Pasadena celebrates the Declaration of the Bab this Friday, May 23rd

Posted on May 20, 2009 by admin


On May 23, the Bahá’ís of Pasadena will join Bahá’ís throughout the world in observing the anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb, the Prophet-Herald of the Bahá’í Faith.

The Pasadena Bahá’í community’s celebration of the Declaration of the Báb will be held at a private home starting at 8pm on Friday. The event is open to the general public. Please contact this blog for the address.

Shrine of the Bab, Haifa, Israel

Shrine of the Bab, Haifa, Israel

The program commemorates the night of May 23, 1844 when a young man named Mirza ‘Alí-Muhammad declared, in Shiraz, Persia, that he was a prophet of God. He stated that his mission was to prepare the world for the appearance of the Lord of the Age-“Him Whom God shall make manifest.” He took the title, “The Báb,” which means, “The Gate,” and proclaimed that he was the herald of a new cycle in human history, the forerunner of another prophet who would soon usher in an age of world unity and peace. The first disciple of the Báb later wrote of the night when the Báb first declared his mission, “I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those who awaited me. All the delights, all the ineffable glories, which the almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless possessions of the people of Paradise-these I seemed to be experiencing.”

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“We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls…” –Abdu’l-Baha

Posted on May 15, 2009 by admin

It reminds me of certain quotes:

“The art of music is divine and effective. It is the food of the soul and spirit. Through the power and charm of music the spirit of man is uplifted. It has wonderful sway and effect in the hearts of children, for their hearts are pure, and melodies have great influence in them. The latent talents with which the hearts of these children are endowed will find expression through the medium of music. Therefore, you must exert yourselves to make them proficient; teach them to sing with excellence and effect. It is incumbent upon each child to know something of music, for without knowledge of this art the melodies of instrument and voice cannot be rightly enjoyed. Likewise, it is necessary that the schools teach it in order that the souls and hearts of the pupils may become vivified and exhilarated and their lives be brightened with enjoyment.”

(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 52)

“Thus should it be among the children of men! The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of different race and colour from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw yourself into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness. Think of them as different coloured roses growing in the beautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.”

(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 53)

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Journalist Roxana Saberi may be free today, but the 7 Iranian Baha’i leaders are still in jail

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin


[Update: 05/14/09 - CNN Story today]

roxana_saberiAlthough this blog is happy that journalist Roxana Saberi has been freed, it has some sobering news to remind you:

Today, May 14th, marks the one-year anniversary of the imprisonment of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran, who have spent a year in jail without formal charges or access to their lawyer, Shirin Ebadi.  The families of the prisoners were recently informed that a new accusation has been lodged against them by the Iranian government, the charge of “spreading corruption on earth,” which carries the threat of death under Iran’s penal code.

Local Bahá’ís are also writing to their members of Congress, and urging other to do the same, to gather additional cosponsors for two resolutions, H.Res 175 and S.Res.71, currently before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate respectively, which call for the release of the Iranian Baha’i leaders and other Bahá’í prisoners

Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, said on May 12 that “despite their obvious innocence and the call by many for their immediate release, these seven men and women have been in legal limbo for a year now, against all international human rights standards.”

Ms. Dugal also noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frequently emphasized the importance of “justice and human dignity” and “the establishment of a just world system,” such as when he addressed the UN Durban Review Conference in Geneva last month.

“How can the calls of the Iranian leadership for justice in the international sphere be taken seriously if they do not grant justice to their own citizens? In Iran, by all accounts universally agreed upon human rights are routinely ignored, not only for Baha’is but also for women, journalists, and others who only seek dignity and justice,” she said.

7 Imprisoned Baha'i Leaders in Iran

7 Imprisoned Baha'i Leaders in Iran

The seven are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All but one of the group were arrested on May 14, 2008 at their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008 while in Mashhad. Read more about them.

The prosecution of the leaders is just one step in a 30-year-long systematic campaign orchestrated by the government to eliminate the Baha’i community as a viable entity in Iran, the birthplace of the Baha’i Faith.

The Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent monotheistic religions and one of the fastest-growing, with a significant presence throughout the United States. Baha’is view the world’s major religions as part of a single, progressive process through which God reveals His will to humanity. Major Baha’i tenets include the oneness of humanity, equality of men and women, eradication of prejudice, harmony of science and religion, universal education and world peace.

Updates and background on the situation of the Baha’is in Iran are posted at http://iran.bahai.us.  To learn more about the Baha’i Faith in America, check www.bahai.us and the Religion Newswriters Association Source Guide on the Baha’i Faith at http://www.religionlink.com/tip_090211.php

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Pasadena Young Adult Devotional Gathering

Posted on May 13, 2009 by admin

dev-3What is a devotional gathering? Simply put, it’s a prayer meeting. Friends gathering at another friend’s home. The young adults (in their 20′s & 30′s) of Pasadena get together to say prayers on a Sunday night, to start their week all right.

The power of prayer is amazing. It’s what renews you when you have no energy or strength. It also allows you to accomplish great things when you put your affairs in God’s hands.

dev-1

Here is an example of a Baha’i prayer, revealed by Abdu’l-Baha:

“Make firm our steps, O Lord, in Thy path and strengthen Thou our hearts in Thine obedience. Turn our faces toward the beauty of Thy oneness, and gladden our bosoms with the signs of Thy divine unity. Adorn our bodies with the robe of Thy bounty, and remove from our eyes the veil of sinfulness, and give us the chalice of Thy grace; that the essence of all beings may sing Thy praise before the vision of Thy grandeur. Reveal then Thyself, O Lord, by Thy merciful utterance and the mystery of Thy divine being, that the holy ecstasy of prayer may fill our souls—a prayer that shall rise above words and letters and transcend the murmur of syllables and sounds—that all things may be merged into nothingness before the revelation of Thy splendor.

Lord! These are servants that have remained fast and firm in Thy Covenant and Thy Testament, that have held fast unto the cord of constancy in Thy Cause and clung unto the hem of the robe of Thy grandeur. Assist them, O Lord, with Thy grace, confirm them with Thy power and strengthen their loins in obedience to Thee.

Thou art the Pardoner, the Gracious.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

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Pasadena Baha’i honored for her Community Service

Posted on May 10, 2009 by admin

Dorothea 01

On March 22nd, Pasadena Baha’i Dorothea Bradley (holding flowers in photo) was honored by the City of Pasadena for “her unwavering commitment and unselfish dedication to her neighbors and greater community. Her efforts have helped build stronger neighborhoods which are the very foundation of our great City and the support system for our families.” Indeed.

Having worked with Dorothea on her annual Posada, National Night Out, and other projects, she is a dedicated community organizer, visionary, and true friend.
Dorothea 02

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Pasadena celebrates the Festival of Ridvan (Paradise)

Posted on April 21, 2009 by admin
roses3

The Bahá’í community of Pasadena will get together on Saturday, May 2nd to celebrate the annual Festival of Ridván. The event is open to the general public at the Western Justice Center, 55 S. Grand Ave.

The word “Ridván” means “Paradise.” For twelve days from April 21 to May 2, 1863, Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, resided in a garden of Baghdad that he dubbed “the Garden of Ridván”. There Bahá’u’lláh publicly proclaimed his mission as God’s messenger for this age. At the time of his proclamation, Bahá’u’lláh was an exile in Baghdad, banished from his native Persia because of his teachings.

The Festival of Ridván is celebrated by Bahá’ís throughout the world with great joy and fellowship. Bahá’u’lláh wrote of the garden, “This is the Paradise, the rustling of whose leaves proclaims: ‘O ye that inhabit the heavens and the earth! There hath appeared what hath never previously appeared. He Who, from everlasting, had concealed His face from the sight of creation is now come’.”

The Bahá’í Faith teaches the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of mankind. Bahá’ís believe that in every age, God sends a divine educator, a manifestation of God, whose purpose is to restate and renew the eternal truths of religion and to address the specific needs of the age in which he appears. They believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the manifestation of God, whose purpose is to restate and renew the eternal truths of religion and to address the specific needs of the age in which he appears. They believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the manifestation of God for this age in mankind’s evolution. This “spiritual springtime” as it is called in the Bahá’í writings, when the efforts of all the previous messengers of God, such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ, Muhammad, and Bahá’u’lláh’s prophet-herald, the Báb, will blossom and bear their fruit. Thus, the occurrence of the Festival of Ridván at the height of the spring season bears a special significance for Bahá’ís.

In his writings, Bahá’u’lláh promulgates the equality of men and women, the essential harmony of science and religion, the independent investigation of truth, economic justice based upon spiritual principles, the urgent need for the elimination of all forms of prejudice, universal compulsory education, and international auxiliary language, and a world government for the maintenance of a lasting peace.

Bahá’u’lláh’s exile to Baghdad was the first of several banishments that occurred until his death in 1892. Dismayed by their inability to curb Bahá’u’lláh’s continuing influence and growing Faith, Persian religious and government leaders convinced the officials of the Ottoman Empire to banish Bahá’u’lláh to Adrianople, Constantinople, and finally, to the horrendous prison city of Akka in the Holy Land. Bahá’u’lláh suffered forty years of torture, imprisonment and exile.

The World Center of the Bahá’í Faith is on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

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Pasadena Baha’i Naw Ruz video

Posted on March 21, 2009 by admin
Happy Baha’i New Year and 1st day of Spring!

[clearspring_widget title="Animoto.com" wid="46928cc51133af17" pid="49c5a40f9991981e" width="432" height="240" domain="widgets.clearspring.com"]

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New website alert: The Baha’i Gardens

Posted on March 19, 2009 by admin

The Baha'i Gardens

The Baha'i Gardens

HAIFA, Israel — A new Web site with information for visiting the Baha’i shrines and gardens in Haifa and Acre was introduced today by the Baha’i International Community.

The Web site gives details about tours, hours, and the gardens themselves, as well as information about visiting the Shrine of Baha’u'llah in Acre and the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa. The shrines are the resting places of the founders of the Baha’i Faith.

The site launched in both English and Hebrew and an Arabic version is forthcoming.

English-speaking website address:  http://www.ganbahai.org.il/en/

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NY Times, Roger Cohen, and the Baha’is

Posted on March 17, 2009 by admin

 

Roger Cohen of the NY Times

Roger Cohen of the NY Times

In about 9 articles this year, Roger Cohen of the NY Times has been writing about modern Iranian society.  Strangely, except for a brief mention in one article, he does not discuss the Baha’i situation in Iran.

Why the snub?
I guess the Baha’i cause in Iran is just not sexy enough.

Baha’is shun partisan politics, divisiveness, and for the most part, live quiet lives serving humanity. The Baha’i story gets lost in the hubbub of geo- and theo-politics, and the so-called theory of the ”Clash of Civilizations.”

Cohen’s articles mention the need for rapproachment between America and Iran.  The Baha’i worldview can certainly contribute to that goal; it is inclusive and tolerant, as stated by Baha’u'llah (the founder of the Faith): “…the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”

Baha’is have made significant contributions to Iranian society and are touted by ordinary Iranians as being very trustworthy and reliable.  Baha’is will be central to the building of a culture of justice in Iran, regardless of who runs the country.  Now that’s a real scoop.

Results of PasadenaBahai.com’s efforts
Compared to previous Cohen articles on Iran, I did see an uptick in comments that mentioned the Baha’is in Monday’s article, “Iran, Jews, and Pragmatism”.  Maybe it had something to do with alerting my friends and networks about the relative omission of the Baha’is in Cohen’s articles.  Let’s keep the momentum going!

How You Can Help
Well, until Mr. Cohen starts writing about the Baha’is more directly, the best way for us to help is to either write comments to his articles, or recommending comments.  Many comments for his current article are well-written, and several of them (mentioned below) bring up the need to address the issue of the Baha’is.

If you like these comments, then “vote” for them by 1) clicking on the links below, reading the comment, and clicking on recommend; and 2) if you’re not registered at the NY Times, then please register then–it’s free. Note: you can’t recommend a comment unless you’re registered. It’s really easy and they will not spam you, in case you’re asking.

Voting for articles is important! It shows that you took the time to read someone’s opinion, to think about it, and recommend it.

Comment #11, from JG*, Caesarea, Israel:
http://tinyurl.com/dbvd2k
*This gentleman let me know about Mr. Cohen’s visit to Sinai Temple in LA, where I got to ask Roger a question.  I thank him for his support of the Baha’is!
Summary: a very direct response to Cohen’s assertions, with a brief mention of the Baha’is.

Comment #20, from Philippe Copeland*, Boston:
http://tinyurl.com/c649l6
Summary: An American Baha’i who posits that, “…any discussion of Iran must include the human rights of all religious communities in that country to offer a full picture and context.”

Comment #21, from Samah*, Los Angeles:
http://tinyurl.com/dfdcar
*This has got to be my friend Samah–wait, there’s probably 1,000 Persians named Samah in LA! :)
Summary: Samah brings up a “…larger point not addressed. Jews are a small minority in Iran, almost negligible. A far better barometer for measuring the repressiveness in Persian society would be to examine the case of the Baha’is, who ARE the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the country.”

Comment #24, from Stefanina Rocco, Canada:
http://tinyurl.com/czu7pu
Summary: Stefanina writes: “How does one consistently write about Iran without discussing Iran’s century old and ongoing persecution of its 300,000 + Baha’i community?”

Comment #66, from AW, Florida:
http://tinyurl.com/dgnxy5
Summary: AW gently asks Mr. Cohen to, “please enlighten your readers about Iran’s treatment of Zoroastrians, Baha’is, Christians and other minorities.”

Comment #68, from A. Foxx, Kansas City:
http://tinyurl.com/dexza3
Summary: Foxx brings up the suffering of all the Iranian people, not just the Bahais.

Comment #84, from Misha, Philadelphia:
http://tinyurl.com/c4fbnp
Summary: Misha is very direct as well, reminding Cohen to, “don’t forget how Bahai are persecuted, like Jews used to be in Europe.”

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Speaking up for the Baha’is at Sinai Temple, Los Angeles

Posted on March 13, 2009 by admin

Thanks to a reader in Israel, I found out that Roger Cohen, author of the article “Iran, the Jews, and Germany” mentioned in a previous blog posting, would be in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 12th at Sinai Temple for “…a crucial dialogue with the Iranian Jewish community.” The Temple was about 1/3 full, with probably about 200 people there, eagerly awaiting to hear what Cohen had to say.

Mr. Cohen started the evening with an opening statement touching upon the article, “What Iran’s Jews Say” and expressed his desire to defend our right to disagree with him. In the opening statement, he also shared his story of becoming an naturalized American citizen and the first written sentence of the naturalization test was: “I want to be good American.”

I believe that Cohen’s intention is good–to foster greater understanding and unity between Iran and the US. This is desperately needed right now. He also mentioned that is far too easy to demonize a country on tragic misunderstanding and error. That is true as well. The Iranian people have been unfairly portrayed in the US media. He actuallly went to Iran to meet the people and the government–so his reporting was based on first-hand experience of what’s going on in Iran today.

The only issue I have with his columns on Iran is that they miss out on one of the biggest (unreported) stories in Iran: the persecution of the Baha’is. The Baha’is are the largest religious minority in Iran, 300,000 strong. The Baha’is of Iran cannot practice their Faith publicly, nor attend university unless they renounce their Faith, have seen their cemeteries razed, their property confiscated, and have been killed with impunity since the inception of the Faith in the 19th century. None of these details were mentioned in the articles. Mr. Cohen did acknowledge that in his trip to Iran, he did not meet or speak with any Baha’i.

Dr. Mahmoudi speaks in support of the Baha'is of Iran

Dr. Mahmoudi speaks in support of the Baha'is of Iran

After Mr. Cohen spoke, Rabbi Wolpe asked him several hard-hitting, but generally fair questions. Rabbi Wolpe then opened it up to the audience to ask Mr. Cohen his questions. There was actually another Baha’i in the audience, Dr. Mahmoudi from LA, who made a comment about the suffering of the Baha’is in Iran before my question. I did not know her before that evening. It took a while to be able to ask my question. My arm felt like it was going to fall off waiting to be called! Finally, at the last minute, Mr. Cohen was asked to pick the final questions of the night:

I asked him about the Baha’is, acknowledging him for mentioning the Baha’is, even if in passing in his article, and also pointing out that the ad-hoc leaders of the Faith are currently in prison (see previous articles in this blog), awaiting trial, with no access to their lawyer, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, with the possibility of the death penalty. I asked him in the spirit of fairness, in his stated goal to show a more complete image of Iran in the US, “could you please write an article about the situation of the Baha’is in Iran?”

The crowd clapped at this suggestion and several people called out to him to see if he would answer my question. He said that hasn’t written about the Baha’is in Iran and was unsure if he would write about them in the future. Several members of the crowd approached me afterwards thanking me for asking Cohen the question.

Thank goodness the Jewish Journal recorded the entire program, inclusive of all questions. Click here to watch it. Running time is about 1 hr 30 minutes. I ask my question at 1 hr 22 minutes. I am not seen, only a disembodied voice.

I also left a comment on the Jewish Journal page, thanking all participants for having this dialogue. I feel bad because I misspelled Rabbi Wolpe’s name. Sorry, Rabbi!

Before the program started, I was interviewed by a Jewish TV Channel, which unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of or the possible air date. If anyone out there can reply with that info, that would be greatly appreciated.

Your Correspondent,
Al Cadena

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