Sunday, December 17, 2006

Baha'is Lose Battle for Recognition


Arab News reported An Egyptian court denied Baha'is yesterday the right to state their religion on official documents and described them as pro-Israeli apostates. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled against the right of Hossam Ezzat Mussa and his wife, Rania Enayat, to state their religion on official documents.

Bahai was founded in 19th century, growing out of Babism, which started on May 23, 1844 in Shiraz, Persia, when Mirza Ali Muhammad proclaimed himself the Bab (from Arabic, meaning "gate"), the gate to divine truth. The Bab said that he was equal to Muhammad, and that former prophets had been divine manifestations. He also predicted that an even greater manifestation would come 19 years later, as well as the revelation of a Holy Book, to be called Bayan, which should supersede the Koran. So I can see why Muslims might not like them, but Muhammad started off copying much of Islam, trying to convince Christians and Jews that their religious scriptures predicted that he would appear in a line of prophets fom Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. Muslims might not appreciated the same scam being done to their prophet, but in what way does that make them pro-Israeli apostates.
Judge Sayed Nofal, speaking after reading out the verdict, said “the constitution promotes freedom of belief for the three recognized heavenly religions and they are Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
Only Christians and Jews are accorded second class (Dhimmi) ststus.
“As for the Bahais, Islamic jurists have all agreed that the Bahai faith is not one of the three recognized religions,” he said. “Those who belong to this religion are apostates of Islam, because the faith’s principles contradict the Islamic religion and all other religions.” The couple had filed the case in 2004. In April this year a lower court ruled in their favor.

3 comments:

Marco Oliveira said...

The baha'is are not asking for the Egyp+tian Government to recongnize their religion. They just ask for the same civil rights as any other Egyptian citizens.
There are ways the Egyptian Government can solve that without recognizing the Baha'i Faith.

Anonymous said...

"So I can see why Muslims might not like them, but Muhammad started off copying much of Islam, trying to convince Christians and Jews that their religious scriptures predicted that he would appear in a line of prophets fom Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. Muslims might not appreciated the same scam being done to their prophet, but in what way does that make them pro-Israeli apostates."

I stumbled across this blog, and I wanted to the author to clarify the statements quoted above. Is the author stating that Muhammed copied Judaism and Christianity, and that Bahais are doing the same? Clarification would be appreciated.

Thank you for stating that Bahais are not pro-Israeli apostates. Bahais do not get involved with politics at all because we believe that politics created partisanship and ultimately, disunity amongst people. We are to obey the laws of whatever land we live in, participate in elections and community affairs. But at no time do we claim any alliance with political or governmental entity.

All that aside, please clarify the previous statements.

Don Singleton said...

Muhammad definitely took a lot from both Christianity and Judiasm when he came up with Islam, in fact he tried to convince both Christians and Jews that their texts predicted his arrival. When they did not agree to convert to Islam, he killed them.

I am less familiar with the formation of Bahai, although from what I read it seems it grew out of Babism, which it seems grew out of Islam.

I know a Bahai, and he is one of the best people I know.