The UK Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly has just posted a new blog as an outlet for news from the Bahá’í community.

UK Bahá’í News has got off to a good start with several stories about public reactions to last month’s arrests of the Bahá’í leaders in Iran. But the editorial team is planning to cover a wider range of stories from and about the Bahá’ís in the UK and across the world.

Do add it to your links and follow the stories in your newsreaders.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, UK Baha’i News, news

My good friend Tessa Scrine, Executive Officer for Government Relations for the Baha’i community in Australia, gave an excellent interview on ABC Radio National’s The Religion Report on 11th June about the 14th May arrests of the Bahá’í leadership in Iran.

You can pick up the link to the interview here. Once you’ve downloaded the show, you’ll need to start listening at about 11 minutes and 40 seconds into the programme.

And it’s worth listening to the next interview, which is with John Henderson, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, Australian partnership of Religious Organisations.

Go on, have a listen. You know you want to.

My ABC Radio story

Can’t resist telling you this. Some years ago, when I was Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the UK, I was sitting in my office in the Bahá’í Centre in London one afternoon when the phone rang. It was ABC Radio in Australia. They wanted an interview on the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran.

“Why don’t you call the Bahá’í national office in Australia?’ I asked.

“It’s three o’clock in the morning here,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Ah! OK, I’ll do the interview.”

So about an hour later I was hooked up by phone to ABC’s all-night programme for an interview. They’d also got hold of someone from Human Rights Watch in New York. So there we were, a global radio interview masterminded from Sydney. I was really impressed by ABC’s skill and by the quality of their show. The questions were intelligent and the level of discussion was clearly intended for a serious audience - at four o’clock in the morning!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, Australia, ABC Radio, Tessa Scrine

The Australian Partnership of Religious Organisations has issued a strong statement calling on the Iranian authorities to release the Bahá’í leaders, who are currently being held in Evin prison in Tehran:

The Australian Partnership of Religious Organisations (APRO) welcomes the Australian Government’s statement of concern about the recent arrest of Baha’i leaders in Iran and the continuing discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Baha’is on the grounds of their religion.

APRO Convenor, Professor Abd Malak said APRO shared the Government’s deep concern for these Baha’i leaders, made in a recent public statement.

“Freedom of religion and belief is a right guaranteed to all people under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party,” Prof Malak said.

“Their detention is in clear breach of the rights to which they are entitled under international law,” he said.

“Members of APRO call on the Iranian authorities to release the Baha’i leaders, if they are not to be charged with a recognisable criminal offence and allowed a fair and prompt trial.”

This support is most welcome.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Australia, APRO, religious organisations, Iran, religious freedom, human rights, inter-faith