I am an Englishman, which means I have a built in love of tea, I am also a Baha’i, and if you haven’t noticed it,  Baha’is are “powered by tea”.

But I don’t just love tea, I adore tea, I love everything about tea, its smell, its taste, it colour etc. It is simply the greatest drink in all of creation!

But tea is more that just Typhoo, Clipper or Ringtons, its more than just the tea we get in tea bags, there are some wonderful varieties of tea out there, and all of them are wonderful, but what are these varieties of tea and where do they come from.

Well all tea comes from a plant called Camellia Sinensis, or the tea shrub. The tea shrub is native to south Asia, and is today cultivated across the world in tropical and subtropical climates. But it can be grown as far north as Cornwall, where the Tregothnan Estate produce a tea that is very similar to Darjeeling, though given its niche nature is extremely expensive.

Anyway, so that’s the plant, and from this single plant which is the same the world over, we can produce four very different categories of tea, white, green, oolong and red/black tea. Basically in a picked tea leaf there are two important constituents which are normally separated from each other by the structure of the tea plants cells. These are polyphenols and and enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, and if they come into contact the polyphenols are oxidised changing the colours and flavours of the tea leaf, eventually into black tea. This process is referred to as fermentation (it isn’t really a fermentation so don’t worry about that), and the production of the different types of tea is about controlling the fermentation.

So lets have a look at the different types of tea in a little detail:-

White Tea

White tea is the simplest form of tea, originally it was only produced in the Fujian province of China, but today is also made in India and Sir Lanka. The youngest leaves and shoots, still covered in soft white hairs are plucked allowed to naturally dry before being baked gently. They are not rolled or broken so the cells remain intact and no fermentation takes place at all. The flavour is mild, mellow and a bit fruity. A lovely tea with lots of anti-oxidants, which I am told prevent ageing. Its also the most expensive type of tea and can sometimes be quite difficult to get a hold of in a normal supermarket.

Green Tea

Green tea is made from fully matured tea leaves, once the leaves are picked they are heated or steamed. This denatures the polyphenol oxidase preventing fermentation. Once that is done the leaves can be pressed rolled and twisted, and they keep their natural flavours, then they are baked. Green tea tends to have a naturally sweet grassy taste, and is known to have many health benefits due to the unoxidised polyphenols, as well as high levels of carotene and vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D.

Oolong Tea

Oolong, or Wu Long, which means Black Dragon, is a tea which many here in the UK, don’t know anything about, so there is something almost mysterious about them, but in China they are some of the most highly prized teas. They are a halfway stage between green and black tea and it is made by bruising the mature green leaves slightly, breaking the structure of the cells, allowing some oxidation and a change in the flavours of the tea.

Partway through the oxidation process the leaves are baked to stop the process, when this is done determines if its a dark or light oolong. The resulting tea is more complex and darker than green tea, it combines the different health benefits of green and black tea. The flavours are very intense and flowery, it is very akin to green tea but without the grassy vegetal notes, I sometimes find it to be almost woody in taste.

Back Tea

The most familiar type of tea to us here in the UK, made by rolling or crushing the leaves, rupturing the cells and allowing them to fully oxidise. The leaves change from a bright green to orange, and finally reddish-brown in colour and a new flavour develops.

These flavours can vary widely, depending on the green leaves, the rolling or crushing process and the length of time the leaves are allowed to oxidise. This process is stopped by oven-drying the tea. All of the vegetal qualities of the leaf are gone and replaced with a depth of character unparalleled in the world of food.

There are a couple of other different types of tea, such as yellow tea and pu erh for example, but those four are the bulk of the tea that is produced today.

So why am I talking about tea I hear you ask, well its simple, all these different types of tea, all come from the same source, the Camellia Sinensis, in fact you could produce all these different types of tea from the same plant if you were so inclined.

And that really speaks to me about both humanity and religion, they both come from the same source,the only difference is where they were “grown” and the conditions of that place, otherwise they are identical. As a Bahá’í this concept is central to my life.

We Bahá’ís believe that all religions are in fact one single unfold religion, being brought to us through the process of progressive revelation:-

“If we investigate the religions to discover the principles underlying their foundations we will find they agree, for the fundamental reality of them is one and not multiple. By this means the religionists of the world will reach their point of unity and reconciliation. They will ascertain the truth that the purpose of religion is the acquisition of praiseworthy virtues, betterment of morals, spiritual development of mankind, the real life and divine bestowals.”

Baha’i Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 15

If you look at the different religions, you will see that at the very heart of them they have a set of universal laws that remain unchanged no matter what the religion, as well as laws which are appropriate to the age and region in which that religion arose. A good example of a universal law is what we Bahá’ís refer to as the Golden Rule, her it is from the major faiths.

“Never do to others what would pain thyself.”

Hinduism, Mahabharata 5:1517

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Christianity, Matthew 7:12

“Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”

Baha’i Faith, Baha’u'llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 71

“Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Buddhism, Udana-Varga, 5:18

“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

Islam, Sunnab

“That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self.”

Zoroastrianism, Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5

“What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; the rest is commentary.”

Judaism, Talmud, showboat Shabbat

So you can see what I mean by them being one and the same.

The Bahá’ís also believe that all the peoples of the earth are identical in that they are made in the image of God, not the physical image, God doesn’t have a form, or at least not one that we could possibly understand anyway, but in the image of His Spirit. The reason that we are different is best told by this quote from the Writings:-

“…difference of race and color is like the variegated beauty of flowers in a garden. If you enter a garden, you will see yellow, white, blue, red flowers in profusion and beauty — each radiant within itself and although different from the others, lending its own charm to them. Racial difference in the human kingdom is similar. If all the flowers in a garden were of the same color, the effect would be monotonous and wearying to the eye.”

Baha’i Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 68

This bit from the Islamic Quran pretty much sums up how we view the peoples of the earth

“No difference canst thou see in the creation of the God of mercy.”

Islam, Qur’an 67:3

So that is why I was talking about tea, its a wonderful metaphor for both religion and mankind, because you see we Bahá’ís look for Unity in Diversity, or Uni(Tea) in Diversi(Tea)!!!

God Bless

Michael

I have been informed that Typhoo is responding to Traidcrafts and the WIs Make it Fair campaign and become the first of the UKs big five tea producers to go Fairtrade.

Fantastic news in my opinion, hopefully its a 100% offering across their range rather than a specialist range, but in my opinion it would give it a real march on its rivals, and hopefully it will open up many many more people to Fairtrade. If this is true, then hopefully the other four of the big five (PG Tips, Tetleys, Twinnings and Yorkshire) will follow suit.

Ok fair enough PG Tips, Yorkshire and with their everyday tea, Twinings, have all began to start using Rainforest Alliance Certified (RFA) tea, PG Tips plan to be 100% RFA by the end of this year, and Twinings everyday brand will be 100% RFA by as late 2015!!!

RFA itself is ok, but it concentrates on the environmental side which is admirable, but neglects the workers, also while Fairtrade places the responsibility on the company making the final product, RFA places all the emphasis on the farmers, so they have to shell out the cash to get certified. Also some products that have the RFA seal are only 30% certified, which is the case with Galaxy chocolate, which also has palm oil in it, hardly good for the rain forest.

Anyway to sum up, if  Typhoo goes Fairtrade, then great, hopefully fewer people will buy Tetleys, sorry tastes  horrible and the owners Tata Tea are not at all interested in trade justice or ethical trade.

Watch this space.

Michael

Sunrise & Sunset Times for Newcastle upon Tyne

At Latitude 55°00′N, Longitude 1°36′W
For the year 166 BE (2010 CE)

At the Newcastle Bahá’í Centre, we have recently started a monthly open deepening/fireside, exploring different themes within the Faith. It all started with some deepening’s we received from the NSA on the fund and we kind of carried it on. Having had deepening’s on Marriage, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, our next one which is on the 27th is on Unity.

I am facilitating the February one which is on the 24th, and when deciding what to use as a theme, I didn’t really need to think very hard. I decided to focus on Fairtrade and how we can approach it from the perspective of the Bahá’í Faith. Its also fantastic that it falls in Fairtrade Fortnight as well!

You see this year instead of making silly New Years resolutions that would be all forgotten about by the 2nd January, I instead made a single resolution, to try and really put into practice the principles of the Faith.

One principle which I think that I, and indeed all Bahá’ís can really put into practice in a very practical way is the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, and one of the good ways to put this into action is to buy Fairtrade products.

Late last year my LSA decided to go Fairtrade and purchase only Fairtrade tea & coffee, and I guess since then I have really been thinking about Fairtrade a lot, and what does the Faith have to say about it.

Clearly during the time of Bahá’u'lláh and `Abdu’l-Bahá, the concept of Fairtrade that we have today did not exist. So when looking at the writings, I didn’t expect to come across a bit saying, “oh and by the way, Fairtrade is good”!

But when reading the Writings a particular Hidden Word springs to mind straight away.

“O YE RICH ONES ON EARTH!

The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”

Bahá’u'lláh, The Persian Hidden Words No. 54

So this is Bahá’u'lláh saying that if you are well off, just looking after your own needs is not good enough. We have a responsibility to look after the poor as well, and if we remember that in his youth in Tehran he was known as “Father of the Poor”, then we should realise already have an example that we must follow.

Talking of examples, we have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as The Perfect Exemplar, the person whose behaviour we should look to emulate, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was very kind to the poor. One of the things that really speaks to me are the stories of the Master giving away coats to the poor and needy of Acre, one in particular speaks to me:-

The wife of the Master was about to depart on a journey. Fearing that her husband would give away his cloak and so be left without one for himself, she left a second cloak with her daughter, charging her not to inform her father of it. Not long after her departure, the Master, suspecting, it would seem, what had been done, said to his daughter, “Have I another cloak?” The daughter could not deny it, but told her father of her mother’s charge. The Master replied, “How could I be happy having two cloaks, knowing that there are those that have none?” Nor would he be content until he had given the second cloak away.”

His reasoning can be applied to Fairtrade. How can we be happy sitting at home drinking our cuppas made with bargain tea bags, when the farmer who grew that tea is having to sell some of his land as he can’t afford to grow on it all, thanks to the low prices that tea buyers demand, even though he has already pulled his daughter out of school, and is skipping as many meals as possible, in order to ensure he is able to survive?

We Bahá’ís also believe that productive work is a form of worship and Bahá’u'lláh instructs us to work:-

“Please God, the poor may exert themselves and strive to earn the means of livelihood. This is a duty which, in this most great Revelation, hath been prescribed unto every one, and is accounted in the sight of God as a goodly deed. “

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 202

But he says “strive to earn the means of livelihood”, now an awful lot of the world live in poverty, because we won’t pay a little bit more for our tea, these people are working and are trying to earn a livelihood. But because of our insatiable demand for cheaper and cheaper products, they are denied the ability to earn a fair income, and Fairtrade products look to redress that. Bahá’u'lláh wrote:-

“They who are possessed of riches, however, must have the utmost regard for the poor”

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 202

‘Abdu’l-Bahá also said:-

“Service to the friends is service to the Kingdom of God, and consideration shown to the poor is one of the greatest teachings of God.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 27

So from two of our central figures we can quite clearly see that we have a real obligation to help and assist the poor amongst us, and remembering that Baha’u'llah also wrote:-

“It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

Bahá’u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 250

So it is not just about helping the poor in our country, it’s about helping all the poor in the world. And that’s what Fairtrade is all about. By making that choice to spend a little bit more on our tea, coffee and even our rubber gloves, we can all play a part in working to close the gap between the rich and the poor.

But I think we can pretty much sum it all up when we think of the “Golden Rule”, a value which is present in all of the major world religions, and in the Bahá’í Faith, its:-

“Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”

Bahá’u'lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u'lláh, p. 71

But in Christianity, you will recognise it as

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Matthew 7:12

And in Islam as:-

“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

Sunnah

So going forward the theme for the February evening will be “Fairtrade – A Bahá’í Perspective”. I have some samples of Fairtrade products that I am going to take along for people to try, and hopefully I will show the friends, and other members of the wider community, why we should use Fairtrade products where we can.

Fairtrade isn’t the answer to the problem of poverty, its only part of the solution. In order to fully eradicate it we need to work towards eliminating poor governance, an end to the marginalisation of women, halting environmental degradation, and the provision of universal education. And only when we have achieved all of these goals, will the eradication of the extremes of wealth and poverty be possible.

But let’s start with this small step.

God Bless

Michael

For the past couple of months myself and a friend have been developing a new website for our local Bahá’í community. We started with a document passed to us via the UKs office of Public Information, which immediately required we change our domain name.

Our original domain name was bonut.org.uk, which stands for Bahá’ís of Newcastle upon Tyne, which actually sounds very unprofessional and a wee bit silly. So we have moved to NewcastleBahais.org.uk, we wanted NewcastleBahais.org, but this was taken by a community in a small village in the US which is also called Newcastle.

It was recommended to have our site built using the Jimdo service, which would have cost us £60 a year, not a lot some might say, but we figured we could do better, for free.

There is one site up that uses the Jimdo service, BromleyBahai.org.uk, and it looks pretty good, but looking at it in some detail, we figured we didn’t need the Jimdo service, we decided to go with a Wordpress based site.

Wordpress is a pretty decent open source blogging platform, but it’s also a pretty good Content Management System. Its easy to use, very flexible with a wide range of plugins and extensions, its appearance is also very customisable with a wide variety of themes which can all be altered if you know a little HTML. I use Wordpress on this blog, and so does the UK Baha’i news website.

One big advantage is that with minimal setup, you can use MS Word, and OpenOffice.Org Writer to publish articles, Microsoft also produces the excellent Windows Live Writer which is extremely good at this. So combine these with the excellent Wordpress Dashboard, and you have a fantastic bit of kit that can be used by anyone, no need to know how to code HTML.

Now for content, we have decided to go with some static basic info, trying to give a little background on the faith and what we do, but for in depth stuff directing them to the relevant info at Bahai.org. We have place the blog items in a news section, where we are publishing local news items, in order to bulk it out a bit, we are also using a plugin to republish relevant news items from news.bahai.org and Bahainews-uk.info.

We have also used Google Calendar to publish our calendar on, this is a brilliant tool as its so easy to update and we have been able to pop an upcoming events box in our sidebar and using a clever little redirect, the sub-domain calendar.newcastlebahais.org.uk, is our calendars’ homepage.

While we have been doing this, we have been looking at all the ways we communicate with the world at large and keep people updated, on what we do and our events. We have had a Facebook Page for a while, which is working ok, and we are learning more and more how to make better use of it. One thing which we have put to good use is our Twitter account @newcastlebahais, now you will all no doubt know, that I love Twitter, its a great tool and can really work well at keeping people updated on what your doing.

We have got our Facebook page and our Twitter account linked, so that whenever we update the Facebooks Page status or add a new note etc, it updates the Twitter account, which is nice. The SMS updates that you can get with Facebook and Twitter are both pretty good, but I will have to write a guide to help people make better use of them.

One unintended consequence of doing all this is that we have had to develop a consistent, for want of a better word, “brand”, which we can use across all services. My wife is a pretty fair artist, and has designed a simple logo, it’s a nine-pointed Bahá’í star, which is black on the outside and blue on the inside. Originally it was black & white, Newcastle’s colours, but it was a bit too dull, so she added the blue, and it’s worked quite well. It’s only a temporary thing; I am sure in time we will come up with something brilliant and catchy and Geordie.The hardest thing has been keeping the site a Bahá’í site, but at the same time local, and locally relevant, this has been hardest to do when it comes to the banner. The Bromley site is a banner with some local landmarks, none of which I am afraid to say stand out for me, as someone who hasn’t visited Bromley in maybe 9 years. So we have tried to used some of the great symbols of our city in our banner and try and make it well, a Bahá’í banner as well. That is something we are still working on.The site is now pretty much complete on the engineering side, just got to sort out the static content and I think we are pretty much done; hopefully we can get it launched in the next few weeks.I shall keep you updated, and let you know when we launch.God BlessMichael

Hi all, been a bit ill past few weeks so my post pretty much dried up. Picked up a seasonal lurgy, you know the type, nasty cough that refuses to go away and with the very cold weather it just wouldn’t shift.

So today its Christmas eve and I want to talk about a couple of things that I have been thinking about regarding Christmas, do I celebrate it now that I am a Bahá’í, and how traditions change and merge and melt together.

To Celebrate Christmas or not???

This is something that has played in my mind the past few years and lots of people ask me about it,  and mostly its about whether or not Bahá’ís celebrate  Christmas. The short answer is no, Bahá’ís do not celebrate Christmas, its not a religious holiday for us. You see we recognise all the prophets as Manifestations of God, and if we celebrated all of their festivals, then well that’s all we would ever do!

But personally I don’t think that’s the be all and end all of Christmas, its a festival which is about, charity, generosity, family, goodwill to all men, unity and peace, and those are ideals which any Bahá’í would agree are good things, and as well as this, its a cultural festival as well, its part of me, its what I was brought up with and its not something I can just drop, because its so ingrained into my cultural background.

So I prefer to put aside the whole commercialism of Christmas, and forget about the presents being the most important thing, they are nice to give, but they are not the be all and end all of Christmas. The aforementioned  charity, generosity, family, goodwill to all men, unity and peace are the main things about this festival. I have been trying to stick to educational toys for my nephews and younger cousins and more charitable gifts for the rest of my family, with varying degrees of success, sometimes that cute little spider-man costume is just too much to resist, not for me, my nephews of course!

My wife and I are moving towards making our main gift-giving festival Ayyam-i-Ha, and by the time I have children I hope that this will be more important to them than Christmas, but I think I will still celebrate Christmas with them, as a cultural thing only mind.

I see it a bit like how non-Bahá’í Iranians celebrate Naw-Ruz, not as a religious holiday, which it is not, but as a part of the Persian cultural background, its important to them to maintain that tradition, and its one of the things that makes them who they are. Going a little further, most Muslim families I know celebrate Christmas for the same reasons as I do, for the cultural and the whole peace and goodwill thing, one whom I spoke with today said that he felt its something which allows his children to connect with their identity as Brits, which he thinks is a good thing.

Merging Traditions

Someone told me recently that the only reason people get married is to have an excuse to not spend Christmas with their family, well I don’t think that’s true, for me family is an extremely important part of this festival, but it is fascinating to see how my wife and my family traditions regarding this time of year are merging together to form new traditions for our embryonic family.

We come from very different backgrounds, religious, cultural, socio-economic, geographical etc, in many ways our families are complete polar opposites, and we both have very different family traditions, and living together we find ourselves really building new ones. For example, my family have dinner at 3pm, while Lindsay’s have theirs at 12 noon, so somehow without talking about it, we have ours at around 1pm, its just happened like that. My family tended not to have parsnips but Lindsay’s did, and so we have parsnips, but we do them roasted with some chilli and paprika with leeks and carrots, something neither of our families did, but I am not keen on the taste of parsnips so we figured out something that keeps us both happy, and we have done it for a few years now!

And its all these little things which this year in particular, I am noticing in a big way, for me its sort of showing how we are really starting to have our own family identity emerge, something that we will no doubt pass to our children who will go on to take our traditions and merge them with their spouse and create their own new traditions.

Anyway Merry Christmas, here is praying for peace of Earth and goodwill to all men.

God Bless

Michael

Today (December 10th 2009) is Human Rights Day, so to honour this, please read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is found below.

God Bless

Michael

Article 1.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

• All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

• Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

• Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

• (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
• (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

• (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
• (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

• (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

• (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
• (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
• (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

• Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

• (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
• (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

• (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
• (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

• Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

• (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
• (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
• (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Last week the Baha’i community which I belong to receive a letter from the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), forwarded to us by the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA). And the contents of the letter say so much about our community here in the UK.

The letter says that the worldwide Baha’i community has a growing dynamism as one of its salient features, fantastic, according to the dictionary that means we have a great energy force and power.

Now because the community is growing rapidly, and more and more individuals are attending study circles and being touched by the message of Baha’u'llah, more and more people are aware of the Nineteen Day Feast.

The Nineteen Day Feast is the primary spiritual, administrative and social part of our community, now because of the administrative part; previously non-Baha’is have been excluded from the Feast. When I was a seeker and investigating the Faith, I have to admit I was quite put off by the concept of the Feast being closed off to Non-Baha’is, it felt a bit weird, and I must admit I really did ponder of what happened at them, human sacrifice perhaps!

When I embraced the Faith, I soon realised that is wasn’t a secret thing involving human sacrifice, but simply what it says on the tin, a devotional, followed by some administration and finally some tea and biscuits with a bit of socialising. But I am aware having been on the outside looking in, that the closure of the Feast to non-Baha’is can make us look a bit secret societyish.

So with the fact that more and more seekers are finding out about the Feast, its more and more likely that some may turn up at Feasts even if we haven’t invited them, I know I sometimes really wanted to just turn up and see what it was all about.

Previously we would simply skip the administrative portion, or ask the seeker to step outside the room while we took care of business, but these are a little bit rude, so the new guidance from the House is:-

“The House of Justice has decided that, in such instances, rather than eliminating the administrative portion completely or asking the visitors to withdraw, those conducting the programme can modify this part of the Feast to accommodate the guests. The sharing of local and national news and information about social events, as well as consultation on topics of general interest, such as the teaching work, service projects, the Fund, and so on, can take place as usual, while discussion of sensitive or problematic issues related to these or other topics can be set aside for another time when the friends can express themselves freely without being inhibited by the presence of visitors.”

That’s not to say we can just invite seekers to the Feast, which remains an institution created for the Baha’is themselves, but now should a seeker turn up, we can do things as normal, bar anything which is sensitive/confidential, and they will be able to see how the community functions, we shall have to be more flexible in future

And I welcome this, it makes us feel less like a secret society, more open and welcoming, and now those curious seekers can now satisfy themselves that we don’t have any human sacrifice.

God Bless

Michael

Today Switzerland went to the polls on a referendum proposed by the Swiss People Party (SVP), the poll was a proposal to ban the building of minarets. The result was 57% in favour of this proposal, something which the Swiss government advised against, and now in their words:-

“The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted,”

This is a big thing, Switzerland has for many years been one of the worlds most tolerant governments, but today something changed, Switzerland became a country in which the freedom to express ones religion has been curtailed, just like in France with the headscarf ban.

We Brits might content ourselves by saying that we leave in a highly tolerant society, where churches are happy sitting next to mosques, synagogues and temples, but looking on twitter, and reading the various UK news forums, its quite upsetting how many people here in the UK agree with this ban. No doubt some of tomorrows papers will run articles praising Switzerland for taking a stand against Islamic extremism and Sharia law.

Speaking of Sharia law, what’s the problem, I mean here in the North East we have a Rabbinical court practising Talmudic law. Now its not that the Jewish community has been able to remove itself from the British legal system, they have simply chosen to have a way of dealing with civil matters in a religious court, and in all fairness this takes many case that would otherwise clog up the legal system, and in many cases the decisions are fair, or course both litigants have to be Jewish and both agree to deal with it through the Rabbinical court, and that’s shiny.

And that’s how Sharia courts work here in the UK, but some people here in the UK claim its like the Muslim community here want a parallel legal system, ok some a small minority do,but then again,there is a small minority in this country calling out for the Bible to become the main source of law in this country! And in all fairness when it comes to the religious divorce issue, yes there are some problems in both the Rabbinical Courts and the Sharia Courts, but these are no worse than the troubleshot can become an issue when trying to get an annulment from the Catholic Church!

But this vote further shows how this continent has become so afraid of Islam, that we do silly things like this, we have become so fearful of terrorism that we have put every well-integrated Muslim in the same basket as al-Qaeda fanatics. And I feel that Europe as a continent is losing the right to express our concern at other countries over religious freedom and free speech.

Right now in Iran, seven Baha’is who belong to an informal body known as the Friends (Yaran), a group of people who tried their best to look after the needs of this community, are sitting in the notorious Evin prison, were they have been held for 18 months now on charges of espionage. These charges are ridiculous and trumped up, because the Iranian legal system sees Baha’is as heretics, they are horribly persecuted and many have been executed or have simply been disappeared since the1979 Islamic revolution.

Anyway what’s my point, well almost every Western nation, including the UK, France and Switzerland have all condemned the Iranian government for their flagrant abuse of human rights, and denial of free speech and religious freedom. But are we not doing the same thing to our Islamic communities, I hope not, and I truly hope that somehow this ban is lifted,and sooner rather than later.

God Bless

Michael

One of my very first posts on this blog was a look at the problem in Malaysia of how the countries Christians are not allowed to refer to God as Allah, which is Malay for God.

Well I have read this evening that the Malaysian authorities have seized 10,000 Bibles in Malay which use the word Allah, for God.

At the root of this problem is language and the fact of the matter is, the only word for God in Malay is Allah, yes the word comes from Arabic, but Arabic like Latin spread far and wide and its influence can be heard in languages all over the world.

Take Maltese, the native language of Malta, the island is almost entirely Catholic, but the language is one descended from the Arabic which was spoken in Southern Italy, and as such the word for God in Maltese, is Alla. Having spoken to a Maltese friend about this, they explained that it would be impossible to change the name of Alla to God because the whole identity of God in their language is simply tied into the word Alla.

I suppose it would be like trying to change the way Christians in the English speaking world refers to God, perhaps we could call him Bob from now on! It wouldn’t work would it? A prayer to All-Mighty Bob is not the same as a prayer to All-Mighty God.

Now back to Malaysia, but a big part of the problem is that some people think that Christians are using the word Allah, to confuse Muslims and try and get them to convert to Christianity. There seems to be this whole issue of a belief that there is more than one God, one for Christians, and one for Muslims.

Anyway, I have a point to make and that point is that there can only be one God, and it really doesn’t matter what we call him, God, Allah, Nirankar, Bhagwan, Yahweh, Shangdi, Tengri, Ōrmazd or even Bob, at the end of the day we are all worshiping the same Supreme Being, so lets not get petty and fight over language.

God Bless

Michael