One of the many questions people ask us here is why we are running this initiative, and one of our many answers is that Baha’is are known for defending Islam and Muslims whenever we are being attacked, which serves as an inspiration for us to defend our Baha’i brethren as well. There is something very beautiful about someone who doesn’t share your religion yet doesn’t allow that to be a barrier for defending it, loving it, and respecting it as well as its members.

Marco, a Portuguese Baha’i, wrote a post refuting Sam Harris’ attacks on Islam. Harris is a confused author known for his mangled writings linking religion and violence, and his work clearly deserves a refutation which Marco provides below:

This is one of several posts I wrote about Sam Harris book “The End of Faith”. I usually am not sarcastic, but Mr Harris proves to be a radical atheist. He may not be a radical in the sense of inspiring suicide bombers or calling for a Holy War. But he is radical with his words that spread prejudice, ignores basic facts, and avoids the use of reason when approaching Islam. I wrote this post because Mr Harris attacks something I firmly believe: the divine origin of Islam.

Here is an English translation of the post:

Sam Harris and the End of the Faith [originally posted Friday, 25 of January of 2008]:

“We are at war with the Islam” is the one of the main ideas of the book The End of Faith by Sam Harris. The statement is an obvious simplification of the reality; the relationship between the West and some countries of the Middle East is much more complex than these simple words suggest. It is obvious that - in the last few decades - radical Islam has been a source of problems for people from the West and for Islam itself. It is often stated that the expression “radical Islam” and “Islamic fundamentalism” became part of common language after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Where was radical Islam before that time?

This is enough to question what does Mr. Sam Harris mean when he writes about Islam? Throughout the chapter “The Problem with the Islam” we understand that the author is referring to all countries whose populations are mainly Muslim. To put in other words, he includes within “Muslim” (whether liberal or conservative) Arabs, Persians, Indians, Malaysian, Indonesians & Africans… all of them are placed by Sam Harris on the same side of an imaginary trench. Wouldn’t it be more rational to consider that the problem only exists due to some dictatorships and extremist groups based in the Middle East ? Such a simplification by Mr Harris! Is it not typical of a radical thought? And isn’t it strange that we find it to be a common attitude between religious extremists and anti-religious extremists? I have to admit that I was expecting much more from Mr. Harris. After all, in this same book he proclaims the need to use reason when studying religion!

The mental attitude of radical Muslims should be compared with the mental attitude of supporters of other forms radicalism that Western countries faced in the past. It seems strange to me that Mr. Harris does not make any comparison between Muslim suicide bombers and Japanese Kamikaze during the 2nd World War. Don’t they have something in common? Both believe that they were committing a personal sacrifice in name of a supreme cause by causing death and destruction to their enemies.

So it is strange that Sam Harris was not able to establish such a comparison. He preferred over simplifications instead of a rational analysis of the situation. Maybe his sympathy for Buddhism did not allow him to make such a comparison.

INTERPRETATION OF THE SACRED TEXTS

The book, The End of Faith, presents several pages of quotation from the Quran. These are sentences that according to author disclose the violent nature of Islam. It is not necessary to be very versed in the history of Islam to understand that the texts of the Quran revealed in Medina are very different from the texts revealed in Mekka. According to some Muslim theologians, this implies that the applicability and the overall view of the text vary according to the context of the revelation itself.

But is not Mr. Harris the great defender of the use of reason in the analysis of religion? Is his literal interpretation of the sacred texts the example of the so desired rationality? Can we ignore the context (local and circumstantial) where the texts were revealed? Can we make a mere literal interpretation of the texts and nothing else? But is this not but the same method of Islamic fundamentalists? Is this what Mr. Harris means by the use of reason? …

It is obvious that Mr. Harris has a lot of prejudices against the Islam. After insisting on the literal interpretations of the Quran, he finds a verse that states: “Don’t you kill each other” (4: 29). Strangely the author avoids the literal interpretation of this verse, and states that it is “ambiguous”. One can only conclude that objectivity is not a trait of the author.

When reading the book, The End of the Faith, we perceive that the method of the author in evaluating the religions is to make a literal interpretation of the texts and to validate this literal meaning against common sense. No time to waste on searching for metaphoric or symbolic meanings; a superficial reading is quite enough. But is this the method Mr. Harris applies to all religions and belief systems?

Knowing Mr. Harris fascination with Buddhism, one wonders how he would interpret the meaning of Buddha’s words: “If you find the Buddha in the road, kills him”. Would he take those words literally and consider it an encouragement of intolerance and violence, a proof of the falsehood of Buddhism and its evil influence in the history of mankind? Or would he look for a metaphoric meaning of these words? The answer can be found here: Killing the Buddha. How strange that Mr Harris becomes more rational when he analyzes the texts of Buddhism.

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NOTE: This subject is not depleted this way; in next post I will approach other subjects that Sam Harris wrote on the Islam in the book, The End of the Faith.

We would like to thank Marco for defending our religion against ill-informed attacks.

Prof. Leonard Lewisohn is the Lecturer in Persian, at Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies of the University of Exeter in England. Recently he posted the following notice on an internet list of Persian studies scholars and due to the significance of this issue for human rights in Iran, we wish to share his posting with our readers. The Editorial Staff.

Prof Lewisohn wrote:

In February 2006, I wrote a detailed report to scholars who subscribe to this list about destruction of the Ni‘matullahi-Gunabadi Hosseiniyya (Sufi Center or Khanaqah) in Qom, Iran. I described how on Feb. 13, 2006, a vigilante mob, abetted by the baton-wielding police of the Islamic Republic of Iran, seized, burned down and then bulldozed this Sufi prayer and meditation center, arresting hundreds of dervishes and wounding many demonstrators in the process. Unfortunately, that attack has proven to be but one in a series of ongoing attempted pogroms of Sufis in the Land of the Ayatollahs. The most recent attack took place a month ago in Borujerd, a city in the province of Loristan in the west of Iran, where some 1000 followers of the Gunabadi branch of the Ni‘matullahi Order currently live.

On November 4, 2007, an irregular armed, vigilante gang of thugs sponsored and funded by the fundamentalist, Islamicist regime, known as the Basij-i Mostaza‘fin (nicknamed ‘Basiji’), along with the state security services, attacked the center of this same group of Sufis in Borujerd. After pillaging all its possessions and furnishings, they burned it down. Some 70 people were injured and more than 150 dervishes or dervish sympathizers were imprisoned.

It may be useful to know something of the historical background to this event. Since 2005, several prominent exoteric clerics (‘ulama) in the city had been delivering sermons against Sufism, haranguing the populace about the evils of the Sufis, branding the Sufi mystical tradition in Islam as a dangerous heresy and aberration of faith. They incited their followers to destroy the Sufi Hosseiniyya (Khanaqah) there. In late October 2007, a conference on the greatest Muslim Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) of Iran, sponsored by the Institute of Philosophy in Tehran, was held in Tehran and Tabriz. A week after the conference the influential fundamentalist ideologue Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani issued a statement describing Rumi’s poetry as being full of “perverted and misleading ideas and against our principles [i.e. of the fundamentalist brand of Shi‘ite Islam propounded by the religious ideologues of the Islamic Republic of Iran].” The Hamshahri newspaper in Tehran furthermore reported him as saying, “I condemn this conference and its organizers… Its content comprised much dangerous innovation (bid‘at), including things such as listening to music (sama‘) and dance… Everyone should feel shame before the Imam of the Age that such a conference has been convened [in Iran].” Unfortunately, Ayatollah Safi belongs to that select group of mafioso clerics known as ‘Sources of Religious Emulation’, the pronouncements of whom, however outrageous, theologically biased and theosophically misinformed they may be, no one dares criticize, for to do so is to risk losing one’s job, or being blacklisted as an anti-revolutionary, or face imprisonment, or worse. I was in Tehran during the same week that Sign-of-God Safi’s comments were published so am a witness that none of the distraught organizers of the conference (friends of mine) dared raise their voice in the media to try to directly refute this mullah in order to expose the rank barrenness of literary and intellectual culture beneath his large turban. Safi’s characterization of Rumi’s Sufi poetry as being “dangerous innovation,” of course, provided just the right ammunition that the ideological enemies of the Ni‘matullahi Sufis needed. A few days later after Safi attacked Rumi, the Ni‘matullahi-Gunabadi Sufi center in Borujerd was appropriately razed to the ground—without, of course, hardly a word of protest at this religious vigilantism being voiced in the media. The psychology of this behaviour Rumi had described quite well incidentally: “The passional soul carries a rosary and the Holy Scripture in its right hand, but has a dagger and a sword up its sleeve.” (Nafs ra tasbih u mushaf dar yamin/ khanjar u shamshir andar asetin). (Mathnawi, III: 2554)

It should be emphasized that the Ni‘matullahi Order is the largest Sufi Order in Iran, with the members of all its various branches currently suffering persecution at the hands of the fundamentalist regime. The background, history and various details underlying this fresh assault on the Persian Sufi tradition, which are discussed and analysed by news-sites and other links in English and Persian, are provided below:

http://www.majzob.com

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20071112_Sufi_site_attacked_in_Iran.html

http://WWW.30morgh-121.blogfa.com

http://WWW.soofee.blogfa.com

http://gonabadie-news.blogspot.com

http://soltanalishahi.blogspot.com/2006/02/blog-post_08.html

http://WWW.darvishan.info

Bravo to Sam Qandchi, the editor of Iranscope (http://www.iranscope.com) for its 6 November 2007 intelligent and well-reasoned editorial! We were deeply impressed by the humanity and spirit of unity shown by this journal:

http://www.ghandchi.com/489-recognizebahais.htm

This editorial puts a simple question to the former President of Iran, Khatami, who has become Iran’s spokesperson for “dialogue among civilization”. The question is: “Mr. Khatami, in you efforts to bring about greater national unity, will you be willing to help with recognition of the Baha’i Faith by the Islamic Republic of Iran?”

For years Khatami has talked about dialogue among civilization. But how ironic that he lives in a country that for the past 28 years has specifically denied recognition to the Baha’i Faith, one of the world’s major religions and Iran’s largest religious community after the Shi’as. This absence of recognition is embedded in country’s Constitution that only grants recognition to Christians and Jews as “people of the book”. And it barely recognizes Zoroastrians.

The argument that the Islamic regime has presented is that Baha’is are not mentioned in the Qur’an and as such cannot be recognized.

Our question is: Is Shi’a sect mentioned in the Qur’an?

Of course not. Nowhere in the entire Qur’an is there any mention of Shi’as, a sect that was formed long after the Qur’an. In fact, according to Sunni traditions accepted in all the Arab lands and also parts of Iran, Shi’as are infidels and heretics. This view is held by over 90% of world’s Muslims.

The editorial continues to argue that how can a sect that was formed long after the Qur’an and is not mentioned anywhere in that Sacred Book, and itself is considered heretic by the vast majority of the world’s Muslims, deny recognition to another religion solely based on the argument that the Baha’i Faith is not mentioned in the Qur’an!

The editorial further calls on Khatami, who is trying to bring about reconciliation between Islam and Christianity, to first heal its own nation. If after 160 of systematic persecution and massacre of Baha’is, Iran cannot set aside its prejudice and deep-rooted ignorance manifested in its hatred of Baha’is, then how can it have the temerity to speak of reconciliation with other nations?

For those interested, here are a couple of related links by the same enlightened editorial staff:

http://www.ghandchi.com/488-bahaifriends.htm

http://www.ghandchi.com/302-Secularism.htm

In spirit of interfaith dialogue, the following news story caught our attention:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071011/ts_nm/religion_scholars_dc

One of our readers was kind enough to share the following news item, which we found very inspiring and decided to post it here for your enjoyment. It is heartwarming to find such examples where people have learned to live with one another in peace and harmony and to emphasize their commonalities as oppose to their differences.

News item dated 5 October 2007 follows:

A Baha’i from Tanzania - where different religious communities live peacefully together - testified yesterday before the United Nations General Assembly on how to promote religious understanding.

Addressing an informal hearing on “Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace,” Mitra Deliri said that in her country, “large Christian and Muslim populations live side by side, intermarry and celebrate each other’s religious festivals.”

“It is a living example of religious pluralism,” she said. “This coexistence did not come about by accident but rather as a result of the vision and deliberate action of Tanzanian leaders, dating back to the country’s first president…,” she said.

Ms. Deliri, who represented the Baha’i International Community at the two-day hearing, also said it was important for governments to create a climate where freedom of religion or belief is clearly upheld in law and in practice.

“Such a climate must be free from incitements to violence or hostility in the name of religion,” she said. “Where contentious opinions about religions are expressed, it is the responsibility of the state to provide for right of reply.

“As a minimum standard, both sides must be afforded the right to respond in a peaceful and legal manner so as to allow the public to arrive at their own conclusion. It is in this climate that understanding and cooperation can take root,” she said.

She recommended a number of strategies for promoting interreligious and intercultural understanding. They included establishing a universal, mandatory educational policy and curriculum on religion and education and using the news media to promote respect, prevent conflict and achieve increased social cohesion.

Ms. Deliri was among approximately two dozen representatives of nongovernmental and religious organizations from around the world who addressed the General Assembly yesterday.

Other speakers, for example, included Paul Knitter of the Union Theological Seminary in the USA, Gamal I. Serour of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research at the Al Azhar Centre in Egypt, Sohan Lal Gandhi of the Anuvrat Global Organization in India, Fatima Ahmed of Zenab for Women in Development in Sudan, and Steven Rockefeller of Earth Charter International in the United States.

The hearing on interreligious and intercultural understanding was scheduled to continue today with a high-level dialogue among governments.

The Baha’i Faith, with its belief in the oneness of humanity and the oneness of religion, has long promoted religious harmony and supported interfaith dialogue and activity.

End of News item.

Below we share 2 articles regarding Baha’is in Iran.

The first article concerns the recent destruction of a Baha’i cemetery in Najafabad, Iran. News of this unfortunate and disturbing development was first reported in the following article by Iran Press News on the 15th of September:

تخریب قبرستان بهائیان در نجف آباد اصفهان

A large crowd attacked the Baha’i cemetery of Najafabad and completely destroyed it. You may read the article in Farsi here [word document.]

The second article is a piece on the principle of toleration in Islam. It is titled, “From Moorish Qurtuba to the Baha’is of Iran: Islamic Toleration and Coercion.” The author argues that the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (saws) and the Holy Qur’án. He explains how Qurtuba and Muslim Spain can be held up as an example of peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation.

English version [word doc]
Farsi version [word doc]

The Baha’is of Iran blog has more information about the newly demolished Baha’i cemetery:

The Iranian authorities ordered the demolition of another Baha’i cemetery in Iran, this time in Najaf-Abad (Esfahan). This despicable and notorious action has brought extensive grief and unhappiness to Baha’i families who have lost their loved ones, especially those who have lost their relatives recently. This is the second Baha’i cemetery that has been demolished in the course of only a few short months. Clearly, this is proof of systematic and planned persecution towards members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran.

It is truly heart breaking to see children shedding tears. Was it not enough that they grieve the loss of their parents? Now they lament the destruction of their resting place.

We echo these thoughts. This is a truly shameful act.

For relevant information, you may refer to the Association for Baha’i Studies in Persian (ABSP).

The Sierra Vista Herald reports:

Ministers and lay people representing many faiths including Christian, Unitarian, Muslim, Jewish, Bahai and Buddhism lead prayers and songs for world peace at Community United Church of Christ on Thursday the World Day of Prayer.

This is an excellent way of promoting interfaith understanding and religious tolerance. We can only wish that one day within our own communities Muslims, Jews, Christians, Baha’is and other religious minorities can all join us in peace and celebration.

“In the matter of justice, all should be equal in your eyes.”
- Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

For many Muslims, Abu Bakr is considered a heroic figure … this great, inspirational man is one of the main sources that led us to believe in interfaith activism, and we hope that our Muslim friends will learn from him how to accept and fight for others especially if minorities are oppressed within our own societies. Indeed we are all one and the same in the eyes of God, the merciful.

Abu Bakr to us is a revered teacher who always emphasized equality and justice, two things which we are fighting for via this website.

It’s not only for justice that we are fighting for Baha’is, and other religious minorities. It’s out of duty, and it’s out of knowledge and respect for others.

We were rather disappointed by the unexpected reactions from both Muslims and Baha’is to the Egyptian tourism ad video which simply aimed to spread awareness. By no means was this video intentionally insulting or offensive. Even if some people may disagree with its strong approach, the cases and the way in which it was presented was completely realistic and valid. Nowhere was it implied that Egypt was unworthy of touring; the ad was simply a creative way of reaching a wider audience to make the public aware of a continuing struggle of the Egyptian Baha’is.

We are glad that this video actually reached its aim in raising discussion concerning the struggles of the Baha’i minority in Egypt. Not many people are actively condemning these human rights abuses and this is exactly what we aim to achieve via this website: we put the issues on the table for them to be discussed and for people, especially non-Baha’is, to be aware of what Baha’is are going through and we cannot see this happening without the use of multiple media platforms: videos, podcasts, blogging which eventually do reach traditional media formats (newspapers, TV, radio, etc.) In other words, it reaches many different people regardless of whether or not they even read this website.

We cannot see this website leading to negative results as some people claim. The approach taken here is by Muslims and not Baha’is; if anyone is risking anything it is ourselves. There are no Baha’is working or writing in this website despite some outrageous conspiracies by Mr. Imran Shaykh. We very happily accept these risks as we are strong believers in the rights of religious minorities. There are many Muslim extremists who continue to threaten us; and that only makes our fight for Baha’is and other minorities stronger. For us to remain strong we need the support and unity from many other Muslims which we are trying to recruit, as well as general acceptance from Baha’i friends.

Concerning the video, Marco, a Portuguese Baha’i, has written a great response to the Baha’is who consider this video to be offensive:

I love the video. I found it has a very powerful message exposing the other side of Egypt’s paradise: the lack of civil right for religious minorities such as the Baha’is. I sent the link to several friends and relatives, and at least one Portuguese Christian blog posted it. But I can not imagine any baha’i producing such a video; that is not the way Bahá’is protest against those who deprive them of civil rights.

To those baha’is who see this video as an insult to Egypt or as a harmful approach that doesn’t help Baha’is, I have to remind you the following: the language, the methods and tools of Civil Rights Groups may not be the same those of the Baha’is; but they may prove to be efficient to protect our brothers of faith in Egypt and in Iran, just like the language, the methods and the tools of the British army proved to be efficient in saving the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in 1918.

[Read the rest of the entry]

Surely this website and any other media it produces contributes to a “PR crisis” for Iran and Egypt. It does indeed expose the darker sides of both countries. This does not mean that we actually enjoy attacking these countries or that we don’t hold them dear to us. What we do is point out a human rights abuse, condemn it, and eventually find different ways of doing so until our primary mission is achieved.

Amongst other things, we also target certain Muslims whose arguments or hatred against Baha’is are refuted and condemned here. We do not and have never attacked such people but we think it’s important to play a role in refuting their arguments as Baha’is are often ignored and dismissed as “infidels.” We on the other hand have a higher chance of being heard since we actually share a religion with the people in question.

We think this approach is good enough to shake our societies. This website does not refrain from satire but it also does not thrive on it: any satirical material is not truly meant as sheer mockery but rather as an eye-opener to some people who do not see the irony and hypocrisy of being hateful to Baha’is. For example it is very common to find Muslims who complain about being misunderstood, unnecessarily feared and hated throughout the world even though some of them justify discrimination against Baha’is due to them being “infidels” and “devil worshippers.” This shows an extreme lack of understanding of the Baha’i faith which is the source for hatred of Baha’is. We as Muslims have a duty to stand up against this and to inform others on what the Baha’i faith actually teaches.

It is this attitude that really triggered us to start this website. We realized that many Muslims need to be aware of what is going on and we try our best to encourage them to stand up and fight for the rights of others even if it is not their own.

Apologies to those offended and to those who might be offended by our future material, however this is our approach, and frankly we do not see what is wrong with it. This is the way we fight for human rights and it may be different from you, but we have seen it work in the past hence why we are trying similar approaches here in the hopes of achieving social change. When we target the government via letters or press releases they are never harmful, violent, or insulting in nature and are in fact collaborative, encouraging, and highly respectful. This website is for the most part informal: it is not treated as a director communicator to the Iranian or Egyptian governments. This website is meant to first spread awareness and to encourage other Muslims to stand up in defense of the Baha’i cause and we do a lot of background work that involve campaign letters to embassies and governmental offices kindly requesting change. But the informal cyber activities are actually meant for the public to raise awareness and support for a common cause, in this case it’s ensuring human rights of Baha’is across the Arab and Muslim world.

Many of you are probably wondering why a Muslim network in defense of Baha’i rights exist. The answer is very simple - the best way to promote tolerance, human rights, religious freedom and respect is to rally for a cause that doesn’t necessarily affect you. When you strongly believe in a value, you should apply it to all people equally regardless of their faith, cultural differences, political stance or nationality. If within your country this doesn’t happen, as a loyal citizen you should actively enforce that such rights be met for the sake of a better and more productive society.

In this network, there are a few things that one should keep in mind: