…[T]o really grasp the pathological cruelty of Iran’s clerical regime, look at the persecution of Iran’s biggest religious minority, the 300,000-strong Baha’i community. The bizarre hounding of this peaceful faith remains a festering sore on the legacy of the 30-year-old Islamic revolution. As a few hundred Baha’is heard when they gathered for a Toronto meeting this month, the news from Iran is not good. Seven senior Baha’i community leaders were sentenced to 20 years in prison for espionage and “spreading corruption on earth.” Under intense diplomatic pressure, the sentences were recently halved to 10 years; but for some of the elderly inmates — two of whom have family in Canada — this means they have effectively been condemned to die in prison. And for what? To be a Baha’i in the Islamic Republic is to be an apostate. It is worse than being a Jew — who is, at least, a person of “the book.” And worse still than being an infidel, who was never a believer to begin with. …