Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Egypt’s Ministry of Interior Will Not Appeal Ruling on Baha’is
Originaly Posted On: 2008-04-01 05:38:00

Egypt’s Ministry of Interior has announced, through its sources, that it will not appeal the 29 January 2008 administrative court ruling that allowed the Baha’is of Egypt the issue of ID cards and birth certificates.

Based on its interview with sources in the Ministry of Interior, an article in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper revealed the news today. It states that the Ministry has approved the ruling and decided not to appeal even though the law permits it to do so.

Its opportunity for appeal had already lapsed since, under Egyptian law, the defendant is entitled a period of two months to file an appeal. The Ministry had elected not to do so based on its assessment of the merits of the case and that the ruling has provided the government with a reasonable option to solve this complex matter.

The Ministry will issue ID cards without religious identification indicated, or with “–” in the religion field. The Ministry affirmed that “this does not imply that it recognizes the Baha’i religion.”

At this point, the responsible government agency will start issuing ID cards to those whom the ruling applies to. It did not research yet the possibility of granting ID cards to others who request no mention of religion in their documents.

The same article reported also on the issue of religious identification on official documents required for high school graduation exams. The Ministry of Education source stated that the students will be given the choice to be either examined on Christianity or Islam. The question of what the students will be allowed to enter–as religion–in the application forms remains to be resolved.

Blogger: Persecution of the Baha’is of Iran
Article: بهائیان ایران در سال ١٣٨٦
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-08 13:11:00

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: ‘The Jews are gone forever from Lebanon’
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-11 09:15:00

The Talmud Torah school in Wadi Abu Jamil, 1951

In this interview with Ronnie Chatah for Now! Lebanon, one of the last remaining Jews in Beirut, Lisa Srour, tells it like it is: Jews will never be accepted as Jews in Lebanon as long as there is conflict with Israel. Unlike some, who delude themselves that the community is about to rise phoenix-like from the ashes, Lisa is brutally realistic: the Jews are gone forever.

Blogger: Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Article: Is hating Islam the same thing as hating Muslims?
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-13 11:24:09

According to Iman Kurdi, it is.

An excerpt from her article:

I don’t hate Muslims. I hate Islam.” Of course, these are not my words and certainly not my sentiments. They are the words of a Dutch politician. I will not reveal his name, because I do not wish to pander to his need for media attention.

But his words exist; they are in the public sphere. In a newspaper interview this week, he calls Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture” and goes on to say that “Islam is something we can’t afford any more in the Netherlands. That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams…Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.”

This is the response that I sent to the author:

Dear Iman,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your very well written article, “Hating Islam is the same thing as hating Muslims.”

Based on your article I would also like to put my finger on a few more points. Many people paint Muslims as “enemies of freedom of speech,” especially considering the ongoing fiasco with the Danish cartoons. What they don’t understand is that many Muslims actually support the free speech of others as long as it is done respectfully and without directing hate towards us or inciting violence, even if their opinions go against the very core of our beliefs. I do think that a prime example of this is the Muslim supporters behind FreeKareem.org

As you probably know, Kareem is an Egyptian blogger and former student of Al-Azhar University who not only criticized Islam, but insulted it, compared our revered Prophet (saw) with pedophiles and war criminals, and got 3 years in prison for it (and 1 year for insulting the Egyptian president, making it 4 years in total.) So it is not very common to find a Muslim in support of Kareem due to the viciousness of his posts. But I believe it’s also a part of our faith to guide and have mercy on such people, and to also support them as their views don’t change the fact that they are our brethren. Kareem is in many ways hated amongst the religious Muslim communities within Egypt and beyond, and I personally receive a lot of death threats for having associated myself with this campaign, which is rather successful in terms of publicity. But even after a full year of directing the campaign, I still think it’s imperative that more Muslims do this type of thing. Because I think I am not only serving the cause of free speech, but also Islam, by showing the world that there ARE Muslims who support you even when their religion is viciously attacked like this, that we accept criticism and defend people’s right to express it.

I do not think Kareem was hateful in any way towards Muslims and never incited violence against them, even if he despised the religion itself and referred to us as being “misguided.” Here, I challenge your view that hating Islam and Muslims is the same thing. I am a Muslim, and consider myself to be a close friend of Kareem’s, who has become like a brother to me. I have many other ex-Muslim friends who loathe the religion, but treat me as their friend.

So here we get into another topic; perhaps it only seems as if hating Islam and Muslims is the same way if an inexperienced, ignorant foreigner would associate radical Muslims with the entire religion and its followers and thus resort to hate speech against us. But technically in our region, where many ex-Muslim atheists or converts or harsh critics of Islam reside, we cannot use this same argument because these people come from Muslim families or are close to their Muslim friends and for the most part have first-hand experience (many of which are unfortunately traumatic, due to ill-practiced “versions” of what people like to call “Islam,” but by definition is not.)

I know I lost a lot of respect from my family, friends, and Muslim societies in general for supporting Kareem and his ilk. It is worth paying that price. I think more Muslims should defend criticism, as well as the rights of other minorities (BahaiRights.org is a very important initiative based on the same premises) who are abused in our societies in the name of Islam. It’s our job to. For example before loudly denouncing Islamaphobic cartoons, we should take a look at our own series of anti-Semitic, xenophobic, racist cartoons that are flooding our newspapers on a daily basis across the Arab and Muslim world. If we don’t treat others with respect, and if we don’t pick at our own flaws before blaming others for all our faults, then why should we expect respect and acceptance from others? I believe we spend too much time defending ourselves against all foreign critics, and not focusing on what we do to our ethnic and religious minorities as well as to each other, which, frankly, is far worse by comparison.

Essentially I am not disagreeing with your article at all, but I am just offering a different perspective, one that I think is not really explored in the more “mainstream” Muslim media.

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Blogger: Chaldean Thoughts
Article: Chaldean Bishop Rahho Kidnapped In Mosul
Originaly Posted On: 2008-02-29 20:45:00

Source: Ankawa Online

Ankawa Online reported Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Bishop of Musul was kidnapped this afternoon. Bishop Rahho was kidnapped when he left his home after attending Stations of The Cross at The Holy Spirit Chaldean Church in Mosul. His driver and two bodyguards were killed at the scene by unidentified kidnappers.

This is another setback to the dwindling Iraqi Christian

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Egyptian expresses condolences for massacre
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-09 17:39:00

Samy Cohen is an Egyptian-born Jew now living in Tel-Aviv. From time to time, he has corresponded with a lecturer at an Egyptian college he has never met, trying to avoid politics as far as possible in order not to get his correspondent into trouble with the authorities. Imagine his astonishment then, when, in the aftermath of the Merkaz Harav massacre in Jerusalem, this email arrived in his inbox:

I am writing you this email, Samy, to express my deep sympathy and send you my condolences concerning the criminal attack against the innocent students in the Jerusalem school.

I do condemn the killing of innocent civilians everywhere including the Palestinian children in Gaza, but at least this last crime is intentionally and deliberately meant against the little innocent kids, in all brutality and in an attempt at providing more fuel for hatred and the mutual killing.

I don’t even believe the criminals who did meant to avenge the dead among Palestinians; I believe they are simply hungry for more blood and wish the Israelis engage in the killing of more civilians too. All they want is war and hatred, without which, they will lose their grasp of the few deceived Palestinians who still believe in them.

They do not want an Independent Palestinian State next to Israel. All they want is the establishment of a fundamentalist Theocratic Princedom in Gaza, from which they set out to invade the rest of the Arab world! Please, accept my condolences and tell your fellow Israelis that there are several Egyptians who believe that such crimes are simply nothing but crimes. Take care.

This heartening little display of sympathy got me thinking:

Samy took care to remove the author’s name from the email. It is a pity that honourable Egyptians - despite their peace treaty with the Zionist entity - are not expected - or even allowed - to express their sympathies with Israel or Jews in the current climate of virulent anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Samy felt the need to protect his Egyptian friend, but what might have happened if he had not? At best, the Egyptian would have have been embarrassed before his friends and colleagues. Worse, sacked. At worst, arrested. At the very very worst, lynched.

Have the Arabs always been incorrigibly hostile to Israel and the Jews? The media love to describe the Arab-Israeli conflict as ‘intractable’: Arab hostility is a natural, even understandable reaction to the creation of Israel.

But it was not always thus. Arabs were not, from the very beginning, ipso facto hostile to the Zionist project.The Feisal-Weizmann agreement, signed in 1919, shows clearly that they welcomed it.

In the words of Matthias Kuntzel, author of Jihad and Jew-hatred:

“They (The Arabs) hoped that Jewish immigration would boost economic development thus bringing the Middle East closer to European levels. For example, Ziwar Pasha, later Egyptian Prime Minister, personally took part in the celebrations of the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

“Five years later Ahmed Zaki, a former Egyptian cabinet minister, congratulated the Zionist Executive in Palestine on its progress: “The victory of the Zionist idea is the turning point for the fulfilment of an ideal which is so dear to me, the revival of the Orient.”

“Two years later the Chairman of the Zionist Executive, Frederick H. Kisch, travelled to Cairo for talks with three high-ranking Egyptian officials on future relations. These officials “were equally emphatic in their pro-Zionist declarations”, noted Kisch in his diary. All three “recognized that the progress of Zionism might help to secure the development of a new Eastern civilization.”

“In 1925 the Egyptian Interior Minister Ismail Sidqi took action against a group of Palestinians protesting against the Balfour Declaration in Cairo. He was at the time on his way to Jerusalem to take part in the opening of the first Hebrew university.

“Twenty years later scarcely anything remained of this benevolent attitude. In 1945 the worst anti-Jewish pogroms in Egypt’s history were perpetrated in Cairo.

“Around 1925 the Jews were an accepted and protected part of public life in Egypt: they had members of parliament, were employed at the royal palace and occupied important positions in the economic and political field; 25 years later, all that was in the past: in 1945, the worst anti-Jewish pogroms in Egyptian history took place. My book analyses “the reasons, why, between 1925 and 1945, a shift in direction was effected in Egypt from a rather neutral or pro-Jewish mood to a rabidly anti-Jewish one, a shift which changed the whole Arab world and affects it to this day.” (my emphasis -ed)

Two things had happened to turn Arab attitudes upside-down. The first was the appointment by the British of the viciously judeophobic Mufti of Jerusalem as leader of the Palestinians. The second was that Nazism inspired an exclusivist and authoritarian form of Arab nationalism on the one hand, and spawned the virulently Judeophobic Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood on the other. Hamas is of course the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.

And so we come full circle. How comforting that there are still decent and honourable Muslims who object to what is being done in their name.

Blogger: Baha’i Faith in Egypt
Article: Decree-263 and the Persecution of Egyptian Baha’is (Part-2)
Originaly Posted On: 2008-03-05 16:08:00

This series on Decree 263 and its impact on the rights of the Baha’is of Egypt began in this previous post. The entire report is cited from a publication by the Baha’i International Community on the persecution of this religious minority in Egypt. Pictures are added by the author of this blog.

The Decree and International Law

By any moral standard, the Decree is unfair and unjust. The principles of the Bahá’í Faith stress obedience to duly constituted governments, and the Bahá’ís of Egypt, in keeping with the teachings of their Faith, do not and have never become involved in partisan politics. They are committed to non-violence. They desire only to be recognized as full citizens of their country, actively promoting the progress and advancement of Egyptian society at large. The persecution and discrimination they face comes only because of their religious beliefs.

Baha’is of Alexandria, Egypt (circa 1940)

In theory, the Egyptian Constitution upholds freedom of religious belief. However, The Egyptian Supreme Court issued a decision in 1975 that upholds the Decree. The Court characterized the Bahá’í belief system as “evil,” immoral, and a threat to public order. As the “Constitution guarantees the freedom of practice only to those religions recognized by Islam, i.e., Judaism and Christianity,” the Court concluded that: “Belief in the Bahá’í Faith is considered apostasy. Therefore, the practice of that Faith is against Public Order, which is essentially based on Islamic Law (Shariah).”

However, religious discrimination such as that faced by the Bahá’ís of Egypt is clearly counter to international human rights treaties and covenants to which Egypt is a party. Specifically, Egypt was one of 48 members of the United Nations that in 1948 jointly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which recognizes that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” including the right “to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance,” either alone or as a community.

Moreover, Egypt in 1982 ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, an international treaty that further codifies the rights outlined in the UDHR. The Covenant even more clearly spells out the right to freedom of religion, stating in Article 18 that:

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to

3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

While Egyptian Government officials have told the United Nations that the “public order” provision of Article 18 applies in their refusal to recognize the Bahá’í Faith as a legitimate religion, international human rights experts have rejected Egypt’s argument and stated that Article 18 clearly applies to Egypt in the case of the Bahá’ís.

Egyptian delegation to signing of Universal Declaration of Human rights, San Francisco, USA (10 December 1948)

In 1993, for example, the UN Human Rights Committee that oversees implementation of the Covenant, said this about Egypt’s compliance under the treaty in relation to Bahá’ís:

“[T]he Committee is worried about restrictive legal provisions existing in Egypt with regard to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, assembly and association. Restrictions not in conformity with article 18 of the Covenant regarding various religious communities or sects, such as Bahá’ís, are a matter of particular concern.”

The Bahá’í Faith is, of course, widely recognized as an independent world religion, clearly falling under the terms of the Covenant. And even if Egyptian statements that the Faith is an apostasy were to be accepted, it would nevertheless be no excuse under the framework of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Through the years, Bahá’ís have fought for their rights in the courts — with no success. They have also sought to deliver corrective statements to the press, virtually none of which have been published. Representatives of the Bahá’í International Community have also sought redress for their co-religionists in Egypt at various international forums. Bahá’ís can only guess at the reasons for the Government’s unresponsiveness.

Some of the fatwas also wrongly connect the Faith with Zionism and/or colonialism — buzzwords that seem calculated to incite hatred.

To be continued….

Blogger: Point of no return
Article: Last Algerian Jews left as late as 1967
Originaly Posted On: 2008-02-24 13:50:00

The vast majority of Algerian Jews left with the French in 1962 in the wake of the Algerian War, but Benaya BenHamou’s family stayed on in Oran. They remained another five years until conditions were so unsafe that even their Muslim friends were advising them to leave. Benaya told his story to Point of No Return.

“It always stuns people when I tell them that not all Algerian Jews left when Algeria became independent.

My family sided with the Algerians in the late 1950s, when the FLN asked all Jews to choose (between the Algerians and the French). There were only about 1,000 Jews in Oran. My father was well-loved in the city. We thought that nothing would happen to us. But in 1965 Islamists spread rumours about Jewish spies working for the Mossad. At that time we realized that we had better leave the country. But it all happened so fast. I was 15, and all I wanted to do was see my other cousins and friends in France.

“At school I used to be bullied because of my Jewish origins. People would ask me explanations for the suffering of the Palestinians. Everybody in the neighbourhood knew we were Jewish. The synagogues and graveyards had been vandalized. In 1967, when war broke out in Israel, my father’s Algerian friends advised him to leave the country before it was too late. That is how, in a rush, I left my beloved city of Oran. I never saw it again.

“I do not know any Jews still living in Algeria. Most emigrated to France. Some went to Morocco.”

**********************************

About the Decret Cremieux:

Following the French conquest of Algeria, the Decret Cremieux offered French citizenship to Algerians - Muslims as well as Jews. The Muslims declined. Initially fewer than 5% of Jews accepted to become French citizens. Then it was imposed on them. Benaya believes that French citizenship not only weakened the Jews’ ties to their religion, but caused tension with Muslim Algerians. (On the positive side, however, it enabled the Jews to escape the humiliations of dhimmitude, which historically placed the Jews last in the social pecking order.)

Scroll down to a post by Hubert Hannoun, setting the context for the Decret Cremieux on Zlabia, the Algerian Jews’ website.

Benaya adds:

“When the French passed the Décret Crémieux in 1870 most Jews accepted French citizenship but some were reluctant. The Décret Crémieux sparked debate and soul-searching, especially among important families in Oran, Tlemcen and Constantine. Algerian Jews asked themselves whether the Jews would be better off under French law or whether tradition and religion would suffer under France’s lay legislation.

“When the French saw that very few Jews were interested they went even further. They didn’t allow Algerian Jews to decide for themselves. Anyone who was born Jewish automatically became French. The other Algerians did not benefit from that law - if they wanted to become French they could, but they did not want to. (And neither did the Jews at the beginning). So the history of Algerian Jews is very complex: they became French, and they threw in their lot with the French against the Arabs. Than in 1940 they lost their citizenship. So they had to face French antisemitism on one side, and the Arabs’ anger (because they felt betrayed) on the other. We were trapped!

“It was a kind of a trap, for two reasons.

“First, most French in Algeria were antisemites. There even was an ‘anti-Jewish’ party. In the 1940s the French betrayed the Jews by stripping them of their citizenship under Vichy law. The Jews were caught between two stools: most Arabs had not forgiven them for accepting French citizenship; the French spread antisemitism throughout Algeria.

“Secondly, the religious argument turned out to be true: As Algerian Jews arrived in France they became less religious, and lost their traditions from fear of being considered ‘Arab’.

“I consider that if the French had not introduced the Décret Crémieux in the first place this would have never happened. Giving citizenship to the Jews and not to the Muslims aroused jealousy and tension between the two communities. The French translated antisemitic texts into Arabic during the 1940s. That is why Algerian Jews had to deny their origins.

“It is possible to hear a Moroccan Jew say he is proud to be Moroccan, or a Tunisian Jew say he is proud to be Tunisian. But an Algerian Jew can only be proud to be French, and nothing else.”

Blogger: Chaldean Thoughts
Article: Prayer For a Meeting With Christ
Originaly Posted On: 2008-02-24 14:04:00

Loving God,
let me meet you today
as the Samarian woman met you at the well.
Surprise me in the middle of my work day.
Ask me for water, food — any sort of help.
Talk to me, lead me to a new truth.

Keep me alert so that I can recognize you,
listen, question and drink your living water.
Let me hear your voice today,
that voice with which you speak to me every day,
the one I keep missing.

Blogger: jerusalem wanderings
Article: Hot times in the City
Originaly Posted On: 2008-02-13 16:43:00

At the beginning of the month there was a Sextival in Tel Aviv. I laughed at the headlines in some of the news articles: “Sex Festival Penetrates Tel Aviv” - “Make Love Not War”….. Of course I didn’t go even though I was tempted to take a voyeuristic peek at the goings-on and who goes to such places. With my Hubby being in Canada, it was hard (no pun intended) to find a partner-in-crime. It would have been actually fun to go and then bump into all these people whom you know but that you wouldn’t have expected them to be there.

Then my HOT Cables were not behaving internet-wise and twice the internet stopped working - even now as I’m staying late at work not to work but to blog because I have no internet at home. My son is fighting me for the TV as he’s “bored” without his internet companion.

My soldier daughter had a fit at my son and slapped him across the face for not helping me out one Friday. Then there was a whole lot of yelling and screaming which prompted my only neighbor on our floor to quickly lock her door, in case the war spilled over to her apartment. Did she actually think we were gonna just run and chase each other in her apartment? Probably. So much for our wonderful reputation in our new apartment.

And last week it was so warm, the almond blossoms were beginning to bloom, and I had put away my heavy winter coat in the closet, only to put it on again today. They say it’ll snow again in Jerusalem.

We could use a bit of cooling off here, I think.