Enga mellom fjella

Can you hold a Holy Day?

Can you hold a Holy Day in your house? In your backyard? In a local building? Are you free to gather and worship where you live? Not everyone can answer yes. Not here in the old U.S. not in many places in our World.

WATT'S GNUS:

Today is a Baha'i Holy Day, the Declaration of The Bab.

It marks the beginning of the Babi Faith (later the Baha'i Faith) in 1843 in Shiraz Iran.

As the faith grew, problems arose with the local mullas and administrators and Baha'u'llah was banished to the Ottoman Empire. First to Baghdad, then Istanbul (Constantinople), then Edirne (Adrianople), finally Acre, across the bay from present day Haifa.

And there-in lies a tale ...

The Iranian authorities have never given up on trying to get rid of the Baha'is. Various governments of various ilk have persecuted, murdered, or otherwise harassed them for over 150 years. In 1979, folks just 'disappeared'. The House of The Bab, a holy site, was seized and razed. Children were not allowed education; burial in Baha'i cemeteries was not an option. This month of May, 6 more Baha'i leaders joined one woman already arrested. The outlook is bleak.

Because?

Iran refuses to recognize the Baha'is as a legitimate faith, choosing instead to harp on the fact that the international headquarters are in Haifa, in Israel, the Zionist enemy of Iran. Of course, the headquarters were there long before the Jewish State. The Baha'is arrived around 1868. But ...

fact and reason do not matter.

If this were a tale of one government refusing the rights of one religious group it would be bad enough. For members of that maligned group (no matter how unknown, misunderstood or statistically irrelevant) it would be harrowing.

But, before one laments and casts stones on the Iranians ... look around where you live ... do all faiths have the right to practice what they believe?

Do Wiccans? Do Native Americans? Do Sikhs? What group is somehow "less than equal" in your neighborhood? Who is "not welcome" to live next door?

Today, the courts ruled against the State of Texas in the handling of accusations against the FLDS, stating that there was no reason to round up hundreds of children in a presumption of guilt, no reason to separate them from their family and community ... in spite of what anyone "thought" to be the case, in spite of "accusations" (the accuser remaining unknown to date).

It would be nice if the situation in Iran were that simple. But different culture, different history, different laws ...

The Baha'is in Iran wait and the Baha'is of the world wonder about their fate.

ME:

Thunderstorms last night and then the fire alarm went off at 05:44. I didn't sleep well before nor after. So I slept in. Didn't get much done today. Did find out that Dunn Coffee has wireless and two internet stations. So ... I'll be visiting again.

Not all days turn out equal. No poem today. I'm writing and editing but not overly inspired by what I've come up with.

Kansas: Calm at 00:00 and 65º. ** Image ID #1295354 Unavailable ** .

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