#Baháʼí

[kaajoo]

[spokanefavs]

Pete Haug on celebrating 62 years of marriage.

His secret? Honesty and courtesy, modeled from the start.

Read more about his marriage journey below.

[glimblshanks]

Someone come explain monotheism to me, I don't GET it

[tower-of-hana]

I hope you find god.

"What are you, a Christian trying to convert me?"

No I'm a Baha'i, that was a death threat

[mypepemateossus]

[forsythiajo]

Happy birthday to Mahvash Sabet, born on this day, February 4, in 1953!

Sabet is an Iranian writer and Baha’i community leader, who was an Iranian prisoner from 2008-2017 and since 2022. She was an educator and school principal until the Iranian Revolution, when she was barred from teaching because she was Baha'i. She later became the director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education and an informal leader of the country's Baha'i community.

She was arrested in 2008, later being charged with spying for Israel, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, insulting sacred sites, and establishment of an illegal administration. Six other Baha'i leaders were also arrested and charged under similar circumstances. All seven were given 20-year prison sentences. While in prison, Sabet wrote poetry on scraps of paper, which were smuggled out of prison by family members. Her work was compiled and translated into English in 2013, published as the book Prison Poems.

Sabet was released in 2017, after her sentence was lessened in 2016. She was arrested again in 2022, while recovering from COVID-19. She was charged with  "participating in groups to act against national security through teaching and preaching the Baha’i faith to children in kindergartens, [and] agitating against Islamic Sharia through holding coaching courses". In 2023, she was sentenced to another 10 years in prison.

May she spend her next birthday as a free woman.

[weepingfireflies]

People & countries mentioned in the thread:

DR Congo - M23, Cobalt

Darfur, Sudan - International Criminal Court, CNN, BBC (Overview); Twitter Explanation on Sudan

Tigray - Human Rights Watch (Ethnic Cleansing Report)

the Sámi people - IWGIA, Euronews

Hawai'i - IWGIA

Syria - Amnesty International

Kashmir- Amnesty Summary (PDF), Wikipedia (Jammu and Kashmir), Human Rights Watch (2022)

Iran - Human Rights Watch, Morality Police (Mahsa/Jina Amini - Al Jazeera, Wikipedia)

Uyghurs - Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) Q&A, Wikipedia, Al Jazeera, UN Report

Tibetans - SaveTibet.org, United Nations

Yazidi people - Wikipedia, United Nations

West Papua - Free West Papua, Genocide Watch

Yemen - Human Rights Watch (Saudi border guards kill migrants), Carrd

Sri Lanka (Tamils) - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Afghans in Pakistan - Al Jazeera, NPR

Ongoing Edits: more from the notes / me

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh/Azerbaijan (Artsakh) - Global Conflict Tracker ("Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict"), Council on Foreign Relations, Human Rights Watch (Azerbaijan overview), Armenian Food Bank

Baháʼís in Iran - Bahá'í International Community, Amnesty, Wikipedia, Minority Rights Group International

Kafala System in the Middle East - Council on Foreign Relations, Migrant Rights

Rohingya - Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, Al Jazeera, UNICEF

Montagnards (Vietnam Highlands) - World Without Genocide, Montagnard Human Rights Organization (MHRO), VOA News

Ukraine - Human Rights Watch (April 2022), Support Ukraine Now (SUN), Ukraine Website, Schools & Education (HRW), Dnieper River advancement (Nov. 15, 2023 - Ap News)

Reblogs with Links / From Others

Indigenous Ppl of Canada, Cambodia, Mexico, Colombia

Libya

Armenia Reblog 1, Armenia Reblog 2

Armenia, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Indigenous Americans, Black ppl (US)

Rohingya (Myanmar)

More Hawai'i Links from @sageisnazty - Ka Lahui Hawaii, Nation of Hawai'i on Soverignty, Rejected Apology Resolution

From @rodeodeparis: Assyrian Policy Institute, Free Yezidi

From @is-this-a-cool-url: North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA)

From @dougielombax & compiled by @azhdakha: Assyrians & Yazidis

West Sahara conflict

Last Updated: Feb. 19th, 2024 (If I missed smth before this, feel free to @ me to add it)

[lambrinichampagne]

I haven't been on twitter or seen the news all day and just been round to my great aunty's house to see her literally popping a bottle of champers 😭

[lunarian-anarchist]

Why is it that even today when you look up "three major religions" Judaism is in the top three on most of the search results?

Seriously y'all....why? Hinduism and Buddhism outnumber us by the hundreds of millions.

Hell even if you counted monotheistic faiths, we're still not top 3. Sikhism also outnumbers us.

We're 0.2% of the global population and 2.4% of the USA's population.

The only way this makes sense is if you're talking about the three major "Abrahamic" religions. But if that's the case maybe specifying that is important?

Btw there's also Bábism, Druzism, Samaritanism (Jewish kin), and the Baháʼí for "Abrahamic" religions.

[chelledoggo]

there's too much animosity towards queer people who want to practice their faith/spirituality, both within their respective religions and within the LGBTQIA+ community.

we need to protect and lift up our queer siblings of faith.

our queer Christians.

our queer Jews.

our queer Muslims.

our queer Hindus.

our queer Buddhists.

our queer Sikhs.

our queer Baháʼís.

our queer Wiccans/Pagans.

our queer Shintos.

our queer siblings of indigenous/folk faiths.

our queer SBNR siblings.

our queer siblings of whatever religion/spiritual systems they observe.

you're all beautiful and valid and loved and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 💖

[ed-recoverry]

Happy pride to religious LGBTQ+ folks.

It never doesn’t hurt to see religious people, especially possibly from your own religion, hate you for just existing. Staying true to yourself and keeping your faith while doing so is something to have pride about🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Muslims.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Jews.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Christians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Hindus.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Buddhists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Sikhs.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Shintoists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Taoists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Vodouists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Spiritualists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Shamanists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Confucians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Jains.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Baháʼís.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Zoroastrians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ religious folks.

[the-sentimental-spymaster]

It's Hallowmas Spooky Time!

So I'm here to introduce Cardiac's working persona, The Bizarre Bishop!

This is how he looks when he's doing Chessboard stuff, working at Burrow¹, or being a little jester!

(Art and design by @vos-porwave)

(Art by @sorrow2art)

He's meant to look like a mix between a chess bishop, a Venetian carnival outfit, and a shepherd. The main colors are the three chess sides, with gold and his foxfire eyes as accessory colors :)

While he's in this outfit, he doesn't speak - he typically uses pantomime, sign language (he's still learning to use BSL), and sometimes prepared scraps of paper with quick commands - 'run' or 'hide' for example.

As the Bizarre Bishop, he tries to help people - and make no movements more than necessary outside of doing so. Sometimes his help comes in rather unconventional ways², but he has his tactics and his gambits.

Thank you for reading! It's almost been a whole year since I first made him (November 1st) and I've loved the ride. Take care!

¹: He works with a doctrine of silence, in the Burrow. He doesn't preach, and instead tries to offer a multifaith place of peace and reflection - inspired by the Baháʼí Lotus Temple in Delhi.

²: He has stolen a delivery from a courier, temporarily killed a scoundrel, and swiftly removed a pirate from a bar, via the window. All in the name of helping out!

[sap-woods]

well, why not exactly like south africa? why not like any other arab country where muslims and christians and atheists and hindus live side-by-side just fine? why not like the diverse western nations that finance your state's existence? what exactly about palestinians is so Inherently Evil And Irredeemable (bc that is honestly how you sound) that they would not have the humanity and morality to treat people like people?

it's always the same fear of the day after. white south africans are alive. white american colonisers are fucking thriving. same in australia, in new zealand. immigrants to arab countries lead entire lives there. why not like any of them?

What an exhausting, insulting question... that truly has nothing to do with anything I said. I was speaking about Hamas and leftists who support their aims to dismantle Israel, not the Palestinian people.

I have never said that it’s impossible that Muslims, Christians, Jews, (and Samaritans, Druze, etc.) will live side-by-side. They already do, in Israel. There is discrimination, but they do indeed live side-by-side. What I said was that it will not happen under Hamas rule. Which is an objective fact. The Gaza strip, by the way, is currently 98% Muslim.

I also never said that Palestinians are “inherently evil and irredeemable,” nor did I imply it. You lie in order to paint me, as an Israeli, as hateful. I am not. I spoke only of Hamas. Your conflation of a militant terrorist group with civilians is unfortunate. Hamas has proven time and time again that they do not have the humanity to treat people like people. I said nothing of the Palestinian people.

While I owe you nothing, I'll have you know that I am absolutely in favor of steps towards a peaceful solution and mutual recognition of both nations. I think it is outrageous that there are Palestinian detainees held without charge. I find the number of deaths in Gaza an unacceptable collective punishment. I am supportive of cultural and economic efforts towards reconciliation (e.g., bilingual Arab-Jewish schools and summer camps, joint activism efforts, organizations that promote dialogue and cross-cultural events, shared efforts to help victims of violence, cultural exchange and language learning initiatives). I think the current government is a disaster. I want to see a world where Jews, Christians, and Muslims—and Samaritans, Druze, and Baháʼís—live in peace together in that land. The fact that you saw me saying that Hamas would enact genocide if given the chance (which is true) and interpreted that as me saying Palestinians are “inherently evil” (which I did not say) is truly sad.

The reality is Hamas is not a resistance group. It is an Islamic ultranationalist militaristic dictatorship that has kept its citizens as prisoners by stealing international aid and running military operations to commit war crimes from under schools and hospitals. It is a terrorist group that rapes, murders, and tortures civilians, including children and infants. Peace in the region will not be possible without a demilitarized Gaza. Hamas rule is incompatible with peace. If you support Hamas, you support the violent expulsion or genocide of Israeli Jews from our homeland. You can (and should) be in support of Palestinian self-determination. This belief is also incompatible with support for Hamas. Israeli war crimes do not absolve Hamas's war crimes.

Another thing I find interesting is that you refer to a dismantled Israel as “another Arab country,” and in the same breath claim that Jews would continue to live there. I wonder, was it a coincidence that you failed to list Jews in your list of religions living side-by-side, or are you aware that there are very, very few Jews living in Arab countries today? In case you are unaware, the absence of Jews from the Arabian peninsula, the Mesopotamian region, and North Africa is a result of diasporic Jewish minorities fleeing, being expelled, and/or being ethnically cleansed. Prior to that, they lived with second class status (dhimmis) under Islamic rule. As an Israeli Jew, I cannot set foot in many Arab countries today. Is that your version of coexistence?

And let us be clear: The remaining ethnic minority groups do not live in peace in the Muslim-majority countries of the region. The examples are endless. The genocide of the Yazidis by the Islamic State. The Houthi persecution of Yemenite Jews and Baháʼís. The displaced Christians from the Syrian civil war. The Middle East is rife with examples of radicalized religious extremists being entirely incompatible with coexistence with minority groups.

Yet, in your list of co-existing religions, you picked Hinduism: a minority religion that, while practiced in some Middle Eastern countries, is not indigenous to the region. Perhaps you did this in ignorance. Perhaps it was an attempt to support your point that some immigrants and migrants can indeed lead reasonable lives in Arab countries (e.g., Indian expats in the Emirates or Saudi Arabia), as ethnic minorities with a homeland to return to. Needless to say, it's an irrelevant and feeble attempt to claim that religions currently coexist well in the Muslim-majority countries. As a whole, they do not.

Let's talk about your list of colonizers next. White South Africans being alive has nothing to do with Israel. White people thriving in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand have nothing to do with Israel. Those examples are particularly bizarre anyway, as, excepting South Africa, you’ve picked countries where the colony essentially remained in place and became the ethnic majority. But none of these colonies have anything to do with Israel, because Israel is not a colony.

Jews are indigenous to Israel. We are one of a small number of indigenous Levantine ethnic groups who call that land home. The word colony requires a context we do not have–a colony for what country? What existing country is expanding territory? We are a 4000 year old nation, many of us displaced by the Romans, and who, after 2000 years of oppression and genocide both in the diaspora and in our homeland, won our independence from the occupying force in power at the time: the British. We have nothing to do with European colonizers. You cannot colonize your own homeland.

Again, that does not mean I support the Israeli government or the IDF's actions. I fully believe Palestinians also deserve self-determination in our shared land. Our status does not change the Palestinian story. It does not undo their suffering. The situation in Gaza is untenable and an outrage. Our status does not change the inhumane conditions that Israel, along with other countries (like Egypt) have placed on the population of Gaza.

But Jews being indigenous to the region matters—because the context to understand Israel is not one of colonizer-colonized. Ours is an ethnic conflict in the context independence after a long history of many colonial powers (British, Ottoman, etc.), a wider political context of Arabization and oppression of ethnic/religious minority groups in the entire Middle East, as well as a global context of hatred of Jews and Arabs, and of Western meddling.

It also matters because it highlights the fact that Palestinians are our cousins—both because many Palestinians are likely decedents of Jews, Samaritans, etc. who were Arabized and forcibly converted Islam—but also because the Arabs are our cousins too. It is important to remember that this is an ethnic conflict, and not a situation in which one group can "go home." We have to find a way to coexist. Hamas is not that way.

Is “leading a life,” as you say, enough? Well, we wouldn't be able to, under Hamas. They have made that clear. But even if a Hamas-led state made room for dhimmi-status Jewish Israelis, then no, it would not be enough. (Remember, it is not even enough for many Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship to live under our state with full rights.) Self-determination is important. Maintenance of language and culture is important. Statehood matters, for both Palestinians and Israelis. I do not believe we are ready for a fully unified state. Perhaps we never will be. But whatever the solution, it is imperative that both people have self-determination in their homeland.

And be it a unified democratic binational state, a single federal government with autonomous cantons/states that govern themselves, a "two states, one homeland" two state confederation, a fully-realized two state solution, or any other solution: the violent—and yes, evil—Hamas regime can play no part.

[tower-of-hana]

Is the Parable of the Lovers a thing Muslims talk about often or is it a niche Muslim thing and a really common Baha'i thing?

[fromchaostocosmos]

Wikipedia really not beating the antisemitism allegations.

I mean do we really need all that. Do we really need to know according to Halacha Justin Baldoni is considered Jewish via his mother.

Baldoni, who is a devout Baháʼí, no longer celebrates the Jewish holidays

Baldoni’s 2011 trip to Israel, ironically, has little to do with his Jewish roots and much more to do with his Bahá’í faith.

He is not Jewish and is not a part of the community.

[polkadotmotmot]

Maryam Safajoo - Destruction of Baháʼí Cemeteries, 2020 - Oil on canvas