by Barney on 29 September 2008

I’m glad to report that the EU Presidency issued an unequivocal statement on Friday calling for the immediate release of Bahá’í and Christian Prisoners in Iran.
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the situation of people belonging to religious minorities in Iran
The European Union is very concerned at the deterioration [...]
by Barney on 27 September 2008

Regular readers will recall that I cried “shame” in this post at the “dialogue” dinner that some of the churches were holding for Iran’s President Ahmadinejad in New York. I wondered how these church leaders thought it appropriate to “dialogue” with the persecutor of all kinds of minorities in Iran – including the largest non-Muslim [...]
by Barney on 26 September 2008

While I was waiting for my prescription to be filled at my local pharmacy, I wandered the streets and took some photos with my trusty mobile phone of the old Hertfordshire coaching village of Welwyn, formerly a stopping place for stage coaches on the Great North Road – notorious for highwaymen such as Dick Turpin [...]
by Barney on 26 September 2008

This sweet film is a short story, simply told, about compassion and generosity of spirit expressed in an unexpected way by an unlikely person.
Go on, watch it, you know you want to!
[Hat-tip: Vida Stendardo.]
Technorati Tags: film, blindness, generosity, compassion, story, begging
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by Barney on 25 September 2008

Yesterday’s treat was a flying visit to Edinburgh to launch the Bahá’í Religious Education Agency (Scotland) on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the UK.
Up at 5.30 a.m., and drove to Luton airport by 7.30 a.m. for my budget flight to Scotland’s capital city, where I arrived at 10.30 a.m.
Baha’i Religious [...]
by Barney on 23 September 2008

A new Bahá’í blog has appeared on the scene. According to its own blurb
The Daily Bahá’í provides the opportunity to pause and reflect once a day on a concept or idea drawn from the writings of the Bahá’í Faith.
The text of each thought has been prepared by Fidelma Meehan, a Bahá’í from Swindon in the [...]
by Barney on 23 September 2008

I was cheered to read this forthright article in FrontPageMagazine.com today. Faith McDonnell, the director of Religious Liberty Programs at the Institute on Religion & Democracy in Washington DC, points out the breathtaking contradiction (not to say hypocrisy) underlying the support that a group of churches is giving to President Ahmadinejad of Iran by holding [...]
by Barney on 22 September 2008

A stroll on a calm and sunny September day is one of the great pleasures of Autumn in England. Erica and I have a regular circuit that we walk – it usually takes us around 30 minutes – from our Hertfordshire home and there are various places where I almost always find myself moved to [...]
by Barney on 22 September 2008

Nylon Parla is a great new collaborative photoblog by five Bahá’ís who are talented photographers in five cities, New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Chicago. One of the photographers, Ronnie, writes:
we simply take a photo on a theme each week and submit it every sunday.
we are running a trial month to see how it [...]
by Barney on 21 September 2008

These pictures from Iranian media sources apparently showing people after Friday prayers in Tehran signing the anti-Bahá’í petition I wrote about in this post.
Now, I cannot read Persian, so I have to rely on those who kindly pointed me in the direction of these photos. It’s impossible for me to say whether the petition is [...]