Bahá'í's educational rights
In Our Opinion
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Forum
There is really only one way to regard the hijacking of a peaceful faith by rogue clerics and fascist governments who use it to persecute another religious group equally concerned with peace for mankind: utterly regrettable and abominable.
This is the reality, though, for members of the Bahá'í faith living in Iran. Since its inception in the mid-1800s, the largest minority of Iran's populace today has suffered numerous injustices including the denial of access to education at the hands of the various governments and regimes that have led the country over the last two centuries. The plight of the faith is particularly troubling today, however, because of the powerful influence that Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an important religious figure in the Shi'a sect of Islam, and other Islamic clerics hold over the country.
The stand that Bahá'í students here at UT have taken along with the Faculty Senate against these oppressive authority figures in Iran who deny Bahá'ís access to education along with other basic human rights is truly honorable.
Despite their religion's call for peace among humanity and a resistance against violence and injustice, Khamenei and other Islamic clerics continue to call for the "enemies of Islam" to be harassed and degraded, all to the aggrandizement of the religious leaders' power. There exists no real need for this strife, as any Muslim scholar worth his or her salt will be cognizant of the strong similarities Islam and the Bahá'í faith share and the minute opportunities for discord that exist between the two faiths' belief structures.
Islam and Bahá'í both possess stalwart commitments to the value of human life, the oneness of God, the value of knowledge and the worth of tranquility for humanity. Bahá'í laws have numerous parallels to Islamic Shariah, and the two religions even share some religious traditions such as daily prayer.
The truth of the matter is the Bahá'í faith grew out of Islamic communities just as Christianity grew out of Jewish ones. The growth of the Bahá'í faith has historically been perceived by some alarmist and power-hungry leaders of Islam as a threat. They cite as one of the few important reasons for their contention the Bahá'í belief that Muhammad, the sacred final prophet and messenger of God to Muslims, and the Quran, the sacred text of Islam considered by Muslims to be the seal of God's message, were not in fact final and are just a part of the continuing revelation of God's message. Other reasons exist, but they are not at all insurmountable and in fact rather highlight just how close the two religions are to each other.
There is no reason as to why the Islamic state of Iran cannot coexist peacefully with the Bahá'í minority in the country. Despite the few meager differences that do exist, the different beliefs of Islam and Bahá'í need not be pitted against each other.
This is the reality, though, for members of the Bahá'í faith living in Iran. Since its inception in the mid-1800s, the largest minority of Iran's populace today has suffered numerous injustices including the denial of access to education at the hands of the various governments and regimes that have led the country over the last two centuries. The plight of the faith is particularly troubling today, however, because of the powerful influence that Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an important religious figure in the Shi'a sect of Islam, and other Islamic clerics hold over the country.
The stand that Bahá'í students here at UT have taken along with the Faculty Senate against these oppressive authority figures in Iran who deny Bahá'ís access to education along with other basic human rights is truly honorable.
Despite their religion's call for peace among humanity and a resistance against violence and injustice, Khamenei and other Islamic clerics continue to call for the "enemies of Islam" to be harassed and degraded, all to the aggrandizement of the religious leaders' power. There exists no real need for this strife, as any Muslim scholar worth his or her salt will be cognizant of the strong similarities Islam and the Bahá'í faith share and the minute opportunities for discord that exist between the two faiths' belief structures.
Islam and Bahá'í both possess stalwart commitments to the value of human life, the oneness of God, the value of knowledge and the worth of tranquility for humanity. Bahá'í laws have numerous parallels to Islamic Shariah, and the two religions even share some religious traditions such as daily prayer.
The truth of the matter is the Bahá'í faith grew out of Islamic communities just as Christianity grew out of Jewish ones. The growth of the Bahá'í faith has historically been perceived by some alarmist and power-hungry leaders of Islam as a threat. They cite as one of the few important reasons for their contention the Bahá'í belief that Muhammad, the sacred final prophet and messenger of God to Muslims, and the Quran, the sacred text of Islam considered by Muslims to be the seal of God's message, were not in fact final and are just a part of the continuing revelation of God's message. Other reasons exist, but they are not at all insurmountable and in fact rather highlight just how close the two religions are to each other.
There is no reason as to why the Islamic state of Iran cannot coexist peacefully with the Bahá'í minority in the country. Despite the few meager differences that do exist, the different beliefs of Islam and Bahá'í need not be pitted against each other.
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great article
posted 9/01/08 @ 3:23 PM EST
Thank you for this piece... it is a reminder than religion should never be hijacked for political purposes and can be dangerous when used to justify intolerance of other ethnic groups. (Continued…)
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