"A leading Shi’ite authority in Iran, Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, actually defended the idea that a non-Muslim’s life was worth less than that of a Muslim in his 1970 critique of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution. . . . Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash. . . . Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. . . . Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them.83"
Religion in Iran

January 1, 1970