Nelson Evora

2007-08-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

a BAHAI gold winner---- Triple Jump World Champion

in Osaka Japan this 27th august 2007

Nelson Évora (born April 20, 1984) is a Portuguese athlete who specializes in the triple jump (current world champion) and long jump.

He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship. Born in Cote D'Ivoire where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Nelson relocated to Portugal when he was five.[1] He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both long jump (7.57 metres) and triple jump (16.15 metres).[2]

He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool, and finished sixth at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fourth in the triple jump final and sixth in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, having set a Portuguese triple jump record of 17.23 metres during the qualification. At the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships he came in fifth place.

Évora is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.[1]

He currently competes for Benfica

On August 27, 2007 he became the Triple Jump World Champion in the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, in Osaka, Japan, estabilishing his personal best and portuguese national record at 17.74m.[3]

2007-08-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt: ID Cards Vs. Ancient Civilization!

Posted: 22 Aug 2007 04:30 PM CDT

This video clip, entitled "Egypt Tourism Ad" was just published by the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights on YouTube. It depicts the dilemma of certain citizens of Egypt, such as Baha'is, who are denied their ID cards because of their religious affiliation. Egypt will only allow the entry of one of three religions on the mandated computerized ID card forms, namely: Muslim, Christian or Jewish. If anyone belongs to any other Faith than these three, then the person is denied the ID card. The application form also clearly states that the entry of any false statements will lead to imprisonment and heavy fines. A citizen of Egypt without ID card is considered non-existent and cannot have any rights in his or her own country. All essential services in Egypt mandates the use of ID cards. The lack of such documents in Egypt amounts to Civil Death.

Also see Egyptian identification card controversy at Wikipedia.

The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights describes itself as follows:

The Muslim network for Baha’i rights is developed by a group of Muslim interfaith activists who believe in tolerance, coexistence and freedom. We created this site to promote human rights, religious freedom and respect within the Arab and Muslim world. We strongly believe that such values should apply it to all people equally regardless of their faith, cultural differences, political stance or nationality. We are making this effort not only as believers of freedom, but also for the sake of a better and more productive society.

In this network, there are a few things that readers should keep in mind:
. The authors are Muslim interfaith activists who are deeply concerned with the treatment of Baha’is within the Middle East.
. We don’t believe in the Baha’i faith, yet we respect those who do. There are minorities within our societies who are practicing Baha’is and for that, their rights are very rarely recognized, simply because of their religious differences. We do not approve of this.
. We created this site to demand that the rights of Baha’i minorities is recognized by not only people, but by law.
. We respectfully demand that all governments within the Arab and Muslim world allow Baha’i citizens to have equal opportunities in all fields and to practice their faith freely without facing any threats or discrimination whatsoever.
. We would like to make the general public of the region be aware of Baha’i human rights abuses in order to take effective action against it. We can only successfully achieve the goals of this website if we move our citizens towards real action, no matter what our religious differences are.
. We are all civilians in need of basic rights, and thus we should join forces regardless of our differences and unite in a celebration of our diversity. Join us in this worthy struggle and make our goals a greater possibility in the name of freedom.

2007-08-18T05:59:00.000-07:00

EGYPT: MUSLIM SUES FOR RIGHT TO CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY
Christian's attorney facing death threats from Egyptian security police.
Mohammed Hegazy
Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy

ISTANBUL, August 6 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim convert to Christianity filed suit against Egypt last week for refusing to legally recognize his change of religion, sparking a reactionary lawsuit by Muslim clerics and death threats against his lawyer.

Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 24, brought a case against Egypt’s interior ministry on Thursday (August 2) for rejecting his application to replace Islam with Christianity on his personal identification papers.

“I think it is my natural right, to embrace the religion I believe and not to have to have a double personality for me as well as for my wife and my expected baby,” said Hegazy, who converted to Christianity when he was 16.

Though Egyptian law does not forbid conversion from Islam to Christianity, it provides no legal means to make the change. Converts to Christianity usually hide their identity to avoid torture and forced recantation at the hands of family members and security police.

Hegazy, whose wife Zeinab is four months pregnant, said that he wants his child to be born with Christian papers. The couple, who were forced to hold an Islamic wedding ceremony because of their legal status as Muslims, know that a Christian ID card will allow their child to take Christian religion classes in school, marry in a church and even openly attend services without fear of harassment.

Mamdouh Nakhla of the Kalema Center for Human Rights has taken Hegazy’s case, telling Compass from Cairo today that the lawsuit has caused him “big problems.”

Several Muslim clerics and lawyers headed up by Sheikh Youssef el-Badry have opened a case against the lawyer on charges of causing sectarian strife and baptizing Muslims.

A source close to Nakhla told Compass that Egypt’s security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI), called the lawyer to tell him to withdraw the case or he may be killed.

“This is the first such case in the history of Egyptian justice,” Nakhla told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday (August 2).

Legal conversion from Christianity to Islam occurs regularly in Egypt – 7,000 Christians joined Islam between 2000 and 2006, according to a statement last year by Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi.

But conversion from Islam to another religion is impossible under Egyptian law.

“As long as Article 2 of the constitution remains unchanged, Christians, Jews and Bahai, anyone who is not Muslim, will be at a disadvantage,” Helmy Guirguis of the UK Copts Association told Compass from London today.

Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution designates sharia, or Islamic law, as the basis for Egyptian law.

Under most mainstream interpretations of sharia in Egypt, apostasy is a punishable offense.

Last month Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, a leading Egyptian cleric, backed down from earlier statements that Muslims should be free to choose a religion other than Islam.

Gomaa had written in a Washington Post-Newsweek online forum that leaving Islam was a sin punishable by God, but that the act warranted no worldly punishment, AFP reported. The news agency later published a clarification from Gomaa’s office stating that apostasy was subversion and therefore merited punishment.

In recent years, however, dozens of Copts who converted to Islam and later wished to return to their original faith have filed successful cases to have their legal status changed. Nakhla is one of several lawyers currently defending a group of Copts whose case is to be heard by Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on September 1.

Unprecedented Challenge

Hegazy, a native of Port Said, is the first Muslim-by-birth to openly challenge the government’s restriction of conversion away from Islam.

“I believe there are thousands of converts,” said Hegazy, indicating that he had attended large meetings and conferences of converts from Islam to Christianity.

Addressing this group, he said, “Get out of your ghetto and establish organizations to speak for yourselves and defend your rights. The answer is not to escape or to leave the country, but to fight and struggle for our rights here in our own country.”

In an interview, Hegazy called on the government to recognize the existence of converts and completely cancel the religion clause from national identification cards.

Jailed and tortured in 2002 when police discovered his conversion, Hegazy said that he was not optimistic about winning the case.

“Martyrdom would be much better than being jailed under such a radical and fundamentalist authority,” he said.

The convert has published a small book of 31 poems called Sherine’s Laugh. In one poem, he recalled mistreatment at the hands of Ashraf Ma’alouf, an SSI officer who reportedly tortured him for his conversion to Christianity.

Last month, Egyptian police in Alexandria brutally tortured Shaymaa Muhammad al-Sayed, a Muslim woman who had converted to Christianity. They then handed her over to her Islamist family, who beat her behind the police station and are now keeping her in their home.

In April, security officials released another convert to Christianity, Bahaa el-Akkad, who had been jailed without charges for two years.

2007-08-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

Be cool. Be religious. Yes, you can watch MTV and still have morals.

Some music professionals in Los Angeles - all of them Baha'is and all knee-deep or more in the entertainment industry - have come out with what one recording artist terms a "straight-up Baha'i album."

The group calls itself the Dawnbreaker Collective, the album is named "Arise," and the music is, well, cool.

Rap, rock, funk, R&B, spoken-word - all are represented.

"Come talk with Me, speak heavenly, remember Me, O son of Spirit," sings Tara Ellis on one of the hip-hop tracks. She has recorded with rap star Eve and with Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame, and is unapologetic about her current contribution to a religious record.

"This was an incredible project to part of," she says. "It's different to the stuff that most of us do because this is a straight-up Baha'i album. It's us being Baha'is and doing what we love. ...

"It's the sound of our times but in a good way."

Benny Cassette - he's a hip-hopper and producer who has worked with Mos Def, Willie Nelson, Eve, and Akon, and is slated to release a solo album on Universal Records - says the idea is to talk religion with young people in a language they understand.

He and the other artists - 17 of them altogether - wanted to "create something that Baha'i kids can listen to as easily as they listen to some of the other popular music out there."

Rey Luna and Tara Ellis perform at the Los Angeles Baha'i Center.

"You know," he says, "they look up to the people they see on MTV and things. So what we are trying to do with this album is show them that there are people who work with the MTVs of the world but still hold to our values - which they can do, too."

Hundreds of Web messages from the U.S. and around the world suggest that Benny and company are on the right track.

"I just discovered your music," writes a woman named Sandra from Cameroon. "Really, I didn't imagine rap could be so inspiring."

From Dorina in Germany: "I like this special new style of performing Baha'i themes. Do you know what important work you are doing?"

Part of the album's new style is the way sacred scripture is used.

"This album has introduced the world to a different way of treating the (Baha'i) writings," says Vahid Brooks, one the featured artists. "We are not being disrespectful or anything. All we are doing is using the writings in a language that makes sense to us and the people we live with."

Benny Cassette says that although the album is inspired by the Baha'i Faith, "we are trying to make music for the world. ... Ultimately we want to create a doorway for people to access the Faith."

Andy Grammer is one of 17 artists who performs on "Arise" by the Dawnbreaker Collective.

The songs on "Arise" are not really scripture set to music, explains Jamie Lewis, manager of the Dawnbreaker Collective.

"It's more a vibe or a feeling," he says. "The album was created by the artists praying and deepening together and then going off and writing the songs."

Love for their religion is what led the artists to make the album, adds Benny.

"I can remember thinking to myself that I will not be happy having any song on this album that I couldn't see myself sitting down and listening to with 'Abdu'l-Baha," he says. 'Abdu'l-Baha was the son of the founder of the Baha'i Faith, and Baha'is look to him as the best example of how to live.

"The arts are extremely powerful," says Michael Mathenge, a member of the Dawnbreaker Collective who goes by the name Mathai. "They can inspire, and they can motivate anyone if they are used in the right way. This is what we are trying to do."

According to the album cover, the Dawnbreaker Collective - in addition to Benny Cassette, Tara Ellis, Vahid Brooks, and Mathai - includes Jamey Heath, Jason Greene, Robert Sinclair, Jamal DeGruy, Ruth Foreman, Allison Anastasio, Rance, Dorothy Dixon, Devon Gundry, Andy Grammer, Rey Luna, Fondi Dixon and John Barnes the 3rd. Oscar DeGruy makes a guest appearance.

The album can be purchased online at http://www.dawnbreakercollective.com/ and through iTunes, and it is increasingly available internationally at outlets where Baha'i books and materials are sold.

a student blog

2007-08-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

Source: A student's blog

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority of the right to a full education. Specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has for more than 25 years blocked the 300,000-member Bahá’í community from higher education, refusing young Bahá’ís entry into university and college.

Eventually, in response to an international outcry over this oppressive behavior, the government officially announced in late 2005 that it would drop the declaration of religious affiliation on the application for the national university entrance examination. Consequently, the Bahá’í students could take the examination in 2004 and 2005. Yet, later in the admission procedure, Bahá’í youth were passed over and not accepted.

In 2006, for the first time in 29 years, more than 200 Bahá’í students could enter national universities. However, from the very beginning of the school year, gradually most of these students were expelled according to a previously planned strategy.

This year (2007), however the government has employed a new tactic. Most Bahá’í students have not yet received their test report cards. Not receiving their results, they are now even unaware of their scores and the fact that whether they have passed the test or not.

According to the web site of the national Educational Measurement and Evaluation Organization (EMEO), 800 Bahai students whose report cards are not issued lack enough documentation. Contact have been made with those officials in charge; nevertheless, no reasonable answer was given. Right now, the Bahá’í students who have not been informed of their exam results face an unclear situation

When I was a child, I talked about my dreams with my mother. One day I wanted to be a teacher; the other day; a scientist or a physician. My mother would look at me and tell me "try to love everybody. Whatever you become, try to help others."

So, seven years ago when I decided to become a physician, I was sure that I would treat my patients with love. Days have passed and I have learnt a lot. At first, the dream of becoming a physician was the most real and beautiful dream of my life. However, later I got to know my mother who was denied to finish the final semester of her studies at university. I saw my brothers who could not even take the entrance exam of national university.

Then, one day I heard the hopeful voice of one my friends who had a new story for me. He told me of his courses, of the entrance exam that he was going to take, and of the test preparation classes. He shared his dreams, hopes, worries and fears with me. I felt his excitement. I felt his preoccupation and anxiety. However, I was happy that being a Bahai is not any more an obstacle for continuing our education.

Today, my friend called and talked in a voice that showed no trace of that anxiety. He told me of his report card which has not been issued, and of his result which is not clear. He told me of the answers which were not given to him. He told me of his more-than-ever-strong determination to revitalize his Country- Iran.

I cried. I cried to the extent that no tears remained for me to shed. I cried but not because of my mother who could not fulfill her dream; not because of my brothers who did not envy their non- Bahai friends even for a second; not because of my friend who was deprived of continuing his education, not even because of myself and my lost dream of becoming a physician. I cried only because I still remembered that day in my childhood when I had promised my mother to love everybody. It was only then that I understodd why I made such a promise in the prime of my dreams. I cried, and I feared that I might not keep my promise.

But weren't these people who I try to love once children? Haven't they promised their mothers to love me?

the little bahai hero

2007-08-14T01:22:00.001-07:00

Here is the story of what happened:
The director of the Public School "Luis Demetrio
Reyes" in the suburbs of the city Merida Yucatan wanted to have a
different spring festival this year so he asked the teachers to put in contest a song to be sung by all pupils
on March 21.

The teachers for their part took the news to the class rooms and asked
the children to present any song related to the advent of spring.

To the director's surprise none of the 200 students in the school knew any song but a little girl called Geisy (pronounce Haysee).

The teacher took her to the director's office and introduced her.

"How old are you?" "11 she said."Can you sing the spring song that you know?
She started to chant a song she had learned in the Baha'i children classes:

Se acerca la primavera

Tiempo para un festival
Con amigos y la familia
El regocijo ideal

Gracias a Baha'u'llah, Gracias al SeÃƒÂ±or

Por Ayyam i hÃƒÂ¡, el festival de amor
Ayyam i hÃƒÂ¡ regalo del SeÃƒÂ±or

Agradecidos y contentos, Celebremos con amor

Ayyam i hÃƒÂ¡ el festival de amor.....

Translation goes like this:Spring is approaching; it is time for a festival

With friends and family, it is the perfect joy

Thanks to BahÃƒÂ¡'u'llÃƒÂ¡h, thanks to the Lord for the Ayyam I hÃƒÂ¡, the
festival of love Ayyam I hÃƒÂ¡, the gift of God
Grateful and content, we celebrate with love Ayyam I hÃƒÂ¡ is the festival
of Love

Ã¢â‚¬Â¦. Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã

¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦Ã¢â‚¬Â¦

The director remained astonished of the girl's performance and asked if the school could use the song in the Spring party,and if her parents would
let them sing it.

She replied that they would love it, but it had to be sung as it was,
with no modifications in it, and they agreed. He further asked what the
meanings were of BahÃƒÂ¡'u'llÃƒÂ¡h and Ayyam I hÃƒÂ¡, and she explained it as she had learned it in the BahÃƒÂ¡'ÃƒÂ classes.

He then had the teachers write down the lyrics on the black boards and
have the children in the entire school rehearse it and learn in by heart. It took them a couple of days to learn it all and on March 21. there were 200 young souls chanted it aloud and intoned it so that the sweetness of its
melody would surely scatter the fragrance of the words unto every soul.

Geisy did not know that she was being the means of this transformation
that might not give fruits in the short run, but she has surely kindled a
fire that sooner or later would reach unbounded realms.

Every one at school now knows about the Faith.
She has now turned into a little BahÃƒÂ¡'ÃƒÂ hero
in Merida.

the little bahai hero

2007-08-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

2007-08-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Egypt Begins Soon Exclusive Use of New ID Document

Posted: 12 Aug 2007 05:39 PM CDT
Egypt's leading daily newspaper Al-Ahram published an article on 8 August 2007, in which it describes plans for the exclusive use of the new computerised national ID number/card and the total abandonment of the older paper ID documents.

Thus far, Baha'is remain prevented by the government from being issued the new ID cards, and are only in possession of the old paper documents. The only option given to them, as instructed by the Ministry of Interior, is that they must lie on the application form regarding their religious affiliation in order to obtain ID documents. They are given only three choices (Muslim Christian or Jew). The application form clearly states that any false statements made by the applicant will be punishable by imprisonment and heavy fines. The ID card system does not allow for any other options, such as leaving the space for religion blank.

The newspaper article indicates that it was decided that the new ID card will be "an essential element in all transactions." This was decided by Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazeef in a meeting on 7 August 2007 with the Minister of Interior as well as some other ministers.

The Prime Minister requested "a deadline" by which the use of the old paper ID card will stop. This will be accomplished very soon when nearly 90% of the population have been issued the new cards.

It was also reported in this article that according to a spokesperson of the Assembly of Ministries that the new ID system will be applied to "all services used by Egyptian citizens within the country." This includes all government transactions. Currently several ministries have been exclusively accepting the new ID card. These ministries are: Interior, Defense, Health and Justice.

"In preparation for this, it is expected that the Ministry of Interior will announce soon the complete cessation of the use of the old paper ID document."

The implications of this announcement are quite ominous. Soon the Baha'is and other religious minorities (except Muslims, Christians and Jews) will not be able to have any rights in their own society. It implies large-scale job firings and dismissals from universities. Already, Baha'is are unable to obtain health care and children cannot get vaccination in public institutions. In other words, Baha'is and any other religious minorities--if they exist--will suffer "civil death."

Additionally, Egyptian Baha'i university students have been expelled because they were unable to produce the required military draft postponement document, which requires the new ID card for it to be granted. One student was expelled just before graduation from his university. Another student, after passing his first year examination, was prevented from being promoted to the second year and was suspended from the university until he can produce his military draft document.

2007-08-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

Universities Install Footbaths to Benefit Muslims, and Not Everyone Is Pleased

Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

A footbath has been installed in a corner of a unisex restroom at the student center at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. The University of Michigan-Dearborn, right, is planning to install footbaths in an effort to accommodate Muslim students.

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: August 7, 2007

Correction Appended

DEARBORN, Mich. — When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks.

The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students’ Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.

But as a legal and political matter, that solution has not been quite so simple. When word of the plan got out this spring, it created instant controversy, with bloggers going on about the Islamification of the university, students divided on the use of their building-maintenance fees, and tricky legal questions about whether the plan is a legitimate accommodation of students’ right to practice their religion — or unconstitutional government support for that religion.

“It’s an awkward thing,” said Alexis Oesterle, a junior. “If I’m sitting with Muslim friends, I wouldn’t want to bring it up. In this country, at this time, it’s not so easy to discuss the issues of Muslims in American society.”

As the nation’s Muslim population grows, issues of religious accommodation are becoming more common, and more complicated. Many public school districts are grappling with questions about prayer rooms for Muslim students, halal food in cafeterias and scheduling around important Muslim holidays. As Muslim students point out, the school calendar already accommodates Christians, with Sundays off and vacations around Christmas and Easter.

“Starting about two years ago, school attorneys have been asking more and more questions about accommodations for Muslim students,” said Lisa Soronen, a National School Boards Association lawyer. “These issues don’t get litigated very often; they’re usually worked out one by one.”

Nationwide, more than a dozen universities have footbaths, many installed in new buildings. On some campuses, like George Mason University in Virginia, and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., there was no outcry. At Eastern Michigan, even some Muslim students were surprised by the appearance of the footbath — a single spigot delivering 45 seconds of water — in a partitioned corner of the restroom in the new student union.

“My sister told me about it, and I didn’t believe it,” said Najla Malaibari, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan. “I was, ‘No way,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, go crazy.’ It really is convenient.”

But after a Muslim student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College slipped and hurt herself last fall while washing her feet in a sink, word got out there that the college was considering installing a footbath, and a local columnist accused the college of a double standard — stopping a campus coffee cart from playing Christmas music but taking a different attitude toward Islam.

“After the column, a Christian conservative group issued an action alert to its members, which prompted 3,000 e-mail and 600 voice messages to me and/or legislators,” said Phil Davis, president of the college.

Mr. Davis said that after a legal briefing, the board concluded that installing footbaths was constitutional, and that the college hoped to have a plan in place by the next school year.

Here in Dearborn, the university called the footbaths a health and safety measure, not a religious decision. And it argued that while the footbaths may benefit Muslim students, they will be available to others, like lacrosse players who want to wash their feet.

Still, the plans are controversial.

“My first reaction was, ‘Where’s the money coming from?’ ” said Emily Hutfloetz, a senior. “I feel like it’s favoring one group of people.”

On her Web site, Debbie Schlussel, a conservative lawyer and blogger in Southfield, Mich., posted, “Forget about the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state ... at least when it comes to mosque and state.”

And in an editorial, the student newspaper, The Michigan Journal, worried that opponents would turn their hostility “on Muslim students at the university and Islam as a whole.”

2007-08-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Source:
Toronto Globe & Mail article re Jack Lenz

Go big or go home

Jack Lenz has been making music for decades, Michael Posner writes. Now he's in the business of promoting Canadian talent with a large new studio facility in Thorncliffe Park

MICHAEL POSNER

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

August 1, 2007 at 4:09 AM EDT

After three decades of success in any field, many artists might start to think about slowing down. Not Jack Lenz.

Overseeing Lenz Entertainment, a company of about 60 musicians, writers, engineers and puppet artists, the fiftysomething Toronto-based composer and arranger is looking to expand.

He claims his broad-based firm is now the fastest-growing in his field in Canada, producing and writing music for television series, specials and feature films, as well as developing a stable of young recording artists.

To bring what had been its disparate operations under one roof, the firm recently bought a 25,000-square-foot facility in Thorncliffe Park, complete with two state-of-the-art recording and engineering studios and a puppet-making shop for the animated children's series it is producing.

There's talk of building a TV studio on the property to avoid renting space, and this year Lenz will begin production of a long-nurtured feature film, Mona's Dream.

"We got to the point where we had worked on so many shows that we thought, 'Hey we can do this,' " Lenz says of his decision to go big. He's a tall, broad-shouldered, florid-faced man with a warm smile, a hearty laugh and a ready quip. "There may be a bit of folly here, but we had to grow. We couldn't stay where we were. So we went out and got some investors, including Ole, a Toronto music publishing company. And we've created, I think, a unique, independent, Canadian model."

The competition is fierce, he acknowledges. The budget for music in most films, he says, is less than 1 per cent of total costs, "and it's dropping, and you're competing with guys who work out of their basements. Producers are quite happy with that because it costs them less."

Meanwhile, Lenz's 29-year-old son, Asher, a classically trained pianist, has joined the firm as a songwriter, while his wife, Debrah Burton-Lenz, looks after the company's business affairs.

There's no questioning Lenz's musical talent. He has been a composer and arranger for Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts, written scores of jingles (including the Toronto Blue Jays' theme song, OK, Blue Jays, Let's Play Ball), scored dozens of TV shows (from the CBC National News to Due South to Designer Guys to Little Mosque on the Prairie), and several feature films (among them Paul Gross's Men with Brooms and Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ, although he was subsequently replaced by John Debney).

"Ooh, boy," Lenz laughs now, recalling the latter experience. "As a person, Mel's a very sweet guy. But the religious thing is so crazy and his views are crazy. It was a tough go. I think he's a tortured guy." When an article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine came out about Gibson and his father, Hutton, a Holocaust denier, Lenz told him: "If it were my dad saying these things, I'd distance myself."

More recently, the Lenzs - père et fils - have written a single for Andrea Bocelli (Go Where Love Goes). And Asher, working with singer Adam Crossley, sold a song to pop sensation Josh Groban (So She Dances).

Crossley, putting the finishing touches on his first album of songs co-written with Asher (Anvil of the Heart), is one of several performers that Lenz Entertainment hopes it can stage-manage into stardom. An American, he describes his music as hillbilly, "paddleboat rock." Other Lenz hopefuls include teenage opera prodigy Holly Stell, gospel singer Mark Masri and jazz crooner Cal Dodd.

For years, Lenz earned a tidy income from royalties of music written for children's TV shows, many of which run in syndication forever. Some years, he cashed more royalty cheques than any other member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

If the fees for writing music were attractive, Lenz reasoned, why not produce the whole shebang - make the puppets, draft the scripts, score the music.

Now, in partnership with Grogs Inc. (Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley), Lenz has produced Nanalan, a Gemini-award-winning preschool puppet series (reruns are on CBC, new shows are being made for PBS); Weird Years, an animated fish-out-of-water series featuring the adventures of the Dorkovitch family on YTV; Mr. Meaty, a short, offbeat animated after-school show for Nickleodeon, which also airs on CBC, with more than 100 puppet characters; and Ooh & Aah - puppet monkeys that, after winning a stiff competition, began hosting the U.S. Disney Channel's playhouse programming block in March.

A new, five-minute adult puppet series, Swami Jeff's Temple of Wisdom, will start airing on ABC Australia this fall, and Lenz has signed a development deal with Teletoon to expand the series to half-hour shows.

A practising member of the Baha'i faith since 1969 and the father of seven children, Lenz was raised in rural Saskatchewan, the son of a Scottish mother and Hungarian father. He studied piano as a child and later composition at the University of Saskatchewan but, convinced that he couldn't be the teacher his mother wanted him to be, left after two years.

Migrating to Toronto in his late teens, he hung around the local music scene, met soft-rockers Seals and Crofts and, talking himself into a job, eventually became their keyboard and flute player. He toured the world with them, and with Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina.

Asher's route into the business included classical piano and then jazz, which he studied in New York. "I found it provided you with a lot more tools in terms of writing your own music," he said.

I asked Lenz, who remains in awe of the great classical composers of the past three centuries, whether we would still be playing the work of contemporary writers 300 years hence.

"I think we're at the end of a civilization, not the beginning. Bach and others were the fruition of a series of cultural and religious developments. We're at the end of that period and at the beginning of something else. But the beginnings are seldom remembered, just the fruitions. In the chaos of the 20th century and beyond, where is there an environment that produces greatness. I don't see it."

Of all the projects on his plate, Lenz is probably most excited about his feature film, Mona's Dream. His script tells the story of Iran's persecution and execution in 1983 of teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other members of her Baha'i faith. The film, which will star Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), has a projected budget of $7-million to $10-million. He's still seeking a co-production arrangement and some foreign financing.

Meantime, Lenz is enjoying his new role as an initiator of projects. "You know," he says, "they used to ask [ composer and lyricist] Sammy Cahn which came first - the music or the words. His answer: The phone call."

Now, it's Jack and Asher Lenz making those calls.

__._,_.___

NEVER FORGET

2007-08-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from theWorld Trade Center.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists.

It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

The ship's motto? "Never Forget"

2007-07-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN(HOPI) PROPHECIES
Talk Given by Lee Brown, 1986
Continental Indigenous Council, Tanana Valley Fairgrounds,
Fairbanks, Alaska
There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of theplant. And now we re in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of thatand beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle ofthe human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will bereleased to us. They will be released from that light or soul that we carryto the mind. But right now we're coming to the end of the animal cycle andwe have investigated ourselves and learned what it is to be like an animalon this earth.At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit came downand He made an appearance and He gathered the peoples of this earth togetherthey say on an island which is now beneath the water and He said to thehuman beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions and over time I'mgoing to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachingsand you will call these the Original Teachings and when you come backtogether with each other you will share these so that you can live and havepeace on earth, and a great civilization will come about." And he said"During the cycle of time I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets.When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast those upon the ground. Ifany of the brothers and sisters of the four directions and the four colorscast their tablets on the ground, not only, will human beings have a hardtime, but almost the earth itself will die."And so he gave each of us a responsibility and we call that theGuardianship. To the Indian people, the red people, he gave the Guardianshipof the earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings ofthe earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat,and the herbs that are healing so that when we came back together with theother brothers and sisters we could share this knowledge with them.Something good was to happen on the earth.To the South, he gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of thewind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take thatwithin ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with isat this time.To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the water.They were to learn the teachings of the water which is the chief of theelements, being the most humble and the most powerful. When I went to theUniversity of Washington and I learned that it was a black man thatdiscovered blood plasma, it didn't surprise me because blood is water andthe elders already told me the black people would bring the teachings of thewater.To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the fire.If you look at the center of many of the things they do you will find thefire. They say a light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at thecenter of a car you will find a spark. If you look at the center of theairplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and alsomoves. This is why it was the white brothers and sisters who began to moveupon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family.And so a long time passed, and the Great Spirit gave each of the four racestwo stone tablets. Ours are kept at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona at FourCorners Area on 3rd Mason.I talked to people from the black race and their stone tablets are at thefoot of Mount Kenya. They are kept by the Kukuyu Tribe. I once had the honorof presenting a sacred pipe at the Kukuyu Tribe carved from the red pipestone of Mount Kenya. I was at an Indian spiritual gathering about 15 yearsago. A medicine man from South Dakota put a beaded medicine wheel in themiddle of the gathering. It had the four colors from the four directions; Heasked the people, "Where is this from?" They said, "Probably Montana, orSouth Dakota, maybe Seskatchewan." He said, "This is from Kenya." It wasbeaded just like ours, with the same colorThe stone tablets of the yellow race of people are kept by the Tibetans, inTibet. If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other sideof the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for "sun" is theHopi word for "moon" and the Hopi word for "sun" is the Tibetan word for"moon".The guardians of the traditions of the people of Europe are the Swiss. InSwitzerland, they still have a day when each family brings out its mask.They still know the colors of the families, they still know theymbols, someof them. I went to school with some people from Switzerland at theUniversity of Washington and they shared this with me.Each of these four peoples happen to be people that live in the mountains. In 1976 America had its bicentennial celebrating 200 years of freedom. Someof the Native people thought this was significant and they carried a sacredpipe bundle from the West Coast to the East Coast of this land. They saidthat the roads of this land should either go North-South or East-West. Ifthey went North-South we would come together as brothers and sisters, but ifthey went East-West there would be destruction and almost the earth itselfwould have a hard time. So you all know the roads went East-West. They saidthen things would be lost from the East to the West and from the South tothe North and that they would come back again from the West to the East andfrom the North to the South. So nine years ago in 1976 from the West to EastCoast of this land, from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. people carried asacred pipe bundle by hand, on foot. My aunt had dreamt 15 years ago thatpeople that didn't Like them would throw rocks and bottles at that pipebundle as they carried it across the land. And sure enough that came about.But, as was in my aunt's dream, the rocks only came so close and then theydropped, and nothing touched it. When they reached the top of the RockyMountains, they hit a hard storm. An elderly man with long white hair said,"I will carry it now." They had a van that went alongside the people whowere walking. He got out of the van and carried the sacred pipe bundle clearthrough that storm. He was so cold when he got back in the van that someonetouched his hair and it fell. His hair was frozen. You have to be prettycold for your hair to freeze but that old man carried it through that stormbecause they said if they carried this bundle across the earth, the powerswould begin to come back. They said a spiritual fire would be lit in theNorth and would come down the Northwest Coast of this land. When it gets tothe Puget Sound, it would go inland. I think this, nine years later, is thegathering in the North, myself. That's why I came here. This is it. We havethe capacity to start the-spiritual fire now, here. The old people long agosaw it and foretold it and I'm going to come to that.So we went through this cycle of time and each of the four races went totheir directions and they learned their teachings. It was on Newsweek nottoo long ago that eight out of ten foods that people eat on the earth aredeveloped here in the western hemisphere because that was our Guardianship,to learn the teachings of the earth, and the things that grow from the erth.We were given a sacred handshake to show when we came back together asbrothers and sisters that we still remembered the teachings. It wasindicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis had that the first brothersand sisters that would come back to them would come as turtles across theland. They would be human beings, but they would come as turtles. So whenthe time came close the Hopis were at a special village to welcome theturtles that would come across the land and they got up in the morning andlooked out at the sunrise. They looked out across the desert and they sawthe Spanish Conquistadores coming, covered in armour, like turtles acrossthe land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish man and theyextended their hand hoping for the handshake but into the hand the Spanishman dropped a trinket. And so word spread throughout North America thatthere was going to be a hard time, that maybe some of the brothers andsisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beingswere going to suffer for this on the earth. So tribes began to send peopleto the mounds to have missions to try to figure out how they could survive.At that time there were 100,000 cities in the Mississippi Valley alone,called the mound civilization: cities built on great mounds. Those moundsare still there. If you ever go out to Ohio or the Mississippi Valley,they're tourist attractions now. There was 100,000 cities of Native peopleand they were wondering how they could survive. They began to try to learnto live off the land because they knew a hard time was going to come. Theybegan to send people to have visions to see how we could survive this time.People came on the east coast and they went across this land to the east andthey were told in the prophecies that we should try to remind all the peoplethat would come here of the sacredness of all things. If we could do that,then there would be peace on earth. But if we did not do that, when theroads went clear from east to west, and when the other races and colors ofthe Earth had walked clear across this land, if by that time we had not cometogether as a human family, the Great Spirit would grab the earth with hishand and shake it. And so if you read the treaty negotiations from RedJacket of the Six Nations on the east coast of this land clear to ChiefJoseph and Chief Seattle on the west coast of this land, they all said thesame thing. Chief Joseph said, "I accord you the right, and I hope youaccord me the right, to live in this land." Always we were trying to livetogether. But instead of living together, you all know there was separation,there was segregation. They separated the races: they separated the Indians,and they separated the blacks. In the state of Washington it was against thelaw for an Asian to marry a white person up until not too long ago. Therewas separation.So when they got to the west coast of this land the elders that were madeaware of these prophecies said they would then begin to build a blackribbon. And on this black ribbon there would move a bug. And when you beginto see this bug moving on the land, that was the sign for the First Shakingof the Earth. The First Shaking of the Earth would be so violent that thisbug would be shaken off the earth into the air and it would begin to moveand fly in the air. And by the end of this shaking this bug will be in theair around the world. Behind it would be a trail of dirt and eventually thewhole sky of the entire earth would become dirty from these trails of dirt,and this would cause many diseases that would get more and more complicated.So the bug moving on the land, of course I it's easy to see now. In 1908 theModel-T Ford was mass produced for the first time. So the elders knew theFirst Shaking of the Earth was about to come about that's the First WorldWar. In the First World War the airplane came into wide usage for the firsttime. That was that bug moving into the sky. And so they knew something veryimportant would happen. There would be an attempt to make peace on earth onthe west coast of this land and so the elders began to watch for this. Theybegan to hear that there was going to be a League of Nations in SanFrancisco so the elders gathered in Arizona around 1920 or so and they wrotea letter to Woodrow Wilson. They asked if the Indian people could beincluded in the League of Nations. At that time the United States SupremeCourt had held that a reservation is a separate and semi- sovereign nation,not a part of the United States but protected by it. This became a concernbecause people didn't want the reservations to become more and moreseparate. They didn't want them to be considered nations. So they did notwrite back and the Native people were left out of the League of Nations, sothat circle was incomplete. In the League of Nations circle there was asouthern door, the yellow people; there was a western door, the blackpeople; there was a northern door, the white people; but the eastern doorwas not attended. The elders knew that peace would not come on the earthuntil the circle of humanity is complete, until all the four colors sat inthe circle and shared their teachings, then peace would come on earth. So they knew things would happen. Things would speed up a little bit. Therewould be a cobweb built around the earth, and people would talk across thiscobweb. When this talking cobweb, the telephone, was built around the earth,a sign of life would appear in the east, but it would tilt and bring death.It would come with the sun. But the sun itself would rise one day not in theeast but in the west. So the elders said when you see the sun rising in theeast and you see the sign of life reversed and tilted in the east, you knowthat the Great Death is to come upon the earth, and now the Great Spiritwill grab the earth again in His hand and shake it and this shaking will beworse than the first. So the sign of life reversed and tilted, we call thatthe Swastika, and the rising sun in the east was the rising sun of Japan.These two symbols are carved in stone in Arizona. When the elders saw thesetwo flags, these were the signs that the earth was to be shaken again.The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the "gourd ofashes". They said the gourd of ashes will fall from the air. It will makethe people like blades of grass in the prairie fire and things will not growfor many seasons. I saw on television not too long ago that they weretalking about the atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes. They said it was thebest-kept secret in the history of the United States., The elders wanted tospeak about it in 1920. They would have spoken of it and foretold it'scoming if they could have entered into the League of Nations. The elderstried to contact President Roosevelt and ask him not to use the gourd ofashes because it would have a great effect on the earth and eventually causeeven greater destruction and a the Third Shaking of the Earth, the ThirdWorld War. I'll get to that in a few minutes.So they knew after the Second Shaking of the Earth when they saw the gourdof ashes fall from the sky then there would be an attempt to make peace onthe other side of this land. And because the peace attempt on the west coasthad failed, they would build a special house on the east coast of thisTurtle Island, and all the nations and peoples of the earth would come tothis house and it would be called the House of Mica and it would shine likethe mica on the desert shines. So the elders began to see they were buildingthe United Nations made out of glass that reflects like the mica on thedesert so they knew this was the House of mica and all the peoples of theearth should go to it. So they met and talked about this. They said that inthe 1920's they had written and they had not been responded to, so they saidthis time we better go to the front door of the House of Mica because thingsmight get a lot worse. So elders representing a number of tribes I believedrove to New York City. When the United Nations opened they went to thefront door of the house of Mica and they said these words:"We represent the indigenous people of North America and we wish to addressthe nations of the Earth. We're going to give you four days to considerwhether or not we will be allowed to speak."They retreated to one of the Six Nations Reserves in New York State. The SixNations Reserves are keepers of the Great Law of Peace of the prophet thatappeared here in North America, Dagonnorida. And this Law of Peace is stillrecited, it takes four days between sunrise and noon. Each year an Indian,by memory, must recite it about this time of year. Four days later they cameback and I believe the nations of the earth heard that the Indians had cometo the door. And they voted to let the Indians in. They wanted to hear whatthey had to say. But the United States is one of five nations of the UnitedNations with a veto power and still they were concerned because this timethe Native sovereignty was even stronger. And I believe they vetoed theentrance of the Native people.So then they knew other things would happen on the Earth, and the UnitedNations would not bring peace on earth but there would be continuing anddeepening confusion. And that the little wars would get worse. So theyretreated to the Six Nations Reserve and they talked about this and theysaid the time is really getting close now 1949. They said, "We're going todivide the United States into four sections and each year we're going tohave a gathering. We're going to call these the 'White of PeaceGatherings'." They began to have these around 1950. And they authorizedcertain men to speak in English for the first time about these prophecies.One that I used to listen to many times, over and over, was Thomas Benyaka.He is a Hopi man. I believe he is still living. He was authorized to speakin English about what was on the stone tablets and he has dedicated hislifetime to doing this. And they began to tell us at these gatherings, theysaid "In your lifetime you're going to see things happen" It was strangewhen they said it in the 1950's and 1960's but now it seems very clear. Butthen it was unusual. They said, "You're going to see a time in your lifewhen men are going to become women. The Great Spirit is going to make a manon the earth. He made him a man but this man is going to say, "I know morethan the Great Spirit. I'm going to change myself to be a woman:" And theywill even nurse children. The Great Spirit is going to make the woman on theearth. She's going to say, "I know more than the Great Spirit. I want to bea man. And she will be physically a man." This sounded strange. And maybe ina vision they saw Boy-George.They said "You're going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beingsare going to find the blueprint that makes us." They call that now, DNA,deoxyribonucleic acid. They said, "They re going to cut this blueprint."They call that now, genetic splicing. And they said, "They're going to makenew animals upon the earth, and they're going to think these are going tohelp us. And it's going to seem like they do help us. But maybe thegrandchildren and greatgrandchildren are going to suffer." I don't know ifyou heard on the news last night in the United States now they havegenetically spliced a new germ, never before released in the environment.They want to release this germ into the cottonfields of the south becausethey say it will rejuvenate and strengthen the cotton. They had scientistson the CBS Evening News the other night talking about it. One scientist saidwhat the elders said in the 1950's, that this will not harm us. We've put itin a lot of tests. And the other scientist said what the elders also said,no, this has never before been in the environment. We have no idea what itwill do. The elders spoke of it long ago. They said it would see harmless,but it may be able to hurt the greatgrandchildren. The elders said long ago,"They will release these things, they will use them." This is going to bereleased not too long from now. They are making new animals. The elderstalked about this. They said, "You will see new animals, and even the oldanimals will come back, animals that people thought had disappeared. Theywill find them here and there. They'll begin to reappear."They said (and I know many of you are from tribes that also have thisprophecy, "You're going to see a time when the eagle will fly its highest inthe night and it will land upon the moon." Some tribes say the eagle willcircle the moon. Some tribes say the eagle will fly it's highest in thenight. "And at that time," they say, "Many of the Native people will besleeping," which symbolically means they have lost their teachings. Thereare some tribes that say it will be as if they are frozen: they've beenthrough the long winter. But they say, "When the eagle flies it's highest inthe night, that will be the first light of a new day. That will be the firstthawing of spring." Of course, at the first light of a new day, if you'vestayed up all night, you notice it's really dark. And the first light, youwant to see it, but you can't. It sneaks up on you. You want to see itchange but it's dark and then pretty soon it's getting light before you knowit. We're at that time now. The Eagle has landed on the moon, 1969. Whenthat spaceship landed they sent back the message, "The Eagle has landed."Traditionally, Native people from clear up in the Inuit region, they haveshared with us this prophecy, clear down to the Quechuas in South America.They shared with us that they have this prophecy. When they heard thosefirst words, "The Eagle has landed," they knew that was the start of a newtime and a new power for Native people. There was absolutely nothing strongbefore us now. We may do anything we wish. In 1776 when the United StatesGovernment printed the dollar, in one claw [of the eagle], if you've evernoticed, there is an olive branch in this claw. They said that representedpeace. The Indian elders shared with me in South Dakota that to them thatrepresents the enslavement of black people. In the prophecies of the SixNations people they say there will be two great uprisings by black people tofree themselves. We've seen one about 1964. There will be a second, moreviolent one to come. I'll get back to what that means in a minute. In theother claw is 13 arrows. The founding fathers of the United States said thatrepresents the 13 States. But the elders say that represents the enslavementof the Native people. When the Eagle landed on the moon, they decided toprint a special silver dollar to commemorate that. I don't know how many ofyou noticed it. The original design showed the spaceship landing on the moonbut at the last minute it was changed to an actual eagle. And in the eagle'sclaws is the olive branch, but the arrows are gone. The elders said, "That'sour prophecy we have been released." There was one more uprising coming forthe black race of people and then they will be released and this is alsogoing to have an effect on Native people, a good effect. There's a whole newset of prophecies from the Iriquois people about that and I won't have timeto go into tht this morning.But we're in that time now. We're between the first light of a new day andthe sunrise. The sunrise is about to come and when it comes up everyone isgoing to see it. But you know how it is in the village there's a few peoplethat get up early, and there are some that sleep until noon. I'm probablyone of those that sleeps until noon.They said when that Eagle lands on the moon, the powers will begin to comeback to us. As an alcoholic person, I feel that one of our greatest diseasesis alcoholism. Within seven days of the time of the Eagle landing on themoon, the first Native alcoholism program was started on an Apachereservation in Arizona. Within seven days of the time the Eagle landed onthe moon, the Freedom of Indian Religion Act was introduced into the UnitedStates Congress. Eventually it was passed in November of 1978, signed byPresident Carter, making the song that Kevin [Kevin Locke, a famous IndianBaha'i who spends his time travelling around the world sharing the NorthAmerican Indian culture through dance and music] sang legal to sing in everystate of the United States. It was punishable at one time to go to jail for10 years and/or a $10,000 fine for singing a song or doing a suat. This waschanged in 1978 the legislation was introduced in 1969, less than seven daysafter the Eagle landed on the moon. These are the physical manifestations ofthe spiritual prophecies that we have.So he said at this time you're going to see that things will speed up, thatpeople on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not havetime for grandparents. Parents will not have time for children. It will seemlike time is going faster and faster. The elders advised us that as thingsspeed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the sloweryou go. Because there's going to come a time when the earth is going to beshaken a third time. The Great Spirit has been shaking the earth two times:the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we are a human family, toremind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. Wehad a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would havebrought peace on earth, but we missed that.Tonight they were talking on the news about the sign for the Third Shakingof the Earth. I heard it while sitting in the airport after I missed myplane. They said they're going to build what the elders called the "house inthe sky". In the 1950's they talked about this: they will build a house andthrow it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanentbasis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this timenot with one hand, but with both hands. Many of you of Native background mayhave heard "the spirits will warn you twice, but the third time you standalone." We've had two warnings, the first two World Wars, but now we standalone in the third one. As it says in the Baha'i Writings, there will beno-one protected. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is goingto shake the Earth a third time and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes,upon them it is going to drop.They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that whenyou stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in theprophecies these are called "villages of stone", or "prairies of stone". Andthey said the stone will grow up from the ground and you will not be able tosee beyond the village. At the center of each and every one of thesevillages will be Native people, and they will walk as "hollow" shells upon a"prairie of stone". They said "hollow shells" which means they will havelost any of their traditional understandings; they will be empty within.They said after the Eagle lands on the moon some of these people will beginto leave these "prairies of stone" and come home and take up some of the oldways and begin to make themselves reborn, because it's a new day. But manywill not. And they said there's going to come a time when in the morning thesun is going to rise and this village of stone will be there, and in theevening there would just be steam coming from the ground. They will be assteam. And in the center of many of those villages of stone when they turnto steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never wokeup and left the village. And this used to bother me when I was a young man.I used to ask the elders, "Isn't there anything we can do?" And they said,well, it's just that way that if a person does not have the spiritual eyesto see, it's very hard to show them. Or if they don't have the ears to hear,it's very hard to speak with them. We wish that we could go get them all butwe can't. It's just that some are not going to wake up. But some will wakeup .And so they say there's going to be the Third Shaking of the Earth. It's notgoing to be a good thing to see but we will survive it. We will survive it.And when we survive it, then there's going to be another attempt to make acircle of the human beings on the earth. And this time the Native peoplewill not have to petition to join but will be invited to enter the circlebecause they say the attitude towards us will have changed by then, andpeople will let us into the circle and all the four colors of the fourdirections will share their wisdom, and there will be a peace on earth. Thisis coming close. A lot of times when I share this message of the prophecies,people say, "Can't we change it? Could we stop it?" The answer is yes. Theprophecies are always "either/or". We could have come together way backthere in 1565, and we could have had a great civilization, but we didn't.Always along the path of these prophecies, we could have come together. Westill could. If we could stop the racial and religious disharmony, we wouldnot have to go through this third shaking. The elders say the chance of thatis pretty slim. It seems to me like it's pretty slim, too. But they say whatwe can do is we can "cushion" it. The word we use is "cushion". We cancushion it so it won't be quite as bad. How do we do this? We do this bysharing the teaching that will reunite us. The Hopis in their prophecies saythere will be a religion that comes here. Maybe it will be true and bringunity, or maybe it will not be true and not bring unity. If it does notbring unity, a second religion will come, and the people of this religionare known in the Hopi language as the Bahani, the people of Baha. Ni means"people of". So I was looking for the people of Baha. I wondered who thepeople of Baha were. I was a Baha'i for quite a while before somebody toldme that baha'i means "people of Bah". I thought, "0 my God!" Here I waslooking for it all these years and I never even noticed it! And I found it!I was stubborn and didn't want to become a "Baha'i but my grandfather whopassed away, you know he must have found out about it in the next realmbecause he came back to me four times to tell me, "Hey, look at that again,look at that again. Look one more time." Bah, it means "light or glory".Baha'i means "follower of the light", or the "people of Bah". We've beenwaiting for these people for a long time. They say they will bring aTeaching that will unite the earth. So we need to share this Teaching. Theysay the fire will come from the North. So here we are, in a circle, in theNorth, talking about the Bahnis, the "people of Bah", and the teachings ofBaha'u'llah.When I heard about these [prophecies], none of them made any sense. Now mostof it has come to pass. Last I heard on the news, they said the "house inthe sky" will be put up in 1996. It was going to be put up sooner, but it'sbeen postponed for four years. Maybe it will be postponed again. But in nottoo long it's going to go up. The earth as we know it is going to change.Each of us carry, I believe, a sacred drop of light. In the Indianteachings, they say it takes nine ancestors to agree before conception canoccur. Nine ancestors of the husband and the wife have to come together inthe spiritual realm and say; "We will bring life," before a woman can becomepregnant. At that time the soul is born.I delivered my first daughter and a man from the Blood Reserve who went toSouth Dakota and was the first Bloodin 82 years he came to my house bycoincidence four days before my wife went into labor. Each night we had aceremony, and on the morning after the fourth ceremony my wife went intolabor at sunrise. And that night, at sunset, my daughter was born. And Itook her out, and I cut the cord, and I noticed at the sundance that whatpeople do in South Dakota, they pass the pipe three times, and they don'ttake it until the fourth time. And even in Washington I've heard the comingof a child is like the coming of a new pipe. When I was delivering mydaughter I happened to notice that the skull came out three times, and onthe fourth time, her head came out like the coming of a pipe. First I puther on the mother instantly and after a few minutes I cleaned her up and Iwashed her up. There was a circle of people just about like this around mywife and there were people of different backgrounds and we looked up andthrough the ceiling came a small drop of blue light. When it got close tothe child you could not see it. That was her soul, she will carry that lightthroughout earth. In that is her special uniqueness as a being, a spiritualpower. In that are gifts.After we go through and then we carry it back here and it radiates to shemind but for some reason in this cycle we've been in the lower natures, theanimal thought. But now we're going into the human world. The mind is goingto be opened up to the radiance of our own soul and the cycle of the humanbeings is going to come back, and something so good is going to happen onthe earth that it cannot even be described. The elders say it in differentways. They say, there will be grass at that time when they make that circleand bring the peace on earth. There will be blades of grass that have notquite come through the earth. Even they will try to push themselves up to bepart of that day when the sun rises. The elders explain it like this: outhere, outside this building, long before there was a fair ground here therewere Native people. They say many of these Native people in different tribeswere aware of these things, and they told the children. Their children grewup.You know, one time the scientist came to the Hopis and they said, "We wantto take a piece of the stone tablets." They said "We want to take the stonetablets to a scientific laboratory to determine how old they are." The Hopissaid, "We know how old they are". Well, the scientists said, "We want toconfirm it." Well, the Hopis let them take a little piece, and they did thatby the carbon dating method. They found these tablets were at least 10,000years old, maybe 50,000. So when I say, "Thousands of years ago, there wereNative people that spoke of these things," that's exactly what I mean. Theytold their children and thousands of years ago, their children grew up andtold their children, and then their children grew up and told theirchildren. And they spoke about the people that will live in this time.And now it is us. We are the ones they spoke of long ago. They say to bealive, to come into creation and to live upon the earth at this time is agreat honor. In the cycle of time, from the beginning to the end, this timewe are in now will change the purification of all things. They say this isthe hardest time to live, but it is also the greatest honor to be alive tolive and see this.In the state of Washington in 1855 they signed treaties and made 22 Indianreservations. They wanted to do it before there were problems. They thoughtthey were advanced at the time, they had learned from what had happenedelsewhere. They made 22 Indian reservations and the elders spoke in 1855 andthey said, "We're going to become weaker, and you are going to becomestronger, and if you wish to break these treacies, you may do so." Theysaid, "But there's going to come a time when the earth itself will rise upand purify itself and this will be announced. It will be announced by thespeaking of more than 16 Great Ones on the West Coast of this land. And whenthe 16 Great Ones speak, the purification will have begun. There was a new[?] five years ago when Mt. Saint Helens, one of the 16 great volcanoes onthe West Coast of this land, "spoke". The Seattle Times did a specialinterest story. They went over to Watson Totus and Woodrow Bill. It wasWoodrow Bill's son that made this hoop that I brought here today, my goodbrother Randolf Bill. They asked Watson Totus and Woodrow Bill as spiritualpeople of the Yakuma nation, "What does this mean?" What they said was soprofound that they didn't put it on page 16, they put it on the front pageof the Seattle Times. They said, "This means that the races and nations ofthe earth should slow down and come together and talk to each other." That'sexactly what it meant. And we had four years and four days to do that.Four years and four days later, Mt. Saint Helens erupted the second time.That was last spring, just about this time. That was our grace period. Wecould have still done something really good. But now things are going tospeed up. Now things are going to really happen fast. Time is going to go sofast. The more we share the Message, the more we will cushion the ThirdShaking of the Earth, and the easier it will be on ourselves and others.A good friend of mine in Montana whose grandmother just passed away lastyear, the last thing she said to him was "Make a place for yourself in themountains because the air will become so hot down here," where they were aton a reservation, that it would be hard to breath. And it won't be long,That's the last thing she told her grandson when she was passing. Go on themountains and make a place for yourself. Put some things there that you cansurvive with. People are going to run to the mountains to survive and theNative people must be ready for this.

2007-07-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

Live Earth will be transmitted worldwide, from EIGHT cities (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hamburg) by Intelsat (http://www.intelsat.com/) using its industry-leading network of Satellite and terrestrial facilities in standard and high definition, across multiple media channels - TV, radio, Internet and wireless channels. On July 7th, Live Earth concerts will be streamed live by MSN at http://www.liveearth.msn.com/.

Gore unveils Live Earth '7 Point Pledge'
Goal is to 'put pressure on political leaders' around the world
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:20 a.m. PT June 29, 2007
NEW YORK - Al Gore on Thursday called on people around the world to sign a "7 Point Pledge" promising personal action in curbing global warming.
The former vice president unveiled the pledge at a press conference to promote Live Earth, the July 7 event of concerts stretching across the globe. Gore was joined by Live Earth founder Kevin Wall and Cathy Zoi, the CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Audiences at the eight Live Earth concerts and its many other events will be asked to sign the pledge, also available at LiveEarth.org. It asks individuals to:
· Demand that my country join an international treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90 percent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.
· Take personal action to help solve the climate crises by reducing my own C02 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral”.
· Fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the C02.
· Work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation.
· Fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal.
· Plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests.
· Buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crises and building a sustainable, just and prosperous world for the 21st century.
"Quite a few of the seven points are directly designed to put pressure on governments and on businesses, but do so by asking people around the world to help to focus that pressure," said Gore.
Gore, Wall and Zoi signed the pledge and were soon thereafter followed by Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, who jointly announced their signing in a press release.
"It's a significant start to what we hope will be a worldwide rollout," Gore told The Associated Press after learning of their signing.
"The general theory behind Live Earth is we need to get this information about the crisis and solutions to it to every person on the planet, as many of them as we can reach," said Gore. "And then they will, armed with knowledge, put pressure on all political leaders."
Gore will attend the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Police, the Smashing Pumpkins, Alicia Keys and others will perform. Concerts are also planned in England, South Africa, Brazil, China, Japan, Australia and Germany.
"It's not just a big pop concert," said Wall on Thursday. Wall, an Emmy-winning concert producer, said that Madonna, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and others have written songs specifically about the climate crises for Live Earth.
Gore, whose slide show on global warming was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," is a partner in Live Earth. Besides the concerts, over 6,000 parties in 119 countries — ranging from home viewings to museum festivals — are to be held. Gore urged more to organize a Live Earth party through AlGore.com.
The concerts will be streamed online at liveearth.msn.com and broadcast in the U.S. on NBC, Telemundo, the Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSNBC and Universal HD.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19502465/wid/18298287/

2007-06-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Violation of Citizenship Rights
Un-Islamic Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

TEHRAN, June 26-

-Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said violation of citizenship rights under the name of social security is un-Islamic.

Speaking at the Judiciary and Citizenship Rights Conference on Tuesday, Ayatollah Shahroudi added that citizenship rights is a new phrase in legal literature, ILNA reported.

“Citizenship rights have different social, cultural and economic connotations, hence the judiciary is not the only source to observe them,“ he said.
He noted that the legal definition of citizenship rights is rights of citizens that interact with each other.
The judiciary chief stressed that social management should be undertaken in a way that violation of people’s rights is avoided.
“Legal systems that respect both citizen’s rights and the government’s rights are more successful,“ he said.
Shahroudi noted that at times security and military issues violate citizenship rights and this should be avoided. “Nowadays human rights are violated under the pretext of fighting terrorism and securing world stability,“ he said.
source ---http://www.iran-daily.com/1386/2877/html/national.htm

2007-05-27T03:16:00.000-07:00

Artist takes spiritual approach

Peters woman finds inspiration in Baha'i faith

Thursday, May 24, 2007By Dave ZuchowskiBarbara Curry started her professional career as a commercial artist afterattending Ferris State University. But in 1985, when her older son, Ryan,was born, she underwent a period of soul-searching that not only changed herart but also her life."Soon after Ryan was born, I decided that I'd be a good mother and changesome of my more irresponsible ways," said Mrs. Curry, of Peters. That led to an outlook on life that translated to a more spiritual approachto her painting and the selection of subjects for her artwork. "To get on the right path, I started searching for spiritual meaning in mylife by attending different churches," she said. "However, they all seemedto focus mostly on Sunday services, and I wanted a religion that would giveme daily guidance rather than just a weekly Sunday morning event."Living in Dallas at the time with her husband, Joe, a pilot for US Airways,she decided as part of her quest to study fine art and philosophy at theUniversity of North Texas. There, one of her professors who taught a courseon introduction to world religions made a huge impact on her life with hisknowledge of the subject and the way he treated all religions with respect."Eventually, when I discovered that he was a member of the Baha'i faith, Istarted to attend the Baha'i Center in Dallas," she said. "Four years afterRyan was born, I became a member of that faith."Influenced by the sheer volume of Baha'i literature that addresses the valueof art and how it can touch people's lives, Mrs. Curry has since developed aspiritual connection with her art. One particularly influential book, "ThePurpose of Spiritual Reality" by John S. Hatcher gave rise to her beliefthat the world is a classroom designed by God to instigate and nurturemental and spiritual growth."My goal as an artist is to observe nature and meditate on the lessons ithas to offer, then connect what I learn and see to the spiritual world inthe hope it will touch people's lives through my work," said Mrs. Curry, whomoved to Peters with her family in 1995.As an example, she refers to a recent painting titled "Sundust Road," alandscape she photographed one morning after jumping into a Jeep with herhusband and setting off for the back roads around the Eighty Four area ofWashington County."I must have taken at least 50 photos on our outing that morning, but thisone really struck me," she said.Mrs. Curry sees the road that grabbed her attention as a metaphor forhumanity's search for the meaning of life. Standing at a crossroads the roadran through, she was reminded of her son, 21 at the time, who had gone tocollege for a couple of years before deciding it wasn't for him."Wanting to do something with his life, he decided to enlist in the Navy,"she said. "I took the photo just after he talked to the recruiter but beforehe went off to boot camp, when he was at a crossroads in his own life."Another metaphor that struck her as particularly poignant was the way theshadows of the trees in the fields darkened portions of the road, givingrise to the thought that, without shadow, the light wouldn't seem as bright."If you compare the light, which gives form and color to objects, to God, hecan be seen as that which gives humans spiritual life, hope, understandingand compassion," she said.Some of Mrs. Curry's recent paintings, along with the works of eight otherartists will be included in a pastel exhibit that opens Saturday at Gallery200 on North Main Street in Washington. The exhibit opens with a receptionfrom 6 to 9 p.m. and will continue through June 30. At least three of her exhibited works focus on what she sees as the purposeof life -- the development of virtue."Painting, I believe, helps acquire virtue, such as humility," she said."For example, I'm usually happy with my paintings after I finish them, butthen have second thoughts later on when I see their flaws or someone pointsthem out to me. However, I feel humbled by the thought that my mistakes area means by which I can continue to grow as a person and an artist."A member of the Pittsburgh Pastel Artists League and the South Hills ArtLeague, Mrs. Curry has attended workshops with nationally andinternationally renowned artists such as Zoltan Szabo and Hong Tat Foo.Besides being featured at Gallery 200 in Washington, her work can be seen atPlanet Art Gallery in Mt. Lebanon, Farmhouse Coffee and the Fast FrameGallery in Peters, and at the World West Gallery in Washington.

2007-05-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

Rainn Wilson talks about Hollywood, his family and the Baha'i Faith

LOS ANGELES, United States, 24 May 2007 (BWNS) -- Actor Rainn Wilson is used to talking to the media - he is part of the award-winning cast of the U.S. television series "The Office," and his recent role in the movie "The Last Mimzy" brought a flurry of new interviews. Time magazine, TV talk-show hosts and others came calling.
A member of the Baha'i Faith, he seems just as comfortable discussing his spiritual beliefs as he does shooting the breeze about Dwight Schrute, the pompous assistant manager he plays on "The Office," the American version of a popular British TV show of the same name.
His show, seen weekly by 8 million people in the U.S. alone, also airs in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, parts of continental Europe, Australia, Saudi Arabia, parts of Latin America, Singapore, and several other countries.
His other acting credits include the character of Arthur Martin in the series "Six Feet Under" and a one-episode stint in "Entourage," both on the U.S. cable network HBO; guest hosting "Saturday Night Live" on U.S. television; and movie roles in "Almost Famous," "America's Sweethearts," "Galaxy Quest," "House of 1000 Corpses," "Sahara," and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend."
In a recent interview with U.S. Baha'i News, he talked about Hollywood, his family, his life and his beliefs. Here is that interview, reprinted with permission:

Rainn Wilson with wife, Holiday Reinhorn, and their son, Walter.

Q: Rainn, what was it like to grow up in the Baha'i Faith?
A: When you grow up with a spiritual foundation that asks you to be conscious of the fact that all races are created equal, that men and women are equal and that all religions worship the same (God), it helps you see the world as one family and not get lost in the traps of political, social, and economic belief systems that can lead you astray. I always think of myself as a world citizen. It's a powerful thing.
Q: You stepped away from the Baha'i Faith in your 20s and returned to it 10 years later. What happened in that decade?
A: I was in New York City, going to acting school, and I was going through a rebellious phase. I didn't want anyone telling me what to do. I was disenchanted with things that were organized. It was a spiritual journey I was on. And this is reflected in and supported by one of the central tenets of the Baha'i Faith, which obliges every spiritual seeker to undertake an individual investigation of truth.
I started at ground zero. I decided I didn't know if there was even a God. I read religious books of the world. I asked myself, "If there is a God, how do we know what He wants us to do and what He wants for us? Do we read books? Do we buy crystals? Do we follow certain gurus? Do we sit under a tree? Because surely this omniscient creator has some kind of plan in store for mankind."
Q: And that line of thinking led you back to the Baha'i Faith?
A: Yes, it brought me back to the Baha'i way of viewing things. I came to realize I did believe in God. I couldn't conceive of a universe without someone overseeing it in a compassionate way. It just made the most sense to me that God gradually is unfolding a plan for humankind. That there is progressive revelation -- the Baha'i belief that God sends Messengers for each day and age. I re-read books about the Baha'i Faith. And I came back to believing that Baha'u'llah was the Promised One and Messenger for this day and age. My quest took me from age 21 to 31. I'm 41 now.
Q: Your wife (author Holiday Reinhorn) recently became a Baha'i. How did that come about?
A: She wasn't a Baha'i when we got married in a Baha'i ceremony almost 12 years ago. I never pressured her to join the faith. But she started attending Ruhi (a curriculum based on the Baha'i Writings) classes in the L.A. area and became interested. And the birth of our son, Walter, now 2 1/2, was such a miracle that she found herself saying prayers and spiritually connecting to the faith. She became a Baha'i in 2004. We pray with Walter every night before he goes to bed.
Q: What is it like being a Baha'i in Hollywood?
A: There's a predisposition to link corruption and Hollywood. ... Shoghi Effendi (Guardian of the Baha'i Faith) wrote about this. The problem is that everything you hear in the news is about the superficiality, immorality, and degradation of Hollywood. But that is just not the case. Only a certain percent of the population is like that. It's probably the same percentage as for doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, any profession. Some of the most morally conscious, kindest, most compassionate people are in the entertainment industry, people who want to affect the world and make it a better place through telling human, heartfelt stories.
Most people in Hollywood haven't heard of the Baha'i Faith, so they ask questions. I've had the opportunity to mention it in several articles and TV interviews, such as on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
For years Holly and I hosted a belief night -- a devotional gathering where we invited people of different religious beliefs to our home. We asked them to bring something to share about their spiritual path. Belief in God was not required. We had atheists, Christian Scientists, Buddhist monks. ...
Recently I've been asked to speak a lot more about the Baha'i Faith. And I'll be working as a spokesperson with the Mona Foundation, a Baha'i-inspired not-for-profit organization that tries to provide quality education to all children, raise the status of women and girls, and build community.
Q: How does the Baha'i Faith figure in your life now?
A: My feeling about the faith is that it provides a practical guideline for living one's life. So much about religion has to do with rigid, sacrosanct preciousness. I don't live my life that way, and I don't feel that's what Baha'u'llah teaches. He wants us to live rich, full, loving lives in service to God's will and the human family.
I like being a Baha'i who has an out-there sense of humor. God gives us talents and faculties, and making people laugh is one of mine. I don't have to be digging latrines in Honduras to serve humanity. 'Abdu'l-Baha and Baha'u'llah talk a lot about using the arts to uplift people. When 'Abdu'l-Baha was with the early believers, nine times out of 10 he would make a joke.
Q: Speaking of delicate sensibility: Have you had to turn down roles because they conflicted with what's taught in the Baha'i Faith?
A: I've turned down many roles because they're morally repugnant. I have chosen to play spiritually lost characters, but only because I feel doing so served the greater good. In "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," my character was so preposterous and ludicrous in his sexism that it was clear the message was not about degrading women. In fact, the women characters are the most together, courageous and strong people in the movie.
Q: What is your favorite aspect of the Baha'i Faith?
A: I love how democratic the faith is, that it has no clergy, no people telling us how to interpret the word of God. In this day and age we see how corrupt clergy can lead mankind down so many bad roads.
My favorite quote from the Baha'i Faith is from 'Abdu'l-Baha: "If religion be the cause of disunity, then irreligion is surely to be preferred." For the disenfranchised to know that 'Abdu'l-Baha is a proponent of having no religion if there's disunity. ... And for those who say they don't like "organized religion," don't worry: The Baha'i Faith is one of the most disorganized religions on the planet - NOT!
USB-USB-07 05 24 -1-RAINNWILSON-548-N

2007-05-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

Baha'is celebrate anniversary of their faith

The house of the Bab in Shiraz, Iran, where the Bab announced that He had come to herald a new age for humanity, was destroyed by Revolutionary Guardsmen in 1979. It was one of the most holy sites to Baha'is.

HAIFA, Israel, 21 May 2007 (BWNS) -- May 23 marks the anniversary of the night in 1844 when a young man in Persia named Siyyid Ali-Muhammad quietly announced that He was a Messenger of God, come to herald a new age for the world of humanity that would fulfill prophecy for Christians, Muslims, and followers of other religions.
For the people who are now Baha'is, it was the birth of their religion.
Baha'i communities around the world celebrate the anniversary with special devotional programs and gatherings on the evening of May 22. Believers suspend work, and children and youth take off from school.
A 25-year-old merchant at the time of His declaration in 1844, Siyyid Ali-Muhammad became known as the Bab, which is Arabic for "gate." He said His mission was to prepare the way for a universal Messenger of God who would soon appear, as predicted in the scriptures of the world's major religions. One of the followers of the Bab, later known as Baha'u'llah, announced in 1863 that He was that Messenger.
Baha'is consider both the Bab and Baha'u'llah to be founders of their faith.
The Bab's declaration of His station was made in the city of Shiraz in what is now Iran. He almost immediately attracted a large following, which governmental and religious authorities found threatening. Some 20,000 of His followers were killed, and the Bab Himself was executed by firing squad in 1850 in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz. His remains are entombed in Haifa in a beautiful, golden-domed shrine surrounded by gardens on the side of Mount Carmel.
BWN-SW-07 05 21 -1-DECLARATIONOFTHEBAB07-547-N

2007-05-20T01:58:00.001-07:00

Tribute to the His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II,
king of SAMOA

2007-05-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

Bahaism
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3835

The article lists the Baha'i Faith as the second-fastest-growing religion in the world, after Islam, with the following comment:
Bahaism
Growth rate: 1.70 percent
Adherents: 7.7 million
Behind the trend: High birthrates in India
Areas to watch: Bahais are spread throughout the world, but a good chunk—around 1.8 million—live in India. The Bahai faith, an offshoot of Islam, was founded in 1863 in Iran by Bahá’u’lláh, who claimed to be the latest in a line of prophets stretching from Abraham to Jesus Christ to Mohammed. Today, Bahais often suffer persecution in the Middle East; it probably doesn’t help matters that the world headquarters of the Bahai faith are in Haifa, Israel.
It is based on a Christian project:
*Growth rates over the period from 2000 to 2005; all figures from the nondenominational World Christian Database, a project of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

2007-05-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

BAHA'IS ELECT NATIONAL ASSEMBLIES

GIZO, Solomon Islands, 16 May 2007 (BWNS) -- Surrounded by a tent community
of refugees from the recent earthquake and tsunami, the Baha'is of the
Solomon Islands forged ahead with their annual convention where they elected
the nine members of the national governing council of their faith.

When the earthquake hit the South Pacific on April 2 and the resulting
tsunami crashed into the Solomon Islands, a number of people from the area
were at a meeting at the Baha'i center in Gizo, a small provincial capital.

The Baha'i center there happens to be on a mountain -- the highest point on
that particular island -- so no one at the meeting was hurt, but a number of
participants returned home to find their villages destroyed. The young
granddaughter of a Baha'i couple was among the 28 people who died.

Since then, families have camped on the property of the Baha'i center --
which had already been designated the venue for the annual national Baha'i
convention April 27-29. Delegates to the convention said that far from
dampening the spirit of the meeting, the presence of the refugees created a
warm and loving atmosphere for the gathering.

"The friends have manifested nobility, patience, and radiant acquiescence in
enduring their hardship," the delegates wrote in a message from the
convention. The refugees -- who are receiving aid from their national Baha'i
organization, from the government and from international relief agencies --
are now in the process of rebuilding their homes or looking to relocate.

The newly elected governing council, called the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of the Solomon Islands, was one of 178 similar institutions
formed in nations and territories around the world in recent weeks. Baha'i
annual conventions are traditionally held in late April during the period
known as Ridvan, commemorating Baha'u'llah's declaration of His mission in
1863.

At national conventions in other countries:

-- In Auckland, New Zealand, Baha'is marked the 50th anniversary of the
establishment of their National Spiritual Assembly. At a special event held
at the Auckland Museum, 600 people - including a number of international
visitors and guests - heard congratulatory remarks by the governor general,
Anand Satyanand, and a keynote address by a Baha'i speaker, Murray Smith.

-- In Paraguay, special note was made that some of the elected delegates
were very young; similarly, a message from the convention in Venezuela said
their new National Assembly "shines for the diversity of the age and
ethnicity of its members."

-- Delegates at a number of the conventions sent messages conveying support
for Baha'is in Iran and Egypt, where government persecution is resulting in
the denial of education and other rights of citizenship to followers of the
Baha'i Faith.

At virtually all the conventions around the globe, participants read and
consulted about the annual message from the Universal House of Justice, the
international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. Referred to as the Ridvan
2007 message, it stressed the importance of teaching the Baha'i Faith and of
systematic grassroots programs that involve increasing numbers of people in
study circles, devotional programs, and activities for children and young
teenagers.

Individuals in each country who this year were elected to their Baha'i
National Assembly will serve next year as delegates to the International
Convention, held every five years in Haifa, Israel, where the world
headquarters of the Baha'i Faith is located. The purpose of that gathering
is to elect the nine members of the Universal House of Justice and to
consult on the affairs of the Baha'i Faith.

To view the photos and additional features click here:
http://news.bahai.org

--
3-sw-070516-1-CONVENTION-544-S

----------------------------------------------------------
--
Advance release: Please check our website for the final version of this
article.
----------------------------------------------------------
--
Copyright 2007 by the Baha'i World News Service. All stories and photographs
produced by the Baha'i World News Service may be freely reprinted,
re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any
individual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha'i
World News Service. For more information, visit http://news.bahai.org.
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
--

2007-05-15T10:42:00.001-07:00

His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II, center, head of state of Samoa, died on 11 May 2007. He is pictured at the dedication in 1984 of the Baha'i House of Worship in his country. At right is his wife, Lili Tunu, and at left, Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani.

APIA, Samoa, 14 May 2007 (BWNS) -- A state funeral is planned for 18 May for the Samoan head of state, His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II, to be followed on 20 May by a memorial service at the Baha'i House of Worship near Apia. He passed away on the evening of 11 May in a hospital in Apia.
A follower of the Baha'i Faith, he was one of the longest reigning monarchs in the world. He was 94 years old.
"His service to the people of Samoa as Head of State was distinguished by the high principles, genuine compassion and personal humility that characterized the constancy of his concern for the welfare of all," the Universal House of Justice, the international Baha'i governing body, said in a statement to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Samoa.
"As the first reigning sovereign to accept the Message of Baha'u'llah, he set a record that will forever illumine the annals of our Faith, one that future generations will increasingly extol," the House of Justice said. "His great interest for well-nigh four decades in the Faith's progress was reflected in the enthusiastic affirmation of his belief whenever the opportunity presented itself and in the abiding joy with which he regarded the construction in 1984 of the Mother Temple of the Pacific Islands in Samoa...."

.He himself participated in the dedication of that temple, one of only seven such Baha'i houses of worship in the world. The other six, located in Australia, India, Germany, Uganda, the United States, and Panama, will also hold services in his memory.
He had been head of state since the country gained independence from New Zealand in 1962.
The state funeral will be at 10 a.m. on 18 May in front of the Parliament Building, with a government-organized prayer service the day before. Entombment will be in the Malietoa Family crypt a few meters from the Parliament building.
The memorial service at the Baha'i House of Worship near Apia will be on 20 May, organized by the Baha'i assembly. Earlier, on 13 May, a prayer service was held, attended by more than 200 Baha'is, family, friends, government officials, and representatives of churches and the diplomatic community.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark was one of the first to offer condolences. "Throughout his long reign as Head of State, Malietoa represented Samoa with wisdom, humor, and insight," she said in comments published in the New Zealand Herald.
His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II was born on 4 January 1913. His wife, Lili Tunu, died in 1986. They have two sons and two daughters.
Samoa comprises several islands in the South Pacific about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. The population is about 200,000.
bwn-sw-07 05 14 -1-SAMOAMONARCH-543-N

2007-05-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

Please offer “Prayers for the departed” for this valiant soul of Baha’u’llah.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Samoa Announces the Passing of Esteemed Baha'i, The Malietoa Tanumafili II, the King of Samoa
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA’IS OF SAMOA
11 May 2007
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
With grieving hearts we inform you that His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II has passed away around 8.20pm tonight Friday 11 May, 2007 at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital Apia Samoa.
We kindly request your prayers for the progress of his soul.
Warmest Bahá’í greetings,The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Samoa

His Majesty The Malietoa Tanumafili II was born on the 4th January 1913 and became the King of Western Samoa in 1939. In 1962 Samoa gained independence from New Zealand and he became Samoa's joint Head of State with Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole, who passed away the following year leaving Malietoa as the sole head of state up until his own passing.

He was the oldest serving head of state in the world, and also the only living monarch who was a member of the Bahá'í Faith. He visited the grave of the beloved Guardian in London in 1976, and dedicated the Baha'i House of Worship in Tiapapata, Samoa, in 1984.
TV ONENews NZ carried a story on the passing of the Malietoa, which included a moving 2-minute video review of his life by commentators, family and fellow Samoans. As was characteristic of his gentle, humble nature, when asked why he didn't call himself a king, he replied, "Because in Samoa everyone's a king." His membership as a Baha'i was noted in the video.

The story and video, available at http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1120039, reports: The oldest serving leader in the world, Samoa's head of state, has died at the age of 94 after leading the country for 45 years.
Malietoa Tanumafili II died in hospital where he was admitted about a week ago.
Malietoa became the joint head of state when Samoa gained independence in 1962. He strode the world stage but always saw himself as a servant of his people.
"We haven't any big problems under his watch...and I think that says a lot about him...gentle in his speech...gentle in demeanour...and the country loved him," says family elder Papali'i Pita Taouma.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says Malietoa has been a father figure to his people and "there will be great sorrow in Samoa today". She says his legacy will mean the Samoan people will be mourning for a while to come.
National Party leader John Key says New Zealand and Samoa have continued to enjoy strong ties during Tanumafili's reign and he was no stranger to our shores. Key says the statesman visited many times, including at the invitation of the late Maori Queen, and his passing will be mourned throughout the Pacific.
A spokesman for Samoan Advisory Council, Tino Pareira, says his death is being felt in Samoan communities around the world and especially in New Zealand. Pareira says the Samoan government has 30 days to vote on his successor.
News of Malietoa's death came as a shock to many Samoans attending Sunday church services in Auckland.
Malietoa was well known as a follower of the Baha'i faith. He attended St Stephens and Wesley colleges in New Zealand.
Taouma says Malietoa's door was always open for the smallest child to the eldest person in Samoa. "He was able to relate to them in a simple, humble way."
Malietoa's death is another changing of the old guard in the Pacific.
Actor/writer Oscar Knightley says it's a huge passing on top of so many recent leaders such as the Maori Queen and the King of Tonga.
"We're losing that generation of leaders...it's a sad thing... a real passing of a generation."

Another news outlet in New Zealand has reported the passing of Samoa’s Head of State as well http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439457

2007-05-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

LONG TENURE: Samoa's Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II has died aged 94.
For at least the last decade Samoans have always offered a quiet prayer when word came that Malietoa Tanumafili II was ill.

Samoa is a young nation and no one under the age of 45 had ever known the country without the fatherly leadership of Malietoa.

Now he is dead and the question of succession arrives for the first time in the history of the Independent State of Samoa.

But three years ago quiet measures were put in place to prepare for the inevitable when two men were sworn in as members of Samoa's Council of Deputies. One was former prime minister Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi, and the other, Tuimaleali'ifano Sualauvi II.

No one would publicly say that the appointment of these two men - who would serve as deputy head of state - was about succession and Tupua's family was deeply critical of a media report that suggested this. At the time Tupua was refusing to join the Council but a curious double-standard was involved.

Samoa's high chiefs do not like talk of succession and titles. But they themselves over a lifetime fight through the Lands and Titles Court in a manner that is barely polite.

As it is, the issue of who comes after Malietoa and how, carries important historical significance while defining the way ahead for Samoa.

One has to go back to the 19th century to see the last such battle, not least because the combined longevity of the Tanumafili puts succession beyond the living memory of any person now. Samoa has four tama-a-aiga or royal titles, heads of extended families:

Malietoa, Tamasese and Tuimaleali'ifano. The fourth, Mata'afa, has been vacant since 1997.

When Samoa was negotiating with New Zealand for independence and drafting a constitution, the question of head of state, or the 'O le Ao o le Malo', was potentially vexatious. But they came up with a joint life-term Head of State. One was Malietoa, the other was Tupua Tamasese Meole, the father of the current holder.

Under the constitution, the Fale Fono or Legislative Assembly, will elect the next head of state for a five year term.

The presumption, not stated in the constitution, is that the post will go to a 'tama-a-aiga' and a member of the Council of Deputies. But it has never been tested.

Independence came in 1962 and a year later, Tupua Tamasese died. Malietoa lived on as a very much-loved man, incorruptible, humble and funny. With his death, his most likely successor as Head of State will be Tupua Tamasese Efi. In the 1970s he served as prime minister, under the Tupuola Efi title.

He has collected a slew of paramount titles-some following protracted and unedifying legal battles. Although he says he does not want the job, he is not his own man: he must serve the thousands who eventually bestowed the royal title on him.

As a politician, Tupua enjoyed the cut-and-thrust of party politics and political debate. He is also a stickler for fa'a Samoa (or Samoan culture) and the Samoan language.

The various extended families under his titles though made no secret they did not enjoy the vision of their prince engaged in the political trenches, feeling he should be above the fray. An additional factor for Tupua has been the problem that once a politician, always a politician.

He lost his premiership to the Human Rights Protection Party, which continues to reign in Samoa, and his personal animosity for the late Prime Minister Tofilau Eti was strong.

In fact electing a new Head of State will be the easy part; head of state is a ceremonial title in which the holder must act on the advice of government.

Not so the next Malietoa, awesomely powerful with control of much of Samoa's land. The title came about nearly a thousand years ago when Samoa was under Tonga's suzerainty.

Led by two chiefs, Samoans were able to drive the occupiers off, who left with a shouted chant across the waters: 'Malie tau, malie toa' (splendidly fought, brave warriors!).

As a result, it became one of the central titles and when Europeans showed up later, it was perhaps the most interfered with of them all. The appointment of a new Malietoa will be a two-stage process. The first will involve defining those who have the pule or authority within the Sa Malietoa, the extended family, to name a successor.

By tradition, authority rests with the nine senior matai or chiefs in the village of Malie, west of Apia, in the district of Tuamasaga, on the island of Upolu. In theory, they must also consult the district of Safotulafai in Savai'i and the island of Manono.

But it will not be simple as the Sa Malietoa is large and diverse, and those excluded can be counted on going to the Lands and Titles Court at Mulinu'u, on the western side of Apia harbour. There, some brave judge will make the decision on who can make the next decision.

Thus empowered, the matai will go off and consider who will be so blessed.

Nothing is automatic, and titles do not always pass to the first born of the next generation. It will, however, take many years.

Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malietoa

2007-05-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

SLOVAK GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES BAHA'I FAITH

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, 13 May 2007 (BWNS) -- The government of Slovakia has
officially registered the Baha'i Faith as a religious community,
guaranteeing the group the right to own property, observe holy days,
disseminate literature and engage in a host of other activities.

The recognition was the result of an application submitted by the Baha'is
which was supported by signatures of some 28,000 residents of the country.

"The registration will enable us to more effectively help and serve all
Slovak residents and make our programs more accessible to both children and
adults," Jitka Spillerova, a spokeswoman for the Slovakian Baha'is, said.
"The state guarantees registered churches and religious communities the
legal status and possibility of functioning in public life."

Recognition by the state also allows a religion to request government funds,
but Mrs. Spillerova said the Baha'is will not request such money now or in
the future because their activities are financed strictly through voluntary
contributions of enrolled members.

"We would like to thank the thousands of people who supported our
registration," Mrs. Spillerova said.

The law governing the recognition of a religious community bestows the right
to become a legal corporation; for adherents to teach their faith to others,
including as religious education in schools; to have their own schools and
universities; to hold meetings without informing the authorities; to operate
certain social or cultural establishments, including hospitals; to publish
literature; and generally to carry out activities throughout the greater
society.

Jan Juran, part of the government office involved in reviewing applications
for recognition, said factors include not only whether a religious group is
law-abiding and promotes good health and morality but also whether the
religion supports humanitarian principles and tolerance of others.

Mrs. Spillerova noted that Baha'i belief includes respect for other
religions and appreciation of diverse cultures. She said activities of the
Slovakian Baha'i community include programs of moral education for children
and youth, study courses for adults, and devotional meetings for people of
every belief.

"Our intention is to create an opportunity for people to pause in their
daily rush and think about the timeless truths that are taught by all the
world's religions and how people can apply these truths in their life," she
said.

The Baha'i Faith has had followers in what is now Slovakia since the early
20th century. It joins 17 other religious communities - the others are
Christian or Jewish - currently recognized by the government.

To view the photos and additional features click here:
http://news.bahai.org

2007-05-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

The Passing of Malietoa Tanumafili II

His Majesty Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoa's Head of State, died in hospital on the evening of 11th May at the aged of 95.He was the oldest serving head of state in the world, and also the only living monarch who was a member of the Bahá'í Faith.Malietoa Tanumafili II was born on the 4th January 1913 and became the King of Western Samoa in 1939.In 1962 Samoa gained independence from New Zealand and he became Samoa's joint Head of State with Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole, who passed away the following year leaving Malietoa as the sole head of state up until his own passing.

-----===-------

Samoa's king, one of world's longest reigning monarchs, dies
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 13, 2007

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa: King Malietoa Tanumafili II, one of the world's longest reigning monarchs, passed away at a hospital in Samoa, the prime minister's office said. He was 94.
Malietoa sat on the Samoan throne ever since the country, which lies west of the U.S. territory of American Samoa, gained independence from New Zealand in 1962.
That made him the world's third longest reining living monarch after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since 1946 and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the throne in 1952.
The king died Friday night at Tupua Tamasese National Hospital in Apia where he had been staying for about a week. Details on the cause of death were not immediately available.
Vaasatia Poloma Komiti, chief executive officer of the prime minister's office, announced the king's passing Saturday on state-run television.
The king will lay in state in Apia, the capital, on Thursday. A church service, to be lead by the National Council of Churches, is planned for Friday morning, Komiti said.
In American Samoa, the governor said Malietoa's passing was a loss not only for Samoa but for the U.S. territory.
"His faith and love for his people helped light the flame of independence for Samoa and maintained a peaceful transition for Samoa from her difficult beginning," said Gov. Togiola T.A. Tulafono. "He was an icon of Samoan leadership, Samoan democracy, and Samoan compassion."
Many American Samoans considered the king to be the father of the two Samoas and he was a frequent visitor to the territory's annual Flag Day Festivities.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark expressed her nation's sorrow at the death of Malietoa, noting he helped frame Samoa's constitution prior to independence.
"Through his long reign as Head of State, Malietoa represented Samoa with wisdom, humor and insight," she said in a statement.
New Zealand was given responsibility for Samoa in 1917 by the then League of Nations, after the islands were seized from its colonial power, Germany, during WWI.
The king succeeded to the Malietoa title in 1940, when his father passed away. He was appointed an advisor to the New Zealand governor in Samoa the same year.
Malietoa was made the joint head of state with Tupua Tamasese Meaole when Samoa gained independence in 1962 and he became sole head of state a year later when Tupua Tamasese passed away.
He held the post for life. His successor, however, will be elected by the legislature to a five year term as stipulated in the Samoan constitution.
Malietoa was educated in Samoa at the government run Leififi School and attended St. Stephens College and Wesley College in New Zealand.
Malietoa visited China on a state visit in 1976, and traveled to West Germany, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. He also traveled to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, and Hawaii, and attended the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
He was among the foreign dignitaries that attended the funeral service of Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
In 1977, Queen Elizabeth II visited Samoa on the Royal Yacht Britannia for one day and presented Malietoa with the Collar Badge and Star of the G.C.M.G., the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George.
Malietoa is survived by two sons and two daughters. His wife Lili Tunu passed away in 1986.
Samoa is a group of islands in the South Pacific about one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Home to 200,000 people, its total land area is slightly smaller than Rhode Island.
It lies to the west of American Samoa, which became a U.S. territory in 1900.
Copyright © 2007 The International Herald Tribune www.iht.com

2007-05-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

============================
Nouvelle incroyable.
Par Rochan MAVADDAT (France)
Vendredi 4 Mai 2007.

Ainsi que vous le savez, actuellement en Iran, tout livre ou photographie, concernant la Foi Bahà'ie, est banni.
C'est ainsi que les Forces de l'Ordre de ce pays, ont obligé certains Bahà'is iraniens à déchirer les photos de 'Abdu'l-Bahà, ou à marcher ou s'asseoir dessus (de même pour les photos des Lieux Saints Bahà'is et de la calligraphie du "Plus Grand Nom") !
[ Remarquer quelle dure épreuve doit être pour un croyant d'être forcé de s'asseoir ou de marcher sur ce qu'il a de plus sacré ! ]

Or, à l'occasion de la "Journée de l'Architecture", il a été organisée à Kâchân (Kàshàn - IRAN), ville située à 250 km au sud de Téhéran , non loin de la ville sainte de Ghom (Qom), le 23 Avril 2007, une :
.
"Commémoration à la mémoire de Shaykh Bahà'i"
Pionnier de l'Architecture traditionnelle de Kâchân.

A cette occasion, les organisateurs ont publié la photo de 'Abdu'l-Bahà sur l'affiche de cette Manifestation culturelle, croyant que c'est l'effigie de Sheikh Bahà'i, célèbre architecte, penseur et médecin iranien du 15ème siècle !

Cette affiche (voir au-dessus) est placardée dans toute la Ville de Kâchân et, ainsi, ceux qui voulaient cacher et détruire la photo de 'Abdu'l-Bahà l'ont eux-mêmes mise sous les yeux de tout le monde !

Remarquons que, en réalité, à la place de Shaykh Bahà'i, c'est 'Abdu'l-Bahà qui est présenté comme l'un des meilleurs architecte de l'Iran : ce qui est absolument vrai, puisque pour reconstruire ce pays le seul plan valable est le Plan qu'Abdu'l-Bahà donne dans ses ouvrages concernant les réformes nécessaires pour l'Iran !...

Maintenant, pourquoi cette personnalité porte le nom de " Bahà'i " ?
J'ai appris que ce savant, de son nom complet "Mohammad Shaykh Bahà-ed-Din", avait trouvé que le 100ème Nom ou Attribut de Dieu, appelé "Esm-é 'Azam" (le Plus Grand Nom), que les Musulmans attendent de connaître à la "Fin des Temps" -- les 99 premiers Noms de Dieu ayant été dévoilés par l'Islam -- a pressenti que ce Nom est "Bahà", c'est pourquoi il a choisi le nom de "Bahâ-ed-Din" et, ainsi, il est connu sous le nom de Shaykh Bahà'i.

Justement, dans la Ville d'Ispahan ou ce savant et architecte a construit quelques édifices, il y a une imprtante artère nommée : "Avenue Shaykh Bahà'i".
De même, dans le Mausolée de Imàm Rézà, situé dans la Ville sainte de Mash-had, l'un des plus grands Sanctuaires pour les Musulmans chiites iraniens, il y a un "Bast" (aire de refuge inviolable même par les Forces de l'Ordre) appelé "Bast-é Shaykh Bahà'i".

[ Je suppose que si les Autorités actuelles de l'Iran pouvaient débaptiser cette avenue et cette aire, ce serait avec joie qu'elles le feraient : imaginez le nom de "Bahà'i" en plein sanctuaire chiite !...
Il faut dire que le nom de "Bahà'i" n'est pas un nom commun et répandu en Iran : à part les disciples de Bahà'u'llàh et ce Shaykh, je n'ai jamais entendu quelqu'un d'autre porter ce nom. ]

2007-05-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

On the banks of the Tigris
by Druzelle Cederquist

Guest Commentary online at
http://www.religionandspirituality.com/morebeliefs/view.php?StoryID=20070501-071722-4420r
http://www.ReligionAndSpirituality.com
May 1, 2007

My thoughts have held very different images of Baghdad this past week, and different truths from those of the current news. Even as I join Baha'is around the globe to celebrate the Festival of Ridvan, the holiest period among Baha'i holy days, I take pause to wonder why Baha'u'llah chose Baghdad in which to make His greatest announcement. Baghdad was for Baha'u'llah a place of exile and hardship. But it was also in Baghdad that Baha'u'llah began to reveal the Word of God, which He called "the master key for the whole world," for with this key, He wrote, "[T]he doors of the hearts of men, which in reality are the doors of heaven, are unlocked." Let me share with you a handful of images from Baghdad that you will never see on the nightly news, and the story that goes with them. It was an April afternoon in Baghdad, 1863, when Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, left His home and made His way through the press of people gathered to see Him one last time. Men, women and children crowded close to catch a glimpse of Him. Some climbed to rooftops to see Baha'u'llah, Who even now gave out coins to the poor and spoke words of comfort as He passed. Many wept openly. Who now would comfort the orphaned, the outcast and the poor He had befriended? Who would speak on their behalf for justice? Muslims, Christians and Jews, those with rank and learning and those with none — Baha'u'llah had touched the lives of so many who lived in Baghdad, and their encounters with Him had left none of them the same. This outpouring of respect and affection was not at all what Baha'u'llah's enemies had envisioned. Their schemes and lies had brought them an apparent victory over Baha'u'llah: an order from the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for Baha'u'llah to leave Baghdad. But they had forgotten the truth in their Koran: "They plotted — but God plotted: and of plotters is God the best!" Even now, as Baha'u'llah reached the banks of the Tigris River, and was ferried by the boatman to a garden on the other side, He would soon transform this day of intended disgrace into a day of abiding joy. For Baha'u'llah was not simply Mirza Husayn-'Ali, a Persian noble who had suffered torture and unjust imprisonment in Tehran; not merely a man who had endured, with his family, a mountainous winter journey into exile; not simply the one who had faced down an assassin in Baghdad and stood up to the challenge of mullahs bent on waging holy war. Now in a garden on the Tigris, the air rich with the scent of roses, Baha'u'llah announced to a few what so many had longed to hear. He, Baha'u'llah, was a Messenger from God in that rank of Holy Messengers before Him — Abraham and Moses, Krishna, Buddha and Zoroaster, Christ, Muhammad and the Bab. But the whole truth, the greater joy, opened from this: With Baha'u'llah the ancient promises of God were fulfilled. Baha'u'llah — "the Glory of God" — was the Promised One whose advent the faithful of every Faith had prayed to witness. Through Him God would shower humankind with so great a measure of guidance that the kingdoms of men would mirror the divine kingdom, and the peace for which humanity longed would become reality. "The Divine Springtime is come," declared Baha'u'llah, and those who were with Him for His Announcement named the garden on the Tigris "Ridvan," which means Paradise. Surely there could be no greater bliss than to stand in this spot, at this Hour, with the Promised One of God! Baha'u'llah linked His greatest Announcement to a law. He forbade the use of force in spreading the Word of God. The mightiest sword is the tongue, He said, for speech can remove the veils of ignorance from the human heart. Every one of the 5 million Baha'is in today's world, who come from the peoples of every land, also honors this truth laid out by Baha'u'llah: The religions called by different names are, in reality, one religion unfolding over time, their separate Prophets inspired by one Source, their sacred guidance flowing together into one divine purpose — the upliftment of the human spirit and the evolution of human consciousness. "Human tongue can never befittingly sing their praise," Baha'u'llah wrote of those Divine Educators, "and human speech can never unfold their mystery." It was in Baghdad that He first opened up, in His Book of Certitude, this profound shift of perspective on the religions we thought we knew. Still, we are jaded by what we see in the name of religion, and it is hard to believe that Baghdad was called "the Abode of Peace" by its founder or "the City of God" by Baha'u'llah. That Baghdad, and the world, is so far removed from this reality reflects not the inadequacy of the Divine, but the slowness of humanity to pay attention. "For were men to abide by and observe the divine teachings," wrote Baha'u'llah, "every trace of evil would be banished from the face of the earth." To turn away from the light of divine guidance, however, is to be filled with darkness. The hearts that are portals to heaven can become the pathway to hell, for the Evil One is not an outside enemy, said Baha'u'llah, but the unbridled lower nature within us. "The actions of man himself breed a profusion of satanic power. ... The prevalence of sedition, contention, conflict and the like ... provoke the appearance of the satanic spirit," wrote Baha'u'llah. "Yet the Holy Spirit hath ever shunned such matters." Nonetheless, "It is Our purpose," Baha'u'llah further wrote, "through the loving providence of God ... to abolish ... all disputes, war, and bloodshed, from the face of the earth." It was not an empty promise. In over 100 volumes Baha'u'llah provided the tools to do the work, and called on the world's peoples and their nations to take the future in their hands. Already Baha'is who come from peoples at war are learning how to create communities of peace. Baha'u'llah made it clear that there can be no peace without unity, no paradise without justice. "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established," He wrote and stated. "The light of men is Justice. ... The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men." "No radiance can compare with that of justice," Baha'u'llah declared. "The organization of the world and the tranquility of mankind depend upon it." Our noble task is to transform our societies and ourselves, and lest we be discouraged, Baha'u'llah assures us that we will meet the challenge. "Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away," He promised, "and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come." This is not a vision supplied by the nightly news, but by the newest Messenger of God. — — — Druzelle Cederquistis a poet and author of "The Story of Baha'u'llah." Visit her author's blog at Luminous Realities. Email her at DruCeder@yahoo.com. © copyright 2007 by Druzelle Cederquist
http://www.religionandspirituality.com/morebeliefs/view.php?StoryID=20070501-071722-4420r

2007-05-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

Festival of Ridvan marks beginning of Baha'i Faith

Posted : April 20, 2007 - 4:55pm Terms : News Human Interest
From April 21 to May 2, Baha'is observe the Festival of Ridvan. This most holy day commemorates the anniversary of Baha'u'llah's declaration in 1863 that He was the Promised One of all earlier religions.

Baha'u'llah's declaration that He was "Him Whom God shall make manifest" and a Manifestation of God forms the beginning of the Baha'i Faith.

Ridvan (Rizwahn) was a bittersweet time, as Baha'u'llah was soon to be exiled to Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). This was the latest in His series of exiles by the Persian government, which considered Him to be a heretic.

Baha'u'llah spent 12 days in a garden in Baghdad visiting with His followers. He named the garden Ridvan, which means "Paradise" or "good pleasure" in Arabic. The exact circumstances of the Declaration are not known. According to Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the faith: “The fragmentary description left to posterity by His chronicler Nabil is one of the very few authentic records we possess of the memorable days He spent in that garden. “Every day,” Nabil has related, “ere the hour of dawn, the gardeners would pick the roses which lined the four avenues of the garden, and would pile them in the center of the floor of His blessed tent. So great would be the heap that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it. All these roses Baha’u’llah would, with His own hands, entrust to those whom He dismissed from His presence every morning to be delivered, on His behalf, to His Arab and Persian friends in the city.”

Baha'u'llah called Ridvan the Most Great Festival and the King of Festivals. He said:

Call ye to mind, O people, the bounty which God hath conferred upon you. Ye were sunk in slumber, and lo! He aroused you by the reviving breezes of His Revelation, and made known unto you His manifest and undeviating Path.
When He entered the garden, Baha'u'llah proclaimed the Festival of Ridvan and made three announcements:

*He forbade His followers to fight to advance or defend the Faith (religious war had been permitted under past religions).
*He declared there would not be another prophet for another 1,000 years.
*He proclaimed that all the names of God were inherent in all things at that moment.

Baha'is suspend work on the holiest days of Ridvan-the first (April 21), ninth (April 29) and twelfth (May 2). These mark the day of Baha'u'llah's arrival in the garden, the arrival of His family and the group's departure for Constantinople.

Throughout Ridvan, Baha'is gather for devotions and attend social gatherings.

At Ridvan, Baha'is annually elect members of local and national administrative bodies, called Spiritual Assemblies. Baha'u'llah taught that in an age of universal education, there was no longer a need for a special class of clergy. Instead, he provided a framework for administering the affairs of the Faith through a system of elected councils at the local, national and international levels.

Baha'i elections occur through secret ballot and plurality vote, without candidacies, nominations or campaigning.

Most Baha'i elections are held during Ridvan, a practice which started in Abdu'l-Baha's lifetime. The Universal House of Justice, the international Baha'i governing body, writes a letter to the Baha'i community each Ridvan, summarizing the year's progress and setting future challenges.

2007-04-27T03:36:00.000-07:00

Carmelite Monastery to follow Bahai Temple

Garden will span an area of three hectares and will feature numerousstatues, religious artifacts and a large amphitheatre overlooking aspectacular view Ofer Petersburg Published: 02.19.07, 19:32 / Israel Travel<http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3087,00.html>

The order of the Carmelite Monastery in Haifa, Israel, a 19th-centurymonastery located on the slopes of Mount Carmel, became envious of thebeautiful Bahai Temple gardens in Haifa and decided to follow suit bycreating its own. The Carmelite gardens will be built on the mountainside of the Stella Marisneighborhood, where a military army based was located until recently. Thegarden will span an area of three hectares and will feature numerousstatues, religious artifacts and a large amphitheatre overlooking aspectacular view. As in the Bahai gardens, the Carmelite garden will also have a visitors'center that will be open to the public. An American landscape architect washired to design the garden. The cost for building the garden is estimated $200 million, while theinitial investment totals $50 million. This week, an official from the Carmelite Monastery submitted a buildingplan to the district planning committee for a complex in the Stella Marisneighborhood comprising 350 housing units, an elderly citizen's home, asmall commercial center and a hotel comprising 100 rooms. The apartments will not only be sold to Carmelite community members, but tothe general public. Revenues incurred from the sales of the apartments willbe used for funding the Carmelite garden. The Carmelite Order is an enclosed Catholic order founded in the 12thcentury by a group of Europeans led by a man commonly called Saint Bertoldon Mount Carmel, Israel, where the order received its name.

2007-04-26T02:19:00.000-07:00

BAD MERGENTHEIM, Germany, 25 April 2007 (BWNS) --

A Baha'i memorial removed when the Nazis were in power has been restored by municipal authorities in this resort town in southern Germany.

The stone commemorates the visit in 1913 of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the successor of Baha'u'llah as head of the Baha'i Faith.
The original memorial was erected in 1916 but removed in 1937 at a time when the Baha'i Faith was outlawed by the Nazis.
'Abdu'l-Baha took an extended trip to Europe, North America and back to Europe between 1911 and 1913 and took a side trip from Stuttgart to Bad Mergentheim - a small, quiet town known for its health spa - on April 7-8, 1913.
He spent the night there at the invitation of Consul Albert Schwarz, a government official who was the owner of the hotel and mineral bath and also a member of the Baha'i community.
The new memorial was unveiled earlier this month, on 7 April, by Mayor Lothar Barth accompanied by Bahman Solouki, a representative of the Baha'i community of Germany.
"Bad Mergentheim can be proud that 'Abdu'l-Baha came here," the mayor said at the ceremony. "The Baha'i Faith is one of the six major world religions -- there is no other way to put it -- and this should be honoured accordingly."
He continued: "I consider this a good sign. It shows that in Bad Mergentheim we are a tolerant society, that we integrate people of different faiths in our town and are cosmopolitan enough for that."

The original monument in Bad Mergentheim, pictured here, was removed during the Nazi regime
Dr. Solouki noted that the German Baha'i community two years ago marked its 100th anniversary, and that 'Abdu'l-Baha's time in their country was a significant part of their history.
"'Abdu'l-Baha's visit of 1913 was a milestone for us German Baha'is," he said. "We are greatly blessed by it. He was in Stuttgart; He was in Esslingen twice, each time for a week, and two days of that time He spent here in Bad Mergentheim."
Sussan Rastani, a Baha'i who lives in Bad Mergentheim, thanked local authorities for putting up the monument.
"In these times of religious intolerance and even religious fanatism, it is exemplary of the town authorities and the resort administration to re-erect this memorial stone in remembrance of 'Abdu'l-Baha, who served as an example of love and tolerance towards all religions and people," she said.
-- German Baha'i News Service
GBN-HF-07 04 25 -1-GERMANMONUMENT-524

2007-04-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

BAHA'I SCHOOLCHILDREN IN IRAN INCREASINGLY HARASSED AND ABUSED BY SCHOOL AUTHORITIES
BAHA'I SCHOOLCHILDREN IN IRAN INCREASINGLY HARASSED AND ABUSED BY SCHOOLAUTHORITIESNEW YORK, 5 April 2007 (BWNS) -- Baha'i students in primary and secondaryschools throughout Iran are increasingly being harassed, vilified, and heldup to abuse, according to recent reports from inside the country.During a 30-day period from mid-January to mid-February, some 150 incidentsof insults, mistreatment, and even physical violence by school authoritiesagainst Baha'i students were reported as occurring in at least 10 Iraniancities."These new reports that the most vulnerable members of the Iranian Baha'icommunity -- children and junior youth -- are being harassed, degraded, and,in at least one case, blindfolded and beaten, is an extremely disturbingdevelopment," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'iInternational Community to the United Nations."The increasing number of such incidents suggests a serious and shameful escalation in the on-going persecution of Iranian Baha'is," said Ms. Dugal."The fact that school-aged children are being targeted by those who shouldrightfully hold their trust -- teachers and school administrators -- onlymakes this latest trend even more ominous."Ms. Dugal said the Baha'i International Community has been aware ofscattered reports of abuse directed at school children but has only recentlylearned that young Baha'is are now widely being forced to identify theirreligion -- and are also being insulted, degraded, threatened withexpulsion, and, in some cases, summarily dismissed from school."They are also being pressured to convert to Islam, required to endureslander of their faith by religious instructors, and being taught and tested

on 'Iranian history' in authorized texts that denigrate, distort, andbrazenly falsify their religious heritage," said Ms. Dugal. "They are alsobeing repeatedly told that they are not to attempt to teach their religion."According to Ms. Dugal, one Baha'i has reported that the school-age childrenof a relative in Kermanshah were called to the front of the classroom, wherethey were required to listen to insults against the Faith."Another student, accepted at an art institute, has been followed by theauthorities and on three occasions seized, blindfolded, and beaten," saidMs. Dugal."While a few of these may be isolated attacks, the extent and nature of thisreprehensible activity has led the Baha'is in Iran to conclude that this is an organized effort," said Ms. Dugal. Of special concern, she added, was the fact that a high proportion of the attacks against high school students have been against girls."While the attacks reported to have taken place in elementary and middleschools were leveled evenly against boys and girls, those at the high-schoollevel targeted girls to a far greater degree: of 76 incidents, 68 wereagainst Baha'i girls," said Ms. Dugal.The reports of attacks on innocent Baha'i schoolchildren come at a time when a growing number of older Baha'i students seeking to enter Iranian universities have been expelled solely because of their religion.
So far this year, at least 94 college-age Baha'i students have been expelled from institutions of higher education.
That figure is up from 70 as reportedin late February.Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, the300,000-member Iranian Baha'i community has faced ongoing and systematicpersecution. In the early 1980s, more than 200 Baha'is were killed, hundreds were imprisoned, and thousands were deprived of jobs and education, solely
because of their religious belief.

At the present time, more than 120 Baha'is are out on bail and awaiting trial on false charges, solely because of their religious beliefs andactivities. Over the last year, as well, international human rights groupshave expressed concern at the Iranian government's efforts to step-up theircovert monitoring
and identification of Baha'is.

To view the photos and additional features click here:http://news.bahai.org/index.cfm?src=se--8-bp-070405-1-IRANSCHOOLS-515-S------------------------------------------------------------Advance release: Please check our website for the final version of thisarticle.------------------------------------------------------------Copyright 2007 by the Baha'i World News Service. All stories and photographsproduced by the Baha'i World News Service may be freely reprinted,re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by anyindividual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha'iWorld News Service. For more information, visit http://news.bahai.org./----------------------------------------------------------

tsusami and earthquake in solomon island

2007-04-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

A BISHOP and three worshippers were killed by the Solomon Islands tsunami when it struck the island of Simbo during a church ordination service, the United Church has confirmed.
Bishop Rowlington Zappo was conducting the ordination ceremony early yesterday when the wave hit the church on Simbo, near Gizo, in the Solomons' Western Province, a church spokesman said.

He and three other people died, but there were said to be up to 100 others in the congregation at the time.
Simbo was one of many islands hit when yesterday's magnitude 8.0 quake created a tsunami wave several metres high.
With around 20 people feared killed, witnesses to the tsunami that pounded into the Solomons Islands early Monday described how the towering waves swept over tiny villages before surging inland, wreaking destruction on its path.
A state of emergency was declared this morning, With officials saying an estimated 4,000 people were sheltering in the hills amid warnings that quake aftershocks could generate more tsunami waves in coming days.
Islanders were in desperate need of water, food and tents, Western Province Premier Alex Lokopio said.
"For the next three days or four days, if there is not anything coming from Honiara or any other parts of the world, there are people here in Gizo who will be sitting down underneath the trees day and night,'' he added.
A wall of water, triggered by a 8.0-magnitude undersea earthquake, swamped Gizo, capital of the western province popular with tourists for its pristine beaches and diving, locals reported.
"The sea is rising up to five metres high... the houses are sunk,'' ferry driver Nixon Silus told Australian radio.
"All the houses on the islands are under water and all the houses are being pulled down and most of their kitchen utensils and all things like that are floating on the sea.''
Silus, speaking about 60 kilometres northwest of Gizo, said the islanders were unsure of what to do when the giant wave hit.
"Some of the people ran out to the bush, some of the people on the islands don't know where to go at the moment,'' he said.
Residents said there was no warning of the approaching tsunami but reports indicated locals noticed significant changes in the sea level after the quake, a typical sign of an impending wave. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government had made an initial offer of up to $2 million in emergency and reconstruction assistance to the Solomon Islands government.
However, Australia is still waiting for advice from the Solomon Islands on what level of assistance it needs and the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has already been mobilised to help with the disaster.

This morning the death toll stood at 20, including two children.
The Pacific, from Hawaii to New Zealand, was put on alert for the tsunami as early as 7am yesterday.
Last night Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he expected the toll would continue to climb.
The worst-hit regions include the town of Gizo, the capital of the Western Province, and the village of Sasamunga in the Choiseul Province.
Dorothy Parkinson, an Australian living in the popular dive centre of Gizo, said the wall of water had left a wide trail of devastation.
"It's a catastrophe,'' she said. ``(There was) very little warning. It was just a noise like an underground explosion and the next thing it just ... began rocking the whole hill. The wave came almost instantaneously.
"Everything that was standing is flattened. It threw a piano to the ground. Everything's on the ground smashed.''
Police said witnesses reported the waves triggering landslides after smashing inland.
Chief government spokesman Alfred Maesulia said islanders first noted a change in the sea level - a classic tsunami warning sign.
"People found out the sea was moving away and the shoreline was dry, and then people realised there would be a problem,'' he said.
Australia has offered $2 million in aid and the immediate dispatch of tarpaulins, blankets and clean water - while disaster teams could also be sent.
And Gary Gibson, a senior seismologist with the Seismology Research Centre in Melbourne, warned the Solomons should brace itself for a second big aftershock earthquake in the next few weeks.

2007-03-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Move over Britannica,
here's Encyclopedia Iranica
POSTED: 12:50 a.m. EDT, March 26, 2007
Story Highlights• Project requires another decade• Iranian government opposes it; U.S. backs it• Iran scholar Ehsan Yarshater began project 32 years ago• Each volume costs $1 million to produce
Adjust font size:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The Christian concepts of heaven and hell originate in Iran. The Jewish holy Talmud is littered with Iranian words and ideas. And some Iranians cherish the Israeli city of Haifa as a sacred place.
These are among the fascinating nuggets in the Encyclopedia Iranica, a sprawling project under way since 1973 that seeks to distill 5,000 years of Iranian history, geography and life into 45 blue-bound volumes proclaiming Iran's greatness.
"Today more than at any other time we need to keep our Iranian culture alive," Iranica's director Ehsan Yarshater told an audience of 350 Iranians at a fundraiser in Dubai last month. The glitzy dinner, concert and auction raised $100,000 for a project that will take a total of $20 million -- and another decade or so -- to finish.
The Iranian government bitterly opposes the encyclopedia, and the U.S. government backs it. More than half of the encyclopedia's budget comes from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, which has funded it as a project of major cultural significance since 1979 -- the same year Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
"Once completed it will be a magnificent gift to our children and the generations to come," said Yarshater, an Iran scholar at Columbia University in New York.
The encyclopedia is Yarshater's life work. Now a frail 86 years old, he suffers from Parkinson's disease. He started the encyclopedia 32 years ago, just after leaving Iran. The project threatens to outlast him. Another Columbia Iranologist, Ahmad Ashraf, will take over leadership of the project if Yarshater dies before completing it.
Only 13 volumes of the English-language encyclopedia have yet been published, up to the letter G. It's been so slow that managers have abandoned the one-letter-at-a-time approach and are soliciting all remaining articles at once.
Each volume costs $1 million to produce, said Mark Houshmand, who heads the Encyclopedia's Dubai support group. Dubai, with around 300,000 resident Iranians, has a large expatriate community supporting the project, as does Los Angeles, New York, Geneva, London, Toronto and Miami.
Individual volumes can be ordered from Iranica's Web site for $250-$350 each, or the first 12 for $3,450. When complete, it'll take more shelf space even than the 29-volume Encyclopedia Britannica.
Some 2,500 years ago, Persia's empire stretched from Libya to China and included Turkey and northern India. The Persian dominion revived again after the 11th century, spreading from Turkey to Bangladesh and dominating central Asia until the penetration of Western civilization into Asia in the mid-1800s.
Thus, encyclopedia entries cover Persian aspects of places far outside today's borders, including Central Asia, India, North Africa, Greece and Albania.
Most of the work is being done outside Iran too, because the Iranian government opposes the project. Scholars inside the country have faced harassment, the managers say. The project is headquartered at Columbia.
Problem: Yarshater is Bahai
Most of the Iranian opprobrium stems from Yarshater's belonging to the Bahai faith, Houshmand said.
"He's not welcome in Iran. They don't appreciate the work he's doing. They don't want him to get any credit," Houshmand said. "All this is because of his religion. It should be irrelevant. But unfortunately, with today's Iranian government, these things are very relevant."
Bahais have been vigorously persecuted by current and past Iranian regimes. In 1868, several Bahais were exiled to Palestine, now Israel, where they built shrines in Haifa, which they now consider a holy city, the encyclopedia says.
Entries like that, documenting the Islamic Republic's connections to Israel and its pre-Islamic past, are deemed contrary to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution by its current government.
Concepts such as the survival of a person's soul after death, the Day of Judgment, heaven and hell, and holy angels all derive from Iran's surviving Zoroastrian faith, a 3,000-year-old religion that predates Islam and Christianity, the encyclopedia says. Iran's hard-liners also frown on the Zoroastrian beliefs.
In the fundraiser audience were U.S. and Swiss diplomats and some of Iran's biggest pre-revolutionary pop stars, including singers Mahasti and Aref, both of whom flew from homes in Los Angeles. Iran's most famous pianist, Los Angeles-based Anoushirvan Rohani, played his melancholy songs until the wee hours.
"I couldn't care less about what my regime's stance is toward the United States," said Sara Masinaei, 24, a Dubai resident who emigrated from Tehran with her family at the age of eight. "What's important to me is Iran's history, language and traditions. I want my kids and their kids to benefit from what we're supporting today."
Abbas Bolurfrushan said exiles worry about losing touch with Iran and its Farsi language. The books ought to tug them back into the fold until Iran's regime mellows enough to allow them to visit more often, he said.
But Bolurfrushan, who heads the Dubai-based Iranian Business Council, said he was chiefly concerned with practical issues such as U.N. sanctions, which hamper his own trade with Iran.
"I'm fed up with the glorious past," Bolurfrushan said. "What have we got today? The Iranians have to bring themselves out of the past and devote themselves to building up the present."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/25/iran.encyclopedia.ap/index.html

2007-03-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

Dreaming Away at Balchik
PalaceDestinations
16 March 2007, Friday.
The concept of harmony between man and nature was the foundation, on whichthe palace at the coastal town of Balchik was built, while the Baha'i cultto beauty breathed life into it. Turning into reality the dreams of aneccentric Romanian queen - Marie of Edinburgh.By Milena HristovaThe construction of the palace, later to be called "The Quiet Nest", beganin 1924, when the region of Southern Dobrudzha was still in the hands ofRomania. Armies of experts from Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romaniawere gathered together to draw on their skills in architecture, gardening,stone-cutting and painting and turn the unique steep slope of stones overthe Balchik Gulf into an extraordinary piece of architectural art and arefreshing oasis amidst the dryness of Dobrudzha plateau.It is a small surprise that Queen Marie of Romania picked this wild andpicturesque spot over the Balchik Gulf to live and dream away. It was itsvirginity and romanticism that captured her heart and imagination, whileroaming through Romania's newly conquered areas.The Baha'i teaching, whose fervent follower the queen was, preached that allreligions can be united for the sake of beauty. The palace, together withdowntown Sofia, is one of the few places in the world where Christianity andMuslimism live peacefully together and complement each other. Here thevisitor can see the white minaret of a mosque, sporting a weathercock on itsedged top, right next to the dome of a Christian church. The silver well,with a ceramic medallion with the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus chiseledout, is one of the most inspiring and touching Christian symbols here. Ifyou see your reflection in its clear waters and drop a coin, be sure allyour dreams will come true!The queen's castle is located on the very coastline, bringing togetherelements of Mediterranean culture, Bulgaria's Revival and Orientalexoticness. The "Quiet Nest" villa is bordered by the queen's home at theone end and the chapel at the other. In between is a labyrinth of gardens,flowers, lakes, bridges and paths, linking into one organic whole theseparate parts of the complex - an irrefutable proof of the owner's delicateflair for harmony and aesthetics and her never-ending search for beauty.Queen Marie (1875-1938) was the daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, secondson of Queen Victoria, uncle of George V, and of Grand Duchess Marie,daughter of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. She was, therefore, first cousinto King George, by birth a Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, by marriage aHohenzollern, having married into the Catholic branch of that family whenshe became the bride of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Rumania. The palace andthe pictures hanging on its walls paint the picture of a romantic andeccentric woman, whose vision transcended the everyday and the historicaland poured over the invisible and the occult in a bid to explain the ups anddown of life and destiny.After her death and in accordance with her will, her heart was brought tothe palace, cushioned in a gold casket, to spend two years at the cloisterof her house of dreams. A day after Bulgaria restored its reign overSouthern Dobrudzha in accordance with the Treaty of Craiova, the casket wastaken back to Romania.The turn of events, however, gave birth to a new beginning - the botanicalgarden, which sprawls on the territory of the queen's former summerresidency. It's not for nothing that the garden, one of Bulgaria's fourbotanical gardens, was named after her house, "The Palace", even though itsdesign and selection of flowers was completely overhauled. Bathing insunlight most of the year, the garden is home to more than 2000 plantspecies belonging to 85 families and 200 genera. One of the garden's mainattractions is the collection of large-sized cactus species arrangedoutdoors on 1000 m², the second of its kind in Europe after the one inMonaco.Unfortunately a few years ago the garden's future was threatened by wranglesover ownership and revenues collection. It would be unforgivable if we failto protect the heavenly and exotic beauty of this unique part of Bulgaria'sBlack Sea coast. Standing right by one the world's best symbols ofdifferences overcome, unity and beauty.http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=77994__._,_.___

and more about the gardens from this site:
http://www.travel-bulgaria.com/content/varna_out_of_town.shtml

The first destination is the Quiet Nest palace, tile former summer residence of Queen Marie of Romania, and its famous gardens of more than 35 ha. The gardens are the "residence" of 3000 or so plant species of which cacti alone are over 250, and thus Europe's second most important collection, The palace park is an imitation of the Famous Cretan labyrinth. Each stone for the church therefore was brought from the island of Crete. The Carden of Allah is the prettiest. The Silver Well and the alleys paved with mill stones are also very interesting The earthen jars were brought from Morocco.

and more about the castle and some lovely pictures of the gardens here:
http://www.intovarna.com/balchik_palace.html

and more about the castle and some lovely pictures of the gardens here:
http://www.intovarna.com/balchik_palace.html

and another fascinating article here:

http://www.vagabond-bg.com/?page=live&sub=18&open_news=104

includes the following:
This peculiar "Queen Marie Code" reflects her adherence to an exotic religion. Although her religious background was Church of England and she adopted Romanian Orthodox Christian beliefs, in her later years she befriended Martha Root, a renowned travelling "teacher" of the Baha'i Faith.

Queen Marie became the first member of a European royal family to officially profess Baha'ism. This faith, established in the 19th Century by Baha'ullah, expounds the unity of god, religions, and mankind. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and all other religious leaders are considered to be prophets of God's will.

Queen Marie sought peace, love, rapport, and serenity in Baha'ism and Balchik. Instead, she died a violent death and her sarcophagus was taken back to her adopted homeland. Her heart ended up in Bran Castle, a Romanian tourism landmark situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia. It owes its fame to the myth that it had been the home of Vlad the Impaler. Nevertheless, Marie's spirit lives on in the strange and wonderful home she made in the Quiet Nest of Balchik.

It is no surprise that she had so many men vying for her attentions. Queen Marie was renowned for her beauty and during the 1920's she appeared in advertisements for perfumes by Houbigant Paris, "Parfumeur to Queen Marie of Roumania", chocolates and Pond's Skin Creams.An easily-recognisable high society figure, she frequently appeared in newspapers and magazines and made the front cover of Time magazine in 1924 as a "regal authoress".Indeed, she wrote many books of poetry and prose, including children's fiction, as in The Magic Doll of Roumania (1929), books about the supernatural, the Queen of Roumania's Fairy Book (1925), and the novel, The Voice on the Mountain (1923).

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/2121876

2007-03-10T07:29:00.001-08:00

Iranian Feminist Protest Gender Apartheid under Islamic Republic's rule.

02:49Taken: 21 February 2007
Location: Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Women's day 2005 (Iranian Calendar Khordad 22-1384), women asserting their rights and protesting the unjust, unfair and unequal treatment of Iranian Women under gender apartheid system of Islamic Republic Constitution and clergy rule. Mrs. Simin Behbani the renowned Iranian Poet and Feminist leader also participated in this demonstration. A lot of the participants were arrested by the Islamic republic’s paramilitary security forces and jailed for extended period of time to suppress their aspiration.

Producer: Ms. Mahnaz Mohamadi (a very brave woman) http://www.meydaan.com/

--------------

Feminist Protest Gender Apartheid
Uploaded by kzkz

2007-03-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

IRANIAN BAHA'IS FACE CONTINUING DISCRIMINATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

NEW YORK, 28 February 2007 (BWNS) -- A growing number of Baha'is admitted toIranian universities this year have been expelled, powerful evidence thatBaha'i students in Iran still face severe discrimination and limited accessto higher education.After more than 25 years during which Iranian Baha'is were outright bannedfrom attending public and private universities in Iran, some 178 Baha'istudents were admitted last fall to various schools around the country afterthe government changed its policies and removed religious identificationfrom entrance examination papers.As of mid-February, however, at least 70 students had been expelled aftertheir universities became aware that they were Baha'is.

The high percentage of expulsions - which are all explicitly connected tothe students' identities as Baha'is - suggests at best that the governmentis turning a blind eye to discrimination in higher education, and, at worst,is merely playing a game with Baha'i students," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'iInternational Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva."While we are happy that for the first time since the early 1980s asignificant number of Iranian Baha'i youth have been able to enter andattend the university of their choice, the government's long history ofsystematic persecution against Baha'is certainly calls into question thesincerity of the new policies," said Ms. Ala'i.She noted, for example, that another 191 Baha'i students, havingsuccessfully passed national college entrance examinations last summer, wereunable to enter university this year, either because of the limited number
of places for the course of their choice or for other reasons unknown to them.

"International law provides that access to education is a basic human right,and Iranian universities have no excuse for denying students who havesuccessfully passed their examinations the right to attend simply becausethey are Baha'is," added Ms. Ala'i."As long as any Baha'i is unjustly denied access to higher education, we cansay that the years of systematic persecution and discrimination againstBaha'i students has not yet ended, and we must call for this injustice to berectified," she said

The largest religious minority in Iran, Baha'is of all ages have facedsystematic religious persecution since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Morethan 200 Baha'is have been killed, hundreds have been imprisoned, andthousands have had property or businesses confiscated, been fired from jobs,and/or had pensions terminated.According to a secret 1991 government memorandum, Baha'is "must be expelledfrom universities, either in the admission process or during the course oftheir studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha'is."One of the chief means the government has used to enforce this policy was torequire that everyone sitting for the national college entrance examinationstate their religion on the test registration forms. Test forms that listed"Baha'i," or that had no listing, were rejected.

In 2004, apparently in response to continued pressure from the internationalcommunity, the Iranian government removed the data field for religiousaffiliation. About 1,000 Baha'i students successfully sat for theexamination that year and hundreds passed, many with very high scores. Later that same year, however, in an action that Baha'i InternationalCommunity representatives characterize as a "ploy," exam results were sentback to Baha'is with the word "Muslim" written in, something that officialsknew would be unacceptable to Baha'is, who as a matter of religiousprinciple refuse to deny their beliefs. Government officials argued that since the Baha'is had opted to take the setof questions on Islam in the religious studies section of the test, theyshould be listed as Muslims. Baha'is contested the action and were rebuffed;no Baha'i students entered university that year

The same thing happened in 2005. Hundreds of Baha'i students took and passedthe national examination, only to find that the government had listed themas Muslims. Baha'is again contested the action, but without successfulredress, and no Baha'is matriculated in 2005.Last summer, again acting on good faith, hundreds of Baha'is took thenational examination. This time, as indicated in the figures above, hundredshave passed, and some 178 were accepted into universities.Throughout the fall, reports came out of Iran indicating that many of thosewho had been accepted were being refused entry or expelled once theuniversities learned that they were Baha'is. As of February, the confirmedfigure totaled 70 Baha'is expelled.

Accounts we have received from those who have been expelled or deniedregistration at the university of their choice clearly indicate the issue istheir Baha'i identity," said Ms. Ala'i."One student, for example, received a phone call from Payame Noor Universityon 18 October, asking whether he was a Baha'i. When he replied in theaffirmative, he was told that he could not be enrolled.

Later, after visiting the university, the student was told that theuniversity had received a circular from the National Educational Measurementand Evaluation Organization, which oversees the university entrance examination process, stating that while it would not prevent the Baha'is

from going through the enrolment process, once enrolled, they were to beexpelled.

"Another Baha'i student at that same university was told that students whodo not specify their religion on registration forms would be disqualifiedfrom continuing their education there," she said.Ms. Ala'i also said that the Baha'i International Community has learned thatall universities in Iran except one still include a space for religion ontheir own registration forms.

"This raises the grave concern that the 191 additional Baha'is who passedtheir examinations this year but were refused places may in fact be thesubjects of discrimination," she said. "We call on the international community to continue to monitor thissituation closely," said Ms. Ala'i. "We would also ask for the continuedefforts of educators and university administrators around the world who haveparticipated in a campaign to protest the treatment of Baha'i students inIran."

To view the photos and additional features click here:http://news.bahai.org/index.cfm?src=se8-bp-070228-1-EXPELLED-507-S

------------------------------------------------------------

Advance release: Please check our website for the final version of this

article

.------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2007 by the Baha'i World News Service. All stories and photographsproduced by the Baha'i World News Service may be freely reprinted,re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by anyindividual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha'iWorld News Service. For more information, visit

http://news.bahai.org

.----------------------------------------------------------

Bahai faithful unshaken by rockets in Israel

2006-08-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

by Michaela Cancela-Kieffer Thu Jul 20, 11:14 AM ETHAIFA, Israel (AFP) - The Bahai believe that Moses, Christ, and Mohammed are all messengers of God and unlike their holy city of Haifa their faith in coming world peace is unshaken by Hezbollah’s rockets.Dozens of Hezbollah rockets have exploded in this port city, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Lebanese border, since the militia last week captured two Israeli soldiers andIsrael responded with a massive bombardment.Streets may be deserted, but the rockets, which killed eight railway workers in Haifa on Sunday, matter little to 100 pilgrims from the Bahai faith who arrived on Monday for a nine-day visit.The Bahai, who believe in “the fundamental unity of all the great religions”, was founded inIran’ in the 19th century by their prophet, Baha’u'llah.Haifa is home to the Bahais’ governing body, the sparkling white Universal House of Justice, as well as the shrine of the Bab, he who announced the coming of Bahaullah.His remains are housed in a splendid hillside mausoleum overlooking Haifa bay, amid spectacular and well-manicured terraced gardens, which the movement says was visited by half a million people in 2005.British couple Gillian and Anthony Henderson have come on pilgrimage from their home in Vancouver, Canada.Anthony is easy to spot in the near-deserted city, wearing a Scottish kilt, indicative of the diversity of the varied Bahai cultures — spanning 75 nationalities and several million followers — so says the movement.“We decided we would come because we waited many, many years,” says Anthony. “You have to apply (to come here on pilgrimage) most of the time you wait for five or six years.”“It’s hard to put it into words, it is the most holy place in the world for us,” says Gillian. “To be able to visit is the biggest blessing. We have to do it at least once in our life.”The Bahai, banned and persecuted in Iran, are not involved in politics, but have great affection for theUnited Nations’ United Nations. Their founder banned proselytizing in Israel, the Jewish state.Albert Lincoln, the Bahais’ “secretary general” as the movement has no clergy, will not comment on the current conflict but explains his community has “a message of peace and unity for the human race.”Gillian says all the pilgrims prayed together on Monday.“It was very emotional considering the situation, we prayed very much for mankind and peace and we hoped for a peaceful resolution for all people.”The British couple, who have left six children at home, have not been in a conflict zone before and have had to adapt to a life of air raid sirens and rocket blasts.Some 700 volunteers and 150 employees work in the luxurious complex, built with donations from the faithful, all white marble and Persian carpets.Followers believe in the coming unification of humanity even if the world must first go through difficult times, such as those that started with the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on July 12.“The world is getting darker and darker, but we have a more long-term vision,” says French architect Daniel Caillaud who has lived in Haifa since 1988.During a visit to the pristine gardens “whose beauty shows the optimism of the Bahais” according to Indian follower Elisa Rasiwala, 53, the air raid siren shrieks once more, heralding the next rocket attack on Haifa.“Our holy places are currently in the middle of the world in every sense. This is the eye of the storm,” says the 59-year-old. “There’s no doubt. The future is promising.”
Comments (0)

WEDDING UNDER ROCKETS

2006-08-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

A rabbi conducts a wedding ceremony for Israeli couple Shlomi Bouskila, 30, right, and Maya Lougasi, 28, second left, inside a bomb shelter where they’ve been living for over a week, in the town of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, Thursday, July 20, 2006. All residents of northern Israel have been ordered by the army’s Home Front Command to stay nearby shelters until further notice.

Thursday July 20, 2006 HAIFA - A fresh Hizbollah rocket barrage across a
swathe of northern Israel killed one person and
wounded at least 14 others, medics said. A man in the town of Nahariya was killed just after
he had helped some of his family into a bomb
shelter and was returning for others when a
Katyusha hit him, Israeli media said. Eli Bein, director of the Magen David Adom
ambulance service, said the sight was reminiscent
of the scenes of suicide bombings as the rocket hit
the man directly. “It is a terrible sight,” he told
Army Radio. Rockets hit at least 12 towns and villages,
including four in Haifa and at least two in
Tiberias. Also hit were Safed, Acre, Kiryat
Shemona, and Gush Halav region near Safed. Israeli military officials say more than 700
Hizbollah rockets have now landed in Israel since
the crisis began, killing 13 Israelis. Israelis, stunned by Hizbollah rocket attacks, have
told pollsters they want their Army to smash the
guerrillas. “We are killing those we need to kill,”
said civilian Hanna Dehan, speaking near Haifa. But in a sign that life goes on even under extreme
pressure, the booms of Hizbollah rockets in Haifa
have not distracted one couple preparing for their
nuptials. Dressed in their full wedding regalia,
Imad Mousa and his fiancee Anita Mishal smiled
sweetly as their wedding photos were taken
overlooking Haifa’s crystal bay. “I am a bridegroom under fire,” Mousa said. “The
noise bothers us, but what is more important than
getting married?” They plan to get married on Saturday in Mousa’s
village of Kfar Yasif in the northern Galilee,
which has also come under attack from the Lebanese
guerrillas. Mishal comes from Haifa and wanted
wedding pictures from her home town. The couple, Arab citizens of Israel, bemoaned the
bloodshed. “War is bad for everyone,” said Mousa. - REUTERS

HAIFA ‘S The peaceful place

2006-08-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

HAIFA ‘S The peaceful place
Filed under: Uncategorized — iahab @ 6:10 am
EPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Haifa, a Model of Arab-Jewish Coexistence, Now a Target By Ori Nir July 21, 2006 Lutfi Mash’ur, the late editor of Israel’s largest Arabic weekly newspaper, al-Sinara, used to say that in the face of Jewish-Arab enmity and violence, he would look to Haifa for hope. It’s hard to know what he would have said this week, as Hezbollah rockets reigned down on Israel’s third largest city, a place where Jews and Arabs live more harmoniously than almost anywhere else in Israel. Haifa has a history of partnership between the two communities, and a mayor who champions equality and works to transform multiculturalism into an asset. As a result, the city has become a model for how Jews and Arabs can come as close as possible to living in “mundane harmony,” to borrow a phrase from Mash’ur, who died last month and was mourned by both Arabs and Jews. Unlike other mixed towns in Israel, Jews and Arabs in Haifa do live together in the same apartment buildings. They work together at the port, at the city’s Rambam hospital and at Haifa University. Some even socialize and celebrate their living together - a rare phenomenon in a country so bitterly divided along Arab-Jewish lines. This week they were huddling together in bomb shelters across town. “The rockets don’t discriminate between Jews and Arabs,” said Dani Neuman, executive director of the Haifa Foundation. Shortly before he spoke with the Forward from his Haifa home, two brothers - both Israeli Arab citizens, the younger 3, the other 7 - were killed by a Hezbollah rocket in the neighboring town of Nazareth. Haifa’s Arabs make up less than 10% of the town’s 250,000 population, but the city has been attracting many young professional Arab citizens in recent years. It is becoming the hip cultural center of the Arab population living in the Galilee The majority (52%) of the 1.16 million residents living north of Haifa are Arabs. And on summer nights - when Hezbollah isn’t showering northern Israel with rockets - the Galilee’s young Arab elite, in fancy cars and trendy clothes, shmooze on Haifa’s David Ben-Gurion Boulevard. At the foot of the Bahai gardens, which ripple from the top of Mount Carmel like cascading Hawaiian leis, Arabs and Jews socialize together, enjoying good food, good company and a gorgeous view. But coexistence in Haifa runs much deeper than the nightlife. The city’s mayor, Yonah Yahav, insists on involving Arab parents in his push to provide excellent public education for their kids (70% of Arab parents still send their children to private schools). He is trying to involve Arabs in city planning, and he celebrates their contribution to the city’s multicultural ethos. Last year, I asked Yahav to explain Haifa’s secret. Without much thought, he replied, “Hasan Shukri.” The legacy of the city’s legendary Arab mayor, who between 1914 and 1920 ruled Haifa as the CEO of a successful Arab-Jewish joint venture, is a tradition of mutual tolerance and mutual respect. In 1948, when thousands of Haifa’s Arabs packed up to flee as the war erupted, members of the city’s Jewish labor federation - the strongest community organization in town - handed out leaflets pleading with their Arab neighbors to stay. Yahav keeps one of those leaflets in his drawer. “There is a history of coexistence, and there is almost no history of trauma here,” Yahav said. “There were no religious wars here. It’s no more than a fishermen’s village that has evolved into a thriving town. That’s all.” But that’s not all. What the government of Israel doesn’t do on the national level, Yahav does locally. Take affirmative action: At the request of Arab parents, the mayor recently opened a democratic school for Arab students. And, his administration is investing more, per capita, in Arab students than in Jewish students. Why? To lure them away from private church-run schools, some of them outside Haifa, and into local public schools. “For me, it’s give and take: Give equality and respect and you’ll receive loyalty,” Yahav said. None of this is to deny that tension between Arabs and Jews runs deep here. Militant anti-Israeli graffiti appears in Arabic every now and then in predominantly Arab neighborhoods, and hate crimes against Arabs have occurred. But these tensions don’t run as deep here as they do in other parts of Israel. It is true that on July 13, a day into the current hostilities, dozens of Arab residents - and a handful of Jews - demonstrated in downtown Haifa against Israel’s attack in Lebanon, to the fury of many Haifa Jews. But when the first rockets hit Haifa, the demonstrators ran for cover in bomb shelters along with everyone else. For the most part, “there is coexistence here, there is integration and practical cooperation in a normal and natural fashion,” said Fathi Marshood, an Arab who directs the Haifa office of the New Israel Fund’s training and empowerment center, Shatil. “It is a place where Jews and Arabs really can work together, argue, have a dialogue of equals and work toward joint interests as equals.” Not many Arabs in Israel can say this about their community relations with their Jewish neighbors. Whether Hezbollah’s rockets will bring Jews and Arabs closer together remains to be seen. On the one hand, both Jews and Arabs suffer casualties, anxiety and material loss. On the other, this crisis feeds into the conflicting national narratives of the two communities. Many Israeli Arabs have relatives in Lebanon. Many of them blame Israel - as much, if not more - than Hezbollah for the suffering on both sides of the border. “This could go both ways,” Neuman of the Haifa Foundation said. And it probably will, simultaneously, as the schizophrenic relations between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel always do. In Haifa, however, when Jews and Arabs return to Ben-Gurion Boulevard, Neuman said, “I expect relations to return to what they have always been. They are resilient enough.”

In Haifa, life is sirens and shelters

2006-07-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

In Haifa, life is sirens and shelters
About half of Israeli city’s residents have fled south

An Israeli policeman escorts a woman and children after a rocket exploded in Haifa on Tuesday.
HAIFA, Israel, July 27 - At the port of Haifa, the parking lots are empty and the docks are vacant. Long chains with hooks at their ends dangle from tall, silent cranes, swaying gently in the Mediterranean breeze. The only sign of life is a white security vehicle making lonely laps.
Nearby, crane operator Nissim Benbenishty, 62, has stopped at the Dagon grain facility to boost the spirits of a co-worker. Of Dagon's 85 employees, only three, all security personnel, are working. The rest have left town or are staying close to home, where they can be with their families and dash into a bomb shelter at the first whisper of an air raid siren.
"Even during normal times, the slightest spark will send the building sky high," he explains. Haifa residents have worried since the current conflict began that a missile strike on the silo could devastate the surrounding area.
In the past two weeks, the radical Shiite militia Hezbollah has fired more than 60 rockets from southern Lebanon at Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and largest port, killing nine people and seriously injuring 13, according to Mickey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel's national police. Since then, about half of Haifa's 270,000 residents have fled south, hoping to get out of range, Rosenfeld said.
"I don't feel good. I don't feel good," Benbenishty says. "We are surrounded by Arab countries that want to annihilate us."
When the sirens scream, he says, people dash to the shelters, and afterward his wife, six children and four grandchildren grab their cellphones to make sure everyone is accounted for. "Our phone bills are going to be huge next month," he says.
Next to the Dagon Silo, the Haifa train station is closed. There is little traffic on the main road connecting Haifa to Tel Aviv, 50 miles south, and most storefronts are shuttered tight.
Amir Ardet, 23, an Israeli Arab minding his family's bakery, waves his hand over platters of sweets and breads. "Everything is delicious, but we have no customers," he says.
"The whole area is office buildings and government workers, and they are either sitting at home or have run off to Tel Aviv, and all the port workers took vacation," he says.
Resigned to their fateThat has left Haifa with a core of people who seem resigned to their fate.
"What can you do?" Ardet says, echoing a familiar refrain. "If I die, I die."
That is not the attitude adopted by Adki Kaplun, 64, his wife, Luda, 61, and their granddaughter Yulia, 10, immigrants from Ukraine who came to Israel five years ago in search of prosperity and now doubt the wisdom of their move.
They sit on plastic chairs in the covered parking lot of their apartment building, near the stairwell to the bomb shelter in the basement. Next to them are handbags with water, food and important documents.
They live on the eighth floor of the building, the elder Kaplun explains, "and since there are lots of sirens, and it's hard going up and down every time they fire at us, we just stay here all day."
As if on cue, a siren begins to screech. Kaplun jumps like he's touched an electric wire, and fear shrouds his face. He screams that everyone must rush to the basement, and people follow suit, from all over the building, down the stairs, through two large steel doors and into the sweltering storage area fitted out as a bomb shelter with a single fan, a few beach chairs, some crayons and a deck of playing cards.
Last Friday, says Annie Nissim, 23, "my husband and I went into town, we heard a siren and ran into a bomb shelter, and when we came out, a rocket had landed right where we were standing when we first heard the siren." Nineteen people were injured, she said. "Since then, we take the sirens very seriously."
Shared traumaIn the shelter, people are talking in Arabic, Russian and Hebrew. Many are immigrants, Nissim says, and their shared trauma and trips to the shelter -- "as many as 12 a day" -- have pulled them all together. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she says.
People start wondering if the alert may be over, but Kaplun anxiously waves everyone back from the open shelter doors. Others arrive, wait a few minutes, then leave when they decide it's safe. Finally, Kaplun resumes his perch outside.
"I want to leave Israel. I just want to get out of here," he says. "Why should I lead my life running around scared that a bomb is going to hit me?"

Just down the street, the famous Bahai Gardens are closed, like so many of Haifa's landmarks. The gardens climb up Mount Carmel in 19 colorful terraces bedecked with marble fountains, conical pines and white rose trees.
Tending the islands of purple petunias and bright pink impatiens, Fade Kanboura, a gardener, seems to symbolize the cultural and religious mix for which Haifa is renowned. He is a Catholic, working for the Bahais, in a Jewish state under attack by radical Muslims.
"Everybody's a target," Kanboura says, laughing at the thought that Haifa's Jews might resent their Arab neighbors for the Hezbollah strikes. "A rocket cannot tell the difference between a Jew, an Arab and a Christian."

No one has anything against the Arabs" who make up about 10 percent of Haifa's population "or the Arabs in Lebanon -- only against Hezbollah," says Moshe Batish, 52, the owner of a curio and antique store in a posh neighborhood at the top of Mount Carmel.
A billboard advertising plays and concerts, since canceled, has been plastered with handwritten placards: "Stay strong and brave," "Stop, smile, everything's for the best," and "The whole world is a very narrow bridge -- the important thing is not to be scared."
20 guests in 222-room hotelAt the Dan hotel, although it is high season, only 20 guests are staying in the 222 rooms, says Berthe Yogev, the room manager. The lobby is empty, the bar is closed, and each place in the cavernous dining room is set, waiting for the first customer.
Nearby, the Educational Zoo is shut, manager Eti Ararat says.
"The animals are locked up in their sleeping quarters because the areas where they usually roam during the day are behind glass, and if that breaks from the Hezbollah bombings, then all the predators such as lions and tigers and bears will go on a rampage through Haifa," she says.
At Carmel Beach, two deeply bronzed men have the seashore to themselves and are playing an aggressive game of paddle ball. Usually at this time of the year, there's hardly space to spread a blanket here.
"How many days can you stay home? One? Two? We are not afraid of Hezbollah" or its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, says Simon Levi, an unemployed 33-year-old who spends every day at the shore but bristles at the term "beach bum."
"Israel invented security," he adds. "When I hear a siren, I run to the sea and go swimming."
Cabin feverShachaf Sabag, carrying a nine-foot fishing pole and red pail, arrives with his 4-year-old son, who is carrying a net. Like many in the city, they have cabin fever: no kindergarten, no summer camp, no activities at all.
"I'm not afraid, I'm worried. Everything is crashing down," says Sabag, 30, who works for Israel's prison authority. "Everything is closing down, people are losing their jobs, and people are afraid this will go on for who knows how long. Some people have even sold their homes and left."
In the distance, sirens start to wail -- a muffled moan that rises and falls on the sea breeze. Sabag puts his arm around his son's neck and tousles his hair. Nothing to fear, the gesture says.
Down the beach, Levi jumps into the water.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

BAHAIS TAKE NO POSITION

2006-07-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

As most people around the world, we have been thinking a lot about the situation that is happening in the Middle East and wanted to share some of our thoughts. It is so important for people to realize that the Baha'i faith is entirely non-political and therefore we take no position on the situation here - or anywhere else in the world. The aim of the Baha'i faith is the establishment of peace and justice for all people, and we believe that this can only come about as each of us works to overcome our prejudices and accept each other as members of one family. The Baha'i Writings state: "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."This is what we are doing here and why we want to stay. Above all we feel confident in our hearts that unity in the world will happen as long as each of us does our part, however small it may be.We wanted to share this prayer that explains our heart-felt hope for humanity:
O Thou kind Lord! Thou hast created all humanity from the same stock. Thou hast decreed that all shall belong to the same household. In Thy Holy Presence they are all Thy servants, and all mankind are sheltered beneath Thy Tabernacle; all have gathered together at Thy Table of Bounty; all are illumined through the light of Thy Providence. O God! Thou art kind to all, Thou hast provided for all, dost shelter all, conferrest life upon all. Thou hast endowed each and all with talents and faculties, and all are submerged in the Ocean of Thy Mercy. O Thou kind Lord! Unite all. Let the religions agree and make the nations one, so that they may see each other as one family and the whole earth as one home. May they all live together in perfect harmony. O God! Raise aloft the banner of the oneness of mankind. O God! Establish the Most Great Peace. Cement Thou, O God, the hearts together. O Thou kind Father, God! Gladden our hearts through the fragrance of Thy love. Brighten our eyes through the Light of Thy Guidance. Delight our ears with the melody of Thy Word, and shelter us all in the Stronghold of Thy Providence. Thou art the Mighty and Powerful, Thou art the Forgiving and Thou art the One Who overlooketh the shortcomings of all mankind.Baha'i Writings

christine and brian's blog: What life is like here

2006-07-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

christine and brian's blog: What life is like here

Haifa, City of Peace

2006-07-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

Haifa, City of PeaceBy Bruce KeslerDemocracy Project July 27, 2006Some partygoers to Beirut may be inconvenienced by the Hezbollah terrorists and their rocket stores and sites targeted by Israel. Meanwhile, the media are silent about what is targeted in Haifa by Hezbollah.
What few are told by media reports is that Haifa is the chosen home of one of the world’s most pacifist sects, the Baha’i, a model of Arab-Israeli coexistence, and source of many of the world’s scientific breakthroughs for health and technology. In short, it represents everything Hezbollah opposes. Haifa represents the imagined future supposedly so dear to Western anti-war, really anti-Western civilization, activists who hypocritically speak of what a wonderful world it would be without Western defense against terrorists.
As the secretary-general of the Baha’i International Community in Haifa, with its gorgeous temple and Babylon-like gardens, says:
"Hizbullah would think it pretty neat if they destroyed our temple"… "Shi'ites consider a Baha'i an apostate who can be killed for nothing," said Lincoln. "There are 350,000 Baha'i in Iran. They are excluded from higher education, including the last year of high school. If a Baha'i is killed in a traffic accident he is ineligible for compensation, because a Baha'i's life is worthless." Members of the Baha'i community have been persecuted, and sometimes killed over the years by Muslims, especially by Shi'ites.
The Baha’i are a special target of Hezbollah’s Iranian taskmasters, even recognized by this latest U.N. report.
It’s not just Shia or Iran who hate the Baha’I for their faith, but others like Sunni-majority Egypt who detest its peaceful ways and persecute them.
Haifa is known as the center of Arab-Israeli constructive relations.
For the most part, “there is coexistence here, there is integration and practical cooperation in a normal and natural fashion,” said Fathi Marshood, an Arab who directs the Haifa office of the New Israel Fund’s training and empowerment center, Shatil. “It is a place where Jews and Arabs really can work together, argue, have a dialogue of equals and work toward joint interests as equals.”
There’s a history to this. When Arab states told their fellows in the Mandate to leave while Arab armies crushed the new Israel (then festered their hatreds and let them languish in squalid camps for decades), Jewish leadership in Haifa said stay:
The legacy of the city’s legendary Arab mayor, who between 1914 and 1920 ruled Haifa as the CEO of a successful Arab-Jewish joint venture, is a tradition of mutual tolerance and mutual respect. In 1948, when thousands of Haifa’s Arabs packed up to flee as the war erupted, members of the city’s Jewish labor federation — the strongest community organization in town — handed out leaflets pleading with their Arab neighbors to stay. Yahav keeps one of those leaflets in his drawer. “There is a history of coexistence, and there is almost no history of trauma here,” Yahav said. “There were no religious wars here. It’s no more than a fishermen’s village that has evolved into a thriving town. That’s all.”
Surely, there are Israeli Arabs who fearlessly support Hamas or Hezbollah, but their true fear is demonstrated by they have not put their feet where their mouth is by moving to Gaza or Lebanon, to leave the country that provides them the most rights and opportunities in the Middle East.Then there’s Technion, one of the world’s top-ten scientific research and development sites in the world:
Known as "Israel's MIT," the Technion has earned a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in electronics, information technology, water management, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials engineering and aerospace. It is one of just 10 universities in the world that build and launch satellites. It is also one of only five similar institutions worldwide that include a medical school, encouraging progress in the rapidly developing science of biotechnology. The Technion is a recognized leader in stem cell research. It is one of only 15 academic institutions and companies worldwide approved by the National Institutes of Health for government funded research.Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and others have established their operations near or even on campus, where they can take advantage of the Technion's research power and outstanding graduates.
Hold your breath waiting for the CNN Special on Haifa, or the New York Times’ feature article, comparing its contributions to the world's hopes to the hopelessness that comes with the terrorists' agenda.

BAHAIS IN EGYPT

2006-07-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Current Situation
Deprived of all rights as an organized religious community since 1960, the Bahá’í community of Egypt today faces a fresh crisis that aims to utterly destroy it as a viable religious community.
The current crisis stems from a Government decision, now being implemented, to computerize the national identity card system. The system has been set up to exclude Bahá’ís, depriving them of valid ID cards, making them virtual non-citizens, without access to employment, education, and all government services, including hospital care. Individuals without a valid ID card would even be unable to buy groceries from state markets. Already, a number of Bahá’í young people are currently without valid ID cards, a situation that has forced them out of universities and the army, placing them precariously on the margins of society.
Of equal concern, Bahá’ís have in recent months faced an upsurge in religious prejudice in Egyptian society at large. A number of attacks on Bahá’ís have been published in 2004 and 2005 in the Government-controlled news media. Likewise, in recent years, Muslim clerics in Egypt have issued “fatwas” against Bahá’ís.
A Bahá’í community of thousands, when the 1960 Presidential Decree was issued banning its activities, now shows some 500 members who are under strict and constant police surveillance. Periodically, their homes are searched and Bahá’í literature is taken away and destroyed. As Bahá’ís cannot legally marry, the entire community is without legal recourse in matters involving family allowances, pensions, inheritance, divorce, alimony or custody of children. The climate of hatred also creates a social stigma that affects education and employment.
ID Card Crisis
The immediate crisis concerns the Government’s computerization of the national identification card system — an interesting conjunction of modern technology and the oppression of a religious minority.
All citizens must carry ID cards, which must be presented not only for any type of government service, such as medical care in a public hospital or processing for a property title or deed, but also to obtain employment, education, banking services, and many other important private transactions. ID cards are also required to pass through police checkpoints, and individuals without such cards are accordingly deprived of freedom of movement.
In Egypt, ID cards require a statement of religious affiliation. Moreover, the system allows for one of only the three recognized religions of Egypt — Islam, Christianity, or Judaism — to be entered.
Bahá’ís have long refused as a matter of principle to falsely list themselves as Muslim, Christian, or Jew. Not only would such a step constitute committing fraud against the state, but such a denial of faith would effectively play into the hands of those who seek to eliminate the Bahá’ís in Egypt. Accordingly, Bahá’ís have simply left the religious affiliation slot blank, made a dash, written “other,” or even sometimes boldly listed “Bahá’í.” With the old paper ID cards, Bahá’ís were thus able to obtain cards and survive as individuals in Egyptian society.
In the 1990s, the Government announced it would be upgrading its identification card system by issuing computerized cards that would be less susceptible to forgery. This, the Government indicated, would help to combat militant Islamic unrest, and improve data collection and access. The Government indicated the shift to the new system would be gradual, but set January 2005 as the deadline for everyone to have the new cards — a deadline which has apparently been extended to 2006.
The system has apparently undergone modifications since it was set up. In 2003, for example, four Bahá’ís sought and obtained new computerized cards in which the religious affiliation field listed “other” — a designation to which the Bahá’í community does not object. More recently, however, the software has been updated so that only one of the three recognized religions can be entered. If the field is left blank, the computer refuses to issue the card.
The Bahá’í community of Egypt has approached the Government on numerous occasions to plead for a simple change in the programming, if not the law, so that they could be issued valid ID cards under the new system. Such pleas, however, have been met with rejection and refusal.
Accordingly, all members of the Egyptian Bahá’í community face the prospect of being left wholly without proper ID Cards by the year’s end — a situation in which they would essentially be denied all rights of citizenship, and, indeed, would be faced with the inability even to withdraw their own money from the bank, get medical treatment at public hospitals, or purchase food from state stores.
Already, the Government has asked young people to start coming in for the new cards, and a number of Bahá’í youth have accordingly been stripped of paper identification cards. Once stripped of ID cards, Bahá’í youth essentially become prisoners in their own homes, since the authorities often set up evening checkpoints to verify the identity of young men. Individuals without proper ID face detention. Likewise, young people without ID cards are denied entrance and continuing enrollment in colleges and universities, as well as service in the armed forces.
Given the Government’s refusal to make what would be the simplest of programming changes — such that the cards could be issued with a blank religious affiliation field or perhaps with the word “other” — one can only conclude that the ID card situation is in reality an attempt to further marginalize and eliminate the Bahá’í community of Egypt.
At one point, for example, Government officials offered Bahá’ís the possibility of using passports in lieu of ID cards — a ploy that would set the Bahá’ís apart or even drive them from their homeland. There is concern, as well, that refusing to list Bahá’í in any kind of national identification database enables the Government to officially proclaim that there are no Bahá’ís in the country.
Set against the burgeoning call for freedom and democracy in the Middle East, the Egyptian ID card “scam” offers an interesting twist in human rights oppression: the use of modern technology to nullify a community of one of the most progressive and peace minded religious groups in the Middle East.
Attacks in the Media
All this comes against bland denials by the Egyptian Government that the Bahá’ís lack fundamental human rights — rights which are ostensibly outlined in the Egyptian Constitution and definitively specified in international human rights agreements to which Egypt is a party. Indeed, the Government and its media have launched what amounts to a public campaign of the character of a chimera, proclaiming their adherence to the principles of human rights by publishing a series of inaccurate and negative articles about the Bahá’í Faith. No opportunity is given for the Bahá’ís to respond.
On 23 July 2004, for example, a weekly magazine, Rose el-Youssef, published a lengthy article insinuating that the Bahá’í Faith was a “dangerous” force in Egyptian society.
Under the defiant headline “The Bahá’ís in Egypt enjoy all rights of citizenship,” the article claimed that Bahá’ís in Egypt have no human rights problems. “The Bahá’ís feel no threat or danger,” the article asserted, while at the same time noting that Bahá’í institutions are banned because they are “dangerous.” The article’s defensive tone was apparently inspired by the July 2004 visit of the United States Committee on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which in fact did meet with members of Egypt’s Bahá’í community as part of their investigation of religious freedom in Egypt.“What is strange is with regards to the Bahá’ís, they are not suffering any persecution in Egypt,” the article said, referring to the inquiries made by the USCIRF.
Yet the bulk of the article went on to misrepresent Bahá’í teachings and practice. It was claimed, for example, that the Bahá’í teachings “cause strife and differences” among its believers; it asserted that Bahá’ís threaten the unity of Egyptian society.
The writer seemed to feel no need to check even technical facts readily available in libraries or through the Internet. The article states that the Faith, which is established in over 200 countries, is limited to only 35 nations, “mostly the United States of America and Israel.” The article also named as the representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations a man who has been dead since January 2001.
On 1 August 2004, similarly, Nisf El Dunya magazine published the first installment of a two-part article that also started by mentioning the July 2004 visit of the USCIRF. Once again, the article defended the Government’s human rights record on the Bahá’ís, saying “Egypt does not know of any persecution of the followers of any denomination or religious sect…”
However, the article went on at considerable length about how the Bahá’í Faith is a “schismatic faction from under the cloak of Islam.” It also repeated old but false attacks on the Bahá’í community of Egypt, implying that they were once spies for Israel and, previous to that, agents of British colonialists.
Fatwas against the Bahá’ís
The Bahá’í community of Egypt has also faced persecution and harassment from the religious orthodoxy in Egypt. Over the years, the Faith has been the subject of at least 15 “fatwas” that deride the Faith as a heresy and accuse its followers of apostasy, a charge which is punishable by death under traditional Islamic law (Shariah).
Most recently, for example, on 15 December 2003, a fatwa by the Islamic Research Academy of the well-known Al-Azhar University described the Bahá’í Faith as “a lethal spiritual epidemic in the fight against which the state must mobilise all its contingencies to annihilate it.” The statement goes on ominously to demand “those [Bahá’ís] who have committed criminal acts against Islam and our country must disappear from life and not be allowed to announce their deviation from Islam.”
Past fatwas have made similar pronouncements — and they have been repeated and reported on in the press, further fuelling the air of discrimination and oppression faced by Bahá’ís in Egypt.
Although the situation of the Bahá’ís of Egypt has certain parallels to the on-going persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran, there are a number of differences: the community is much smaller (and therefore more vulnerable); the restrictions on activities are more explicit (spiritual and administrative institutions and all forms of assembly are banned); and the persecution comes at the behest of a secular government, albeit one that must pay political heed to the cross-currents of Islamic traditionalists.
What is similar to the situation in Iran is the profound hatred long expressed by Muslim orthodoxy towards the Bahá’í Faith.
Less than non-entities
Against this backdrop, the continuing refusal of the Government to rescind the 1960 Presidential Decree banning Bahá’í institutions is made all the more ominous by the new threat involving computerized identification cards.
As noted, ID cards in general are required to receive virtually any social service. Over the years, Bahá’ís have managed to obtain legitimate ID cards by simply leaving the space designating “religion” blank — something that was possible with old style paper cards.
But once the computerized system is fully operational, if there is no change so as to allow Bahá’ís to register, a change that could be as simple as allowing “blank” or “other” to be input, the Bahá’ís of Egypt will become non-entities — or worse.
In January 2002, for example, an Egyptian Bahá’í went to a Civil Affairs Office to obtain a new ID card. The official refused to accept the form after noting the space indicating religion had been left blank. The Bahá’í was sent to a Directorate level office where he was handcuffed and blindfolded, and ultimately detained for five days. During that time, he was interrogated on such questions as “How did you become a Bahá’í?” and “What are the names of other Bahá’ís?” At one point during the interrogation, the officer took out his pistol, loaded it, and threatened the detainee, saying “Do you know what the penalty for apostasy is?” At another point, the officer said, “You have to be frank with me, or else I shall electrocute you, or break your bones.”

EXCLUSIVE: HANGED FROM A CRANE AGED 16

2006-07-27T03:36:00.000-07:00

23 July 2006
EXCLUSIVE: HANGED FROM A CRANE AGED 16

EXCLUSIVE JUSTICE IRAN STYLE: SICK GIRL EXECUTED BY JUDGE SHE DEFIED Her crime? She had sex with an unmarried man
By Susie Boniface
IT WAS exactly 6am and the start of another blisteringly hot summer day when 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi was dragged from her prison cell and taken to be executed.
Every step of the way the troubled teenager plagued by mental problems shouted "repentance, repentance" as the militiamen marched her to the town's Railway Square.
The Iranian judge who had sentenced Atefeh to death was left unmoved as he personally put the noose around her neck and signalled to the crane driver.
Kicking and screaming, Atefeh was left dangling for 45 minutes from the arm of the crane as the crowd sobbed and - under their breath - damned the mullahs.
Atefeh's crime? Offending public morality. She was found guilty of "acts incompatible with chastity" by having sex with an unmarried man, even though friends say Atefeh was in such a fragile mental state that she wasn't in a position to say no.
But Judge Haji Rezaii was determined she should hang, regardless of the rules of international law which say only adults over 18 can be executed, and that the courts have a duty to children and the mentally ill.

The brutal end to Atefeh's short life has shone a new light on Iran's Shariah law, where adultery, theft and rape all carry the same punishment - death. Officially around 100 people - some just children like Atefeh - are executed each year. But human rights groups say the true figure could be much higher in a country where only half of the women can read, only one in 10 have a job and two-thirds are beaten in their homes.
Life was never easy for Atefeh, who was brought up in the industrial town of Neka, 250 miles from Tehran and close to the Caspian Sea. Her mother died when she was a child and her father Ghasseem, a heroin addict, left her grandparents to bring her up. She suffered from bi-polar disorder, which led to severe mood swings from hyperactivity to depression. Worried parents told their children to stay away from her - something many regret now. "Perhaps we should have helped her instead," said Hamid. "I think the death of her mother had a devastating effect. Before that, she was a normal girl. Her mother was everything to her. After she died, there was no one to look after her."
Mina, a childhood friend, said Atefeh was abused by a close relative. "She never dared talk about it with an adult," said Mina. "If she had told her teacher they'd have called her a whore. Tell the police? They lock you up and rape you." Atefeh first appeared in court, accused of having sex with an unmarried man at 14. Over the next two years she was accused of the same crime with different men.
They denied it and were sentenced to the lash and then released. But Atefeh pleaded guilty and each time received 100 lashes and a prison term. Mina said: "Atefeh sometimes talked about what these 'moral' Islamic policemen did to her while she was in jail. She still had nightmares about that. Atefeh said her mood swings made it easy for men to take advantage of her, and that most of her lovers were in the security force."
Two of them were members of the anti-vice militia. They encouraged other men to sign statements saying Atefeh had engaged in vice, and even claimed she had AIDS.
It was when Atefeh appeared before Judge Rezaii for a fourth time that she lost her temper - and also her life. In a rage she tore off her hi jab - a headscarf - and told the judge she had been raped and it was his duty to punish her tormentors, not their victim.
Rezaii told her she would hang for her "sharp tongue" and that he would put the noose around her neck himself. It became a personal crusade as he travelled to Tehran and convinced the Supreme Court to uphold his verdict.
Two petitions by her friends, saying she was mentally unwell, were ignored. Her father produced her birth certificate proving she was 16. Yet the judges "decreed" she was 22.
Atefeh also wrote to the Supreme Court: "There are medical documents that prove I have a weak nerve and soul. In some minutes of the day and night I lose my sanity. In a society where an insane person can be serially raped it is no wonder that a person like me is the victim of such an ugly act."
The day before she died she wrote again, saying: "Repentance, repentance, repentance." In Iranian law anyone who shows remorse has an automatic stay of execution and a right to appeal, but she was ignored.
A local pharmacist watched Atefeh's execution "She looked so young standing there," he said. "Rezaii must have felt a personal grudge against her. He put the rope around her neck himself. I looked around and everyone in the crowd was sobbing and damning the mullahs." The family's lawyer has now filed a suit of wrongful execution against the judge and is preparing a murder case. Her life is also the subject of a secretly filmed documentary, Execution of a Teenage Girl, which will be screened on BBC2 on Thursday.
One of Atefeh's teachers said the authorities wanted to make an example of her: "She wouldn't take injustice from anyone, but the mullahs equate these qualities in a girl to prostitution and evil. They wanted to give all the girls and women a lesson."
Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: "The killing of Atefeh is a catalogue of the most appalling human rights violations. The public hanging of a child, believed to be mentally incompetent, totally beggars belief. To hang a child flies in the face of all that is humane."
CRUELTY OF SHARIA LAW
PENALTIES imposed by Iran's religious mullahs include:
THEF T: Amputation of hands or feet for persistent offenders.
ADULTERY: Death by stoning.
UNMARRIED SEX: 100 lashes.
CONVERSION TO RELIGION OTHER THAN ISLAM: Death.
SODOMY: Death for adults, 74 lashes for consenting child.
LESBIANISM: 100 lashes, or on the fourth occasion death.
HOMOSEXUAL KISS: 60 lashes.
RUBBING ANOTHER MAN'S THIGHS OR BUTTOCKS: 99 lashes - on 4th occasion, death.
susie.boniface@sundaymirror.co.uk

TOP NEWS-----MIRROR OF THE WORLD

Nelson Evora

a BAHAI gold winner---- Triple Jump World Champion

Baha'i Faith in Egypt

a student blog

the little bahai hero

the little bahai hero

Universities Install Footbaths to Benefit Muslims, and Not Everyone Is Pleased

Go big or go home

Jack Lenz has been making music for decades, Michael Posner writes. Now he's in the business of promoting Canadian talent with a large new studio facility in Thorncliffe Park

NEVER FORGET

tsusami and earthquake in solomon island

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/2121876

Bahai faithful unshaken by rockets in Israel

WEDDING UNDER ROCKETS

HAIFA ‘S The peaceful place

In Haifa, life is sirens and shelters

BAHAIS TAKE NO POSITION

christine and brian's blog: What life is like here

Haifa, City of Peace

BAHAIS IN EGYPT

EXCLUSIVE: HANGED FROM A CRANE AGED 16