NEW YORK ( CNN ) -- A top Baha ' i official has criticized Iran 's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith . President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's government has been accused of trying to eliminate the Baha ' i community . Bani Dugal , the principal representative of the Baha ' i International Community to the United Nations , called Iran 's assertion `` utterly baseless . '' `` The allegations are not new , and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue , '' Dugal said on Wednesday , quoted in a news release issued by the Baha ' i movement . `` The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha ' i community , and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this plan . '' Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the people were detained for `` security issues '' and not their faith , Iran 's Islamic Republic News Agency said . Elham said on Tuesday that the Baha'is were members of a group working together `` against national interest . '' `` The group is an organized establishment linked to foreigners , the Zionists in particular , '' he said . The arrests of the six last week and another Baha ' i leader in March sparked sharp condemnation by the Baha'is , the United States , Canada , the European Union and humanitarian groups . The Baha'is say the latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution since 1979 , when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created in the predominantly Shiite nation . The Baha'is say they have been killed , jailed and `` otherwise oppressed '' only because of their religion . `` The best proof of this is the fact that , time and again , Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha ' i beliefs and convert to Islam , an option few have taken , '' Dugal said . Dugal said Iran 's practice of connecting the group to Zionism , the underlying political philosophy of the Jewish state , was a `` distortion '' and an attempt to `` stir animosity '' among the Iranian public . The Baha ' i World Center , which the movement refers to as its `` spiritual and administrative heart , '' is in the Acre/Haifa area in northern Israel -- a location that predates the founding of the state of Israel since it was formed during the Ottoman Empire 's rule of Palestine . The Baha'is explain that their founder , Baha ' u'llah , `` after a series of successive banishments from his native Persia , was exiled , with members of his family and a small band of his followers , to the Turkish penal colony of Acre in 1868 . '' Dugal said the Iranian actions were the `` most recent iteration in a long history of attempts to foment hatred by casting the Baha'is as agents of foreign powers , whether of Russia , the United Kingdom , or the United States and now Israel all of which are completely baseless . '' Dugal said the government 's philosophies are based largely on the idea that there can be `` no prophet following Mohammed '' and that the faith `` poses a theological challenge to this belief . '' They say Baha ' u'llah is regarded by Baha'is as `` the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham , Moses , Buddha , Krishna , Zoroaster , Christ and Mohammed . '' The Baha'is -- regarded as the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran -- say they have 5 million members across the globe , and about 300,000 in Iran .
Baha ' i official denies Canada claim that about 300,000 of its leaders held for security reasons . The religious minority 's leaders were arrested at their homes last week . Baha ' i representative to Islam says Iran 's claim is `` utterly baseless '' Baha says Muslim -run government is trying to destroy Bani Dugal ' i community .