS) \u2014\u00a0For eight decades, Qatar has positioned itself as a promoter of peaceful coexistence, mediating some of the world\u2019s most fraught conflicts, including participating in efforts to defuse the ongoing war between Iran and the United States. Yet in the past few weeks, it has inexplicably risked its global standing by sharply escalating a campaign [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}