CNN.com posts another article on the arrests of the Baha'is in Iran

CNN.com has just posted an exceptional follow up article on the recent arrests of the Baha'is in Iran.

Iran 'plans to destroy Baha'i community'

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A top Baha'i official has criticized Iran's claim that the six imprisoned leaders of the religious minority were held for security reasons and not because of their faith.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has been accused of trying to eliminate the Baha'i community.

Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, called Iran's assertion "utterly baseless."

"The allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue," Dugal said on Wednesday, quoted in a news release issued by the Baha'i movement.

"The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha'i community, and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this plan."

Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the people were detained for "security issues" and not their faith, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency said.

Elham said on Tuesday that the Baha'is were members of a group working together "against national interest."

"The group is an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," he said.

The arrests of the six last week and another Baha'i leader in March sparked sharp condemnation by the Baha'is, the United States, Canada, the European Union and humanitarian groups.

The Baha'is say the latest arrests are part of a pattern of religious persecution since 1979, when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created in the predominantly Shiite nation.

The Baha'is say they have been killed, jailed and "otherwise oppressed" only because of their religion.

"The best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam, an option few have taken," Dugal said.

Read the rest of the article >

Powerful response by the Baha'i International Community to the recent arrests in Iran

Last week, the Iranian government arrested 6 leaders of the Baha'i community for working "against the state’s interests...not for their faith".

The Baha'i International Community has just issued a very powerful response to the allegations and clearly outlined the Iranian government's campaign against Baha'is -- a campaign undertaken in the hopes of wiping the Baha'i community in Iran out.

Please read this news article to get an good understanding of how wide-ranging and insidious their efforts have been:

Read the full article >

Commemorating the Birth of the Baha'i Faith -- and remembering a history of persecution....

As 7 leaders of the Baha'i community in Iran are being held in the notorious Evin prison on the patently false charge of "acting against the national interest", tomorrow Baha'is around the world will be commemorating the birth of their Faith 164 years ago in Iran. The presentation below gives a very abbreviated account of this event, which transpired in a modest home in Shiraz -- a house that was destroyed by the Iranian government in 1979.

It is ironic that while Bahai's revere Iran as the birthplace of their religion and wish the very best for the its people -- the government has been engaged in a concerted campaign of cultural cleaning against the Baha'is there...

Click here to see the presentation >

Dramatic and chilling video of the China earthquake

This video from CNN reminds me in some ways of the amateur footage of 9/11. It's a powerful testimony of what it was like for those who faced this disaster. Please be aware however that some of this footage is quite intense and disturbing...

An incredible story of survival

Here is the very moving account of a couple who survived after being buried together in the China earthquake:

In Rubble, Couple Clung to Each Other, and to Life >

Tree near the Shrine of the Bab

This is a Jacaranda tree near the Shrine of the Bab -- with a bougainvillea vine that grows around it. It has not looked this beautiful in the 3 years that we have been here...

A little known environmental problem

This was a surprising article on "ghost nets" -- fishing nets that are lost at the sea and continue to catch and kill marine life. It's great that something is being done about it finally...

Ireland to hunt nightmare fishing nets in north Atlantic

A photo from India

India 4101
Originally uploaded by Departure Lounge

This is another great photo from Ryan Lash. He has a way of finding such beauty in the saddest places. The colors in this photo stand in contrast to the despair in this boys face and in a way provide a sense of hope...

...an indication of the growing sense of the unity of humankind

The situation in Myanmar is so sad -- both in the destruction caused by the cyclone and the difficulty in getting help to the people there. This article in New York magazine gives a good picture of the tireless efforts by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It demonstrates how far we have come in the past 100 years -- for no matter how distant a catastrophe is from us, we have learned how to respond quickly and energetically to assist.

Over 100 years ago Baha'u'llah stated "The well-being of humanity, it's peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established". To me this means that until we see every member of the human race as our family we cannot truly resolve the problems that plague us. In crises like those in Myanmar and China we see the world drawing closer to this reality -- where we can empathize with the sufferings of other--no matter how far they live from us or how different they are in culture or language.

I also have to admit that I like the the simple reference in the article to Baha'is trying to donate money to the relief efforts (in the second paragraph). In a numerical sense, the Baha'i Faith is still quite small and unable to make a big difference in lending physical (or financial) support to these kinds of crises -- but so many individual Baha'is and communities around the world do their best to help in whatever way they can -- from feeding or providing clothing, helping with childcare or re-establishing schools and basic infrastructure. Assisting humanity is an integral element of being a Baha'i, for as Baha'u'llah said: "Be anxiously concerned about the needs of the age ye live in..." and "The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life..."

Guess what I found in the NY Times achives?

I was searching the archives for the New York Times and found this wonderful article from 1992 with references to a couple of people that I didn't know then -- but have since had the great fortune to become friends with.

...And one person especially that I was VERY fortunate to marry 3 years later :-)

Baha'i Faithful Prepare for World Congress

"...Some 30,000 Baha'is from around the world are expected at the four-day gathering, which marks 100 years since the death of the Baha'i prophet, Baha'u'llah. It is only the second world congress in the history of the faith; the first was in London in 1963. There are five million Baha'is in the world, 110,000 of them in the United States and fewer than 1,500 in the Greater New York area.

Brad Pokorny, a spokesman for the Baha'i gathering, said New York was chosen because it is the home of many races and religions. "We want to show the world that there can be unity out of this diversity," he said."

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"...One dancer, Frank Robinson Jr., a 24-year-old student from Plainville, Conn., wore a bandanna around his head. He said that Baha'is accept the larger culture as long as "it doesn't remove you from God."

"Our goal is to have salvation in the world, not in isolation," he said. "If we were to live in isolation it wouldn't do the world much good."

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"...Baha'is reach out through periodic home gatherings they call Firesides. At one such meeting earlier this week in Highland, N.Y., near New Paltz, N.Y, 18 men and women sat in Christine Krug's living room. Dan Nossa, 18, spoke about the Baha'i notion of "progressive revelation," which contends that God sends messengers to earth in each era and that the prophecy of each builds on that by predecessors."

Read the whole article here >