От: Olga Makarova [Olga@bnc.glasnet.ru]
Отправлено: среда 6 июня 2001 12:07
Кому: Anke Grossmann; Elena Lazereva; Lonya Osokin; Richard Hainsworth;
Sergei Poselski; Shamil Fattakhov; Vitaliy Tchutckov; Vladimir Chupin
Тема: Jerusalem post: article about bahai Faith

Дорогие друзья, Алла-у-Абха! 
Лейсан Хакимова поделилась этой информацией - это статья в одной из
израильских газет. Думаю, вам тоже будет интересно. А в приложении -
фотография первой полосы этой газеты.
С любовью и молитвами, 
Ольга Макарова.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Leisan Khakimova [SMTP:leisan@ebyc.org]
> Sent:	6 июня 2001 г. 11:21
> To:	Olga Makarova; Costya Mitrofanov; Kuzina Tatiana; Sveta
> Dorzhieva
> Subject:	Jerusalem post: article about bahai Faith
> 
> Divine landscape
> By Leora Eren Frucht
> (May 31) - As the Baha'is inaugurate their magnificent
> $250 million gardens project in Haifa, Leora Eren
> Frucht asks who they are, what is their link to this
> land, and why have many Jews outside of Israel been
> drawn to their universalistic faith
> 
> With suicide bombs and air-force reprisals dominating
> the news, it seems an odd time for thousands of people
> from around the world to congregate in Israel to
> affirm their faith in the brotherhood of man.
> 
> But last week, as Israelis and Palestinians braced for
> a long and bloody conflict, some 3,500 members of the
> Baha'i faith descended on Haifa, the world
> headquarters of the movement, to celebrate the
> completion of what they hope will be a small piece of
> Eden on earth.
> 
> "Concrete evidence of the ability of the human spirit
> to overcome hatred and cruelty," is how one Baha'i
> representative described the movement's multi-million
> dollar garden project, inaugurated on Tuesday in
> Haifa.
> 
> Looking at the 19 terraced gardens that stretch a
> kilometer from the top of Mount Carmel to the base in
> downtown Haifa, gazing at the sparkling golden-domed
> Baha'i shrine in the center, hearing the hypnotic flow
> of water running down the channels alongside the
> stairs, this place does seem to offer a taste of Eden.
> It's certainly a world apart from the violence and
> carnage taking place a short distance away.
> 
> The $250 million project, which took 10 years to
> complete, was funded entirely by the contributions of
> Baha'i members. The donors include everyone from "the
> poorest farmer in the Congo forest to a wealthy banker
> in Ottawa," says William Ogeuna, the manager of a
> pizza restaurant in Uganda, and one of the 3,500
> Baha'is who attended Tuesday's inauguration. The
> architect, Fariborz Sahba, an Iranian-born Canadian
> Baha'i, also designed the famous "Lotus Temple" in New
> Delhi, which now attracts more visitors than the Taj
> Mahal.
> 
> When it opens to the public on June 4, Israelis will
> be able to enjoy - for free - what is being dubbed as
> "the eighth wonder of the world."
> 
> "We want this to be a gift" says Glenn Fullmer of the
> Baha'i movement's public information office in Haifa.
> 
> Who are these people? Why would they want to give such
> a gift to Haifa?
> 
> And how can they still believe in the possibility of
> universal brotherhood when drive-by shootings,
> shellings and bombings are almost daily occurrences?
> 
> THE NEWEST monotheistic religion, the Baha'i faith
> originated in Iran in 1844, and today boasts some five
> million followers in 200 countries. It was born out of
> Shi'ite Islam, "but is as far away from Islam as you
> can imagine," says Prof. Moshe Sharon, chair of Baha'i
> studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
> 
> It is a universalistic faith that regards the earth as
> one country, and mankind its citizens. It strives for
> equality between the sexes, universal compulsory
> education, the elimination of the gap between rich and
> poor, the pursuit of reason and scientific knowledge
> and the abolition of racial and other forms of
> prejudice.
> 
> The principles sound lofty enough, but what about
> practice?
> 
> Sharon, who has studied the religion for years - has
> nothing but praise for the way Baha'is conduct their
> affairs. He notes, for instance, that the budget for
> the gardens project - $250 million - was set 15 years
> ago, and hasn't been modified at all.
> 
> "Money is handled with such care and responsibility
> that not one penny is spent without proper
> accounting."
> 
> What's more, the entire movement is run
> democratically, he notes. There are no religious
> leaders, just elected administrative councils that
> function at a local, national and international level.
> (The international body - the nine-member House of
> Justice - sits at the Baha'i headquarters in Haifa and
> members are elected for a five-year term). The Baha'i
> principles prohibit any involvement in political
> activity; they are even discouraged from campaigning
> for positions in the movement.
> 
> "The result is that you'll find people who are
> informed that they have been elected to the highest
> body in the movement and they didn't have a clue that
> they were even in the running," notes Sharon.
> 
> They are also prohibited from using firearms, drinking
> alcohol or taking drugs; smoking is discouraged.
> Children may be raised as Baha'is, but they are not
> considered to be members of the faith unless, once
> they are older, they choose to be.
> 
> "It's really hard to find anything to criticize about
> this faith," says the Hebrew University professor, who
> began studying the Baha'is because it offered an
> opportunity to observe the development of a relatively
> new worldwide religion.
> 
> The founder of the faith, a Persian merchant named
> Siyyid Ali-Muhummad, is known to Baha'is as the "Bab"
> (Arabic for "gate"). His announcement, in 1844, that
> he was a messenger of God sparked a near revolution in
> Persia, which was at the time gripped by messianic
> fervor. Within a few years, 20,000 of his followers
> were massacred by the army of the shah, who regarded
> the movement as a direct challenge to Islam.
> 
> The Bab, a descendant of Muhammad, was himself
> executed in 1850 under circumstances that only added
> to the mystique surrounding him. Taken from his cell
> before he had finished giving instructions to his
> secretary, he warned his guards that "no earthly
> power" could silence him until he had finished what he
> had to say. He was placed in front of a firing squad
> of 750 Armenian soldiers who proceeded to fire.
> 
> When the smoke cleared, the Bab had vanished. Moments
> later, he was found back in his cell, completing his
> instructions to his secretary. When he finished, he
> told the guards that he was now ready to be executed.
> The members of the original firing squad, convinced
> that they had witnessed divine intervention, were too
> frightened to repeat the task and a new squad was
> summoned. This time the bullets hit their target.
> 
> While the story sounds like colorful legend, Sharon
> says that it is in fact documented by the many
> European ambassadors who witnessed the botched
> execution. He explains: "The Bab was suspended by a
> rope, and the first bullets apparently penetrated the
> rope, releasing him [to a lower level] out of the
> range of the executioners. It was the kind of thing
> that had a one in a billion chance of happening at any
> given execution. The Bab just walked away - he could
> have fled - and went back to his cell."
> 
> His remains were hidden by his followers for many
> years and eventually brought to Mount Carmel for
> burial in a simple stone mausoleum. In 1953, the tomb
> was incorporated into the golden-domed Shrine of the
> Bab, which has since become a landmark of Haifa, seen
> miles away at sea.
> 
> The Bab's main purpose, according to the Baha'i, was
> to presage the coming of an even greater messenger of
> God: a Persian nobleman called Mirza Husayn-Ali, or
> the Baha'u'llah - Arabic for "the Glory of God." The
> Baha'u'llah gathered the scattered followers of the
> Bab and began a new community in Baghdad. At the
> urging of the shah, he was exiled by the Ottoman Turks
> who ruled the region, first to Turkey, and then even
> further away, to Acre, thought to be the worst penal
> colony of the time.
> 
> The Baha'u'llah apparently won over his captors and
> was eventually allowed to live in a home near Acre,
> which is today considered to be the Baha'i's holiest
> shrine. (When Baha'i pray they turn towards Acre.)
> During his time in the Holy Land, the Baha'u'llah
> visited Haifa several times and, on one visit,
> declared that the remains of the Bab should be buried
> at Mount Carmel. On another visit, he had an encounter
> that brings to mind Moses's experience at Mount Sinai.
> 
> 
> "He emerged with the Table of Carmel, a poetic
> scripture, that takes the form of a dialogue between
> God and Mount Carmel, and forms the basis for the
> establishment of the Baha'i world center there,"
> explains Fullmer. (That dialogue was also the
> inspiration for the composition written by Norwegian
> composer Lasse Thoreson and Tajik composer Tolib
> Shabidi especially for Tuesday's inaugural concert at
> the gardens.)
> 
> While the incarceration of the Baha'u'llah in Acre was
> "an accident of history," Fullmer says, "it was almost
> as though his enemies unknowingly conspired to fulfill
> prophecy by bringing him to the Holy Land and the
> outskirts of Mount Carmel." The garden project at
> Mount Carmel is regarded by the Baha'i as the
> fulfillment of Baha'u'llah's vision: the once barren,
> neglected slopes - where the prophet Elijah once stood
> - have been revived into a fertile, forested mountain
> whose terraces embrace the Shrine of the Bab like a
> setting around a jewel.
> 
> ACCORDING TO the Baha'i faith, the founders of the
> world's major religions - Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster,
> Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad - are all divine
> teachers sent by one God to educate humanity through
> teachings and laws suited to its stage of development.
> The Baha'i faith adds two more teachers to that list:
> the Bab and Baha'u'llah - the latter is regarded as
> the ultimate teacher whose revelations should enable
> mankind to achieve its full potential.
> 
> Today the Baha'i religion has grown from an obscure
> sect in Persia to the second most geographically
> widespread religion in the world, after Christianity.
> 
> The largest concentration of Baha'i followers - some
> three million - are found in India. The religion is
> spreading fastest in Africa. The United States has
> about 100,000 Baha'is.
> 
> "On the one hand, its emphasis on the equality of all
> people and the elimination of racial prejudice, makes
> it appealing to members of the lowest castes in India
> and to blacks in Africa. Yet, it's also a highly
> sophisticated philosophical religion that draws
> intellectuals with pacifist tendencies," says Sharon.
> 
> Kari Skatun, a Norwegian consultant in her forties,
> was attracted to the faith some 20 years ago when she
> was "seeking more spirituality and learning meditation
> from India.
> 
> "I liked the religion because it provided an answer to
> my own personal spiritual needs, but also offered
> solutions to the world's problems," says Skatun,
> referring the religion's emphasis on international
> social action. The turmoil in the Middle East hasn't
> fazed Skatun's belief in world peace and brotherhood.
> 
> "Humanity goes through stages the same way individuals
> do," says Skatun, who has been living in Haifa for the
> last two years. "Right now we are at the stage of
> adolescence: self-absorbed, competitive, thinking only
> of ourselves. But ultimately, as we approach
> adulthood, we will begin to consider the well-being of
> all the members of the family of man."
> 
> Paul Ancheta, a 35-year-old interior designer from the
> Philippines, converted when he was 15, after his
> father exposed him to the religion. His 10 brothers
> and sisters also became Baha'i, one by one. He says he
> was struck by the scriptures of the Baha'u'llah which
> were "so intelligent" and couldn't help but contrast
> them with the banality of the television evangelists
> who were becoming increasingly popular in his home at
> the time.
> 
> "I couldn't understand why my aunt was fainting in
> front of the television and I felt uncomfortable that
> I, too, was expected to faint," recalls Ancheta,
> noting that in the Baha'i faith prayer is personal.
> 
> Leissan Khakimova, a 20-year-old university student
> from Khazan in the former Soviet Union, left Islam to
> become a Baha'i at 15. She notes that her grandmother,
> a practicing Muslim, speaks positively about the
> movement to her friends.
> 
> "She sees the results," explains Khakimova. "In
> Russia, many young people hang out on the streets
> drinking alcohol instead of going to school. But the
> Baha'i youth do things to help humanity," says
> Kahkimova, who is one of about 200 Baha'is in her city
> and one of about 3,500 in the FSU.
> 
> While the Baha'i shun politics, they are strong
> advocates of social action and are involved in many
> United Nations social and educational development
> projects worldwide. That involvement often gives them
> influence beyond their numbers.
> 
> In the Philippines, for instance, the movement has
> 120,000 followers - out of a population of 72 million.
> The government has asked the movement to introduce
> Baha'i writings into the country's schools through a
> course in values education. In Bosnia, the Baha'is are
> running a peace-education program.
> 
> In Iran, the 350,000 Baha'is are the country's largest
> religious minority.
> 
> Since the Islamic Revolution they have once again been
> subjected to relentless persecution. "In the early
> days of the revolution, the nine members of the
> national spiritual assembly were kidnapped and
> disappeared. They are presumed dead. Another nine were
> elected, and were subsequently executed," Fullmer
> says.
> 
> "When the next nine were elected, a law was passed
> banning them."
> 
> Since it is a Baha'i principle to obey the government,
> the movement complied with that law, and disbanded the
> assembly. However, Baha'i followers continued to teach
> the religion and culture to their children. That led,
> in 1983, to the hanging of 15 teenage girls accused of
> holding Sunday-school classes.
> 
> Faced with international condemnation over the
> executions, the Iranian authorities adopted more
> subtle forms of repression, banning Baha'is from
> studying and teaching at university. In response, the
> members created universities in their homes, equipping
> them with computers and laboratories, and offering
> degrees in subjects ranging from pharmacology to
> engineering.
> 
> In 1998, the Iranian authorities raided these home
> universities and confiscated the equipment.
> 
> Like the Jews in Iran, Baha'is are frequently charged
> with being agents or spies for Israel. In the last two
> decades, tens of thousands of Iranian Baha'is - some
> of them fifth-generation members - have left the
> country and settled in other parts of the world.
> 
> The Baha'i communities in other Muslim countries -
> with the exception of Turkey - face differing degrees
> of persecution. In most Arab countries, they are
> obliged to inform the authorities if they want to
> congregate even for a picnic. Fullmer is reluctant to
> reveal more details about these communities. "Our
> experience is that every time we do that, there are
> repercussions for the community in question," he says.
> 
> 
> IN ISRAEL, there is no local Baha'i community. The
> Baha'is who work at the international center in Haifa
> are all sent over from other countries for limited
> periods of time. The absence of a local Baha'i
> community is the result of the Baha'u'llah's written
> order not to engage in any proselytizing in the Holy
> Land. The Baha'i have studiously adhered to that
> edict.
> 
> "When Israelis approach us, we direct them to our Web
> site where they are able to satisfy their curiosity,"
> explains Fullmer. "If they want to do more than that,
> we explain to them that there is no formal community
> here."
> 
> Albert (Avraham) Ben-Joya, a retired bank employee
> from Haifa, once offered to volunteer at the Baha'i
> Center. "I do a lot of volunteer work for different
> organizations and I wanted to offer my services here,
> too, because these people seemed so decent. But they
> turned down my request," he recalls. "They said that
> only Baha'is who come from abroad can volunteer at the
> center."
> 
> The Baha'u'llah never gave a reason for the ban on
> missionary work in the Holy Land - missionizing is
> legal in Israel as long as it does not involve the
> giving of cash or goods to entice converts. But
> experts in and outside the religion suspect that it
> was done in order to enable the movement to establish
> a foothold in Haifa without provoking friction and
> opposition.
> 
> While there is no Israeli Baha'i community, there are
> many Jews who have joined the religion - in particular
> in its birthplace, Iran.
> 
> In fact, by 1940, about one out of every 10 Jews in
> Iran had converted to the Baha'i faith, according to
> Dr. Amnon Netzer, the head of the Hebrew University's
> department of India, Iran and Armenia studies.
> 
> "Even today, nearly every Iranian Jewish family in the
> world, including my own, has some Baha'i relatives,"
> says the Iranian-born academic.
> 
> Netzer attributes the popularity of the movement to
> two factors: first, a substantial number of Jews in
> 19th-century Persia gravitated to other religions
> including Islam and Christianity.
> 
> "Jews were badly persecuted in every respect,"
> explains Netzer, noting that the Shi'ite Muslim
> Iranians have a special word to refer to Jews: it is
> "najes" - which is Persian for "ritually impure."
> 
> The Baha'i movement was particularly seductive
> because, unlike Christianity and Islam, the Jews who
> joined it did not have to renounce their Jewish faith.
> 
> 
> "It was regarded as a social and cultural movement
> more than a religion," says Netzer. "And at first
> those who joined it continued to mark Pessah, Shabbat,
> Yom Kippur and all the other Jewish holidays.
> Subsequent generations became more cut off from
> Judaism," he notes. "But Jews did not regard Baha'i
> converts with the same contempt that they regarded a
> Jew who converted to Christianity or Islam, which
> would usually lead to a complete severance of ties.
> Even today, most Iranian Jews - including myself -
> treat their Baha'i relatives as Jews."
> 
> But what if they don't observe any Jewish rituals or
> holidays?
> 
> "You could say the same about many secular Jews,"
> replies Netzer. "To be Baha'i does not mean you turn
> your back totally on your last religion. And besides,
> these people are not fanatic; they never try to coerce
> others to convert." Netzer notes that the universal
> nature of the religion was particularly attractive to
> Iranian Jewish intellectuals, who saw in it something
> not that different from the writings of the prophets.
> 
> JEWISH INTELLECTUALS in many parts of the world are
> drawn to the universal message of the Baha'i faith.
> Kate Shanks, an American university professor, who
> grew up Jewish, became a Baha'i in her thirties. An
> articulate woman who looks much younger than her
> 60-something years, Shanks was clearly disappointed
> with her own Jewish upbringing, but is, in keeping
> with Baha'i principles, reluctant to criticize it in
> public.
> 
> "I don't want to hurt anyone," she says, but when
> prodded, finally tells her story.
> 
> Shanks grew up in a non-religious Jewish home in the
> Midwest. "I knew I was Jewish and that all my friends
> were Jewish, and that my family had always been
> Jewish, but to be frank with you, I didn't know what
> faith was."
> 
> Eventually Shanks married a Christian. "When my first
> child was born, I wanted her to have equal respect for
> the religions of both of her grandparents and not
> judge them," she says. The Baha'i religion, first
> discovered by her husband, answered that need since it
> holds both Judaism and Christianity in esteem. "There
> was nothing in the teachings of the Baha'i that I
> would ever regret my children learning," she says.
> "There was tolerance, equality of men and women,
> justice."
> 
> "Leaving the Jewish faith was very difficult; there
> was a psychological separation that was hard," she
> recalls. But Shanks never denies her Jewish
> background. "I call myself ethnically Jewish, but my
> religion is Baha'i." To convert, Shanks was required
> to say, more or less: "I believe Baha'u'llah is who he
> says he is, a manifestation of God, and that I agree
> to abide by his laws." She also signed a card to that
> effect.
> 
> She smiles and says that her relatives probably still
> regard her conversion - almost 30 years ago - as a
> "delayed adolescent Sixties rebellion that I would
> eventually get over." Her mother "never came to terms
> with it," though the two continued to maintain their
> relationship.
> 
> Shanks says that, ironically, her respect for Judaism
> is greater now than it ever was before. She sent her
> children, raised as Baha'i, to Jewish community-center
> summer camps in San Diego, where she lives, and adds
> that she is proud that they, too, respect Judaism.
> "When they attend the bar mitzva of friends, they read
> everything and take it very seriously."
> 
> As a Jew, Shanks never visited Israel. But as a
> Baha'i, she applied and was accepted to work in the
> research department at the movement's headquarters in
> Haifa. The inauguration of the gardens - to which she,
> like all other Baha'is contributed - is especially
> meaningful. "In a sense I feel like I'm contributing
> to my Jewish heritage. The people of this country will
> benefit tremendously by having something so beautiful
> to look at and by having such a peaceful place in
> which to contemplate."
> 
> Like most Baha'is stationed in Haifa, Shanks keeps a
> certain distance from Israelis. She, like other
> Baha'is, says she is simply too busy to socialize.
> 
> "I am a Baha'i servant of God." But Fullmer admits
> that there is a directive to avoid "excessive
> socializing" with Israelis. "It is a closed
> community," he says, "and that is partly to avoid the
> impression of missionary activity."
> 
> The result of that low profile is that many Israelis
> don't know who the Baha'is are. "The Baha'is? They
> believe in beautiful things like gardens. It's very
> nice, but it's not a religion," says George Attiya, a
> Christian Arab who lives in a house at the base of the
> gardens.
> 
> "A lot of people wonder whether we are a religion or a
> gardening society," acknowledges Fullmer.
> 
> While Israelis may know very little about the Baha'is,
> the Baha'is know a thing or two about Israelis. And as
> utopian as their principles sound, they have a firm
> grip on reality. "We've heard that when Israelis see a
> strip of grass on a median along the highway, they set
> up a barbecue there," says Fullmer.
> 
> To avoid turning the Baha'i gardens into a site for
> family barbecues, most of the terraces will by
> accessible only through (free) guided tours [booked
> through the Haifa Tourism Board] and limited to 50
> people at a time.
> 
> "We want the people coming through the gardens to have
> an experience that is contemplative and meditative -
> and to teach them something about why the gardens are
> here. We want it to be a controlled experience,"
> explains Fullmer, noting that with the completion of
> the gardens, the number of tourists to Haifa is
> expected to triple to 1.2 million a year.
> 
> Israelis have long enjoyed the Baha'i presence in
> Israel without really understanding it. "Newlyweds
> take wedding photographs here. Schoolchildren take
> field trips here. Everyone is aware that we're here,"
> says Fullmer, "but there is very little knowledge of
> who we are."
> 
> With the inauguration of the terraced garden project,
> that anonymity is about to come to an end.
