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

A special announcement, issued in the morning, by the family of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá’ís of Haifa, gave the public the news of His passing and of the funeral arrangements for the following day. However, [e]arly on Monday morning . . . the news of this sudden calamity had spread over the city, causing an unprecedented stir and tumult, and filling all hearts with unutterable grief.

In the afternoon this statement appeared:

We all belong unto God and unto Him do we all return. The Islamic Association announces with much regret the passing of the highly-learned, greatly-erudite, generous benefactor, His Eminence ‘Abdu’l-Bahá ‘Abbas. His bier will be carried from His home, to-morrow, Tuesday, at 9 o’clock in the morning. You are requested to accept this announcement as a special invitation to assemble for His funeral procession. May God immerse Him in His boundless mercy, and grant solace unto His family and His people.

In the land that we know as the Holy Land, in all its turbulent history of the last two thousand years, there had never been an event which could unite all its inhabitants of diverse faiths and origins and purposes, in a single expression of thought and feeling, as did the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Jews and Christians and Muslims and Druzes, of all persuasions and denominations; Arabs and Turks and Kurds and Armenians and other ethnic groups were united in mourning His passing, in being aware of a great loss they had suffered.

Hand of the Cause of God H.M. Balyuzi
‘Abdu’l-Baha – The Centre of the Covenant, p. 452

After a “nail-bitingly tense” vote on a no-action motion (NAM) tabled by Iran—which failed by 1 vote—the UN’s Third Committee finally approved a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Iran. Thanks to Barney for the heads up and for some insightful commentary on the issue.

NEW YORK—A committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution today expressing “deep concern” about “ongoing systematic violations of human rights” in Iran.

Put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 41 other countries, the resolution took note of repression and persecution aimed by the Iranian government at groups ranging from women and women’s rights defenders to the news media and labor groups, as well as various ethnic and religious minorities, including Iranian Baha’is.

The resolution passed the General Assembly’s Third Committee by a vote of 72 to 50 with 55 abstentions on 20 November 2007. The vote essentially assures passage of the resolution in a final vote by the entire Assembly scheduled for December.

Its passage followed a call by Iran for “no action” on the motion, a vote that itself failed by 78 to 79, with 24 abstentions. That vote, also taken today, was seen as an important test of the General Assembly’s will to examine human rights issues in specific countries when warranted.

“We are pleased that the General Assembly did not shy away from its responsibility to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, as identified in the U.N. Charter,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

Read the whole story.

Robert Henderson is a lifelong Baha’i and member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States. He and his wife, Paula, recently gave an eloquent and beautiful interview for a programme on a public access cable show in Chicago; there’s a short clip on YouTube. This brief excerpt from an hour-long interview gives a quick overview of the Baha’i Faith and its spiritual teachings—good for forwarding on to those spiritual seekers who are looking for a new answer to humanity’s age-old problems.

Update: There’s yet more… check out the newly-posted part 2 on Youtube.

Here’s wishing all the fans and readers of doberman pizza a happy celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh. 190 years ago, a new day dawned and a new sun rose from the horizon of Persia to illuminate the whole world. Last night’s celebration in Ottawa was pretty epic—over 700 people attended! Here’s a video presentation that was shared as part of the celebration.

people at the Ottawa Baha’i Centre, sharing stories about teaching the Baha’i Faith during the Varqa Teaching Project. One had an hour-and-a-half-long conversation with an eighty-year-old woman who, while seeming hostile at first, warmed up immediately once she realized what the Baha’is were there to discuss—they continued on to share a good part of Anna’s presentation; another couple visited a middle-aged woman and stayed for two hours building friendship with her. fifty people participated in the project, young and old, men and women.

Happy celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh! Right on time, the Baha’i International Community has launched a new website that serves as a pictorial history of the life of Bahá’u'lláh. you should see it, especially if you’re planning to go on pilgrimage soon.

it’s been just about a year since my family returned from our pilgrimage to the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel—in the midst of my now-busy life, looking back on the traces of that sacred journey brings back a lot of memories and a lot of longing.