Posts from — June 2008

Rob Weinberg has just launched a new blog, Where the World’s Going. Rob introduces his blog thus:

For some time now, I have been coming across news items and stories which strike me as illustrating two major processes that are at work in the world - the disintegration of outmoded ways of thinking and doing, and the burgeoning processes of integration. So, I thought I’d keep a blog about it. Enjoy!

I shall be keeping an eye on it.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, blog, Rob Weinberg

I was thrilled to learn that six women Nobel Peace Prize winners (only 12 women have ever won the Nobel Prize) have put out a statement calling on the Iranian government to free the seven leading Bahá’ís who are currently in jail in Tehran.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire (founders of the Peace People in Northern Ireland and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (a leading advocate of ethno-cultural reconciliation in her native Guatemala and Nobel winner in 1992), Professor Jody Williams (international campaigner for the banning of land mines, Nobel winner in 1997), Dr. Shirin Ebadi (Iranian human rights lawyer, winner in 2003), and Kenyan environmental activist Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (Nobel winner in 2004) have signed the following statement:

We note with concern the news of the arrest of six prominent Baha’is in Iran on 14 May 2008. We note that Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm are members of the informal group known as the Friends in Iran that coordinates the activities of the Baha’i community in Iran; we further note that another member of the Friends in Iran, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, has been held in custody since 5 March 2008; we register our deepest concern at the mounting threats and persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community.

We call on the Iranian Government to guarantee the safety of these individuals (and) grant their immediate unconditional release.

The statement has been issued in the name of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which the six women laureates established in 2006 to contribute to building peace by working together with women around the world.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Friends in Iran, human rights, Nobel Peace Prize, Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Muta Maathai

I had the interesting experience last week of being telephoned by a government minister to alert me to something that is to be included in forthcoming legislation.

Barbara Follett MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Government Equalities Office, phoned ahead of the publication last Thursday of the statement by Harriet Harman MP, Framework for a Fairer Future - The Equality Bill, to let me know that the government intended to extend the public sector equality duty to cover religion and belief.

Equality Bill

The Equality Bill will contain a new streamlined Equality Duty to replace the race, disability and gender equality duties, which will also cover gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief.

What this means in practice is that the duty will require public bodies to consider how their policies, programmes and services affect different disadvantaged groups in the community. We will be discussing with relevant organisations how the new duty will work in practice, especially in relation to religion or belief.

Avoiding unforeseen consequences

So why did Barbara Follett phone me? I can think of two possible reasons. First, I represent the UK Bahá’í community on the governent’s Faith Communities Consultative Council. Secondly, I chair the Religion and Belief Consultative Group on Equality, Diversity and Human Rights. The RBCG includes representatives of the major faiths, of the British Humanist Association and the National Secular Society, and thus is a good point of contact with the relevant organizations in the religion and belief “strand”.

And why was she phoning anyone in the religion and belief field ahead of Harriet Harman’s announcement? The clue is in the last few words I’ve quoted above from the Framework for a Fairer Future document. The government is anxious, Barbara Follett said, to avoid unforeseen consequences and perverse outcomes from the extended public sector duty.

Religion in the public square

Not everyone likes the increasing prominence of religion in the public square in the UK and the proposed new measure will no doubt prompt heated debates in groups - such as the RBCG - which bring together people from both religious and non-religious belief organizations.

I can understand why the government is anxious about the impact of what their proposing on the religion and belief sector. They have previous when it comes to legislation that affects the place of religion in public life.

Legal exceptions

This certainly was the case when the 2006 Equality Act was being debated in and out of parliament before it reached the statute books.

One of the sticky areas at that time was the question of exceptions included in the draft legislation to allow religious groups to discriminate in favour of their own members in employment and the provision of goods and services when necessary to preserve the ethos of their faith.

Many of the religious bodies argued that the exceptions were necessary to allow them to continue to follow the tenets and practices of their faiths. The secularists argued that the exceptions privileged the religions - whom they see as minority interests in society - to act in unfair ways, both towards their own members and towards others.

Equality principles

From the Bahá’í perspective what Harriet Harman says in her ministerial foreword to Framework for a Fairer Future is pretty close to the mark:

Everyone has the right to be treated fairly and to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential, but equality is not just right in principle.

This Government is, and always has been, the champion of equality in public policy and in representation in our democratic institutions.

Our commitment to equality is based on the belief that equality is:

• necessary for the individual – it is a basic right to be free from prejudice and discrimination;
• necessary for society – an unequal society can’t be at ease with itself, an equal society gives greater social cohesion;…

This agenda is for everyone, because fairness is the foundation for individual rights, a society at ease with itself, and a prosperous economy.

It will be very interesting to see how the Equality Bill is shaped and re-shaped as the public and parliamentary debates continue. It’s certainly on the agenda for the next meeting of the RBCG.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Barbara Follett, Harriet Harman, Equality Bill, religion and belief, legislation, equality, Government Equalities Office

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Crowds around the fancy dress parade, in important part of Welwyn’s family fun day

Welwyn Festival is an annual week of fun, education and entertainment in the small Hertfordshire town of Welwyn (not to be mistaken for the neighbouring newcomer town of Welwyn Garden City). The festival climaxes with a family fun day on Singlers Marsh at the bottom of the town.

The Welwyn Baha’i community’s contribution to the fun day was a display, a peace tree, and drumming/body percussion sessions led by Dan Tully.

The drumming drew plenty of people, some to have a go, some just to watch. Others studied our Bahá’í display and took some of our leaflets.

The fun day is a very English-village thing. There’s a fancy dress parade that walks along the main street and comes to the field, where the Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield hands out prizes for the best groups and individuals. Hoards of small children dressed as Elvis chatter excitedly. There’s even one bewildered-looking child dressed as Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall.

Scouts and Cubs and Brownies carry their flags, and a Royal British Legion youth band from Bodicote (Bodicote in Oxfordshire, the man on the tannoy keeps reminding us, not Codicote, which is Welwyn’s neighbouring village) march up and counter-march while playing ever so slightly out of tune.

I have to say I do wonder what prompts these kids to dress up in military-style uniforms on a hot afternoon to do something that is no doubt the cause of derision amongst some of their contemporaries.

The Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield in his mayoral chain, sending a text from his mobile.

The afternoon finishes with a tug o’ war.

You can see plenty more pictures from the afternoon here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, Welwyn Festival, drumming

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I like this. According to this story on the BBC website religious leaders on official visits in the north London borough of Barnet will be able to park for nothing using special permits.

Applicants of all faiths including Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism and Rastafarianism can make use of the scheme.

Barnet Council leader Mike Freer said:

The importance of religion to many Barnet residents cannot be underestimated and the council has acknowledged this with a policy that will assist spiritual leaders when engaging with people in times of illness or crisis.

So members of the Bahá’í Local Spiritual Assembly in Barnet couldn’t use the permits to pop into the corner shop to buy a newspaper. Aw, shucks!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, London, Barnet, parking permit, religious leaders

Left to Right: Farid Afnan, Dorothy Foster, Hassan Afnan, Kishan Manocha

The late Joe Foster was a wonderful and active Bahá’í who was a natural teacher. Joe taught mechanical engineering at a college in the north of England, but found himself becoming involved in promoting the inclusion of the Bahá’í Faith in religious education syllabuses and documents.

The Bahá’í Religious Education Agency (BREA, the UK Bahá’í community’s specialist religious education advisory body) decided that it would be a worthy memorial for Joe, who passed away a few years ago, to institute an award in his name for services to Bahá’í involvement in religious education.

Last night (25 June) Dr Kishan Manocha, Secretary of the UK Bahá’í community’s national governing council, presented the Joe Foster lifetime service award to Hassan Afnan, who was a leading member of the Standing Advisory Committee on Religious Education (SACRE) in the London Borough of Brent for many years and who persuaded Edexcel, one of the UK’s major examination providers, to provide a GCSE exam paper on the Bahá’í Faith.

During the evening Dorothy Foster, Joe’s widow, spoke about Joe and their life together, about how they met the Baha’i Faith and became Baha’is in the late 1960s and about Joe’s enthusiasm for religious education. This was a touching tale.

Dr Kishan Manocha addresses the Joe Foster Award ceremony

Sheila Williams, the first recipient of the Joe Foster Award was also present at the ceremony.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, RE, religious education, Joe Foster, Hassan Afnan

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One of the strengths of the UK Parliament is the time allotted to MPs to question government ministers about the work of their departments. On Tuesday 24 June it was the turn of ministers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including Dr Kim Howells MP, Minister for the Middle East to answer oral questions in the House.

Over the years we’ve had many written answers to Parliamentary Questions, but it was exciting news when we learned that Tom Brake MP, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá’ís had won the opportunity to ask an oral question about the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran. There is a great deal of competition amongst MPs for opportunities to ask oral questions.

Here’s the Hansard record of the the questions from MPs and the answers by Dr Kim Howells MP, Minister for the Middle East. (Once an MP has asked an oral question he/she can ask a supplementary question and then other MPs can also intervene.)

Baha’is (Iran)

2. Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD): What recent reports he has received on the situation of Baha’is in Iran; and if he will make a statement. [213056]

The Minister for the Middle East (Dr. Kim Howells): When I raised with the Iranian ambassador to London the UK’s great concerns about reports of maltreatment of adherents of the Baha’i faith in Iran, he told me that Baha’ism is not officially recognised as a religion in Iran. We receive reports that Iranian Baha’is face routine discrimination and harassment on the grounds of their faith, and the informal Baha’i leadership has been detained for more than a month now. We remain deeply concerned by the situation of the Baha’is in Iran and will continue to raise our concerns with the Iranian authorities.

Tom Brake: I thank the Minister for his response. He will be aware of reports from Iran that a new penal code is being drafted, which will be considered by the Iranian Parliament, that would introduce a mandatory death sentence for apostasy. The code would have extra-territorial jurisdiction and could lead to a fundamental attack on the human rights of Christians and Baha’is, particularly those with one Muslim parent, who could, under the new law, be considered apostates. Will the Minister confirm what action the Government are taking on the issue, in particular with the international community, to remind Iran of its responsibilities under international law, in particular article 18 of the international covenant on civil and political rights?

Dr. Howells: Yes, I can confirm that the new draft penal code is currently being considered by a judicial committee in the Iranian Parliament, but it has not yet been debated or voted on in plenary. We are very concerned that the draft code makes apostasy punishable by death and that the provisions contravene the principle of religious freedom. We are worried about the impact that they would have on religious minorities in Iran, including Christians, as the hon. Gentleman said, and the Baha’i community. We have certainly made representations to the Iranian Government about the matter. The EU issued a statement of concern on 25 February and raised its concerns with Iranian officials in Tehran on 4 March. I called in the Iranian ambassador to express the UK’s concerns on 1 April. We are keeping a close watch on the issue, and I very much hope that our concern will help to galvanise international opinion against this barbaric proposal.

David Lepper (Brighton, Pavilion) (Lab/Co-op): As an officer of the all-party friends of the Baha’i faith group, may I thank the Minister for the representations that he and others have made to the Government of Iran about the situation of individual Baha’is whose cases we have drawn to his attention? Will he also make representations to the Government of Iran about the denial of access to higher education of young Baha’is in that country? Of some 200 Baha’is who began university courses in autumn 2006, about 130 have since been expelled on the grounds of their religious faith. Will the Minister raise that point with the Government of Iran, too?

Dr. Howells: Yes, we will certainly raise it with the Government of Iran. That is one example of the way in which Baha’is in Iran are being marginalised because of their beliefs. That is wholly without justice and is a very worrying development.

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): The Minister will know that not only Baha’is, but Christians and indeed homosexuals often face torture and sometimes even death in Iran. Does he therefore share my concern about the recent alleged comments made by the Home Secretary when asked about failed asylum seekers who are openly homosexual, that they should return to Iran and be discreet in their sexuality? Given that there is no discretion, with the eyes of the state constantly on the gay community in Tehran and Iran more widely, does the Minister want to put it on record that he perhaps has a different view?

Dr. Howells: I am completely unaware of the alleged statements made by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, but I am only too willing to put it on record that people should not be punished in any way for the way in which their sexuality guides them. They should certainly not be tortured, imprisoned and hanged, as they have been in Iran.

We were all very pleased that the sufferings of the Bahá’ís in Iran have had such a good public airing in Parliament and we have great confidence that the government will continue to defend the human rights of the Bahá’ís.

Bahá’í News UK has covered this story here.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, persecution, human rights, parliamentary questions, Tom Brake, Kim Howells, David Lepper, All Party Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Some years ago Mrs Barnabas and I took a holiday in the Basque region of south west France, close to the Spanish border.

One of the attractions in the area the tiny settlement of l’Hôpital St Blaise (more detailed page on French Wikipedia) on the Way of St James, the ancient pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela (St James of  Compostela). The star building was a tiny 12th century Romanesque church with features that were clearly derived from Islamic architectural practice.

There are waymarks along the pilgrim route and, sadly, these get vandalized with graffiti. Curiously, and doubly sad for me as a Bahá’í, some of the waymarks have had the letters BAHAI or BAHAI.ORG painted on them, as the reports on this website show.

What people thought of the Bahá’ís

One pilgrim commented in March this year:

In the evenings in the albuerges this led to quite a few heated discussions, someone had found out that it is the name of a non-christian religious group. Well, I don’t know anything about them or if it really was a member of this group but whoever did these graffitis didn’t do this organization a favour….

An old woman in a village told us that they appeared between December and February.

Others took a more moderate view:

I’m sure we all condemn such vandalism - and many of the waymark stones on many of the routes are vandalised in some way. Simlarly there are those who disrespect the routes by throwing litter and trash all over the place.

However I’d make a plea that we don’t get into any controversy about the authorship of this particular graffiti - http://www.bahai.org appears to be the website of the Bahai faith which is clearly not Islamic.

And:

I agree. When I walked the Camino in December, the ‘Bahai’ graffiti had been freshly done. I too found it irritating, but my thoughts turned to the poor (and perhaps damaged) individual who found it necessary to spoil the environment in that way. I did not imagine for a moment that it was the expression of a group. Followers of the Bahai faith are respectable and peaceful people and would not be in sympathy with an individual who spoiled the environment in this way. Neither - in all probability - is that individual anything to do with them!

Bahá’í graffiti condemned

As a Bahá’í I absolutely condemn the use of the name of my faith as graffiti to damage the waymarks on this (or indeed on any other) pilgrimage route - of whatever faith. Pilgrimage is an ancient, respected and universal religious practice and one that Bahá’ís share.

Sadly, it seems that the person who perpetrated this outrage was a Bahá’í, as this entry on the pilgrimage site shows:

Afraid the chap got a bit cocky, and left his details in the visitors’ books along the way.

He is a 56 year-old, from Metz in France, named Jean-Marc Tesson. I even have his National ID number that he left in the book in Arzua.

I find it difficult to believe that a Bahá’í perpetrated this outrage and I am deeply ashamed and saddened that this is the case. What did he hope to achieve? It clearly was not the act of a balanced or rational person. I hope his conscience is giving him a hard time.

Interestingly, a number of the pilgrims were more inclined to be forgiving towards this vandal than I am!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, pilgrimage, pilgrim route, Santiago de Compostela, St James of Compostela, Camino, Way of St James, vandalism, graffiti

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I was intrigued by this story on the BBC today.

Apparently elderly people are particularly vulnerable to dehydration. It can cause dizziness - leading to potentially serious falls - constipation and confusion.

The manager of one care home in Suffolk decided to do something about this.

Staff at The Martins care home in Bury St Edmunds started a “water club” for their residents last summer.

Residents were encouraged to drink eight to 10 glasses of water a day, water coolers were installed, and they were each given a jug for their room.

This has dramatically improved the health of the home’s elderly residents.

Jean says she feels 20 years younger.

“I feel more alert - more cheerful too. I’m not a miserable person, but it’s added a sort of zest.”

There are fewer falls in the care home, fewer GP call-outs, fewer laxatives are used, fewer urinary infections occur, the residents sleep better, and those with dementia are less agitated.

Wendy Tomlinson, the home’s manager, says:

It’s been fantastic. The whole home buzzes now; there isn’t that period after lunch when everyone goes off to sleep.

Elder abuse a serious concern

As I get older, I get more and more concerned about elder abuse. This is, I suppose, selfish of me. But when I think back to my mother’s final years of life - she was in a particularly good care home near Oxford - I can see how easy it is for frail elderly people to be badly treated by impatient or poorly trained care staff or to become the victims of abuse by neglect.

When we are younger, our bodies adjust more easily to insufficient water intake, so care home staff and management may not realize (as a result of their own experience) that older people need to drink more.

So care homes may, without knowing it, be causing their residents to suffer unnecessarily.

Worse than that, I can imagine, for example, that there may be badly run homes where residents with dementia who wear incontinence pads are deprived of water so that staff do not have to change the pads or urine-soaked underwear so frequently. Such treatment may well constitute a human rights abuse

Tougher regulations for care homes?

Cross-bench peer Baroness Greengross has been convinced for some time that many old people are not drinking enough water. She would like to see tougher regulations for care homes so that staff are required to ensure that residents drink enough.

I hope that by the time I need to be consigned to a care home such kinds of elder abuse are as unacceptable as the abuse of children.

Technorati Tags: elder abuse, care homes, water, dehydration, dementia

The Bahá’í community’s international governing council, the Universal House of Justice, has just written another wonderful letter to the Bahá’ís in Iran. The letter is both compassionate and challenging.

Equality of women and men

It calls on the beleaguered Bahá’ís in the land where the Bahá’í Faith originated in the 19th century to help “remove the barriers hindering the progress of women in society” in Iran.

For you, the equality of men and women is not a Western construct but a universal spiritual truth about an aspect of the nature of human beings, promulgated by Bahá’u’lláh nearly one hundred and fifty years ago in His homeland, Iran. It is, above all, a requirement of justice. This principle is consonant with the highest rectitude of conduct, its application strengthens family life, and it is essential to the regeneration and progress of any nation, the peace of the world, and the advancement of civilization.

The House of Justice reminds the Iranian Bahá’ís of their considerable achievements in emancipating women and calls on them to do more to “transcend those cultural practices that impede the progress of women”.

The goal of true equality is not easily attained; the transformation required is difficult for men and women alike. To this end, we warmly encourage you to continue to enhance your understanding of this principle and to strive to uphold it more fully in your families and in your community.

The letter closes by encouraging the Bahá’ís to work with their country-people who aspire to the same universal ideal of equality.

Responding to persecution

This is not the first letter written in recent months by the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís in Iran. The letters remind the Iranian Bahá’ís of their great heritage as a faith community and as being in the forefront of social and economic development in Iran. And they call on the Bahá’ís to rise above the appalling persecution they are suffering and to put their energy and love into doing good for their fellow Iranians - and to work with their compatriots of any faith (or none) in doing so.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Universal House of Justice, Iran, persecution, gender equality, advancement of women, social and economic development