marco_oliveira's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in
marco_oliveira's LiveJournal:
| Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 | | 12:03 am |
| | Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 | | 11:14 pm |
Rashid's Legacy
This is the cover of a book entitled "Rashid's Legacy" (The Genesis of the Maktoum Family and the History of Dubai). The Maktoum family is the ruling family of Dubai to whom the Emirate's incredible progress is credited.  And this is a copy of page 451 of the book, where chapter 27 begins with a quote from Baha'u'llah!  NOTE: Dubai is part of United Arab Emirates. Islam is the majority religion of the Emiratis and while a vast majority of the locals are Sunnis, there is a significant Shiite minority. There are also large numbers of expatriate Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians. Dubai is the only emirate that has Hindu temples and a Sikh Gurdwara. | | Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 | | 11:13 pm |
| | Thursday, December 21st, 2006 | | 12:03 am |
Who are the Bahais? (Al-Jazeera)
AlJazeera.com published today an article by Sheikha Sajida about the Baha’i Faith. It expresses the traditional Muslim conservative perspective. Here are my comments to the author about her text. 1 . Egyptian Baha'is are demanding the same civil rights as any other Egyptian citizens have. And that means to have official ID cards. Whether those cards state citizens religious affiliation or whether in such field one is allowed write the word «other» or leave it blank, is a question the Egyptian Government has to answer. That is the central question. And you preferred not to approach such issue. A subject about which you expressed no opinion. A silent complicity? 2. " ...the new «sect»...". You are, of course, free to classify Baha’is as a trend, a movement or a way of thinking. Many scholars in the world consider the Baha'i Faith as a new religion. The Baha’is have their own Sacred Writings, administrative structure, temples, calendar, holy days. It’s is definitely not a trend or a branch of Islam (like Sufis and the Ammadhya). Naturally, Muslims tend to state that the Baha’i Faith is not a religion. Why? Because de the mere existence of such a religion questions a basic belief of most Muslims: the finality of God’s revelation with Muhammad. It seems that today Muslims are the ones to believe that God has His hands tied up! (Qur'án 5:64) 3. " ...hurts Muslims, who form the majority of the Egyptian public". You may feel very comfortable to follow the opinion of the majority of Egyptian society. Let me remind you that in the Middle Age in Europe, the majority of people believed that the sun goes around the earth. 4. " ...estimated to be 6 million". Baha'is only claim to be five million. Did you see their official site? 5. But would they " bring much disorder to the Egyptian society"? To abandon any form of prejudice is a source of disorder? Claiming equal rights for man and women is to cause disorder? Claming education for every children is a source of disorder? Affirming the need for a universal auxiliary language and the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth area problem for any society? Do you really know the teachings of Baha’u’llah? 6. " Supporting the Bahais in their quest for recognition, just like Christians and Muslims, is another attempt to shake the unity of the Egyptian society". Baha'is are recognized as a religion in many countries, just like Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and others? Did that shake the unity of those countries? Or... are such countries more tolerant to religious diversity than Egypt? 7. I am surprised that you were not able to answer your own questions (are bahais satanic or trying to establish a political party?) Let me answer you: baha'is don't get involved in politics! As for Satanism, check the activities of the Baha’is all over the world and decide whether those are satanic activities. A FINAL NOTE: Other Muslims countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Sudan, Tunisia and Emirates) do give ID cards to baha’is. So this is not a problem of Baha’is vs. Muslims. It is a problem concerning the civil rights of Baha’is in Egypt. | | Saturday, December 16th, 2006 | | 6:27 pm |
A sad day for human rights... A shameful day for Egypt!
Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court today ruled against the right of Baha'is to be properly identified on government documents. The decision upholds current government policy, a policy which forces the Baha'is either to lie about their religious beliefs or give up their state identification cards. As a direct consequence of this verdict, the Baha'is continue to have no rights in their own homeland. They cannot obtain ID Cards, they cannot obtain birth certificates, they cannot obtain death certificates, they cannot obtain marriage or divorce certificates, they cannot obtain passports, and they cannot obtain any other official documents. Without all this, Egyptian Baha'is cannot be employed, cannot be educated, cannot be treated in a hospital, cannot travel, cannot obtain any social services, cannot be legally married, cannot be declared dead, cannot open a bank account, cannot obtain a driver's license, cannot vote, cannot purchase a property, and the list goes on.... And, yes they can be arrested on the spot for not carrying an ID Card! Read more:Egyptian court overrules Baha'i right to register (Reuters) Egypt Bahais lose battle for recognition (Middle East Online) Egypt: Bahais can't be recognized on official IDs (Jerusalm Post) Egyptian court rules against giving Bahais the right to recognition on official IDs (International Herald Tribune) Egypt Bahais lose recognition (Sunday Times – South Africa) Egypt Plunges Deeper into the Abyss (Baha'i Faith in Egypt) Egyptian court rules against Baha'is, upholding government policy of discrimination (BWNS) And also this:Today’s Baha’i protest (Rantings of a Sandmonkey) Baha'is denied official recognition in Egypt (Spero News) Bigotry and sectarianism par excellence (Arabwy) Bahais lose Egypt recognition fight (Al Jazeera) Court denies Bahai couple document IDs (Washington Times) Bahais lose court battle for recognition in Egypt; labeled "pro-Israeli apostates" (Dhimmi Watch) Court rules against giving Bahais recognition rights (Kuwait Times) Egypte: la minorité bahaïe ne sera pas reconnue sur les papiers d'identité (La Croix - France) | | Monday, December 4th, 2006 | | 11:50 pm |
A basic message to Iranian Shiites: DON’T DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU WOULDN’T LIKE OTHERS TO DO TO YOU
"The officials of the Islamic regime of Iran, and the members of the anti-Baha'i groups in Iran, have long accused the Baha'is to distort the religion of Islam. Also, they have claimed that Bahai's have acted as the tools of the foreign powers in Iran. Of course, as far as the first accusation is concerned, Shiites are themselves under attack by the majority of the Muslims that are Sunnis to do the same thing. Many Sunnis do not accept Shiites as the followers of Islam at all. Regarding the second one, the interesting point is that the Bahai's have been accused of being foreign allies of the British, the Americans and even the Russians in Iran. The wide spectrum of these accusations reveals their baselessness. The real reason of the hostility of the Islamic governments, especially Iranian regime, towards the Baha'is, is explained by Bernard Lewis, the famous Philosopher, who has said, " ...the Muslim piety and Islamic authorities have always had great difficulty in accommodating post-Islamic monotheistic religions such as Baha'is... [whose]their very existence presents a challenge to the Islamic doctrine of the perfection and finality of Muhammad's revelation". (...) Those of Iranians that feel a kind of baseless hostility towards the Bahai's, and those who think that Bahai's are a disgrace to the Shiite Islam, shall pause and think of the situation of Shiites in the Islamic world. 90% of the Muslims (Sunnis) think of the Shiites the same way." Read full article: Who are Baha'is and why the regime of Iran hates them? | | Thursday, November 30th, 2006 | | 5:58 pm |
EGYPT: University protests and Baha'i rights infringement (Reuters)
CAIRO, (IRIN) - In Egypt, members of the 9th March Movement for the Independence of Universities staged a demonstration on Wednesday at the campus of Ain Shams University in Cairo. Academics and staff from a number of universities protested against the violence and intimidation used by security forces during student union elections at Ain Shams earlier this month. "We were protesting against the fact that that baltagiyya [thugs] can enter a university campus – regardless of what the issue is," Dr Layla Soueif, academic and activist, said. Security forces said that they do not interfere in student union elections, except when the safety of students is at risk. Meanwhile, on 2 December, the First Circuit of the Supreme Administrative Court will consider the Interior Ministry's appeal against a lower court decision that ruled that Egyptian Baha'is had the right to obtain birth certificates, identity cards and other official documents that recognised their faith. In a 4 April 2006 ruling, the Administrative Justice Court had ruled in favour of two Baha'i parents who wanted birth certificates for their three daughters after the Interior Ministry had confiscated them on discovering they and their parents were followers of the Baha'i faith. The question before the Supreme Administrative Court is whether or not Egyptian Baha'i citizens have the right to obtain official identification documents that listed their religious affiliation, or left the 'religion' line blank or inserted the word 'other' instead of stating one of the three officially recognised religions in Egypt: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. These three alternatives were available for Egypt's Baha'i citizens for decades until the Interior Ministry's Civil Status Department decided four years ago to force them to follow one of the three recognised religions only. Source: MIDDLE EAST: Weekly update of human rights violations in the region (23 Nov – 29 Nov 2006) | | Monday, November 27th, 2006 | | 8:24 pm |
Words os Asma Jahangir
Asma Jahangir is the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion. (...) RFE/RL: In March you expressed concern about reports that said the Iranian government has taken measures to identify the members of the Baha'i community and to monitor their activities. Do you have any new information about the situation there? Jahangir: The situation is serious and I am extremely concerned about it because we did receive allegations that there was a letter and a copy of a letter where Baha'i community members of faith were asked to be identified by the highest authority in the country. I've been following that up and I believe there has been no withdrawal in that respect; it is still continuing and naturally there would be fear amongst that community because there has to be a reason to identify them. There has been a campaign of vilification against them in the very much government-controlled media and newspapers so it seems like building up of some action against them. (...) The full text: UN: Rapporteur For Religious Freedom Sees Slow Progress | | Sunday, November 19th, 2006 | | 12:48 am |
| | Saturday, July 22nd, 2006 | | 9:12 am |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
marco_oliveira's journal
