This is an exclusive offer. It excludes all those haven’t yet made the switch to Apple Mac™ .

If you go to the website of the Arlington, Virginia, Baha’i community, you will find a link in the sidebar on the right-hand side of the front page that downloads a calendar with the dates of all the Baha’i Feasts and Holy Days in .ics format. If you have iCal or other application that uses .ics, you can load it directly into your calendar - as I have just done.

By the way, this is not the calendar of events for the Arlington Baha’i community. It is the official calendar of the Baha’i Faith.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, calendar, Arlington

Shrine of Bahá’u'lláh © David Henderson

My very good friend David Henderson has set up a wonderful new website called Baha’i Words. It contains beautiful photos and the Words of Bahá’u'lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

If you subscribe (click on the “subscribe” tab at the top of the blog) you will receive a prayer and a reading each day by email.

Your email address will not, of course, be made public or used for any other purpose.

Do visit Baha’i Words.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Holy Writings, prayers, Baha’u'llah, ‘Abdu’l-Baha

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It seems that one Iranian news site, Tabnak, is no longer accusing the Baha’is of carrying out the explosion in the Shiraz mosque.

Nope. It now says Bahais are so pleasure-seeking and chicken-hearted that they don’t even dare to identify themselves, let alone to plot a terrorist attack.

I’m confused now! Are we Baha’is the bombers or are we wimps?

Funny thing, when you come to think about it. Fifty-four chicken-hearted Baha’is in Shiraz, who, apparently, didn’t dare to identify themselves, were such pleasure seekers that they got themselves arrested for running an educational project for under-privileged Muslim children. The intelligence services in Shiraz must be clairvoyant.

You can find the story here, but only if you can read Farsi. Hat-tip to Erfan.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, Shiraz, mosque, explosion

Could the Baha’is in Shiraz be scapegoated for Saturday night’s explosion in the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada Mosque in Shiraz? It would be quite convenient for the authorities and the ill-wishers of the Baha’is.

This story on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website states that some observers are concerned that the Baha’is might be blamed for the explosion. Hojatoleslam Mohammad Enjavinejad, the mosque’s main cleric and leader of Friday prayers, regularly preaches against the Baha’i Faith and against Wahhabism.

Apparently Enjavinejad told Kayhan, a newspaper that is generally regarded as an Iranian government mouthpiece:

We believe that it’s possible that Baha’is had a hand in this.

Various listeners to Radio Farda have expressed concern about the possibility that attempts may be made to blame the Baha’is. One caller said:

For now the police forces are trying to portray this as an accident, on the other hand they’re pretending they’re the victims by showing the injured and dead. It seems that they want to use this in the right moment for their benefit; it means that because of what was being said against our dear Baha’is in the meetings [in the mosque] they want to put the blame on the Baha’is.

Fifty-four Baha’is, aged between 18 and 37 were arrested in Shiraz in May 2006. They had been involved in an educational programme for underprivileged children in the city for which they had official permits.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Islam, mosque, explosion, Shiraz, Iran