Posts from — January 2008

Baha’is around the world will be thrilled to learn that the Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo has today handed down a decision that will allow Egypt’s Baha’is to leave the religious affiliation field on their ID cards blank.

It may seem a small thing, but the two cases decided today will make it possible for Baha’is in Egypt to get medical treatment, go to school, obtain their driving licences and so on. Up to now, the computerized ID card system forced Egyptian citizens to nominate themselves as Muslims, Christians or Jews. No other religious identity was permitted.

This put Baha’is in an impossible position. They are legally required to have ID cards, as are all Egyptian citizens; they have to state their religion; but the system does not recognize “Baha’i” as a legitimate choice. Baha’is do not lie about their religion (and, in any case, it is illegal to give false information on the application form for the ID cards). So Baha’is could not get ID cards, and without ID cards they could not register their children, have their children vaccinated or get access to a whole host of services we in the West take for granted.

Leaving the “religion” space blank may be a compromise, but it will allow the Baha’is to regain their civil rights as Egyptian citizens. And it is a victory, albeit a modest one, for religious freedom.

Now we have to see how long it will take the Egyptian government to implement the new ruling.

That’s not the end of the fight for rights for the Baha’is in Egypt, though. Baha’i activities and institutions are still banned under a decree issued by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1960. Egypt is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which grants freedom of religion or belief. So we still need to persuade the Egyptian government to annul the decree or let it fall into disuse, so that the Baha’is can have what is due to them - the freedom to practise their religion unhindered by persecution.

You can read the full story of today’s court ruling here and you can read more about the persecution of Egypt’s Baha’is here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Egypt, ID cards, religious freedom

I have had one of those strange (but entirely banal) epiphanies that come to one during the boring parts of meetings.

Sitting in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords last Thursday during a meeting of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Group, I tuned out of the meeting and looked down at the point where the hem of my suit jacket lay over the legs of my suit trousers.

Only it wasn’t a suit.

The jacket has a single chalk stripe, I noticed, whereas the trousers have a double-chalk stripe. And the cloth is slightly different.

In October I was in Messrs Shepherd and Woodward, the excellent and slightly old-fashioned gents outfitters on the High in Oxford to buy a suit. I found one that I really liked - dark merino with a chalk stripe. I tried on a jacket. It fitted. I tried on the trousers, and they were, well, just a tad on the small side. The chap who was serving me looked around and found another pair of trousers, slightly larger. They fitted beautifully and the whole suit looked and felt a treat.

I wore the suit several times in Haifa in January. Nobody noticed anything odd. I’ve worn it in London since my return. No one noticed anything out of the ordinary. Not until I looked down at my legs during the Attorney General’s meeting did I realize that the shop assistant must have picked pair of trousers from another design of suit. I had bought a suit that isn’t actually a suit.

I had to point this out to Erica when I got home. She hadn’t noticed either.

So why am I so bothered about this? I’m annoyed that I could have been so unobservant in the shop! But if no one else has noticed, why should I worry? I shall continue to wear the “suit” with pride, and if anyone comments I shall claim that the suit was designed like that and that there’s another one exactly like it somewhere in England.

What do you think? Is this a suit? Or not?

Technorati Tags: suit, clothing

Last Thursday, attending a meeting of the Attorney General’s Equality and Advisory Group (three cheers to Baroness Scotland for continuing her predecessor’s initiative) we sat in a high-ceilinged committee room in the House of Lords. Massive paintings of the coronations of King George V and King George VI adorned the two end walls of the room, while a tall portrait of King William IV in naval uniform looked down on us - women and men, black and white, straight and gay, advising the UK’s first black woman Attorney General (some of the Victorian judiciary must be turning in their graves). Under the minatory gaze of these various monarchs, we discussed the Crown Prosecution Service’s draft policy on prosecuting crimes of violence against women.

Gratifyingly for the CPS, the representatives of the civil society organizations at the meeting were full of praise for this draft policy. It was visionary, they said, and it was well written. Oh yes, there were some suggestions for amendments and for things that had been omitted to be considered for inclusion. But it must be rare for a policy to achieve such unanimity of approval.

Equality of women and men is a fundamental Baha’i principle and the Baha’i International Community’s Office for the Advancement of Women has chosen ending violence against women as one of its focal areas.

Shamefully it is only relatively recently that violence against women, particularly in the home, has been considered a matter for public policy, but now that it is on the agenda, at least the CPS has made a good fist of a draft policy about prosecution of those who commit crimes of violence against women.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Attorney General, Patricia Scotland, equality, women, violence against women

This story on the MEMRI Iran Media Blog claims that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad considers the universal rule of the Hidden Imam humanity’s most important need.

As a Baha’i, I think he’s right.

This article on the Baha’i Topics website will tell you why. Stick with the article, which is quite long, if you want to really understand something important about the historical context of the Baha’i Faith and its relationship to Shi’i Islam.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Islam, Shia, Shi’i, Hidden Imam

Photo by Deryc Sands ©Parliamentary Copyright

I was cheered to read this intervention by Bob Spink MP, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Baha’is, in a recent Westminster Hall Adjournment Debate in the UK House of Commons. The debate was about the Foreign Affairs Committee’s eighth report of the 2006-07 parliamentary session on global security in the middle east:

Bob Spink (Castle Point, Conservative)

Again, I congratulate the Committee on this excellent report on a difficult matter.

I shall speak on a narrow subject. In chapter 5 of the report, on Egypt, I note that the part entitled “Human Rights and Democratisation” does not address a certain issue. I understand the Committee’s difficulty in visiting every point on human rights, but minority rights in Egypt are important, and I wish to flag them up.

The inception of a new system of computerised ID cards in Egypt compelled its citizens to identify themselves as members of one of three constitutionally recognised religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Members of Egypt’s Baha’i minority have been unable to register as citizens of their own country. On 16 December 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the Government’s position that forces Baha’is either to falsely claim to be a member of a religion or go without an ID card. Egyptian Baha’is are therefore unable to register the birth of their children, denying those children access to education, jobs and medical treatment. They are effectively unable to live as citizens in the country of their birth. That is a minority issue, and it is understandable why it is not covered in the report. Other religious groups in Egypt, including the Copts, who have changed their religion, have also faced a problem in getting ID cards.

Denying fundamental freedoms to Egyptian citizens on that basis appears to be a breach of Egypt’s obligations under article 18 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, as was asserted in a recent report by Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. It would be useful for future reports of the Foreign Affairs Committee to examine minority rights, if possible.

Mr Spink had been briefed by the UK National Spiritual Assembly’s Office of External Affairs.

Jo Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, picked up on Mr Spink’s intervention:

The hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink) made a brief but welcome contribution about minority rights in Egypt and the discrimination against the Baha’i, which picked up on the similar point that we heard about religious discrimination against Christian students. Obviously, both types of discrimination are appalling and need to be on the agenda of our Ministers and diplomats in their relations with the countries involved.

Mike Gapes MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, responded:

For the record, each year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office produces an annual human rights report. The Committee always produces our commentary on it, and we consider human rights issues such as religious and minority rights in a number of countries as part of that. However, we do not always repeat in every regionally focused report what we have done at other times.

Needless to say, the fact that a couple of British MPs have mentioned the plight of the Baha’is in Egypt in a debate is unlikely to change anything for the Egyptian Baha’is, but it does keep the matter on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which can play an influential part in British foreign policy, and hence on the radar screen of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Egypt, parliament, House of Commons, Bob Spink, Jo Swinson

You can read the rest of the debate here. And you can read more about the latest developments in the situation of the Baha’is in Egypt here.

I was appalled to read this on the BBC News website:

UK astronomers will lose access to two of the world’s finest telescopes in February, as administrators look to plug an £80m hole in their finances.

Observation programmes on the 8.1m telescopes of the Gemini organisation will end abruptly because Britain is cancelling its subscription.

It means UK astronomers can no longer view the Northern Hemisphere sky with the largest class of telescope.

Researchers say they are aghast at the administrators’ decision.

So the bean-counters win out over the scientists. This is how one astronomer reacted:

“To withdraw from the state-of-the-art Gemini facilities leaves the UK ground-based astronomy strategy in disarray - some would say deliberately sabotaged,” said Professor Paul Crowther from Sheffield University.

“This will badly affect the UK astronomical community’s ability to address questions such as how galaxies form, or look for planets around other stars, or be able to adequately exploit space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope,” explained the current chair of the UK telescope allocation committee for Gemini.

“The loss of Gemini North is particularly acute, since the majority of the UK past investment has been focused upon the Northern Hemisphere,” he told BBC News.

My daughter and son-in-law are both pursuing astrophysics PhDs and I know how precious telescope time is for both their projects. What’s more Britain has long played a leading role in astronomy, so to cut our astronomers off from this world-class telescope is the height of madness.

Aaaargh!!!

Technorati Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, Gemini North, telescope

OK, this is scary!

Hans Thimm, a Baha’i who has been living in Albania for 16 years with his family as Baha’i pioneers (after having pioneered in Haiti for 11 years), has just sent Erica this photo taken at the Baha’i summer school that took place in the Shetland Islands in 1974.

Erica and I are in the picture, with our eldest son, Alex, who is now 34 and has his own family. You should also be able to see Hand of the Cause Dr Muhajir, Lottie Duncan, Mary Hardy, Gail and Kathy Hardy, Parvin Afnan (now Morrissey), Rocky Grove, Viv Alsworth (then Viv Povey, now Counsellor Viv Craig), Gerald Warren, Shohreh Youssefian (now Rawhani).

Erica and I lived in Shetland for 10 years after that summer school and our second and third children (Tom and Hari) were born there.

This really is a blast from the past!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Shetland

Rainbow over the Shrine of the Báb and the International Teaching Centre

My recent trip to the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa in Israel coincided with the twin anniversaries of the Birthday of the Bab and the Birthday of Baha’u'llah, as celebrated in the lunar calendar.

Most Baha’i communities celebrate these birthdays according to the solar calendar on 20 October and 12 November respectively. But, because the Báb and Baha’u'llah were born in early 19th century Iran, at a time and in a place where the calendar was a lunar one, the anniversaries of their births are celebrated at the Baha’i World Centre according to the lunar calendar. This places them on successive days, the 1st and 2nd days of the Islamic month of Muharram. This year these days fell on Thursday 10th January and Friday 11th January. Next time they will fall 11 days earlier as the lunar year precesses.

Many hundreds of pilgrims, visitors, consultants, staff and their families gathered in the Reception Concourse of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice on the side Mt Carmel in Haifa for a programme of prayers and readings in Arabic, English and Persian. Halfway through the programme the Baha’i World Centre Choir, a diverse body of people with members from all over the world, sang (unaccompanied) extracts from the Words of Baha’u'llah. The choir stood on the gallery that is formed by the floor above the Concourse and raised its voice to heaven.

The combination of beautiful words and beautiful music, sung in the presence of this vast international gathering of believers in Baha’u'llah, penetrated to my very core and started me crying. I just could not help myself. The emotions of the Kingdom are powerful indeed, and once released, are not to be denied.

Once the prayers and readings had come to an end, we all moved outside into the chill wind and stood on the steps at the front of the Seat, facing the Shrine of the Bab while Dr Farzam Arbab chanted the Tablet of Visitation of Baha’u'llah in Arabic and Dr Peter Khan read the Tablet of Visitation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in English.

As the words of these Tablets died away, Mr and Mrs Barnes led the long procession to circumambulate the Shrine of the Bab. In silence we crossed Hatzionut Avenue by means of the bridge and descended to the level of the Shrine to perform the circumambulation. As I approached the Shrine, the emotions of the Kingdom once again overcame me as I thought of the Bab, His Martyrdom in Tabriz in 1850, the martyrdom of 20,000 of His followers, and the miraculous spread of knowledge of this Manifestation of God to the extent that thousands of people come from all corners of the globe each year to visit and pray at His shrine.

As we walked back to the Pilgrim House, the wind blew cold from the north and darkness came as the sun set. But hearts were full and warm, deeply touched by this most spiritual of celebrations.

Collins Gate, on the path towards the Shrine of Baha’u'llah

The following day, those who remained were to travel out to the Shrine of Baha’u'llah at Bahji (on the outskirts of Akko) to celebrate the second of the Twin Birthdays. Sadly I was booked to return to England that day and could not join the throng for the celebration.

Mansion of Bahji, Baha’u'llah’s final residence in His earthly life

Photos by John Barnabas Leith © under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons Licence

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Bab, Baha’u'llah, Haifa, Israel

I had the extraordinary privilege yesterday of attending the celebration of the Birthday of the Báb in the Seat of the Universal House of Justice at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel.

There’s so much I want to write about this event, the feelings it engendered, the tears I shed, but I am on an expensive hotel broadband link and about to leave for the airport. So I will content myself with saying that the prayers, the Baha’i World Centre choir, the circumambulation of the Shrine of the Báb all contributed to a penetratingly spiritual experience.

I hope to write more once I return home, but I make no promises.

Technorati Tags: Bahai, Baha’i, Bab, Haifa, shrine, prayers, spirituality

Amazingly I got through airport security at Heathrow very quickly (it was early in the morning and Terminal 4 was quite empty). My flight was completely problem free - left on time, arrived on time.

So now I am here:

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, travel, Israel, Haifa