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Imprisoned Baha'i Educators

GENEVA, 7 November 2011, (BWNS) — As more information has emerged regarding the trial of seven Baha’i educators, the worldwide outcry at the persecution of Iranian Baha’i students and teachers continues to spread.

In recent days, politicians in Brazil, academics in Germany and Ireland, and an international group of distinguished filmmakers, have condemned the systematic barring of Baha’is from higher education in Iran, and the Iranian government’s attack on the Baha’i community’s informal efforts to educate its own young members.

The Baha’i International Community has recently learned that the seven jailed educators – all lecturers or helpers with a community initiative known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – were taken to court on two separate days, handcuffed and chained at the ankles. There, in the presence of their attorneys, they were informed of the verdict and their sentences.

“Neither the defendants nor their lawyers has seen a written copy of the verdict,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, “but we know from transcripts taken down by people present at the hearing that the seven were found guilty of ‘membership in the deviant Bahaist sect, with the goal of taking action against the security of the country, in order to further the aims of the deviant sect and those of organizations outside the country.’”

The judgements also cast the activities of the accused in BIHE as crimes – and as evidence of their supposed aim to subvert the state, added Ms. Ala’i.

Two of the Baha’is, Vahid Mahmoudi and Kamran Mortezaie, each received five years imprisonment, while four year jail terms were given to Mahmoud Badavam, Nooshin Khadem, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Ramin Zibaie.

“The authorities know full well that there is no truth whatsoever to the charges,” said Ms. Ala’i. “The prohibition on foreign diplomats attending court – and the refusal of the judiciary to provide written documentation of the verdict – show how unjustifiable the assertions and actions of the government are, and clearly expose the blatant religious discrimination that is at the heart of this case.”

Ongoing condemnation

In the past five months since they were first detained, the outcry at the incarceration of the seven educators has spanned the world. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has led the criticism of Iran’s actions, along with such prominent global figures as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor. In October, some 43 distinguished philosophers and theologians in 16 countries signed an open letter protesting against the attack on BIHE.

Last Friday, in Ireland, more than 50 academics called upon the Iranian authorities to cease attacking Baha’is and allow access to higher education for all. “It is hard to believe that any government would deny the right to education to a group of students,” they wrote to the Irish Times. “It is clear from these actions that the Iranian authorities are determined to block the progress and development of these young people by denying them an education solely on the basis of their religion.”

In Germany, some 45 prominent professors also demanded the immediate release of the seven. In a letter dated 25 October to Iran’s Minister for Science, Research and Technology, they wrote, “We insist upon the unrestricted observance of the right of higher education for all citizens of your country in accordance with international norms…”

Four days earlier, Markus Loning – Germany’s Foreign Office Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid – said: “The accused must have a right to a transparent process according to the principles of the rule of law.” Rolf Mutzenich, foreign policy spokesperson for Germany’s Social Democratic parliamentary group described the judgement as “unacceptable, and the religious intolerance it reflects is intolerable….It is urgent and necessary for the Iranian government to end its discrimination against the Baha’is and to respect their basic rights to education and to practice their faith.”

Last week, 26 filmmakers, producers and actors urged the government of Brazil to defend the rights of filmmakers, journalists and Baha’i educators and call upon Iran to immediately release them. Among the signatories to the open letter, reported in the prestigious Folha de Sao Paolo newspaper, were such acclaimed directors as Hector Babenco, Atom Egoyan, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Walter Salles.

In a statement on 20 October, Brazilian Federal Representative Luiz Couto – former president of the country’s Human Rights Commission – said, “We all know the work that is developed by the Baha’is in Brazil in the areas of equality, justice and human rights; and many of us are also familiar with their educational work in the communities…Why can’t these people have the right to profess their faith?”

Support for the imprisoned educators has also come from Scholars at Risk (SIR), an international network of over 260 universities and colleges in 33 countries dedicated to promoting academic freedom, and freedom of thought, opinion, expression, association and travel.

“The facts suggest an attempt to exclude Baha’i individuals from higher education opportunities in Iran, and raise serious concerns about a wider campaign to limit the ability of intellectuals and scholars generally to work freely in Iran,” SIR wrote on 31 October.

“Scholars at Risk finds these suggestions particularly distressing and unfortunate, given Iran’s rich intellectual history and traditional support for the values of scholarship and free inquiry.”

For more information, go to: http://news.bahai.org/story/864

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Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Farhad Sedghi; Noushin Khadem, Kamran Mortezaie, and Vahid Mahmoudi

NEW YORK,  18 October 2011 — Seven Baha’i educators in Iran have each received four- or five-year prison sentences, according to reports received by the Baha’i International Community.

Verdicts against the seven were reportedly handed down by a judge at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

The educators have been detained for almost five months in connection with their involvement in an informal community initiative – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – in which Baha’i professors, debarred by the Iranian government from practicing their professions, offer their services to teach young community members who are banned from university.

Two of the individuals, Vahid Mahmoudi and Kamran Mortezaie, were each sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Four year jail terms were given to BIHE lecturers Ramin Zibaie, Mahmoud Badavam and Farhad Sedghi, consultant Riaz Sobhani, and helper Nooshin Khadem.

Read profiles of the BIHE prisoners

“It is not even clear at this stage what the exact charges were against these innocent souls, whose only desire was to serve young people who have been unjustly barred from higher education on purely religious grounds,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“What kind of society makes educating the young a punishable crime?” she said.

Two other Baha’is associated with BIHE – husband and wife Kamran Rahimian and Faran Hesami, both psychology instructors – are also still being held without charge.

Global protest

The most recent attacks carried out against BIHE continue to provoke condemnation from governments, organizations, academics and young people throughout the world.

More than 70 academics in Australia, including University of Ballarat vice-chancellor, David Battersby, have signed an open letter protesting Iran’s educational discrimination against Baha’is and calling for the immediate release of the imprisoned educators.

On 10 October, 43 prominent philosophers and theologians in 16 countries signed a letter of protest. “To acquire knowledge and learning is the sacred and legal right of all; indeed, the state is obliged to provide it. In Iran, the government has done the opposite…” wrote the academics.

Two Nobel Peace Prize laureates – Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, and Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor – in another open letter, sharply criticized the Iranian government, comparing its actions to “the Dark Ages of Europe” or the “Spanish Inquisition.”

On 5 October, resuming a Canadian Senate debate about the Baha’is in Iran, Senator Hugh Segal described the suffering heaped on Baha’is as “systematic and brutal, especially when the Baha’i are known as a peaceful faith that embraces the sanctity of all religions.”

“The official Iranian oppression of Baha’i … is a clarion call to humanity and to free peoples and democracies everywhere to look directly at the harsh colors of the Iranian reality and not look away until the challenge is faced head on,” said Senator Segal.

Around 112 Baha’is are currently behind bars in Iran because of their religion. This includes the seven Baha’i leaders, serving 20-year jail terms on trumped-up charges. The cases of some 300 other Baha’is are still active with the Iranian authorities.

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Seven Baha'i Educators imprisoned for work with BIHE

GENEVA — As a number of Baha’is in Iran await trial for providing higher education to youth barred from university, the Baha’i International Community has been distressed to learn of the arrest of a lawyer who was preparing to defend them.

Abdolfattah Soltani – a senior member of the legal team representing the prisoners – was arrested last Saturday. Mr. Soltani was a co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center along with four other lawyers including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi. The Tehran-based Center was shut down in a police raid in December 2008.

An Amnesty International appeal calling upon Iran to release Mr. Soltani immediately has described him as “one of the bravest human rights defenders in Iran…”

“One by one courageous Iranian lawyers are being summoned and then arrested, or have to flee their homeland,” observed Diane Ala’i, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

“We are deeply concerned at the detention of Mr. Soltani,” she said. “What precisely are the motives of the Iranian authorities for this arrest, just before his clients are expected to face trial?”

Seven Baha’is are still in prison in connection with their involvement in an informal educational program in which Baha’i professors, debarred by the Iranian government from practicing their professions, voluntarily offer their services to teach young community members who are banned from higher education.

Press reports in Iran have recently announced that the program – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – has been declared illegal.

Iranian authorities carried out raids three months ago on some 39 homes of administrators, staff and students of BIHE. The seven still detained are Mahmoud Badavam, Nooshin Khadem, Vahid Mahmoudi, Kamran Mortezaie, Farhad Sedghi and Ramin Zibaie – all arrested 22 May; and Riaz Sobhani – arrested 14 June.

“Many people associated with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education have been arrested and interrogated,” said Diane Ala’i. “Some have been imprisoned and then released. In addition to the seven who remain in prison, four others connected with BIHE were detained earlier this week.”

Details of any imminent legal proceedings have been hard to establish, she said.

“We have received no formal report of the charges leveled against them, other than an indication that the accusations are once again related to matters of national security. Despite their best efforts, the lawyers have only been able to meet with three of the currently detained Baha’is.”

“We call upon governments, organizations and people of good will everywhere to do whatever they can to dissuade Iran from perpetrating yet another appalling miscarriage of justice,” said Ms. Ala’i.

Baha’i World News Service coverage of the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran

The Baha’i World News Service has published a Special Report which includes further articles and background information about Iran’s campaign to deny higher education to Baha’is. It contains news of latest developments, a summary of the situation, feature articles, case studies and testimonials from students, resources and links.

Another Special Report offers articles and background information about the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – their lives, their imprisonment, trial and sentencing – and the allegations made against them. It also offers further resources about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community.

The International Reaction page of the Baha’i World News service is regularly updated with responses from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and prominent individuals, to actions taken against the Baha’is of Iran.

The Media Reports page presents a digest of media coverage from around the world.

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Lisa M. Ortuno

Coming to you live from the Conference.

“When you’re trying to figure out what you believe, just ask yourself why other people believe it.” — Dale McGowan PhD in Parenting Beyond Belief

This was the kickoff for Lisa Ortuno’s talk on Evolutionary Christianity and Biologos and the way in which the Christian faith community is grappling with the relationship between their own faith and science.

What’s the Baha’i investment in this? It’s our “task”, if you will, to try to correlate the teachings of our faith to … well, to life. Lisa’s special area of expertise is biology. Her talk then, obviously, is about evolution.

She quotes Abdu’l-Baha: “Consider the world of created beings, how varied and diverse they are in species. Yet with one sole origin.” (Paris Talks p. 62)

How does that square with the idea—also expounded by Abdu’l-Baha—that man was always potentially man? Thereby hangs a tale.

Stay tuned: News at 11.

We hope to bring you the full text of her presentation SOON.

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Bahá'í Delegate Barney Leith

BORDEAUX, France, 31 May 2011 (BWNS) – Representatives of the Baha’i Faith have joined a call for the G8 bloc of nations to take bold action on the interconnected crises faced by humanity.

Two Baha’i delegates gathered with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto and Sikh colleagues, as well as members of interfaith organisations, at the Religious Summit in Bordeaux to deliberate on matters related to the agendas of the G8 Deauville Summit and the G20 Cannes Summit, scheduled for 3-4 November 2011.

Summit Moderator His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis, Co-President of the Council of Churches of France, told participants that they were face-to-face not just as religious leaders but as representatives of humanity, speaking with one voice to the leaders of the G8 and G20 countries.

That voice was heard in a unanimously agreed statement drafted at the meeting and later presented to the Secretary General of the G8.

In addition to recommendations on five major themes – reforming global governance, the macro-economic situation, climate change, development, and investing in peace – the statement called for representatives from the African continent and the Middle East to be included in the G8 and the G20 meetings.

“Our diverse backgrounds and experience enriched our consultation,” the statement said.

“The trauma of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster described by our Japanese colleagues, the experience and aspirations of our friends from countries in the Middle East and the deep concern of our African colleagues at the continued marginalization of their voice underlined the urgency of the issues under consideration.”

The statement concluded by urging the G8 and G20 “to continue to expand and strengthen the needed global response to global challenges.”

“We – leaders of diverse religious communities throughout the world – re-commit ourselves to working together across religious lines for the common good and with governments and other partners of good will. We remain convinced – each in accordance with the teachings of their tradition – that justice, compassion and reconciliation are essential for genuine peace,” the statement said.

Baha’i representation

“The participants in this Summit demonstrated a sincere desire to find a way to translate the spiritual principles that inform their worldview into concrete and practical recommendations that would assist G8 leaders to address the challenges facing humanity,” said Baha’i representative Susanne Tamas from Canada.

“The genuine respect and keen interest with which people listened to one another and sought to deepen their understanding of complex issues was very impressive,” said Ms. Tamas.

Fellow Baha’i delegate Barney Leith, from the United Kingdom, agreed.

“The spirit of unity that infused the gathering was deeply moving,” he said.

“There was a strong sense in which all those at the Summit understood themselves to be part of a single human family and to be utterly committed to reminding leaders of powerful nations of their moral commitment to reducing human suffering.”

The G8 Religious Leaders Summit was held in Bordeaux on the 23-24 May. It was the seventh in a series of interfaith gatherings aimed at identifying areas of moral consensus among religions. Previous Summits were held prior to each G8 Summit in the United Kingdom (2005), Russia (2006), Germany (2007), Japan (2008), Italy (2009) and Canada (2010).

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To read the article online and view photographs, go to:

http://news.bahai.org/story/829

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:

http://news.bahai.org/

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UN Environmental Gathering

UNITED NATIONS, 17 May 2011 (BWNS) – Focusing solely on the material aspects of the environmental crisis, while ignoring its moral and ethical dimensions, will not ensure humanity’s long term survival.

That was among the perspectives under discussion at this year’s UN Commission on Sustainable Development, held from 2-13 May.

“We have passed beyond the global tipping point that we have been anticipating for decades,” Jeffrey Sachs – director of the Earth Institute and a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – told the Commission on 11 May.

“We are now living on a planet of environmental turmoil,” observed Professor Sachs, noting an increase in the number of floods, droughts, and food and water shortages around the world. “Fundamentally, we have a global ethics crisis,” he said, because, “while we need to find a path towards sustainable development, we are scrambling instead for resources and advantage.”

Ashok Khosla, a former director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also highlighted the need to recognize the values underlying sustainable development.

Gross Domestic Product “measures all the things that don’t count in our real lives,” said Mr. Khosla.

“Whatever it is we really care about – happiness and love – doesn’t figure in the GDP at all,” he said.

“Making the Invisible Visible”

A panel discussion – also held on 11 May and sponsored by the Baha’i International Community – sought to explore ways in which cultural, educational, and spiritual components can be brought into the sustainable development discourse.

Titled “Making the Invisible Visible: Values and the Transition to Sustainable Consumption and Production”, the panel was moderated by Duncan Hanks of the Canadian Baha’i International Development Agency.

“There is no doubt of the importance of understanding and getting the material consideration of this discussion right – to adequately address the policy considerations, legal frameworks, financial mechanisms,” said Mr. Hanks.

“However, to allow the discussion to focus merely on the material aspects…only covers part of the story.

“We are hearing new discussions and language about the dynamic coherence between the material and value-based or spiritual dimensions of sustainable consumption and production, between the hardware and the software – the physical and the spiritual – and we are witnessing an increased willingness to explore not only the policy and technical ramifications but the very values that ultimately influence attitudes and transform behaviours,” he said.

Five other panelists from four continents offered thoughts about ways that the consideration of values can be brought into discussions about sustainable consumption and production, in order to motivate the changes in human behaviour needed to sustain life on the planet.

Vanessa Timmer, One Earth Initiative

“The values debate is at the heart of what our future is going to look like,” said Vanessa Timmer, co-founder and executive director of the One Earth Initiative, “Rethinking the Good Life”.

She noted that values and behaviour are intimately connected, and that a discussion of values also frames the discussion – and the direction – of behaviour.

Researchers, said Ms. Timmer, have found that if the argument is made for buying a hybrid car on the idea that it will save money – instead of also saving the environment – the discussion is kept on material grounds.

“The idea is to use both – give numbers but embed them within a larger conversation about how this is going to help us move towards a new sense of community and affiliation with others,” she said.

Victoria Thoresen of the Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible Living in Norway analyzed a series of specific values that have a bearing on sustainable development – including detachment, moderation, trust, justice, and hope.

The concept of justice, she said, “provides us with the possibility to move from the self-centeredness that dominates our world to a way of being, a mode of sharing, a way of moving beyond our complicated, confused world where hope barely exists.”

Also on the panel were: Luis Flores Mimica, Consumers International, Latin American Office (Chile); Elona Hoover, Researcher, ESDinds Project: Developing Values-based indicators for Sustainable Development, University of Brighton (UK); and Kiara Worth, Sustainable Development Specialist (Papua New Guinea). The meeting was co-sponsored by PERL, One Earth, and Consumers International.

As another contribution to the discussion at this year’s Commission, the Baha’i International Community called further attention to its 2010 statement, “Rethinking Prosperity: Forging Alternatives to a Culture of Consumerism.”

Continue reading »]]> Hi, all.

We’re getting ready to roll out a common ground forum where we’re hoping to have wide-ranging discussions about faith and reason, science and religion, learning and related topics.

It will be a moderated forum and a violence-free zone in which to discuss issues that are of critical importance to all of us. Right now, though the Forum page is listed in the menu, it’s password protected while we prep it for launch.

If anyone wants to submit questions they’d like to see addressed on the Forum, please feel free to use the Comments link on this post to submit them to our administrator, the charming and delightful Miranda Meltsteel.

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Martin Rees wins the Templeton Foundation Prize for 2011.

Martin Rees just won the Templeton Prize for Science and Religion for 2011.  In response, the UK’s Guardian newspaper posted a somewhat cranky article here.  Here are some of their comments:

In the journal Nature last month, Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, said the Templeton Foundation was “sneakier than the Creationists” and alleged that the organisation tried to instil religious values in science. “It claims to be on the side of science, but wants to make faith a virtue,” Coyne said.

Sir Harry Kroto, a British scientist who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1996 and works at Florida State University, told the Guardian that the “congenital wishful thinking” embodied by religion made it incompatible with science. “There is no problem, with a million-quid lure to hook a few eminent scientists, to say that they personally see no conflict between science and religion, but they are suffering from a form of intellectual schizophrenia,” he said.

Rees got in some good licks in return:

Rees launched another attack on his Cambridge colleague Stephen Hawking, who in the week his latest book hit the shelves last year declared there was no need for a creator God. “I know Stephen Hawking well enough to know that he has read little philosophy and less theology, so I don’t think his views should be taken with any special weight,” Rees said. “I’m not prepared to pronounce on these things. I think it’s rather foolish when scientists do.”

And:

“Doing science made me realise that even the simplest things are hard to understand and that makes me suspicious of people who believe they’ve got anything more than an incomplete and metaphorical understanding of any deep aspect of reality,” he told the Guardian. “I participate in occasional religious services which are the customs of the society I grew up in. I’m not allergic to religion.”

Some interesting letters in response to the article are here.