Qatar jails Baha'i leader for five years over social media posts

Qatar jails Bahai community leader for five years over social media posts — Remy Rowhani, the head of the National Spiritual Assembly that governs Baha’i affairs in Qatar, June 2025. Photo: Family photo/via AP

DOHA, Qatar — The leader of Qatar’s small Baha’i community, Remy Rowhani, 71, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for social media activity that Qatari authorities said “cast doubt on the foundations of the Islamic religion,” according to court documents obtained by the Baha’i International Community, which is monitoring the case.

Rowhani has been held in detention since April. The verdict was issued by a three-judge panel of Qatar’s Supreme Judiciary Council, the Geneva-based Baha’i organization said in documents shared with The Associated Press.

Defense attorneys had requested leniency, citing Rowhani’s heart condition, but the judges rejected the appeal.

Saba Haddad, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, called the ruling “a serious breach and grave violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief and an attack on Remy Rowhani and the Baha’i community in Qatar.”

In a post on the social media platform X, Haddad urged the international community to press the Qatari government to comply with international law and release Rowhani immediately.

Qatari authorities defended the ruling, citing constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship that must be exercised “in accordance with the law and must not threaten or violate public stability and security.”

Officials emphasized that the Qatari legal system ensures due process and legal representation for all parties, with no discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, or other status.

The sentencing comes less than two weeks after a group of United Nations human rights experts expressed “serious concern” about Rowhani’s detention, describing it as “part of a broader and disturbing pattern of disparate treatment of the Baha’i minority in Qatar.”

The experts emphasized that “the mere existence of Baha’is in Qatar and their innocuous presence on X cannot be criminalized under international law.”

Rowhani, former head of Qatar’s Chamber of Commerce, had previously been arrested on charges related to his leadership of Qatar’s Baha’i National Assembly, including routine fundraising.

His most recent arrest followed social media posts on X and Instagram accounts managed by the Baha’i community, which highlighted Qatari holidays and Baha’i writings.

According to the Geneva office, Qatari prosecutors argued that the accounts “promoted the ideas and beliefs of a religious sect that raises doubt about the foundations and teachings of the Islamic religion.”

Rowhani’s daughter, Noora Rowhani, who lives in Australia, described the verdict as “so unfortunate and so shocking” in an email. She added that her own deteriorating eye condition would likely prevent her from seeing her father in the coming five years.

The Baha’i faith, founded in the 1860s by Persian nobleman Baha’u’llah, is a small global religion with an interfaith message. While Baha’is are generally tolerated in most countries, followers in several Middle Eastern nations face persecution, according to human rights advocates.

The repression is most severe in Iran, where Baha’is are banned outright and have historically been executed or disappeared, and continues in countries including Yemen, Egypt, and Qatar.

Advocates say Iran exerts pressure on countries where it holds influence to suppress Baha’is, including Qatar and Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels dominate the north. Iran and Qatar also share the world’s largest natural gas field, highlighting the regional political and economic context of such repression.

Shiite clerics have historically denounced Baha’is as apostates. Islam considers Muhammad the final prophet, leaving no religious room for Baha’u’llah’s claims. Human rights groups say this theological conflict drives legal and social persecution in conservative Muslim states.

Qatar is a Salafi Muslim state often accused of financing extremist Islamist groups. Over the years, Qatari funds have supported Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and elements of Islamic State in Syria and Libya. Al Jazeera, based in Doha, has been criticized for broadcasting clerics advocating violence against Americans, Europeans, and Israelis. Qatar has also backed the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The country faced a blockade from 2017 to 2021 by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, which accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, destabilizing the region, and maintaining ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival. The embargo was lifted in January 2021.

Human rights advocates say Rowhani’s case reflects Qatar’s strict interpretation of Sharia-based laws and a zero-tolerance approach toward religious minorities perceived to challenge Islam. They argue that the international community should act to protect the rights of Baha’is and other vulnerable groups in the Gulf.

Islam systematically demonizes the Bahá’í Faith, branding it as heresy simply because it dares to recognize Bahá’u’lláh as a divine messenger—a direct challenge to Islam’s rigid claim of finality in Prophet Muhammad’s prophethood (Quran 33:40).

Both Sunni and Shia clerics ruthlessly label Bahá’ís as apostates (murtaddūn), justifying their persecution under Islamic law.

In countries like Iran, this theological hostility translates into state-sponsored oppression: Bahá’ís are stripped of citizenship, barred from education, and imprisoned solely for their beliefs.

Hypocritically, while Islam tolerates Judaism and Christianity as “People of the Book,” it denies the Bahá’í Faith even the most basic legitimacy, condemning its inclusive teachings as syncretic corruption.

Worse, Islamic jurisprudence—especially in hardline Salafi and traditional schools—openly calls for the execution of Bahá’ís under apostasy laws, citing medieval fatwas and hadiths.

Though modern Islamists may avoid openly inciting lynch mobs, their relentless preaching and legal discrimination fuel systemic persecution.

Theocratic regimes, backed by clerical authorities, enforce apartheid-like policies against Bahá’ís, proving that Islam’s so-called “tolerance” is conditional—reserved only for those who submit to its doctrinal supremacy.

According to analysts Islam’s treatment of Bahá’ís exposes its intolerance of dissent and its willingness to weaponize theology to suppress freedom of belief. Any claims of moderation are overshadowed by the lived suffering of Bahá’ís under Islamic rule.

(With files from AP | Agencies)