Dr. Sulayman Berjis

Despondent story of Dr. Sulayman Berjis
killed and mutilated by Muslim mob in Kashan

He was a well known physician in the city of Kashan, a central city in Iran. He was a convert from Jewish into Baha'i and was always ready to serve his countrymen from any walk of life, rich, poor, Muslim, Jew, or Baha'i. It is said that he did not charge the humble people and on the contrary he gave them free medicine from the drug store he had next to his clinic and office. Everybody loved him and he was a very happy man enjoying his acts of service to human kind.

It was almost 8 years when the young Shah-Muhammad Reza Pahlevi- had inherited the crown from his father Reza Shah who had been exiled to Mauritius on the order of the Allied forces who had occupied Iran previously, following the world war II. The young Shah on the contrary of his predecessor was a weak and coward ruler who cared very much to give the clergy more respect and authority than permitted in the Constitution so he was very pleasing with the demands of the Ayatollahs and granted them anything in order not to provoke their ire and vengeance.

The success of Dr. Berjis and his popularity among the people drew the jealousy of the clergy who in clandestine meetings voted to have him eliminated and unanimously issued a Fatwa for his head. The Fatwa is a religious decree and in that case it was issued by Ayatollah Gharavi. The apparent motive would be that his service to the community was a cover up to teach his Faith and draw the innocent believers into the outlawed sect (Baha'i).

Two men, who were around 18 years old, went to his clinic when he was attending patients and told him that they had a very critical patient in a nearby neighborhood and begged him to go with them to heal him. He said that he already had about 8 patients waiting for consultations and the two men had to wait until he finished seeing them all. But they insisted that their patient's condition was very critical and he might die at any minute. So he gave in and got his bag and went with them.

When they got there, he found no patient and instead there were other men with knives in their hands. They attacked him right there with cries of Allah akbar or "There is no god but Allah". They stabbed him 81 times and he fell bleeding. Then to make sure he would not survive they cut him into pieces and then took to the streets shouting Allah Akbar and other Islamic chants celebrating their crime. They all went to the Police and proudly declared they had fulfilled the Fatwa of their religious masters to punish an infidel who had dared to teach his faith to ignorant and naive Muslims. Totally they were 8 assassins who were taken into custody and were ordered to wait for a fair trial.
On the next morning many Mullahs mobbed in front of the court manifesting their anger for the arrest of their innocent friends. A lawyer who questioned the gang asked them who stabbed him first and they said all did it at the same time and there was no single person who started it, to avoid punishment on one. The lawyer who represented the family of Dr. Berjis later said that it seemed like they had all been advised what to say and repeat the same allegation, that they all attacked him simultaneously
So that the punishment be distributed on them equally.
To their surprise, they learned that the pressure of the mob outside was so high that the court consulting with other authorities of the judiciary power decided to acquit them and let them walk out 17 days after the trial started for fear of a big revolt and greater grievance.
Ayatollahs had done their job. They wrote letters to the authorities and to the Shah and asked his intervention to let go the Innocents who had done nothing but complying their religious duty.
The grand Ayatollahs involved were: Ayatollah Kashani, Ayatollah Broujerdi, Ayatollah Behbahani and Mohammad Taqi Falsafi who a couple of years later was the main inciter of unrest that ended in the demolition of the Baha'i center of Tehran.
Many more ayatollah and religious leaders from major cities of the country cabled the judiciary power and even the Shah to release immediately their peers.
The murderers received no punishment and on the contrary were cheered and welcomed with great ovation on their release. The religious leaders ordered massive celebration and parties for their heroes who did their best to fulfill a religious duty.
The lawyer of the Berjis Family said later that he was threatened to death if he kept harassing and questioning the accused murderers.
Dr. Berjis was fifty four years old when he was martyred.
He was a devout Baha'i and the coordinator of the local spiritual assembly. He had descended from a Jewish background and guided many more Jews into the Faith.

Years later his son became a famous doctor too.

Association of the medical doctors protest!

In an open letter the medical association of physicians of Iran wrote a letter to the Shah and complained of the lax behavior of the court, where a mob who confessed to killing and mutilating a respectable innocent doctor esteemed by all in Kashan were acquitted without punishment. They demanded that the murderers be recaptured and put to jail. But Shah was more loyal to the clergy as they had baptized him as the leader of the Shiites all over the world and that his duty was to vie for the interest of the Shiites wherever they were, no matter, from Persia, Iraq or Lebanon. So he gave in every plea from the clergy to honor his title as the leader of the Shiites worldwide.

6 major newspaper and magazines of that time more or less published the news as told here, sticking to the truth and criticizing the judiciary process and policy.

The accounts of the newspapers after the Islamic revolution when reviewing the matter is now quite different. The story these days the newspapers in Iran say is that,
"A Baha'i doctor whose certificates seemed to be false and who never studied formal medicine in any university committed apostasy. He taught his outlawed and misled sect to over a 100 ignorant Muslims giving them free medicines to deceive them, and if they did not become Baha'is he would poison them, and there are witnesses he raped eight of his patients.

So the college of the Mullahs gathered together and voted for the revolutionary elimination of him to make it a lesson for other members of the misled sect to stop deceiving the poor Muslims.
Fortunately the activities of our brave leaders in the past bore fruits and the hero youth who put him to death were triumphantly saved and were fully rewarded."
For example the Kayhan in 1988 printed the story as:
(In June 1988, Kayhan published Haj Rasoul Zadeh's obituary as having been a devout Muslim and a true follower of Navab Safavi, who had engaged in the heroic act of killing a Zionist element in Kashan!) then cut his throat.

Dr. Berjis had done nothing wrong. In fact, he was an exemplary citizen and a dedicated doctor in a place where his services were much needed. He had saved lives and was in the prime of his life (he was only 54 when he died) but he lost his own life because he was a Baha’i.
The hardship of the Baha'is did not start from the foundation of the Islamic republic of Iran. It started from the birth of the Faith and in some years it was eased but then again it has gone to its peak in the recent years.
We are certain that the Cause of God will prevail and the truth shall overcome.