Manama, Bahrain – 23 May is a day when Baha’is from different pockets of the world celebrates the 165th anniversary of the birth of the Baha´i faith. While in Iran, families of seven Baha´i leaders are having sleepless nights after authorities reportedly arrested and jailed the group. The Iranian deputy prosecutor said in February the group was charged with propaganda against the regime and insulting religious sanctities.

It’s not only in Iran but places like Egypt and others where the Baha’i community are looked upon as apostates of Islam. Some call them ‘Zionists in disguise’ while others suffer from “Baha’i phobia”. They have no place of worship, their cemeteries are destroyed, properties confiscated and most of all- their faith is not recognized in the Arab and Gulf states.

“Just because they have their temple in Israel (Haifa) does not mean they should be labeled as Zionists. Historically, Baha’is have immense respect to Islam. But Jewish have more rights compared with Baha’is in Middle East,” said Esra’a Al Shafei, Director of Mideast Youth Foundation which runs the Muslim Network of Baha’i Rights.

The project (www.bahairights.org) is developed by the Bahraini activist along with a group of Muslim interfaith activists who believe in tolerance and co-existence. Frustrated with the growing silence by Arab governments, the group stormed into limelight when it launched this first kind of project in 2006 which primarily worked for rights of Baha’i and their acceptance in the society as a contributing community.

“It was a challenge for us to start this project at a time when Egypt and Iran were silently persecuting Baha’is because of their faith. We wanted this community to be legally recognized and accepted in any Muslim society,” Al Shafei said.

Baha’i Faith believes in the unity of God, religion, world peace, balance between nature and technology and gender equality among other teachings. The religion holds Baha’u'llah (the Glory of God) to be the greatest prophet which is seen as heretics for Muslims who believe Prophet Mohammed as the greatest of all prophets. There are an estimated six million Baha´is in the world spread over in 200 countries. According to a 2008 report on International Religious Freedom by the US authorities, there were about 300,000- 350,000 Baha´is in Iran followed by 2,000 in Egypt registered as religious minority in Muslim countries.

Al Shafei said with International pressure on these countries, Egypt for example she said, started to issue IDs for Baha´i, something which the government ignored earlier in issuance of the official ID cards. The Egyptians authorities only recognize three religions- Islam, Christianity or Judaism. Al Shafei said the result was hundreds of Baha´is left on the margins of the society with no access to medical care, education, employment, housing and other government services.

“We are fighting this war of perception in Arab and Gulf states to understand and accept this community. These people deserve their rights rather than being jailed or executed,” the activist explained.

It was not an easy journey for Al Shafei who has been vociferously condemned and criticized by clerics from the oil rich, Saudi Arabia and other regions.

“They call us names and say we will go to hell. Our work for some conservatives is against Islamic teachings.Some clerics leave abusive or life threatening comments on our website. My source of strength is my family for being supportive and understanding my passion for the cause,” the female activist said.

Their plate may be full of criticism, but there is also a small but growing portion of progressive Muslims who are supporting the cause. ” We have no propaganda and have managed to gain the trust of Muslims to support the Baha´is and stop their oppression,” the Bahrain youth explained.

Baha´is constitutes approximately 1% of Bahrain’s population, and the community faces no governmental interference in their worship and gatherings. In 2007, the Baha’i community organized a cultural conference to teach about their faith in the tiny island which is a close US ally. In neighboring Kuwait, where the community numbers at 400, the government views the Baha’i Faith as not being sanctioned by the Qur’an (holy book of Islam), the community cannot construct places of worship. But Baha’is can practice their faith privately without governmental interference. The situation is the same in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon.

But the real change, Al Shafei said would happen when all the majorities start fighting for the rights of the minorities.

“For example, an Israeli supporting Palestinian human rights or Arabs recognizing Kurdish rights can make a sea change of difference. We need to create a network to humanize people towards religious and ethnic minorities across the world,” the Bahraini said.

Related posts:

1. Bahraini Woman Activist Urges Arab and Gulf States to Recognise Baha’i Faith
2. Reform Middle East: “Unity is the Answer”
3. Reform Middle East: Call for Ideas and short Essays

We’re hopeful that this initiative will give rise to many other movements, within and outside Iran, and below is our message to all current and future signatories of the open letter:

We are proud that after a long period of silence, voices of protest are now being registered.

We are proud that the voices of protest are becoming louder and more frequent.

We are proud that in the face of the increasing attacks against the Baha’is of Iran, the intellectual community refuses to be silent.

We are proud that the legal status the brutal murder of Baha’is has gained is now being questioned and denounced.

We are proud that a group of intellectuals seeks to correct the grave mistakes of the past, and prove that coercion against Baha’is is unjustified.

We are proud of the citizens, both within and outside Iran, who stand in solidarity with Baha’i youth who are denied education.

We are proud of your speaking out against the painful reality in Iran

We are proud of your refusal to remain silent when confronted with the injustice, marginalization and atrocities against your fellow countrymen

We are proud of your courage, and we are proud of your integrity

As members of the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights, we are proud of our efforts to raise awareness on the persecution of Baha’is in the region, yet humbly acknowledge that they pale in comparison to the horror, pain and anguish adherents of the Baha’i Faith have had to endure for decades.

But we are resolved to do everything within our means to ensure the establishment of justice, and the protection of current and future generations of Baha’is.

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1. Take pride in your humanity
2. Open apology featured on CNN

With these claims being circulated by respected scholars and clerics, it only follows that the public at large would take them to be true. Direct interaction with members of other faiths can no doubt lead to the dispelling of held misconceptions, but as Baha’is aren’t a visible minority in most countries, the Internet can fill up the void and facilitate communication.

Dr Susan Maneck, a Baha’i scholar, has started a blog in which she hopes to engage Muslims in dialogue and respond to some of the pressing concerns they might have. She says of her blog:

The purpose of this blog is to promote Muslim-Baha’i understanding, to provide Muslims with accurate information on where Baha’is stand on issues which are important to them and to refute some of the common distortions and misconceptions people have about the Baha’i Faith in the Middle East. I’m hoping this blog will be able to approach these issues in a positive manner which will be edifying for both communities.

Be sure to drop by her blog and address and queries you may have, in a respectful manner of course.

Related posts:

1. Featured Baha’i Blog
2. Al-Qaradawi: Muslim-Baha’i Marriage is Wrong
3. A living example of religious pluralism

This is an inspirational brief video that has been recently shared on YouTube:

It is very hopeful to see a video like this, highlighting how a society works best when all of its members are respected and embraced.

A translation of what the video says: Bigotry is a chronic disease, which needs to be treated through exercise.

Related posts:

1. Powerful Narrated Video of a Letter from a Baha’i Prisoner in Iran
2. Human rights violations against the Baha’is – Iran/2007
3. People chanting “Baha’i, Baha’i we support you” in a demonostration in Iran

Iran might be famous for Avicenna, the Cyrus cylinder, and its leaders’ scathing remarks, but for over 6 million Baha’is across the world, it holds a special significance, as it is the birthplace of their faith.

Founded a century and a half ago, the Baha’i faith encourages the independent investigation of “truth,” and calls – among other things – for the unity of religion and humankind, and the elimination of gender inequality. However, one of its central tenets – that Islam is not the final revelation of God – has led to it being declared a heresy, and its adherents denounced as apostates.

The earliest followers of the Baha’i faith in Iran experienced imprisonment, expulsion and execution, but as the faith’s followers grew in number and spread over more countries in the region, it soon became evident that other states would not provide a safe haven for Baha’is to freely practise their faith.

Communities from Morocco to Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere underwent an onslaught of propaganda attacks and arrests, and several countries placed a ban on all Baha’i activities.

While in recent years the situation of Baha’is has improved (with Indonesia, for instance, repealing a ban on Baha’i activities), Iran remains the only country where Baha’is experience grave persecution. To date, however, hardly any Muslim-majority countries recognize the Baha’i faith as an independent religion. The lack of recognition rendered many Baha’is incapable of obtaining identification documents, effectively denying them their right to equal citizenship.

The Muslim Network of Baha’i Rights was founded in an effort to address and challenge the discrimination that Baha’is have to suffer under the supposed banner of Islam. Its mission is to secure their basic human rights within our societies, through raising awareness of the plight of Baha’is in many Muslim-majority countries, and encouraging fellow Muslims to speak out against such injustices.

Propaganda campaigns (spread primarily by state-owned media and religious clerics) have led to a deep and dangerous misunderstanding amongst many Muslims of Baha’is and their faith, wrongly associating them with political ideologies like Zionism or referring to them as “Satanists.”

Since Baha’is are often censured within the mainstream media, such claims are hardly corrected, putting members of the faith in a very difficult situation. It is our responsibility as Muslims, and as members of the dominating majority, to raise awareness of who Baha’is actually are and to make sure that they are treated equally within the law and society. They are citizens of our countries regardless of their faith, which for the record is extremely respectful of Islam.

As practising Muslims we don’t believe in the Baha’i faith, but why should that stand in the way of granting them their full rights? Why should our religious differences justify decades of abuse, wrongful imprisonment, murder, denial of education, and other crimes?

Baha’is have been ignored in their requests for peaceful coexistence, and despite the abuse they have never resorted to violence. It is therefore time for us to stand up and demand that their rights are fully ensured and legally protected. It is time for us to help Baha’is factually refute wrong accusations within regional media outlets that have dire consequences for their security.

As a strategy, and a recruitment tool, we have relied on the power of the Internet, the most open network in the world, to reach our target audience in an honest, uncensored fashion. It is to our advantage that increasingly more people rely on the Internet for news instead of traditional media, which in much of the Middle East is heavily censored. Many curious people resort to the Internet for research because of the amount of information that resides in it.

One of our biggest accomplishments was our successful utilization of creative media in order to raise awareness about the abuse perpetrated against the Baha’i minority in the Middle East, and encourage others into taking action.

Before any significant changes are made to the perceptions of citizens of the Middle East, or discriminatory laws are removed, it is important that we start a discussion, and our media productions have been more successful than any written post in achieving that.

Our first video campaign was documented in one of Egypt’s most prominent papers within one week of its launch. Some of our comics have also been published and used in relevant conferences around the world. When the site was first established in the summer of 2007, it was covered by BBC Persian Service in an exclusive article only three weeks later. We owe this success to the accessibility of the Internet, where we break our way into global media outlets without having to worry about censorship.

Despite the amount of controversy we continue to stir in the Muslim world, we are committed to the cause of championing equal rights for the Baha’i minority in the region.

Related posts:

1. Fostering Baha’i-Muslim understanding
2. This network featured on BBC Persian
3. In need of some help!

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1. Offices of Shirin Ebadi raided
2. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
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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.

Related posts:

1. Islam and Christianity: A Baha’i perspective
2. For fear that he would convert from Islam to the Baha’i faith
3. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating

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

Related posts:

1. A presentation about the persecution of Baha’is in Iran
2. Persecution of Baha’is intensified in Iran
3. Academics call Iran to end its persecution of Baha’is

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

Related posts:

1. ElBaradei Presses Need to Formally Recognize the Baha’i Faith as a Religion in Egypt
2. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
3. Living in isolation, Baha’is in the Middle East fight for their Faith

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

Related posts:

1. Rest in peace, Dr. Ali-Muhammad Varqa
2. Fostering Baha’i-Muslim understanding
3. Will our Baha’i friends in Iran ever have peace?