Freedom of some religion

I've been told that there is freedom of religion in Iran. That's almost true. Unlike the US, where the government may not legally establish any list of approved or disapproved religions (Sorry, Republicans) only Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism are legal in Iran.

Consequently, when 54 adherents of the Baha'i faith went out to help the poor of Shiraz, or so they said, they were arrested for proselytizing or as it was official charged, spreading propaganda against the regime. They were sentenced today to four years in prison. Of those 54, the sentences of 51 were reduced to one year conditionally while they were sent off to study at the Islamic Propaganda Organisation, ostensibly to be bullied onto dropping the idea that Bahá'u'lláh was the last of the prophets and accepting that the other guy was God's final phone call to planet Earth.

I'm not picking on Iran, at least not without also picking on the many other countries that are theocratic or even nominally atheistic where it's possible to prosecute someone for belonging to a religion or even a secular organization; to talk about it openly, to meet peacefully. Perhaps someone will remember just how precious the First Amendment to our constitution is when charming idiots like Mike Huckabee talk about changing America to be in line with his religious beliefs.