Blogger: The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights
Article: This network featured on BBC Persian
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-20 13:16:01

Our intiative has made its first media appearance on BBC Persian (Farsi)

Translation: Formation of a Muslim Group in Defense of the Rights of Baha’is

Na’im Sobhani
BBC-Persian, Washington

For the first time on the internet, a group of Muslim youth has established a site called “the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights.” This site closely monitors the conditions of Baha’is in Egypt and Iran.

That a group of Muslims—made up social activists and liberal students from Arab countries—has exposed the plight of Baha’is is seen as a significant development by human rights advocates.

“The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights” is not based in any specific country, nor does it have an office or staff.

This internet group has made known its goal of attaining civil rights and basic freedoms for Baha’is in the Islamic and Arab worlds.

On their website, they closely follow and discuss all the latest news on the Baha’is in the Islamic world.

The founder of this internet project is Esra’a Shafei, young woman from Bahrain.

Esra’a states that she is a believing Muslim and has no connection with Baha’is. However, as a Muslim, she believes it is necessary to respect the rights of this religious minority.

This Bahraini student added that she has purposefully named the group “Islamic” to attract the attention of Muslims.

However, this step has stirred a great deal of debate. According to Esra’a, “They ask me why I am doing this? Why are you working against your own religious identity? They even accuse me of being a traitor and a Zionist. 70 percent of the reactions I have thus far received have been of this nature.”
Esra’a, who is only 20 years old, adds that such reactions will not dissuade her. She states that she closely follows the condition of Baha’is in Iran and Egypt.

It is believed that there are some 500 Baha’is in Egypt.

In the 1960s, their religion was declared illegal by order of Jamal Abdul-Nasser, the former president of Egypt. Until this day, Baha’is are considered “apostates” in Egypt.

The Iranian constitution also refuses to officially recognize the Baha’i religion—one of the largest non-Muslim minorities in this country. The Baha’is of this country face extensive limits on work and education.

The founder of “the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights” believes that most people in the Arab world know very little about the Baha’is: “When I talk to my friends about the Baha’i faith, they tell me that it is a satanic religion. I ask them to provide me with one of the principles of this religion, but they have no answer. Some think that the Baha’is are a sect of Shi’i Islam which is also a mistake. They don’t know anything about it, but they are nonetheless suspicious of its followers.”

This Bahraini youth is convinced that the most successful societies in the world today are those which—notwithstanding the diversity of religions and ethnic groups within them—are able to preserve their unity and respect the rights of their minorities.

John Wall, a professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University in Washington DC, agrees with this view. But he believes that in an age of globalization, one can’t affix the label of religious minority to any one religion: “In this day and age, everyone is considered a minority. Even Christians, who constitute the largest religion in the world, are a minority in certain countries. Muslims are the majority in the Middle East, but are considered a religious minority in Europe. Sunni Muslims, for instance, face difficulties in attaining permission to establish mosques.”

Mr. Wall provided a positive assessment of the fact that a Muslim group has for the first time taken up the problem of Baha’i rights. According to him, the efforts of individuals such as Esra’a, a Bahraini student, can help in promoting human rights and inter-faith dialogue in the Middle East.

Blogger: Jewschool
Article: Rapture Ready
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-30 11:48:14

Source.

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Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Yemen Chief Rabbi ‘believes in Muhammad’
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-30 07:17:00

Has the Chief Rabbi of Yemen become a Muslim? The mind boggles at this statement which appeared in the Arabic newspaper Al-Thawra on 27 July.(With thanks: Kyle, and to Iraqijews for summarising it).

The Chief Rabbi of Yemenite Jewry Yahia Ben Yaish Ben Yahia says that he has a 54- part Torah scroll more than 500 years old which he inherited from his father. He claims that the scroll mentions the prophecy of the prophet Muhammad - the same as is written in the Koran. He says that he believes in Muhammad as much as he believes in Moses and in other prophets of God.

Read article in full (Arabic)

Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Liberals Under Attack… by Fatwa!
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-17 17:21:44

“Calling oneself a liberal Muslim is a contradiction in terms … one should repent before God for such ideas in order to be a real Muslim.” “He who wants freedom with only the controls of man-made law has rebelled against the law of God,” a prominent Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Fozan said last month.

The fatwa said that liberal in this context meant “freedom which is not subject to the bounds of sharia (Islamic law) and which rejects sharia laws, especially concerning women…”.

My God.. as if we need such a statement that will yet create a bigger gap between the majority whom are the religious extremists and the liberals in Saudi Arabia. Such statement suggests liberals are not real Muslims and is a clear implication of violence against them, at least this is how some extremists see it!
I have been checking a few web-sites on the subject, to my surprise (me being so gullible) I found many who have been just waiting for the green light to attack!

As you might have noticed, women issues are the focus of such debates! women rights=infidels!

Many liberals feared their lives after hearing this statement which forced Al-Fozan to clarify his fatwa in Al-Riyadh local Saudi newspaper.

This is part of the article by Reuters on the subject

Fozan was recently forced to issue a clarification in Saudi newspaper al-Riyadh after Islamists hailed the fatwa as a declaration that liberals are infidels. He said pronouncing someone an infidel was a separate issue in Islamic law.

Such declarations, called takfeer in Arabic, are sensitive because al Qaeda militants fighting U.S.-allied governments in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and elsewhere in the region use the idea to justify their campaign of jihad, or holy war.

“Radicals say ‘Sheikh Fozan has issued the fatwa and we should act accordingly’, which is a little alarming,” said Hamza Mozainy, a well-known critic of the Saudi system, referring to Islamist Web sites that welcomed the fatwa.

Novelist Turki al-Hamad, a long-time target of Saudi Islamists, also said the fatwa could lead to violence.

“Even if his (Fozan) intention is not calling for violence, the implication is violence,” Hamad said.

Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment has for long focussed its attention on the word “secular”, which most Saudi reformers now avoid, but “liberal” has gained currency in its place.

Liberal and Islamist reformers both call for parliamentary elections limiting the desert country’s absolute monarchy.

But many liberals also want to see clerical influence rolled back, with, for example, Saudi Arabia’s religious police force disbanded and an end to strict gender segregation.

“When they hear ‘liberalism’ they perceive it as a form of moral corruption. They don’t know it’s a whole philosophy concerning freedom of the individual,” Hamad said.

“These fatwas are a kind of defense mechanism against this spreading idea.”

Blog, General, Islam, Middle East, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Society

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Blogger: View from Iran
Article: Stoning is Murder
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-13 23:22:00

Stoning is murder… plain and simple. The question this reporter asks is Who did it?

Click here for the full account at Women’s Field. Here’s an excerpt:

I start walking towards the foothills. It’s about a kilometer away. The ground is strewn with rocks and stones, and heaps of dirt that could be filled pits. I look around. Don’t see anything. I return to the village and walk around the streets. This time there are young people who answer my questions in more detail. Finally, one of them agrees to take me there. He goes directly to the spot where the filled pit is. Points it out. It’s obvious they’ve been here before. We go nearer.

Stones and rocks with dried up curdled blood lay around the heap. Some are splashed with blood. Some are so black and red with blood, you know right away what they were used for. Stunned, I ask, “You mean they threw these stones? These are way too big”. He shrugs his shoulders.

It’s difficult to survey this site but I manage to shoot a few picture and bit of footage. It’s not so much that the stones might’ve been bigger than prescribed. It’s that the large size of the stones they used means the executioners were not much concerned with following the letter of the law for a proper stoning. They just wanted to go though with it.

I ask: who was trowing the stones? Did you see them?

- No. But I don’t think it was the police themselves. They were milling about away from the spot. If they were throwing it, you’d see.

- Then who was it?

- Don’t know.

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Boutros Ghali Concerned With Egypt’s Image in the World
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-15 17:48:00

Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and currently the President of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) was interviewed recently by Egypt’s government-owned weekly magazine Al-Mussawar. The article was published in the Magazine’s 6 July 2007 issue.

The interview revealed Ghali’s deep concern for the status of the Baha’is in Egypt. He pointed out that Egypt recognizes three religions only: Islam, Christianity and Judaism; that 51% of the world’s population does not belong to any of these three religions. This creates a huge problem for Egypt when confronted with matters concerning some citizens of Egypt, such as the Baha’is, other residents of Egypt such as the Chinese, and visitors in Egypt such as Japanese tourists. He stressed that Egypt’s current position implies that it does not recognize the religions of 51% of the world’s population.

He also indicated that Baha’is in particular face major challenges in Egypt because of their inability to obtain ID cards, and that he has been in close contact with three attorneys from California who are working with him on finding a solution to the Baha’i case. This has led to his negotiations with Egypt’s Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly. One solution would be the elimination of religious classification from Egyptian ID cards.

He expressed his concern with Egypt’s image in the outside world because of its treatment of Baha’is, whose “large numbers in America cannot be ignored.” It appears that he was misquoted when the magazine reported that he said that there are “about 6 million Baha’is in Chicago.”

This appears to be a significant development regarding the Baha’i case in Egypt. Ghali’s views, however, have been the same since this crisis began approximately a year ago, and that opinion did not seem to influence the government’s position thus far. Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights is a consultative body appointed by the Egyptian government, but it is not empowered with decision-making authority. It advises the government and the President who subsequently have the final say in whatever recommendations are put forth by the Human Rights Council.

Blogger: Chaldean Thoughts
Article: Saving Issa’s Life
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-11 20:48:00

Ankawa Online brought the ordeal of Issa Adil to my attention, a 16-month-old Iraqi Christian baby from Al-Dora district in Baghdad.

As if life isn’t hard enough for an Iraqi Christian living in Al-Dora, Issa’s family must deal with young Issa being diagnosed with cancer.

I’m simply tired. Before publishing Issa’s story, I told myself it’s selfish to write about one sick baby when other

Blogger: Virtually Islamic
Article: khaleejtimes.com, Shariah scholar stresses need to…
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-13 11:17:00

khaleejtimes.com, Shariah scholar stresses need to form mega Islamic institution, 13 July 2007 “A renowned Shariah scholar has emphasised the need to establish a mega Islamic institution with the participation of all major players in the global market to address the most daunting challenges like liquidity and risk management being faced by the Islamic banking industry.” Refers to Shaikh Nedham

Blogger: Persecution of the Baha’is of Iran
Article: More persecution, this time in Sari
Originaly Posted On: 2007-06-23 11:07:00

Blogger: View from Iran
Article: Question 6: How are other Muslim/Arab countries in the middle east seen by Iran?
Originaly Posted On: 2007-07-11 22:18:00

…(allies - opponents)?

Thanks to reader Phillip for the great question. I cannot answer this authoritatively. All I can say is that for the most part, the Iranians I met do not like to see themselves as part of the Arab world. They are fairly racist against Arabs, claiming that the Arabs have no culture.

The Arabs I met in Iran also seemed to find Iranian culture foreign and odd. “This is not an Islamic country,” they would tell me. “Every Iranian party has alcohol. At private parties, the women remove their hijab!” Yep.

An Ahwazi Arab-Iranian told me that during the Iran-Iraq war he dreaded hearing the propoganda from both sides. The Iranians, he told me, claimed that the Arabs were dirty and blood-thirsty and the Arabs claimed the same thing about the Persians.

After an earthquake in a Sunni-dominated area, the Iranian government refused to accept aid from many of the Sunni Arab countries. Why? They were afraid that the aid would come with radical ideas and were afraid of the radicalization of the Sunni population. This angered the local population because they felt that they were being denied help… but it did not radicalize them.

I think relations among Iran and the Arab/Muslim world are very delicate. The alliances that exist are not very strong. I have actually heard people in Iran argue that they would be better off forming an alliance with Israel. (Not that we will see anything of the sort anytime soon).

Some references:

The Persian Gulf States

(I hope to add more as I find them. If readers have suggestions, please add them. Thanks)