Sunday, December 31, 2006

Egypt: The Baha'is With Another Court Date

The Daily Star - Egypt of The International Herald Tribune published an article on 23 December 2006 reporting on another case for the Egyptian Baha'is to be decided in court on 23 January 2007.

This case is in regards to an ongoing three year litigation concerning the 13 year old twins named Emad and Nancy. Their Baha'i parents have been attempting to acquire Egyptian birth certificates for them.

The children were born to their Egyptian parents in one of the gulf States, and were issued birth certificates from that country which were certified by the Egyptian consulate, but since they now reside in Egypt they are required to present Egyptian birth certificates in order to attend school.

The Daily Star article reports again on the controversy regarding the Baha'i identification matter in Egypt. It presents the arguments put forth by those who insist on their flawed point of view, and the rumor-mongering being propagated by these extremists. Furthermore, the reporter presented the response by some of the Baha'is interviewed and their clarification of the issues at hand.

In the printed version of the report, a separate article entitled "A brief look at the Baha'i Faith" was also published as a compilation done by "The Daily Star Egypt staff." Both articles can be seen by clicking on the accompanying images. The article published on the newspaper's website can be accessed here....

The compilation published by The Daily Star staff quotes from the following passage:

"...'Abdu'l-Bahá expounded, with brilliant simplicity, with persuasiveness and force, and for the first time in His ministry, those basic and distinguishing principles of His Father's Faith, which together with the laws and ordinances revealed in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas constitute the bed-rock of God's latest Revelation to mankind. The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind -- these stand out as the essential elements of that Divine polity which He proclaimed to leaders of public thought as well as to the masses at large in the course of these missionary journeys...."
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 281)

10 comments:

  1. It still amazes me that these Mullahs are still clinging to their superstitutions.

    I wonder if these same mullahs were cheering when their fellow religionists flew those jet airplanes into the World Trade Center on September 11 2001...and were cheering when ever another homicide bomber blew them selves up inside a bus filled with tourists in various places?
    I know they do not represent the true teachings of the Prophet Mohammed but nevertheless in the view of many Americans who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ
    Why should they not view these people as uneducated barbarians?

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  2. what a beautiful quote to be publihed. It speak volumes and is so profound. At last the great majority of Egyptians and people in the of the middle East are getting exposed to the contagious message of Baha'u'llah.Egyptians who read this quote will find it hard to understand why Bahais are treated the way the are.Anyone with a sane mind will support the ideals in the quote or may at the worst declare them utopian.

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  3. Anonymous-1,
    One cannot make assumptions, and it would be important not to generalize, otherwise we can fall into the same kind of trap that is being criticized. It is hoped that there are still some enlightened and moderate Sheiks and Mullahs in the main two sects of Islam. I do not think that mainstream clergy would promote the kind of destruction you are referring to.

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  4. Anonymous-2,
    There is nothing more convincing than the revelation itself. One always needs to return to the authentic and original words rather than listen to rumors and misrepresentations. Intellectual honesty demands nothing less than that!

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  5. If they do exist then they need to raise their voices to contradict thes foolish and absurd allegations!

    and if they DO NOT then they are just as bad by just turning the other way in ignoring this egregious miscarriage of justice!

    O SON OF SPIRIT!
    The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

    (Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

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  6. Anonymous-3,
    Rest assured that these allegations are, and have always been, consistently and staunchly refuted by the Baha'is. As you may well know, they are entirely baseless. That might not stop those who make the allegations from repeating their own rhetoric, which has been the same for the past 160 years or so towards the Baha’is. Every emerging Divine religion has been subjected to the same pattern of allegations and persecutions, but they all have survived that stage.

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  7. Asalam alaikum, dearest friend. We want you to know that we support the
    Bahai struggle for rights in Egypt. Peace, .....

    Blog: The Rose Sufi Crescent
    Post: Quran Surah 2:23 (Rumi, Ibn Arabi and Baha'ullah)
    Link:
    http://rose-sufi-crescent.blogspot.com/2006/12/quran-surah-223-rumi-ibn-arabi-and.html

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  8. The Rose Sufi Crescent,
    Thank you for your sincere interest and support.

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  9. These children who do not have birth certificates have done nothing wrong. Even if being a Baha'i is a crime, children are innocent. Why punish children for the lofty beliefs of their parents is not fathomable to me!

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  10. Educator,
    You raise a very important point...it is also a shame that this has to go that far, i.e. having to go to court to get birth certificates for ones children, let alone not being able to provide these innocent children with essential services such as vaccination and education! Egypt should be ashamed of herself in letting this get that far.... Where is reason, and where is justice?

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