While we’re on the topic of Rainn Wilson, everyone’s favorite crazy sea mammal has just launched Soul Pancake, a site for those who are “sick of spirituality having to be hippy-dippy, airy-fairy and uber-precious,” that seeks to “de-lamify talking about God & Religion.” And all that with a side of Pancakes? Rainn Wilson is a man after my own heart.

I’m not doing a great job of keeping up, seeing as how I left Edmonton two days ago and am just getting around to posting about it now, but they did keep me pretty busy while I was there. Here’s a quick rundown of a typical day:
The community outreach team would meet in the morning for prayers and reflection on the previous day’s activities. The size of the team varied in size from 20 to almost 40 from day to day, with some members there all day every day and others coming in on their days off or when they finished work in the afternoon. There were also participants that had come in from other cities just to assist with Edmonton’s community outreach, some staying for the full 9 days, others just for one or two. The team was conducting outreach in 4 different neighbourhoods, so after a group reflection, everyone would split up into their neighbourhood teams and continue to plan their activities and study materials that would assist them with their outreach (how to conduct effective classes for children for example, or ways to initiate conversations about religion in a society that would really rather talk about anything but.)

After a quick break for lunch, the separate neighbourhood teams would head out to their respective communities where they would break into pairs and head out into the neighbourhoods. Some pairs would visit parks or community centres, some pairs would visit with parents to further explain the classes for children and youth, some pairs would visit with people to do more detailed presentations about the Baha’i Faith, and some pairs would just go door to door in the community to tell people about the programs that the Baha’is were organizing in the community as well as just raise awareness about the Baha’i Faith.

Another quick break for dinner and then the teams in each neighbourhood prepare for their activities, which can include classes for children, classes for youth, study groups or devotional meetings. In all of the places that I’ve seen in the past few weeks, the children’s class has been the most popular. Usually held in a park somewhere in the neighbourhood, the classes are composed of children of families that the teams have met during the afternoon but often attract children who just happen to be in the park while the classes are going on. Sometimes the kids are the ones dragging the parents over to check out the class and sometimes it’s the parents that are dragging the kids, but either way the kids usually don’t want to leave at the end.

After the classes are over, all of the teams meet back at the community outreach HQ (in Edmonton it was the home of one of the Baha’is) to share experiences from the day, reflect on what they had learned and consulted on how to use that learning to improve their outreach the next day. These projects usually continue for 9-14 days, 12 hours a day. It’s a very intense experience and, between the regular prayer and spirit of service, one that creates tight bonds among the participants.

Rainn Wilson, big time actor, kidnapper and tv star was on NPR recently to plug his new movie and, while he was at it, took an oportunity to talk about growing up in a Baha’i family (at 28:06). Also, while I was off galavanting about the place, he did an interview with the Baha’i World News Service, so you might as well check that out while you’re at it.

Still here in Edmonton, still documenting community outreach. To get an idea of the kinds of activities that are coming out of these outreach projects, have a listen to this report from WMNF radio in Tampa, FL. (direct link to the mp3 here.)

I arrived in Edmonton yesterday and will be here through the weekend covering another community outreach project, but first I wanted to put up an update about the on-going persecution of the Baha’i community in Iran.
Back on May 14th, 6 Baha’i leaders were arrested in Tehran and taken to Evin prison where they have been held since then. From a BBC story on May 19:

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the arrests were a judicial matter and he did not give any further details.
The Bahai International Community says a senior member was arrested in March and six more last week; together they make up the entire leadership in Iran.
It says it has about 300,000 members in Iran, where the faith originated.
Relatives said the six senior members were taken to Evin Prison in Tehran on 14 May, after Intelligence Ministry officers raided their homes in the middle of the night.

More stories here and here.

On August first, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran:

“This is government-sponsored persecution,” said Rep. Mark Kirk (IL-10), who introduced the resolution. “And we in the Congress should not be silent as Iran sets up the mechanism to ethnically cleanse its Baha’i minority, totaling over 250,000 human beings.”

“It sends a strong signal that Congress will continue to watch closely the treatment of the Baha’i people in Iran,” said Rep Howard L. Berman (CA-28), who is the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and co-sponsored the resolution.

And then on August third, a report in an Iranian newspaper claimed that the detained Baha’is had confessed to “setting up an illegal organisation with connections to a number of countries including Israel and they have received orders from them to undertake measures against the Islamic system.”
The international Baha’i community was quick to deny the report, saying:

“We deny in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that Baha’is in Iran have engaged in any subversive activity,” said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations. “The Baha’i community is not involved in political affairs. Their only ‘crime’ is the practice of their religion.”

“The seriousness of the allegations makes us fear for the lives of these seven individuals,” she said.

She was responding to Iranian newspaper reports of statements by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

Numerous groups have spoken out against this latest wave of persecution against the Baha’is in Iran, including the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Left Ottawa, flew across the country, spent the weekend in Vancouver with a group doing community outreach in 9 different neighbourhoods across the city. It’s pretty much the same thing here as it was in Ottawa (though on a larger scale), classes for children, devotional meetings, and generally talking to people about religion, about spirituality and about the Baha’i Faith. Here people are prepping for a children’s class, making arrangements to go and pick up the kids in a neighbourhood called Skeena.


Again, the classes here are virtually identical to the classes in Ottawa (and, in fact, classes that are going on all around the world) consisting of prayers, songs, stories, crafts and games designed to foster virtues and unity in the community.

I first heard about musical firesides when I was in Kuala Lumpur last year, and though I didn’t have a chance to go to one until I got to Ottawa, I had heard about them being used in India, the US, the UK, France and all across Canada. And I’m sure they’re being used in another dozen countries as well, but it’s just so hard to keep up these days.

Anyway, a ‘musical fireside’ is simply a presentation about the basics of the Baha’i Faith that incorporates video, photos, songs and prayers. It’s an opportunity for Baha’is to invite their friends and neighbours to find out what Baha’is actually believe. These days, religion having the reputation that it does, people are often hesitant to talk about spirituality and belief (whether it’s your own or someone else’s) even when others are genuinely interested in it. So this way, people can get together, eat some food, watch a presentation, sing some songs and have a discussion about religion and spirituality. The singing, as you can see, is key.

After the songs, more food and some discussion. Time to drink tea and ask questions and get to know your friends and neighbours. Because, after all, isn’t understanding a fairly key step on the way to unity?

I’ve been in Ottawa for a couple of days now hanging out with a group of about 20 Baha’is who are doing community outreach in a neighbourhood called Bayshore. They’ve been organizing devotional meetings, study groups and classes for children. Here a few of the participants take an opportunity to reflect on the people that they’d talked to that day as well as plan for the evening children’s class.

The children’s classes teach morals and virtues (like love, patience, honesty, unity and justice) using songs, stories, games and crafts. They’ve had 15-20 kids there the past couple of days, and while the kids laughed and played, the parents would come and chat with the organizers. Here michel goes through a book with a young boy. Because this is Ottawa, there is a real mix of english and french among both the organizers and the participants. This evening’s class was conducted in english and this young boy spoke only french, so Michel was taking a moment to translate this book for him.

At the devotional meetings, members of the community are invited to come together and say prayers and read holy writings from any of the world’s religions. This one was pretty chill, and after praying and meditating together, people hung out and had tea and chatted for a while. Nothing like praying together to build unity in a community, no matter what religious background we all come from.

Life never really works out the way that I plan (which is why I’ve largely given up on planning altogether). The last time I dropped a post on this blog, I was about to hit the road for what turned into an 14 month global tour of fun and adventure that included 18 countries, 78 separate flights, 79 different beds and approximately 125,000 photos. I know I had promised that I would blog as much as I could, but, sadly reality is rarely as easy I imagine and the prospect of getting a post up from Carracollo, Bolivia; Preah Vihear, Cambodia or Mulanje, Malawi was a little more than I could handle while trying to keep up with booking tickets, finding translators, trying to keep airport security goons from confiscating my cameras and securing a steady flow of delicious cups of tea (it’s all about the priorities).
But I do have some fun stories about a radio station in Soloy, Panama; a community bank run by pre-teens outside of Kathmandu, Nepal; youth building community gardens in Kiribati; and the village of Billimbing Besi in Sarawak where 90% of the residents are Baha’is. I’ll try to make real posts out of these and more, but in the mean time, after a couple of months of recuperating on my couch, I’m back on the road. This time I’m keeping the wanderings confined to my homeland of Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax and numerous ports in between. Given that I rarely do things in anything close to a logical manner, I’m starting in Ottawa. Which, I suppose is actually logical, given it’s the capital and all.

Happy New Year everyone. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that this blog has been quiet for quite some time now, and I certainly do apologize, but exciting things have been in the works.
I’m going to be taking a bit of a sabbatical from… whatever it is that I do, and hitting the road. I’ll be travelling to a bunch of locales and checking out the Baha’i scene while I’m there. The trip is really just getting started now, and the plan is that I’ll be keeping this site updated as I go, with news and photos and whatnot from my travels. And while I do have my list of destinations, I still don’t have an itinerary to go with it, so you’ll all have to keep guessing for now…

Oh, and as a side-note, comments will stay turned off while I’m gone both because I’m still drowning in comment spam and because I really won’t have time to keep an eye on what’s going on down there in comment-land. So, as per usual, just drop me an email instead.

The nine-month battle to give Egyptian Baha’is the right to list their religion on their national ID cards ended today when Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the right of Baha’is to be properly identified on government documents:

The decision upholds current government policy, a policy which forces the Baha’is either to lie about their religious beliefs or give up their state identification cards. The policy effectively deprives Egyptian Baha’is of access to most rights of citizenship, including education, financial services, and even medical care.

“We deplore the Court’s ruling in this case, which violates an extensive body of international law on human rights and religious freedom to which Egypt has long been a party,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“Since this was the last avenue of appeal in this particular case, the Court’s decision threatens to make non-citizens of an entire religious community, solely on the basis of religious belief,” said Ms. Dugal.

Now, to get everyone up to speed, back in April an Egyptian Administrative Court ruled that Baha’is in that country could actually identify themselves as Bahá’ís on official government documents. Sadly, the ruling was suspended less than a month later and the govenment annouced that it would be appealing the decision.

So now, after a nine-month trip through the courts, the rights of the Baha’is in Egypt are right back where they were before this all started. Of course, the one bright side to all of this is the incredible amount of media coverage that the story has recieved. The issue has been debated in magazines and newspapers as well as on television both inside Egypt and around the world. And I’m sure it will only intensify after this ruling.

For a much more complete picture of the situation of the Baha’is in Egypt, head over to Baha’i Faith in Egypt, a blog all about, well, the Baha’i Faith in Egypt.

(Update: The story is starting to show up everywhere now. Here are articles from Reuters and AFP, as well as this commentary (and more links) from Egyptian blog The Arabist, and finally this post by Hossam el-Hamalawy, who was at the courthouse when the verdict was delivered.)

Czech it out all (oh the bad puns), the Changing Times conference starts in two weeks and it seems that I have managed to sneak myself onto the bill (they’re under the impression that I’m some sort of “internet specialist”, the suckers). So, for anyone heading to the czech republic, I’ll see you there. I’ll be the one wandering around, trying to think of something intelligent and internet-related to say. Anyone have any ideas?

Why, oh why do I always find out about these things at the last minute? Seattle Baha’is and hip hop super-stars Common Market are in Albuquerque Tuesday night playing with Dan the Automator. So, if you’re luckier than I am and happen to be in the area, can you head down and check it out for me? Look, here’s a map to the venue, and the show is $20. I’ll reimburse anyone who can get down there and give me decent review of the show.
For those of us who won’t be making it, we can at least check out these two little pieces from SPIN.com.
Of course, you could always head over to their myspace page, where you can find out about more of their upcoming shows.

A story today in Uganda’s New Vision is highlighting how the Baha’is in that country are urging their government not to forget the need for a spiritual componant in the fight against poverty:

The Baha’i community director, Daisy Bamuno, said, “There is need to have the spiritual ingredient in the fight against poverty if it is going to be successful.”

Bamuno was yesterday addressing Baha’i members at their temple at Kikaya during prayers in commemoration of the Human Rights Day.

The function was organised to foster ways of fighting poverty as the main cause of human rights abuses in Uganda.

Bamuno said, “There are other persistent ills obstructing the peaceful development of people and the nation. Marginalisation of girls and women, failing states, lack of political freedoms and the HIV/AIDS scourge are some of the aspects. This has led to serious human rights abuses in turn.”

The relief state minister, Musa Ecweru, said, “The Baha’i community’s belief in the spiritual aspect of fighting poverty should be upheld. “The human virtue of trustworthiness is so vital in the social development process that if lacking, no progress can be attained.

For more on the Baha’i perspective on the need for the elimination of poverty, check here and here.

The Baha’i World News Service put up a story a few days ago about a Baha’i who was named the Young Outstanding Malaysian for Moral or Religious Leadership:

“I used to be quite notorious,” said Jia Chin, who is now in his late teens. “I was involved in cheating and fighting.”

But Jia Chin decided to give up on his life of crime after participating in a moral education program sponsored by the local Baha’i community here. “One day I was attending a Baha’i-inspired program with my friend and I saw that I can live differently,” said Jia Chin. “I decided to join the classes. Now my life is different. I am happy and glad now because I have transformed.”

[…]

Now 28 years old, Mr. Lim was recently honored for this work in a ceremony on 4 November 2006, when he was named the Young Outstanding Malaysian for Moral or Religious Leadership by the Junior Chamber Kuala Lumpur Mandarin, a community service organization affiliated with Junior Chamber International.

And check out this little doco all about Mr. Lim (thanks Amy):

It’s that holiday season again, and you all know what that means right? That’s right, it’s winter school time (well, for those of you in the northern hemisphere anyway). Unfortunately, because of my little absence, lead time for some of these is a little tight, but here we go:

• The Swiss Winter School (linked page is german) is running from December 25th to the 30th at the Boldern Centre near Zurich. The theme this year is “One Common Faith” and there will be afternoon workshops in film-making, learning Arabic, singing, deepening and much more. All talks and workshops will be held in or translated into French, German and English.
  Register here or write to tracyshoe@bluewin.ch for more info.
• In the US, there’s the Lou Helen family winter school running from December 27th to January 1st. Registation information here.
• The registration for Japan’s winter school ended on December 2nd, but you may be able to sneak in if you’re going to be Takamatsu City between the 23rd and 25th of December
• And instead of me listing every winter school out there, check the list here for details about winter schools in Ireland, Slovakia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Scotland, New Caledonia & The Loyalty Islands and New Zealand (astute readers will note that these last two are technically summer schools, but let’s not split hairs shall we?)

(Update: An astute reader who, no doubt, noticed that New Zealand is having its summer school now, aslo noticed that if you go to this page of the Swiss summer school site, you can read all about the program en francais)

Just a few quick housekeeping things: I’m getting to the backlog of emails, so if you wrote to me any time in the past few months and still haven’t heard back, please bear with me, I’ll get there eventually. Also, given the huge amount of comment spam that I’m still getting, comments will effectively be turned off. You can try to leave them, but they’re all just going to be deleted until I can work it out. Of course, you can always drop me an email if there’s something on your mind.
Right then, carry on.

So surprise surprise, a lot happened while I was out. For example: this Reuters story onBaha’i Pilgrimage:

The hushed Baha’i pilgrimage to the Holy Land focuses on personal prayer and meditation, and is like no other in a region long torn between religions struggling — often noisily and sometimes violently — for hearts, minds and land.

“It was a spiritual journey for me,” said Mutale Salimu Hobbs, 30, from Zambia in southern Africa.

“It was a great experience, with people coming together as one,” she said on Mount Carmel, the world headquarters of the Baha’i movement above the busy Israeli port city of Haifa.

I was lucky enough to go on pilgrimage back in January and, at risk of sounding cliche, it really was a life changing experience. So if you haven’t yet, be sure to get yourselves signed up.

So let’s just pretend that I put up the following post up a few weeks ago:

I’m going to be dropping off-line for a few weeks owing to a change of job, change of house and change of continent. Then I’m goign to go on vacation, and then my computer is going to die and I’m going to have to get it fixed… And by the time all of that is over, I’m sure I’ll hardly even remember how to blog. So bear with me. Be back soon.

Yeah, so anyway, I’m back now and I’ve got a whole pile of stuff to catch up on.

Heads up all, this year’s Changing Times conference is starting in a mere 67 days [gratuitous exclamation point]. The annual conference takes place at the Townshend International School in the Czech Republic, this year running from the 25th of December until the 1st of January. It also happens to be, by all accounts, the hottest place to rock the holiday season for all you mid-20’s Baha’i movers and shakers (though how that can be true when I have yet to attend, I have no idea).
But if spending a week in the scenic central Europe, mingling with young Baha’i professionals from 30-odd countries and attending sessions on the construct of race, conflict resolution, and ethics and morality sounds like a good time to you, you’d better get yourselves registered right quick as there is always a huge waiting list of eager folks just like you scrambling to attend (rumors are 300-400 poor souls get left out in the cold every year, so great is the demand; check the registration policies here).
And once you’ve got your lucky self all signed up, keep an eye on the Changing Times blog to stay abreast of the latest developments.

Ferraby Lionheart, long a favorite of ours here at Baha’i blog, is now, it seems, a favorite of everyone. Interweb music hipsters Stereogum, after naming him an artist to watch, was all a-gush over his show a few days ago; and his first solo release “self-titled EP” has been getting some wonderfully glowy reviews.
So do yourselves a favor and head over here, here and here to download some tracks and then here to watch him serenade an old lady (such a nice boy) and after all that, when you’re as completely in love with him as I am, head over here to buy your own copy of “self-titled EP”. Now excuse me while I go back to listening to “Tickets to Crickets” for the fiftieth time in a row.

Ok, so while I was gone, Jerome sent me an email about a music industry weekend at Bosch Baha’i School and, as it’s going on this weekend (starts on Thursday evening), I wanted to make sure to let you know about it right away:

Dear Friends,

We want to invite you to a special event for Baha’i musicians like no other:

The 4th Annual Baha’i “Music Development Weekend” at Bosch Baha’i School in Santa Cruz California.

It starts Thursday evening October 5th and runs through Sunday, October 8th.

If you are a Baha’i, and a musician or producer, and music is important to you,
THIS MAY BE THE MOST REWARDING WEEKEND YOU WILL EXPERIENCE THIS YEAR!
YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS CHANCE TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF MUSIC IN THE BAHA’I COMMUNITY
We’ll plan future collaborations, and share some lessons learned about performing, recording, producing and promoting our musical art.
We’ll explore not only how to make money with our craft, but also how to be more effective as musicians in the Baha’i community. And of course, we’ll jam a bit too, and perform!

Call or email the school today to reserve your place at this wonderful event.
If you can’t stay the whole weekend, come for the concert on Saturday evening!

Bosch Baha’i School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060-9615
On the web at:

http://www.bosch.org/Site/Sessions.html

Phone: [831] 423-3387
Fax: [831] 423-7564
E-mail: bosch@usbnc.org

Hope To See You There!

So if you’re free this weekend and in the neighbourhood, head over here and get yourselves signed up.

I’m sorry, did I say 2 weeks? I really meant to say 3 months…
But I’m back from my little vacation, rested and relaxed and with a whole stack of things to get caught up on, like wading through emails and trying to figure out how to get rid of 2500 viagra-gambling-cheap-meds spam comments. If you sent me an email in the past 3 months, don’t worry, I’ll get to it. If you tried to post a comment to the blog, um, well, you may need to try that one again.
And updates will be flowing once again on a regular basis, so if you’ve got anything that you think everyone needs to know about, drop me a line. I promise it won’t take me 3 months to get back to you.

I’ll be gone on the 9th of July, so I’m just going remind you all now that the Martyrdom of the Bab took place on July 9th, 1850. From the US Baha’i Website:

On the day of his execution, a young follower burst through the assembled crowd and begged to be allowed to be martyred along with the Bab. At noon, 10,000 people gathered to watch the double execution by a 750-man firing squad.

When the smoke cleared, the follower stood there unharmed, and the Bab was gone. He soon was discovered back in his cell. That same day he was brought before a new firing squad (the previous one was too traumatized). This time the Persian government accomplished its mission.

There’s also a beautiful flash presentation.

I’m heading on vacation for the next two weeks, so posting will be light. Or not at all.
I’ll be picking up “ry went on vacation and all I got was two weeks of no posts on Baha’i Blog” t-shirts for everyone. Please leave your size and colour preference in the comments.