March 21st, 2007 was a historic day for the Baha’is of Vietnam. Not only did they celebrate the Holy Day of Naw Ruz but they also celebrated the recognition of their faith community by their government.
At a stately event held in Ho Chi Min City, the Government Religious Committee officially handed over the certificate of registration of religious activities to the Baha’i Community of Vietnam. Among the almost 300 participants were several high ranking federal, provincial and municipal government officials.
The ceremony also included prayers, a statement of congratulations from the House of Justice, a presentation of the significance of Naw Ruz and a video of the Shrine of the Bab in the Holy Land. This was an especially sweet experience for the veteran Vietnamese Baha’is who have endured 32 years under the shadow of the ‘socialist revolution’. The event was covered by Vietnamese media with the news appearing in newspapers and radio broadcasts.
I’m sure that the Baha’i News Service will pick up on this eventually. But as of now, they have nothing over there.
UPDATE: BahaisOnline.net has posted ‘proof’ of the news I broke here so we can avoid the insults and vitriol of ‘prove it’ that accompanied the breaking of the Italian NSA scandal. I suppose since this involved government officials (as opposed to the Italy travesty which was 100% an internal mess) the media covered it. I just share things as they come to me. You decide what you do with them: believe them, ignore them, read them, etc.
Now go get some pho to celebrate this!