Imagine, for a moment, that Australia took seriously the inflammatory rhetoric of the likes of Geert Wilders, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Senator Cory Bernardi and founder of the new Rise Up Australia Party, Danny Nalliah, that Islam is a threat and that Muslim immigration should be halted and reversed. Imagine the government deciding to put Islam into the "dangerous cult" basket and begin a series of initiatives to limit its spread, curtail Muslim activities and dissuade anyone from converting.

They might arrest prominent Muslim imams on charges of espionage and treason against the Australian government and lock them up for decades; ban Muslims from attending Australian universities; forcibly acquire mosques and Islamic centres; and unofficially encourage hooligans to rampage against ordinary Australian Muslims, destroy Muslim graves and burn down Muslim-owned shops and businesses - as well as declining to find, arrest and prosecute any offences committed against Australian Muslims.

This is the lived reality not for Australian Muslims, thankfully, but it is for Baha'is in Iran, followers of an indigenous Persian religion, the (unacknowledged) largest religious minority of that country. For more than three decades, they have been victim to persecution from the Islamic government of Iran - which is not very Islamic at all, given that the Qur'an insists there must be no compulsion in religion (2:256) and that Muslims must stand out firmly for justice, even against themselves and their own families (4:135).

The Baha'i International Community recently released the report, Violence with Impunity: Acts of aggression against Iran's Baha'i community , detailing how violence against Baha'is is being promoted and condoned by the Iranian government. Needless to say, it makes for depressing reading. Among the long list of documented incidents over the 2005-2012 period includes:

the demolition of fifty Baha'i-owned homes in June 2010 in Ivel, Mazandaran Province, as part of a systematic long-running anti-Baha'i campaign in the area;

the September 2011 arrest, imprisonment and torture of five Baha'is - including a 17-year old teenage girl - for holding moral education classes for young Baha'is;

at least forty-two incidents of desecration of Baha'i cemeteries - smashing gravestones, exposing bodies, and in some cases destroying the cemeteries entirely.

Of course, the way that Iranian government apologists try and spin their active oppression of the Baha'i faith and its members is by falsely accusing them of crimes against the state - everything ranging from spreading immorality to spying for Israel. (This last allegation arises due to the fact that the Baha'i international headquarters are in Haifa, more a quirk of fate than design, as it was to the Holy Land that the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz exiled Baha'u'llah - the religion's founder - and his family. He is buried in Bahji, north of Acre, which upon his death became the most holy spot in the world for Baha'is.) By religious command, Baha'is must take a strict apolitical stance, particularly in Israel where they do not proselytise or even accept conversions from local Israelis.

Then again, ridiculous rumours about Baha'i activities have a long provenance. An elderly Iranian gentleman, who had converted from the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion as a young man, told me he had been warned off the Baha'is with "they will put some magic powder in your tea to make you convert." After summoning up the courage to attend a Baha'i meeting, he made sure to keep an eagle-eye on his delicate glass cup all evening. I think he was a bit disappointed there was no magic powder after all.

The Baha'i faith may have originated in Iran but has become widespread outside its birthplace. This is due in part to Iranian persecution, which has resulted in Baha'is becoming refugees, including a sizeable number who settled in Australia. As of the 2011 census, there were 13,707 Baha'is in Australia, 46% of whom were born in Iran.

So, why the antipathy? Simply, the Baha'is claim that God's revelation did not end with Prophet Muhammad and Islam - hardly a state crime! In 1844 a young merchant, who became known as the Bab, began preaching that he was the long-awaited Shi'i redeemer. He began to attract disciples, one of whom would go on to become the central Baha'i prophetic figure, Baha'u'llah, who Baha'is believe to be the symbolic return of Jesus Christ.

From the beginning, the Baha'is were an enlightened religious group, advocating equality of the sexes, universal education, an end to racism and federated global governance. When my parents converted in the 1960s, the Baha'i message was all about promoting world peace and unity. As for devotions and ritual, the Baha'is take a minimalist approach, although here there are many similarities with Islam: prayer, fasting and pilgrimage are core practices.

There are differences, too, of course. The most important Baha'i festival Ridvan, which does not have an Islamic analogue, is a twelve-day period (21 April - 2 May) celebrating the public announcement of Baha'u'llah's mission. This year, as with every year, Baha'i commemorations around the world will be tinged with a sense of apprehension and worry about their Iranian compatriots, a situation admittedly made more difficult by their internal policy of applying sanctions against those Baha'is who lie about their religious identity in attempting to leave Iran. Surely, the lesser evil of lying should be permitted to avert the greater evil of suffering persecution?

Not all Muslims are anti-Baha'i. The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights advocates for Baha'i religious freedom, and the above-mentioned report notes that ordinary Iranian Muslims have stepped in to defend their Baha'i friends and neighbours. When Muslims take up the cause of defending religious freedom for Baha'is and others, it gives greater moral authority to object to the discriminatory treatment of Muslims at the hands of non-Muslims elsewhere.

The Iranian government must hear from Muslims both in Iran and around the world that it has no business persecuting the Baha'is, or indeed any other religious minority. I, too, maintain the hope with many of my Baha'i friends, that one day they will be allowed to live freely and peaceably in the land that saw the birth of their religion.

Rachel Woodlock is an academic and co-author of the forthcoming book, "For God's Sake: An Atheist, a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim Debate Belief."