Monthly Archives: January 2007

Those Devious Baha’is

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Here is a picture of a book stand in front of a mosque in Iran. The green banner on the left announces the availability of different books for the recognition of the devious Baha’i sect.

iran book stall.png

This is the sort of thing that Baha’is in Iran have to put up with. A massive, fullscale propaganda machine which aims to distort the teachings of the Baha’i Faith and to poison people’s minds about it. Unfortunately, for the Mullahs, very few people bother to actually buy this crap and fewer still read and believe such hogwash.

iran book stall2.png

Still, the picture gives you a glimpse into the nature of the Iranian regime. With their full financial support such books and materials are made widely available and are even used to indoctrinate impressionable youth in public schools.

The banner to the right reads: “Peace upon the Mehdi, the rejuvenator of pure Islam”. Which isn’t surprising when you realize that right now the small minority that rules Iran are members of the Hojjatieh Society. They are awaiting the imminent arrival of the Hidden Imam (Mehdi) and as you would expect, do not look too kindly on anyone who claims that He has already come. It isn’t just coincidence that the two banners are side by side.

Thankfully, the vast majority of Iranian citizens have one or more Baha’i acquaintances or friends (if not outright family members) and reject such propaganda along with the rest of the crap the government tries to force feed its population. The attitude of the average Iranian towards the Baha’i Faith and any other religion is to live and let live. They are sick and tired of being forced to abide by the Muslim faith and believe that when it comes to religion, the best model is one where – while respecting the rights of others – everyone is free to worship what and how they want.

Sadly the average Iranian is not in charge of the Iranian government.

pictures via iranian.com

The Daily Show: Islam vs. Christianity

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Here’s an old clip from one of The Daily Show’s segments called “Even Stephven”. In this one, Steve debates Stephen over religion. Steve backs Islam while Stephen supports Christianity. Things get a little heated but then there is a surprise ending as they two adversaries come to find common ground:

If it gets choppy, pause it and wait for the video to load a bit (a red line fills from left to right).

Mona’s Dream

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mona pic.pngTwo years ago I wrote about the project to tell the story of the martyrdom of Mona, a Baha’i teenager, along with 9 other Baha’i women in Shiraz. At the time, I was hopeful but guarded in my optimism:

On the one hand, I know that Mel Gibson and company have oodles of money to throw around after the record shattering success of their movie. But on the other hand, Hollywood is notorious for being a black hole for such worthy projects.

There have been many false starts before to making a major motion picture directly related to the Baha’i Faith. But I’m glad to see that Jack Lenz and his team have gained momentum and are into pre-production. It seems more and more likely that this project will in fact be getting off the ground.

aghdashloo.pngIn fact, casting has already started. The role of Mona’s mother will be played by Shohreh Aghdashloo. The Oscar nominated actress is the most high profile person to be linked to the project, so far. Her involvement is fantastic as it will bring prestige to the movie. But if such high calibre actors are also cast for the other major roles… well, lets just hope Jack Lenz has secured some deep pockets to finance the movie.

Here’s the official ‘blurb’ :

“Mona’s Dream” is a feature film that tells the story of Mona Mahmudnizhad and her family. Mona was 16 years old when she was arrested in the Iranian city of Shiraz along with scores of other Bahá’ís. The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, had set out to rid their country and their revolution of the Bahá’í Community, the largest religious minority in Iran. Mona and her family were victims of their cruel and intolerant persecution. She and her father were arrested on October 22nd, 1982 and suffered intense psychological and physical torture for several months. Jamshid, her father, was executed on March 12th, 1983 and Mona and nine of her female companions were executed on June 18th, 1983 by hanging.

I didn’t know that she was arrested at the same time as her father, nor that he had also been killed. Follow this link to learn more about Mona and her life.

The official website for the movie is at Mona’s Dream. If you have your sound on, turn down the volume. You can keep up to date on the progress of the project by checking back at the website. And if you are interested to get involved by contributing your talent, contact Mehr Mansouri who is the casting agent.

To tide you over until the movie comes out, here is the video for the song “Mona with the Children”:

Many thanks to Lara Kearns who was kind enough to forward this information in a comment for the original post.

Are You Happy?

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happychildren cropped.png

When Abdu’l-Baha came to North America, He would often ask people, “Are you happy?”

I’m not sure how that went over with folks back then. To me the question is a bit on the personal side. Maybe even intrusive. But it is all in the delivery. So why did the Master ask this question so often? Maybe happiness is more important to us in this world than we give it credit. After all when Browne visited with Baha’u'llah Himself, didn’t he hear the following words:

We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations…

From this, it would seem that atleast one of Baha’u'llah’s goals is for us to be happy. Hmm… so maybe there is more to this happiness business. Think about it for a second. Just give it a go. Ask yourself, am I happy?

You don’t have to tell anyone. Just contemplate the question for yourself. If you’d like, you can of course share the results by leaving a comment below (anonymously if you like).

Someone who has achieved happiness is Matthieu Ricard – or so it would seem from his MRI scans. The 60 year old Ricard is the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama and as a Buddhist has meditated for more than 10,000 hours.

Ricard claims that, “Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.” He has written a book on happiness which will be published next month (Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill). If you can’t wait, check out his previous book, The Monk and the Philosopher.

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill Mattieu RicardI observed an interesting phenomena when I shared Ricard’s story with my friends. The response of my fellow Baha’is was quite homogenous and ran along the line of, “This man knows nothing. True happiness is only achieved through Baha’u'llah.” Meanwhile, the response of my non-Baha’i friends was quite heterogeneous running from atheists who scoffed at his Buddhist beliefs to those who were quite interested to learn more about him and meditation. There were was even one who went on a caffeine induced rant on the merits of meditation and their practice of it.

I dare hypothesize that had Abdu’l-Baha met (or even hear of Ricard) He would have been quite pleased and showered him with praise and love. I imagine that because I’ve read many vignettes of Him meeting fervent believers (of other religions) where He only offered them love and praise. He never admonished them, rebuked them or seemed at all haughty… claiming that they were wasting their time since Baha’u'llah has now come.

Sadly I find that this sort of mistake is made by a lot of Baha’is. I made it too for a long time (too long). I often thought of the Baha’i Faith, and by proxy myself, as somewhat superior. It was the last and most recent religion, was it not? It did have all the answers, right?

Sigh.

How foolish I feel when I think back to those times.

Ignorance is truly bliss.