From the monthly archives:

February 2008

Shari’a & reform of Islam

by Barney on 29 February 2008

The recent media storm that swirled around Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, following his 7th February lecture on Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective, prompted our Office of External Affairs to ask Dr Moojan Momen, author of An Introduction to Shi’i Islam and Islam of the Baha’i Faith to give [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Dr Tarek Heggy visits UK Baha’i Centre

by Barney on 28 February 2008

Egyptian thinker and commentator, Dr Tarek Heggy, visited the UK’s National Baha’i Centre in London, this afternoon, at the suggestion of some Egyptian Baha’is who are based in the UK.
Dr Heggy, a Muslim, is absolutely delightful, and a number of us enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation with him. He is very taken with the Baha’i [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Another UK Baha’i community appears on the Web

by Barney on 28 February 2008

I’ve just learned about a brand new UK local Baha’i website.
The Baha’is of Northampton have just launched their site. It’s well worth a look. There’s information about the Baha’i Faith itself and about the Northampton Baha’is’ activities. And there are “My Favourite Quotes” sidebars, in which local Baha’is share their favourite quotation from the Baha’i [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Coombe Abbey Hotel

I spent the yesterday here at Coombe Abbey Hotel, near Coventry, taking part in an informal meeting between the commissioners of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Commission’s “stakeholders” (who thought of this awful term for people who have an interest in the work of a particular organization?). There were 64 [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

How much More London?

by Barney on 26 February 2008

More London, London

The offices of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where I attended a meeting this afternoon, are to be found at the extraordinary address of 3 More London. How much more London do we want?

More London
More London is a new street that connects Tooley Street with Queen’s Walk (between London Bridge and City Hall [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Did you know that one third of all women is likely to experience some form of violence or abuse in her lifetime? This was the stark figure revealed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today as he launched a multi-year global campaign to try to end violence against women. “It’s an issue that cannot wait,” he [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

EU condemns Iran’s draft penal code

by Barney on 26 February 2008

Slovenia, as the EU Presidency, has issued the following statement on behalf of the EU and a number of other countries, expressing grave concern at the draft penal code that the Iranian parliament is currently considering.
25.02.2008
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the EU concerning the consideration of a draft Penal code in Iran
The European [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Welcome to the Days of H!

by Barney on 26 February 2008

Yes, it’s that time of the year with a very strange name in the Baha’i calendar, the Ayyám-i-Há or literally the “Days of H”, sometimes referred to as “the Intercalary Days” since they are the four (five in this Leap Year) days between the penultimate and the final month of the Baha’i year.
It behoveth the [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I was very pleased to receive an email notification this morning of this reply by the excellent Dr Kim Howells MP, the UK Foreign Office’s Middle East minister, to a Parliamentary Question by the equally excellent Norman Baker MP about the situation of the Baha’is in Iran. Norman asked his question following a briefing by [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

General Synod of the Church of England

by Barney on 23 February 2008

The Dean’s Yard, Westminster Abbey © Mirsasha under a Creative Commons licence.
I should start by saying I’d intended to post this some days ago, but found myself overtaken by pressure of work.
On 14th February the Faith Communities Forum (which is part of the Inter Faith Network for the UK) met in Church House at the [...]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }