We wish to also note that views expressed in these essays are those of the writers and are not necessarily endorsed by our Network. We’re simply a catalyst for dialogue.

The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights.

Unity is the Answer – an essay by Khalil Khavari.

Problems in the Middle East are special case of the universal problems that face humanity. The most troubling impediment to solving problems of all kinds is a disunity that divides the family of humanity, saps its vital energies, and prevents it from marching toward a glorious destiny.

“Let’s solve our differences, so that we can be united,” is the rallying call of the Peace Movement. These people of goodwill realize that unity holds the key in making the earth a reflection of heaven. The Baha’is are fully supportive of the call for unity. In fact, the three one-nesses: the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of people constitute the bedrock of the Baha’i Faith. Baha’is believe, however, that it is by far more pragmatic for the family of humanity to becomes first united and then collectively address and solve problems and disagreements. Where there is unity, equality for all, and goodwill, everything is possible, while where disunity rules, nothing of substance that servers the common weal is achievable.

In order to achieve unity, certain fundamental provisions, such as those in the Bill of Rights with further stipulations. In summary, all people, men and women, irrespective of any and all demographic or personal considerations should be granted their God-given rights. People should be free in the fullest sense of the word.

There is no other region on earth that has the richness of religious heritage and God-given natural resources as the Middle East. Yet, there is no other region that suffers as broadly and deeply through everyday turmoils and sufferings. What can Middle East do to change its fortunes? What are the reforms that would bring about peace and brotherhood to this region? How can they be implemented?

Some time ago, we read Abdu’l-Baha’s “Tablet of Divine Civilization” [Risalih Madaniyyih], and were deeply impressed with his vision of grass-root reforms and improvements that can be brought about for the betterment of Iran. Are those ideas still applicable? If so, how? What principles should be considered in their implementation?

We are not looking for elaborate papers, but short essays that point to things that can be done that would bring about better life in the Middle East. Given our space limitation, we prefer short commentaries (say, one page). Please send them to bahairights@gmail.com

We hope to publish as many of them as we can. We reserve the right to edit submissions for style.

bahairights@gmail.com

The 98-page report, titled “Prohibited Identities: State Interference with Religious Freedom,” focused on the problems that have emerged because of Egypt’s practice of requiring citizens to state their religious identity on government documents but then restricting the choice to Islam, Christianity, or Judaism.

“These policies and practices violate the right of many Egyptians to religious freedom,” stated the report, which was released on 12 November 2007.

“Because having an ID card is essential in many areas of public life, the policies also effectively deny these citizens a wide range of civil and political as well as economic and social rights,” the report said.

The Baha’i International Community welcomed the report.

“We want to thank Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights for calling the world’s attention to the human rights situation in Egypt,” said Bani Dugal, the Baha’i International Community’s principal representative to the United Nations.

“The discriminatory practices identified by the report do indeed gravely affect Egypt’s Baha’i community, as well as others in Egypt who seek to enjoy the freedom to believe as they choose, a right that is guaranteed by international law.

“Our hope is that Egyptian authorities will now be encouraged to end their discriminatory practices, which could be dissolved with the stroke of a pen without harming the majority religious communities in the least,” said Ms. Dugal.

The joint HRW/EIPR report examined in detail how the limited choice offered to citizens in declaring their religion affects the daily life of Baha’is and converts from Islam, who also face problems under the policy.

“While the Egyptian government’s approach adversely affects anyone who is not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, and anyone who would prefer to keep their convictions private, in Egypt today the greatest impact has been on adherents of the Baha’i faith and on persons who convert or wish to convert from Islam to Christianity,” said the report.

Further, the report said, this “limited choice is not based on any Egyptian law, but rather on the Ministry of Interior’s interpretation of Shari’a, or Islamic law. An Egyptian citizen has no option to request a religious identification different from one of these, or to identify him or herself as having no religion. If he or she insists on doing so, authorities refuse to issue a national ID or related document reflecting the requested religious identification.”

“People without national IDs forfeit, among other things, the ability to carry out even the simplest monetary transactions at banks and other financial institutions. Other basic daily activities - engaging in a property transaction, acquiring a driver’s license, obtaining a pension check - also require a national ID.

“Employers, both public and private, by law cannot hire someone without an ID, and academic institutions require IDs for admission. Obtaining a marriage license or a passport requires a birth certificate; inheritance, pensions, and death benefits are contingent on death certificates. The Ministry of Health has even refused to provide immunizations to some Baha’i children because the Interior Ministry,” the report continued.

“These policies and practices violate Egyptian as well as international law,” said the report. “Logically, it makes no sense for the government to say to citizens that they are free to believe what they like and then deem it unacceptable when citizens respond honestly when the government requires them to state what they believe.”

Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in the United States, according to its Web site. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. It is based in New York.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is an independent Egyptian human rights organization that was established in 2002 to promote and defend the personal rights and freedoms of individuals, according to its Web site. It is based in Cairo.

The report received considerable media attention after its release. The Associated Press, Agence France Presse, the BBC, Reuters, and the Voice of America all carried stories on the report.

To read HRW’s summary of the report, go to this link:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/12/egypt17306.htm

One such article was published in its recent 10 Mehr 1386 [2 October 2007] issue (http://www.kayhannews.ir/860710/8.htm#other801). In this article, while engaged in usual misrepresentations about Baha’is, Kayhan raised the issue of Baha’is sending money to the Baha’i institutions in Israel and presented this as evidence of Baha’is’ collaboration with the State of Israel, and as such accused the Baha’is of espionage and charged them to be agents of Israel.

If we were to accept this conclusion in the manner argued by Kayhan, then it seems logical to accuse the Shi’ah population of Iran as being collaborators of Saddam Hussein since during his entire regime, Iranians sent money to Najaf and Karbala for maintenance of the Shi’ah Shrines in Iraq.

But of course we all know that many Iranian Shi’ahs who contributed to the upkeep of their Sacred Shrines in Iraq had nothing to do with Saddam’s regime and the thought of spying for Saddam never crossed their mind.

In like manner, the Baha’is also have certain properties that they consider sacred in Israel. Therefore, it is to be expected that Baha’is of Iran, and indeed the Baha’is of the entire world, would send funds for repair and upkeep of these properties and in so doing they have nothing to do with Israel or her political policies (the same way that Shi’ahs had nothing to do with Saddam’s policies when they contributed to Najaf and Karbala).

Of course Kayhan is not concerned with facts or historical accuracy, as its purpose is to mislead and misinform and to provoke a negative opinion against Baha’is. But if Kayhan actually had been interested in truth, then it would have recognized that the reason that Baha’i World Centre and Baha’i properties are in Israel has nothing to do with Israel as it was established there decades before the State of Israel came into existence.

It was the combined will of two tyrannical Muslim rulers, Iran’s Nasiri’d-Din Shah and Ottoman’s Sultan Abu’l-Aziz, that resulted in Baha’u’llah being exiled to the fringes of the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1868, to the desolate and inhospitable town of Acre (today known as Akka). By mid nineteenth century, Acre had sunk under the Ottomans to the level of a penal colony to which murderers, highway robbers and political agitators were consigned from all parts of the Empire. So putrid was its air that, according to a proverb, a bird when flying over it would drop dead. The Shah and Sultan had hoped that by sending Baha’u’llah there he would perish.

Baha’u’llah did indeed pass away 24 years later in Akka and it was there that he was buried, in accordance with the instruction of the Ottoman monarch. His family continued their exile and periodic imprisonments in that town, and Baha’u’llah’s successor, Abdu’l-Baha, spent his entire life there and it was to the nearby village of Haifa that he moved during the final years of his life and it was there that he too passed away in 1921.

A few years prior to his passing, Abdu’l-Baha had organized the transfer of the Bab’s remains to Haifa also and he was buried there in 1909. So all the holy figures of Baha’is are buried in Akka and Haifa, two towns that are within a few minutes of each other.

All of this took place long before Israel came into being in 1948, some 80 years after Baha’u’llah was exiled there. The Baha’i figures (Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha and their families) had absolutely no choice or voice in the decision regarding the location of their exile or burial. This was all dictated by Muslim monarchs.

Should it then surprise anyone that Baha’is would be concerned with the upkeep of burial places of the holy figures of their faith? Are the Shi’ahs not concerned with their holy places associated with the Holy Imams in Najaf and Karbala?

So what is the cause of all this uproar by Kayhan in its constant effort to defame Baha’is by accusing them of espionage for Israel merely when they have sent funds for maintenance of their holy sites? This is utterly bewildering!

This posting appeared to be an essay by a Baha’i in Iran and made us reflect on the plight of so many innocent people throughout the world! As always, we welcome comments and reflections by our dear readers.

Summary translation follows:

Night before last I saw a poignant clip on television. It showed that several fully armed Israeli soldiers, along with a bulldozer, had gone to a small farm in the Palestinian area and were in process of uprooting a tree.

A Palestinian woman who owned that farm was wailing and weeping, and with bare fists attacking the armed soldiers, crying, “This is my land. Why are you uprooting my tree? This tree is older than my son!”

In the midst of all commotions and protestations by villagers, someone made a comment that I thought was most amazing, perhaps it was the same woman. Anyway, it was said to the soldiers, “If you’re man enough, put your submachine gun away and we’ll fight with fists!”

When I saw this, I started thinking. First it occurred to me that a fruit tree like this must be so vital to a poor family in Palestine that its removal must have prompted this wretched woman to hopelessly confront the soldiers. Obviously she felt that there was no place for her to take her complaint. There was no administration of justice that would come to her aid. No one that would listen to her and protect her right. No one that would tell soldiers, “For what purpose are you uprooting a fruit bearing tree that supports a penniless family?”

I was thinking about the harsh economic and psychological pressure on that Palestinian family through the removal this tree when I remembered Faraj Abdi, a Baha’i who lived in a village in Kurdistan. It was some years ago when someone named Hadi (a governmental representative) had come to Abdi’s village and began anti-Baha’i activities and defamation. In no time, the Muslim villagers attacked Abdi’s orchard and uprooted all his grapevines – his sole source of income. But I don’t remember Abdi ever raising slightest complain or attacking anyone with his fists!

As I thought some more about the Palestinian woman and the manifest injustice brought upon on her, I thought of a situation in Nayriz (a small town in south of Iran). There was a certain Muslim cleric named Sayyid Muhyi’d-Din Fali who was particularly antagonistic towards Baha’is. This Sayyid wanted to build a mosque. For this purpose, he asked Tehran for a grant from the Islamic endowment funds, but was told that he needed to place as indemnity the title of a parcel of land. Since the lands around the fort of Khajih in Nayriz belonged to Baha’is who had cultivated them into walnut orchards, he sent words to one of the Baha’is named Ali-Akbar Rawhani that he wanted to “purchase” his land for a nominal fee, and if he did not do so, then his orchards would be uprooted in no time. Rawhani did not heed this warning and decided not to “sell” his land. Next week when Rawhani visited his orchard, he saw that the Sayyid’s men had uprooted all his trees, including precious walnut trees that were nearly a hundred years old and were most productive. Not only were the trees removed, but the land was ploughed so thoroughly that he was unable to tell the exact location of his orchard. This is how the Sayyid confiscated his land and used it as surety to build a mosque! But Rawhani never complained – and he certainly did not use his fists!

If Palestinians are using every means at their disposal to establish their rights, including desperate suicide bombings and other forms of armed struggles, Baha’is are not doing any of these things. No Baha’i in Nayriz ever confronted the Sayyid for destroyed a magnificent orchard and outright theft of a fine Baha’i-owned property.

No Baha’i in all these long years of intense persecution has ever raised a fist against the attackers. When hundred of thousands of Baha’is are deprived of the most basic human rights, when their orchards are confiscated, when their homes are taken from them, when their dwelling are set on fire, when their children are thrown out of schools, when their youth denied education, when their hard-earned pensions are seized, when their bank accounts are impounded, when their businesses are commandeered, when their loved ones are imprisoned, tortured and killed, when their holy sites and places of worship are destroyed, when their cemeteries bulldozed, when their fathers and mothers are taken away in the middle of night and shot to death, when their very survival hangs by the thinnest threads, when all of these things are done to them, not one Baha’i – not ever! – has raised a fist against the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity.

Baha’is do not say, “Put down your submachine guns so we can fight by fists.” They say, “Put down your guns so our hands are free, and hand-in-hand we can build and develop this nation and create a better future for children of all humanity.” They say if uprooting a tree on a Palestine farm is a shameful act and deserves our condemnation, then how much more so when homes, orchards, livelihood, education, and the very existence of a body of people are threatened and often uprooted merely because they are Baha’is! Does this not deserve the attention of the entire world?

End of summary translation.

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