Posts from — September 2007

Today is the 800th anniversary of the birth of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi’s birth in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan). Charles Haviland of the BBC went to Balkh to find out if Rumi’s influence is still alive there, as he tells in this story.

Baha’u'llah, Founder of the Baha’i Faith, quotes from Rumi’s Mathnavi in His mystical work Haft Vadí (The Seven Valleys):

Love setteth a world aflame at every turn, and he wasteth every land where he carrieth his banner. Being hath no existence in his kingdom; the wise wield no command within his realm. The leviathan of love swalloweth the master of reason and destroyeth the lord of knowledge. He drinketh the seven seas, but his heart’s thirst is still unquenched, and he saith, “Is there yet any more?” He shunneth himself and draweth away from all on earth.

Love’s a stranger to earth and heaven too;
In him are lunacies seventy-and-two.

It is of course, the last quoted couplet that is from the Mathnavi.

You can find a nice account of Rumi’s life and spiritual milieu on the website of the Threshold Society.

In honour of this anniversary, what better than to quote Mawlana himself:

You that love Lovers,
this is your home. Welcome!

In the midst of making form, Love
made this form that melts form,
with love for the door, and
Soul, the vestibule.

Watch the dust grains moving
in the light near the window.

Their dance is our dance.

We rarely hear the inward music,
but we’re dancing to it nevertheless,

directed by Shams,
the pure joy of the sun,
our Music Master.

[Rumi, Like This, 43 odes in versions by Coleman Barks, published by Maypop, 1990]

Technorati Tags: Rumi, Baha’u'llah, Bahaullah, mysticism, mathnavi, spirituality

Michael Cromartie, Chair of the US Commission on International Freedom (USCIRF), has just written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rize urging her to advocate a strong mandate for the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The mandate is currently under consideration by the UN Human Rights Council.

USCIRF is gravely concerned that the Human Rights Council is shifting its focus from promoting freedom of religion or belief to the prevention of what is being termed as “defamation of religion”. Mr Cromartie’s letter explains:

The supporters of this concept—typically governments that prohibit religious pluralism at home—claim that their aim is to promote religious tolerance. In practice, however, this approach seeks to suppress what these governments deem, often capriciously, to be “offensive” or “unacceptable” speech about a particular, favored religion, and even to justify violent reactions to this purportedly offensive speech.

Prohibitions on defamation of religion violate the principles outlined in international human rights instruments, which guarantee the right of everyone to freedom of expression as well as to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. They also improperly seek to protect groups at the expense of the rights of the individual. The Commission is deeply concerned by the growing campaign to internationalize these prohibitions, and we strongly urge the U.S. government to take the lead in opposing such measures, including by opposing attempts to include a focus on defamation of religion in the mandate of the Special Rapporteur.

Asma Jahangir, the current religious freedom Special Rapporteur, has commented that

…the protection of the rights of religious minorities is central to the mandate on freedom of religion or belief. It should not be compromised even if other members of the community engage in intolerant acts, including defamation of other religions.

She has also pointed out that…

…international human rights law protects primarily individuals in the exercise of their freedom of religion and not religions per se.

Furthermore, the right to freedom of religion or belief…

…does not include the right to have a religion or belief that is free from criticism or ridicule.

Defamation of religions may offend people and hurt their religious feelings but it does not necessarily or at least directly result in a violation of their rights, including their right to freedom of religion. Freedom of religion primarily bestows a right to act in accordance with one’s religion but does not bestow a right for believers to have their religion itself protected from all adverse comment.

Criminalizing defamation of religion could have a seriously deleterious impact on freedom of expression, a human right that is as essential to human freedom and development as is freedom of religion or belief. In fact, without freedom of expression we cannot fully claim our right to freedom of religion or belief, since that right also includes the freedom to tell other people about our religion or belief and to try to persuade them of the truth of what we believe.

Technorati Tags: human rights, religious freedom, defamation of religion, UN

Ahmadinejad meets Christian leaders in New York. Photo ©New York Times

According to this story in the New York Times, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held

a friendly, even warm, exchange yesterday with Christian leaders from the United States and Canada convinced that dialogue is the only way to prevent war.

The meeting on 26 September was organized by the Mennonites and the Quakers and took place in the Church Center for the United Nations. Questioners included a Quaker, a Catholic, an Anglican, a Baptist and a representative of the interfaith World Council of Churches. About 140 other religious leaders also attended, but no Jewish leader would agree to take part.

As the NYT reported:

“My heart was broken that there was so little support from other religions to be here,” said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that helped sponsor the event. “If we don’t walk down this path of dialogue, we’re going to end up in conflagration.

However, one faith group couldn’t take part in the meeting. The Baha’is had been invited to the prior meetings, according to the NYT, but the Iranians had refused to attend if the Baha’is were there.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Christians, dialogue

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A Voice of America journalist questioned President Ahmadinejad of Iran about his country’s persecution of the Baha’is at a recent press conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

In his question the journalist refers to the respect that Ahmadinejad shows to the divine prophets in his speeches and then says: “one of the Divine Prophets who has the largest religious minority of followers after the Muslims are the Baha’is”. He refers to the documents presented to the UN that show that Iran has a policy of preventing the social progress of the Baha’is. He asks Ahmadinejad why he does not use his powers under the Iranian constitution to ensure that Baha’is receive the same justice as other Iranian citizens.

Ahmadinejad gives the most extraordinary reply. He says that the Jews have Moses, Christians Christ, and Muslims the Prophet of Islam. But, he asks the journalist, “can you tell me who the divine prophet of the religion you mention is? He was revealed exactly when? Did he have a name? Good luck, thank you.”

You can watch this interchange here. It starts at minute 46, very close to the end of the video.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Baha, Iran, Ahmadinejad, religion, UN, human rights

So there we were, standing around our dining table, Mary, Bev, Lindsay, Valerie, Erica and I, laughing and relaxed. On the table, a large sheet of paper, covered in scribbles. Our scribbles. Each of us had picked up a coloured marker pen, made a mark at the edge of the paper and then we’d taken our pens for a walk, filling up as much of the paper as we could, but all the time aiming to get to a spot in the middle of the paper.

We walked our pens twice. The first time, Erica had instructed us not to cross anyone else’s line. The second time, Erica turned the paper over and we were free to cross as many lines as we liked. The only condition was that we should fill up as much of the paper as possible while we aimed for the centre.

Most of us felt that the first exercise held us within limits. We had to be careful, we had to take time, we were not as free as we might want to be to go anywhere on the paper. The second exercise, on the other hand, freed us to explore and not to worry about other people’s explorations. It was something of a metaphor for the freedom we need to feel in Baha’i consultation if consultation is to be fruitful and is not to be constrained by fear of how others may react to what we say.

And that’s how we began our study of the Baha’i Faith on 12 September. We’d come together to go through Book 1 (Reflections on the Life of the Spirit) of the courses of the Ruhi Institute:

The Ruhi Institute is an educational institution, operating under the guidance of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Colombia, which dedicates its efforts to the development of human resources for the spiritual, social, and cultural development of the Colombian people. Although its center is in the town of Puerto Tejada in the department of Cauca, its area of influence includes the majority of the rural areas of Colombia and is being gradually extended to several other countries in Latin America.

Like any other institution involved in the process of education for development, the Ruhi Institute has formulated its strategies within a special framework and a philosophy of social change, development and education. In this case, that understanding has emerged from a consistent effort to apply Bahá’í principles to the analysis of social conditions.

Baha’is and their friends all over the world now follow these courses of spiritual development and learn skills that will help them share the Baha’i teachings with others in a systematic way.

Last night was our group’s third session with Ruhi Book 1. Erica and I are co-tutoring. Erica has quite a bit of experience in tutoring the Ruhi courses, but I’m a novice, despite having finished the courses up to Book 7 in 2004.

Our group is an interesting one. Bev, Lindsay, Mary and Val are not Baha’is. Fariba, an Iranian Baha’i married to a Brit, co-ordinates the Ruhi courses and tutors across our part of the world. Erica and I are both very long-standing Baha’is. Bev, Lindsay, Mary and Fariba all work in the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where Fariba runs an active programmge of Tranquillity Zones. Bev and Mary both attended the CALM meditation course that the Welwyn Baha’i community ran before the summer, so we got to know them quite well. Val responded to a notice that Fariba had put in the library in Stevenage inviting people to a Tranquillity Zone, but she is not part of the group that works in the hospital. We hadn’t met either Val or Lindsay before our Book 1 course started.

Mary is a committed Roman Catholic, Bev is very attracted by the opportunity to study spirituality and would probably describe herself as Church of England. Lindsay is very much her own person, independent minded and acts according to her conscience. Val is more difficult to read. She doesn’t say a great deal during the sessions and she isn’t part of what can at times seem like an “in-group” of those working in the NHS.

One thing that has become apparent to Erica and me is that Book 1 assumes that participants know a certain amount about the Baha’i Faith before they start. We’ve found that we have to explain to our group (albeit briefly) concepts, language and terminology that Baha’is are familiar with. I wonder if that places something of an obstacle in the way of those who aren’t Baha’is. I worry that it sets up an in-group/out-group dynamic between those who are and those who are not Baha’is - perhaps not an overt dynamic, but a subtle suggestion of “us and them” is there.

Mary, Bev and Lindsay have certainly commented about the answers to some of the questions that they apply to Baha’is. Lindsay didn’t answer question 3 in Section 6 last night because, she said, it referred to Baha’is (and she isn’t a Baha’i). And, of course, these ladies don’t necessarily accept the extracts from the Baha’i sacred texts as authoritative in the way that Baha’is would. There’s a real sense in which they are consciously studying the course as outsiders.

There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. Baha’is unequivocally promote freedom of conscience, thought and religion. But it does raise questions in my mind about the suitability of Ruhi Book 1 as a universal entry point for those who aren’t Baha’is and don’t know a great deal about what the Baha’i Faith teaches.

Of course, we don’t know how Bev, Lindsay, Mary and Val will respond as the course goes on. They are clearly getting value out of it and enjoying it at the moment.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ruhi Institute

When I was a young Baha’i in the 1960s and 1970s, we all longed to meet those very special individuals known to Baha’is as “Hands of the Cause”. These were people chosen for their great spiritual capacity to encourage, guide and protect the Baha’i community. They had no administrative powers; they were not decision-makers; they encouraged, uplifted, protected - they diffused the divine fragrances.

We considered it a great privilege to meet one of the Hands - John Ferraby, Bill Sears, John Robarts, Ugo Giachery, Paul Haney, Ali-Akbar Furutan, Abul-Qasim Faizi were amongst those I had the great joy of encountering - to listen to their wisdom, to be inspired by their vision.

And now the last of these spiritual giants has passed away. On 23 September the Universal House of Justice wrote to the Baha’is of the World:

With grieving hearts we bid farewell to the last of that noble company, the Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth, into which he is now gathered in realms of deathless delight and joy. The fervor of his love for the teaching work inspired countless believers across the globe, whether at the events he attended as the representative of the Guardian or of the Universal House of Justice, or in his extensive travels to promote the goals of the Master’s Divine Plan.

Dr Varqa carried the office of Trustee of Huququ’llah (the Right of God - the financial contributions made by Baha’is as a percentage of their surplus wealth to a central fund which is used at the discretion of the Universal House of Justice for the good of humanity), a mantle that had passed from his father to him, with integrity and honour.

He will also be remembered for his character. As the Universal House of Justice wrote in its message of 23 September:

Throughout the many years of his valiant endeavor to maintain the integrity of the two offices of so high a rank [Hand of the Cause and Trustee of Huququ'llah] to which he was simultaneously elevated, his manner was imbued with a luminous gentleness, a genuine kindliness and a natural dignity which combined to reflect the character of a saintly personality. For these exemplary traits he will ever be remembered.

At a large Baha’i conference in Dublin in the 1980s, John Robarts - a man of great humour - wondered aloud what it would be like to be the last Hand of the Cause left alive. He might be carried on a stretcher into a conference such as the one in Dublin to wave to the gathered multitudes and to say, in a quavering voice, “Allah-u-Abha” ["God is most glorious", often used by Baha'is as a greeting]. Well, Mr Robarts was not to be granted that particular honour. He passed away many years ago. It fell to Dr Varqa to be the last of that glorious company of the servants of the Blessed Beauty to pass from this mortal realm to the glorious heights above.

I join my prayers for the progress of his noble soul and for the comfort of his family to those of the Baha’i world.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Varqa, Hand of the Cause

Yesterday the Baha’i World News Service posted a story about the latest horror suffered by the Baha’is in Iran.

Gravestones in the Baha’i cemetery near Najafabad, Iran, were left in a heap by a bulldozer that destroyed the burial ground some time between 9 September and 10 September 2007

The destruction of the Baha’i cemetery in Najafabad is clearly part of a systematic campaign by the Iranian authorities to intimidate, persecute and destroy the Baha’i community in the land of its birth. Najafabad is not the only Baha’i cemetery to have been destroyed. The Baha’i cemetery in Yazd was razed in July this year and the Baha’i cemetery in Tehran was destroyed some years ago. One can only imagine the distress caused to the relatives of those laid to rest in these cemeteries. Baha’is honour their dead and treat the bodies and resting places of the deceased with the greatest respect. Baha’i cemeteries should be beautiful places with trees and running water. But the Iranian authorities have forced Baha’is to bury their dead in waste ground without any facilities for laying out and washing the bodies. In some cases Baha’is haven’t even been allowed to mark the graves of their loved ones.

Some 30 Baha’i families in Najafabad received threatening letters a few days before the cemetery was destroyed.

The Baha’i cemetery in Yazd, Iran, was destroyed in July. The tracks left behind and the severity of the damage show that heavy equipment was used

To destroy graves and cemeteries is to show utter contempt. It is like spitting in someone’s face. But this is not the only thing that Iranian Baha’is are suffering in their native land.

Young Baha’is continue to be denied access to higher education. Baha’i children are subjected to bullying and intimidation by their teachers and school administrators; and they are forced to listen to utter falsehoods about the Baha’i Faith being taught as “fact”. Baha’is are suffering an increasing degree of economic strangulation - business licenses are revoked, repayment of salaries and pensions is demanded, employers are penalized for taking on Baha’is to work in their businesses. Baha’i properties are expropriated and Baha’is are made to pay for the forced legal transfer of ownership of their homes to the authorities.

Homes set on fire, anti-Baha’i graffiti, new arrests, a 70-year-old man sentenced to 70 lashes and a year in prison for “propagating and spreading Bahaism and the defamation of the pure Imams.” The horrors go on.

“Hezbollah is awake and despises the Baha’is” reads this piece of graffiti on a building in the city of Abadeh. Dozens of hateful anti-Baha’i slogans have been painted on homes, offices and cemetery buildings in various locations in Iran

Diane Ala’i, who represents the Baha’i International Community to the UN in Geneva says, “This should be a cause for concern among human rights activists everywhere.” She appealed to the world to hold the Iranian government accountable for its actions and to help prevent the situation from deteriorating into further violence. Baha’is in Iran number about 300,000 and represent the largest religious minority in the country.

Put in a historical context, these kinds of attacks too often have been a prelude to campaigns of oppression and violence that are far worse.

While some of these incidents may seem to be minor, the fact that such events are increasingly commonplace and reported as occurring in virtually every region of Iran shows that the persecution of Baha’is remains official government policy, and therefore is something for which Iran must be held accountable.

“The graffiti in Abadeh included slogans such as ‘Death to Baha’is, the mercenaries of America and England,’ ‘Hezbollah despises the Baha’is,’ ‘Baha’is - mercenaries of Israel’ and ‘Baha’is are unclean’ - phrases that relate directly to government propaganda that has been disseminated in Iranian news media in recent years.”

Of course, the Baha’is are not the only group to suffer human rights violations in Iran. In recent months, the Iranian authorities have been carrying out a widespread crackdown on civil society, targeting academics, women’s rights activists, students, and journalists.

The Baha’is in Iran are steadfast and dedicated to making their country a better place. I fear for their safety in the immediate future, but more and more Iranians outside Iran (who are not Baha’is) are shocked by what is going on and the treatment of the Baha’is in their native land. And they are deeply impressed by the calm, dignified and persistently positive response of the Baha’is to the attacks against them.

You can read the comments of a couple of Baha’i bloggers here and here. And you can read the Baha’i World News Service story here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, persecution, human rights

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Bani Dugal and Zena Sorabjee

What links a hugging saint, a ground-breaking scientist who took on the multinationals, a French Resistance heroine who took on the Gestapo, a judge who took on Saddam Hussein, a high flier who was educated by an elephant, a spiritual giantess who danced with Fred Astaire, the original Cosmopolitan Girl, a politician who lives with two Oscars, a Bollywood actress worshipped by millions, a Chinese entrepreneur immortalized on a postage stamp and a princess who is able to touch her nose with her toes?

Two Baha’i women were honoured last night at London’s National Portrait Gallery at the launch of a new book by Zerbanoo Gifford, Confessions to a Serial Womaniser - Secrets of the World’s Inspirational Women and an accompanying exhibition of 208 portraits of the women by artist Jeroo Roy. Bani Dugal, who is the Baha’i International Community’s principal UN representative, and Zena Sorabjee, formerly a Counsellor to the Baha’i communities in India and Asia, have both been included in the book and the exhibition for their contributions to human rights and building a better world.

The launch was an absolute scrum. There must have been two or three hundred people crammed into area where the information desks are at the NPG. There was a large board with the portraits on. I have to say I thought that this was a poster of the portraits and that the portraits would be in a gallery in the NPG. A friend and I wandered around looking for the portraits. When we asked one of the gallery attendants she directed us back to the room with the scrum and the large board.

The Duchess of York (aka Fergie) was there, chatting up the inspirational women.

A rather strange event - too many people, too much noise for my comfort. I did manage to chat to some friends from the inter-faith world and also to peace activist Eirwen Harbottle, an old friend.

After the launch, there was a reception across the road in South Africa House. I talked to a few people over there and then left about the same time as Bani, Zena, Shirin Fozdar and one or two others, who were going off for dinner. I dutifully went home to take part in my Local Spiritual Assembly meeting.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, women, Asha Foundation, human rights, peace

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New York-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch has just issued a press release calling on the Iranian government immediately to end practices aimed at barring Baha’i students from attending universities. Said Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director:

This week, as universities begin the new academic year, hundreds of Iranian students will be absent from campuses because of blatant religious discrimination.

HRW explains:

This year, when some 800 students of the Baha’i faith logged on to the website, they received an error message informing them that their files were “incomplete.” Three of these students told Human Rights Watch that authorities at the National Education Measurement and Evaluation Organization did not respond to numerous phone calls and letters requesting clarification about why their test results were inaccessible.

Two other students who inquired in person to the National Education Measurement and Evaluation Organization office in Tehran told Human Rights Watch that officials said explicitly that they had been targeted because they were Baha’is. One student said that an official told him they had “received orders from above not to score the tests of Baha’i students.” Another student said that the official he spoke to suggested that he would be able to receive his test scores only if his family renounced their faith.

You can read more about the latest developments in the Iranian authorities’ denial of access to higher education for Baha’is in Iran here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, higher education, Human Rights Watch

Because the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, was unable to attend the end of the Human Rights Council’s debate on her mandate on 17 September (the assessment of her mandate had been postponed), she submitted her final remarks to the Council in writing.

Ms Jahangir makes a number of recommendations about the continuation of her mandate for the Council’s consideration:

1. The mandate should continue to pay specific attention to the freedom of religion or belief of vulnerable groups: women, prisoners, refugees, children, minorities and migrant workers.

2. Prevention should be an important focus for the mandate. She intends to help develop guiding principles on teaching about religions and beliefs in schools.

3. It is important for the mandate holder to have a constructive dialogue with governments and NGOs. This, Ms Jahangir believes, is essential when exchanging communications and conducting country visits.

The Human Rights Council has yet to decide the future of the freedom of religion or belief mandate. Given the challenges to this particular human right, it is vital that the Council ensures that the Special Rapporteur continues to have a strong mandate that will allow her to challenge violations as well as boosting preventative measures.

Technorati Tags: UN, religious freedom, human rights, gender, minorities, refugees, women, Asma Jahangir