doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

Want a snapshot of the situation of the Bahá’í community over in the Middle East? Baha’i Blog has been faithfully watching not only the situation of the Baha’is of Iran [1] [2], but also that of the Baha’is of Egypt [1] [2]. The Baha’i Faith not being recognized as a religion in Egypt, Egyptian believers are asked to choose either “Muslim” or “Christian” for printing on official government documents. Of course, most (if not all) refuse, which means Baha’is living in Egypt can’t be issued identification such as birth certificates - which means they can’t legally marry, obtain passports, collect pensions, benefit from public health care, and so on. A group of Baha’is initiated a lawsuit to attempt to correct this injustice, in the hopes of gaining some official recognition of the Faith.

At last glance, the situation was this: Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court suspended a ruling by a lower court that would have allowed Baha’is to identify themselves as such on their official documents. This isn’t entirely surprising, seeing as rampant rumours, misinformation and outright lies have led many in Egypt (and elsewhere in the Middle East, including Iran) to believe that the Bahá’í Faith is either: (a) a Zionist political group or (b) spies for colonial and/or imperialist powers or (c) a danger to Islam or (d) all of the above. Sad.

Once you’re done scanning through Baha’i Blog, visit Marco Oliveira’s response to an Egyptian blogger who posted a fair bit about the Egyptian Supreme Court ruling. A subsequent set of emails from an anonymous Egyptian Baha’i hints at the seriousness of the clamour currently surrounding the Baha’is in Egypt.

Read more about the persecution of Baha’is in Egypt, or about the persecution of the Baha’is of Iran.

Last Monday was the celebration of the Declaration of the Báb, one of the most auspicious holy days in the Bahá’í calendar. In Ottawa we tend to do things big (bigger than a breadbox) so obviously a big hall was rented for the Monday evening and lots of people around the city invited their friends and kindred to come out and enjoy the celebration together. Well, oddly enough, 7:00 comes along and we (Marty, Matt Fillmore, Payam and I) get a call from Vafa warning us that the holy day has been cancelled. We were skeptical, so we kept on going to check it out.

Sure enough, we got to the hall and it was all locked up, with people standing outside talking, visiting with friends, and scratching their heads. Apparently there was a serious mix-up, and the hall’s caretaker never showed up to unlock the doors.

I love the way the Baha’is handled the fallout, though. Nobody blew up - the celebration was rescheduled for the next day in the homes of several individuals across town, and those people who had invited friends just took them out for coffee instead. A bunch of us went to nearby Bridgehead Coffee on Richmond Road. And rather than being angry at the caretaker, most of us were worried that he had had a heart attack or a tragic accident or something. It was a beautiful display of flexibility and detachment from all involved. Kudos to the Ottawa Spiritual Assembly’s Feast and Holy Day Committee for making the most out of what must have been a logistical nightmare. See a video of the festivities that ensued (WMV, 15MB), including an impromptu performance by the Ottawa Baha’i Choir!

And that’s it. Since we’re on the topic of funny stories, I think you all need to read about the Three Little Pigs and the Study Circle.

From the Baha’i World News Service (BWNS), about the recent arrests of Baha’i youth in Iran:

54 Baha’is arrested in Iran

NEW YORK, 24 May 2006 (BWNS) — Iranian officials have arrested 54 Baha’is in the city of Shiraz, the Baha’i International Community has learned. They are mostly youth and were all engaged in humanitarian service when they were arrested. It is one of the largest number of Baha’is taken at once since the 1980s. The specific charges are not clear, though in the past, Baha’is have been arrested summarily on false charges.

The nature of the charges against the Baha’is is unknown at this time. […]

Read the entire article.

Update: “After their arrests on 19 May in Shiraz, Iran, three Baha’is remain in jail while 51 others have been released on bail. No indication has been given as to when the three will be released. None of those who had been released, nor the three who are still being detained, have been formally charged.” Read the rest of this update.

Addendum: This story was also blogged at Baha’i Blog.

if you spied with your little eye the front page of the National Post last Friday, you were probably shocked to see a headline announcing that Iran was soon to adopt a system of coloured badges to identify religious minorities. After some confusion for the rest of the day as your average joe struggled to determine the truth of the story, it gradually became apparent that the headlines were mostly hype based on partial information.

Excerpted from Baha’i Blog (read the post, links and all):

On Friday, Canada’s National Post put up a story claiming that the government in Iran had just passed a law requiring all religious minorities to wear coloured badges to identify themselves. The story was picked up and swirled around by just about everyone including Yahoo, MSNBC, and others. Now, based on information from, well, just about everyone in the world, it seems that it all came out of a draft law aimed at encouraging Islamic dress. And while many are worried about the law in its current form, there is no mention of religious minorities in it.

Among those who stepped up to clarify the situation were numerous Western journalists based in Iran, as well as Iran’s only Jewish member of parliament. The National Post’s follow-up story to the (now-defunct) original story cites Sam Kermanian of the U.S.-based Iranian-American Jewish Federation with regards to the alleged marking of religious minorities:

[Mr. Kermanian] said in an interview from Los Angeles that he had contacted members of the Jewish community in Iran — including the lone Jewish member of the Iranian parliament.

“But to the best of my knowledge the final version of the law does not demand any identifying marks by the religious minority groups.”

Strong reactions were quickly felt across the globe after news of the story spread; The Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Ambassador to Iran was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. The Post’s current editor-in-chief, Douglas Kelly, ran a column in Wednesday’s paper explaining what happened and apologizing for the error. From the AP/Yahoo story (see also the Reuters story on the same topic):

“We acknowledge that on this story, we did not exercise sufficient caution and skepticism, and we did not check with enough sources,” Kelly wrote. “We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed relief at the clarification of the badge story, while maintaining a sense of concern regarding Iran’s stance on Israel, among other things. The Globe and Mail caught up with him at a speech on Wednesday (same link as above):

“I’m glad to hear that the government of Iran is not considering this,” he said.

“We continue to take issue with the government of Iran on these matters.”

Bahá’ís worldwide celebrate the Declaration of the Báb tonight - that moment, two hours after sunset on May 23rd, 1844, at which the very first light dawned over the horizon of a new Revelation, ushering in a new age.

Read about the Báb.

Read the story of His Declaration in The Dawn-Breakers.
(See also: a version with pictures.)

for the past while, I haven’t been able to find my camera, a Canon PowerShot A610. it was last seen in my pocket at some kind of Baha’i meeting - possible candidates are Counsellor Scott’s youth talk on the 5th, or maybe even Ridván. I haven’t been bringing it out a lot anyway because I’ve been so busy, but I do remember bringing it to a talk just in case I wanted to take pictures (which I don’t remember doing) and, well, I haven’t seen it in a while so I must have taken it out at some point and left it somewhere. The last photos I took with it were from April 13th, so I know I lost it between then and May 13th, when I first realized it wasn’t around.

If you’ve seen or picked up a camera lately and don’t know who it belonged to, please e-mail me, grab me on IM or give me a call. Otherwise I’ll have to start posting boring junk to my flickr site instead of photos of exciting events and, um, my cat :(

Here’s an article from the Baha’i World News Service that describes the participation of various faith communities (including the Baha’i community) in a high-tech equipment recycling program down in the States.

Collecting “e-waste” is an interfaith effort

MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN, United States, 11 May 2006 (BWNS) — Just nine years old, Eve McCowen was dwarfed by the huge piles of unwanted electronic equipment that quickly accumulated in the parking lot of the Messiah Lutheran Church on Earth Day 2006.

The effort collected more than 300 tons of “e-waste” — electronic equipment like television sets, computers, VCRs, and the like that are not otherwise easily recycled — from various sites in across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a sparsely populated region north of Lake Michigan.

Goodness knows, we need less e waste in this world. [in-joke. -d]

Read the entire article.

following up on Sam Benoit’s comment on the ‘bridgehead’ post, here are a few of my favourite vegetarian recipes. FYI, I used to be a vegetarian, and am still quite sympathetic to vegetarianism - and have been thinking about returning to that simple, balanced way of life recently. I’ll tell you all sorts of stories about how I came to put my vegetarianism on hold, though. Just ask me. I dare you.

• kashke bademjoon - one of the greatest persian dishes of all time, and (sadly) one of the few vegetarian ones. (apparently there’s a vegetarian ghormeh sabzi recipe - neat huh?)
• potato and pea curry - a favourite indian dish. I also tend to make a nice curry with sweet potatoes and broccoli… maybe I’ll post it sometime. btw, indian food is my favourite type of cuisine.
• misir wot - or miser wat, or whatever. an ethiopian lentil dish; basically, as the recipe says, “spiced lentil mush”. the secret is in the berbere sauce, an african spice mix that can be difficult to find in North America (it’s worth it, though)
• potato knishes - whenever I stop at a local bagel shop, I always grab a few knishes on the side. Potato knishes are the most common, but I’ve seen knishes filled with things like spinach, cabbage, and broccoli too.
• artichoke and sundried tomato pizza - a mouth-watering mediterranean combination that packs a punch. try making it yourself - it should turn out less greasy than delivered pizza.
• spinach lasagna - everyone loves vegetarian lasagna - even marty!

BTW: Are all Bahá’ís vegetarian? No, but the Bahá’í Writings look upon vegetarianism in a very positive light. Bahá’ís don’t have special foods associated with rituals or ceremonies; we eat all sorts of things, depending on where in the world we live. Check out some pictures of Bahá’í food.

Counsellor Scott’s talk went off quite well. About sixty people showed up, a mix of parents, teachers, members of institutions, children and youth. Part of the talk reprised points and ideas that were discussed at the meeting with the youth on the 5th, and that formed the conceptual framework necessary to understand the lines of action in the newest Five Year Plan. The focus at this meeting being the education of children and junior youth, we spent time discussing concepts related to the state of our education system and the state of children’s education in our community.

The talk made all of us question the sort of education we provide to our children—is it really enough to talk about virtues we “should be” manifesting, and go straight on without teaching related skills and developing in children the will to manifest those skills, or without practicing them in a safe, loving and encouraging environment? Is it enough to teach our children to be “relatively” excellent, whereas Shoghi Effendi exhorts the Bahá’ís not to “content themselves merely with relative distinction and excellence”? Are we teaching our children to be merely good citizens, or are we teaching them to be agents of change that will transform the society around them?

I’ll definitely be doing some thinking, particularly since I’m involved in a Bahá’í children’s class (recently featured on Baha’i Views. cool, huh?). Sometimes I really feel like I’m learning everything from the ground up. These questions have profound implications for the way I serve, the importance I place on these weekly classes, and the attitude I cultivate about my role in the process. Food for thought from the Writings:

Blessed is that teacher who shall arise to instruct the children…

Among the greatest of all services that can possibly be rendered by man to Almighty God is the education and training of children…

According to the explicit divine Text, teaching the children is indispensable and obligatory. It followeth that teachers are servants of the Lord God, since they have arisen to perform this task, which is the same as worship. You must therefore offer praise with each breath, for you are educating your spiritual children.

I apologize for the dearth of picture posts lately. For some reason, I can’t seem to find my camera. I just hope I didn’t go out somewhere, put it down and forget it (which does happen). Anyway, I’ve updated my list of photosets and posted a few (old) pics to my flickr site. if you use Google Earth, go here and type in my flickr username (dragfyre) to download a network link (.kml file) that will show you all my geotagged flickr photos. Each photo will appear at the place on the earth where it was taken. cool huh?

if you’re in the Ottawa area and you’re involved in children’s classes, you may want to come out to Harmony Gardens for a meeting with Counsellor Dan Scott tomorrow (Sunday, May 14) from 7-9 PM (read more). Parents, teachers, Ruhi Book 3 graduates and anyone who has the slightest interest in the spiritual and moral education of children and junior youth are urged to come hear the Counsellor speak. This means you. There’s plenty of room for everybody. Have your dinner, put your coat on, and drive over. Bus #2 stops right in front of Harmony Gardens; it’s about ten minutes from Blair station. Catch the 6:30 PM bus from Blair, and you should be there in no time (or catch the 7:00 PM bus, but arrive ten minutes late!!!!)

oh, and Ottawa’s out of the NHL playoffs :P

Bridgehead is an Ottawa-based chain of coffeeshops (or coffeehouses) featuring organic, fairly-traded coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate. I discovered them a while back, but rediscovered them lately when one of the co-founders of Otesha came to talk at the Howden fireside (and that’s a whole other story!). Bridgehead has six coffeehouses in Ottawa, including their newest coffeehouse that just opened up at Bank & Albert. Yes, that’s smack dab along most of the main bus routes going downtown - so if you’re taking the bus, whether to Carleton University, Ottawa University, or, hey, anywhere - you can take five minutes and fill your travel mug with hot, fresh, organic, fairly-traded coffee (or tea, or cocoa, etc) and be sure that the people who grew and harvested the coffee beans (or tea leaves, or cocoa beans, etc) were paid a fair wage and didn’t have to burn their skin on toxic pesticides. How cool is that? Give it a try.

Disclaimer: Bridgehead is not rewarding me in any way for this endorsement (not even in coupons or discounts). Think of this post as you would Marty’s rants about Quizno’s - it’s just me raving about something I really enjoy in life and want to share!

look alive, it’s tonight… make your way over and join us! let’s show Counsellor Scott how ready we are to “storm the gates of heaven” and throw our lot in to the work of the Five Year Plan!

We may well emulate Bahá’í youth whose recent surge forward into the van of proclamation and teaching is one of the most encouraging and significant trends in the Faith, and who storm the gates of heaven for support in their enterprises by long-sustained, precedent and continuing prayer. We are all able to call upon Bahá’u'lláh for His Divine, all-powerful aid, and He will surely help us. For He is the Hearer of prayers, the Answerer.

Addendum: The meeting was powerful, inspiring and challenging… the call to arise and serve was given - and one of the most simple and practical ways we can arise is to go through the sequence of Ruhi courses, and make sure we get the practice done! Visiting people in their homes, studying prayers with them, and offering our service in the core activities (study circles, devotional meetings, children’s classes, and junior youth groups) - that’s where it’s at… One thing that really stuck out for me: we grow spiritually the more we try to change the society around us… we can’t grow spiritually by just talking or sitting at home. If we want to really fulfill our life’s purpose and become better people we have to go out into the world, serve, teach, try our best to reflect the names and attributes of God, and little by little change the way things happen around us.

Want to get involved in a study circle and take those first few steps? Get in touch with Martin, Sahba or Ayafor and they will gladly help hook one up.