On The Baha'i Faith in Egypt: A Sad Day for Human Rights

The blog Baha'i Faith in Egypt reports today that the Supreme Court in that country ruled against the Baha'is in their appeal...

"...to reverse the lower court’s ruling of 4 April 2006 that favored the Baha'is right to being identified as such for the purpose of official documents. It also ordered the Bahá’í couple who had initiated the original lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior--demanding to be granted the right to obtain identification documents--to pay all court costs."

For the full story, read Egyptian-born Bilo's blog for its current and past postings. As he notes,

"Naturally, the Baha'is are a bit disappointed, but do understand that this crisis will ultimately lead to many victories, many of which can be seen already--a direct result of their suffering."

Bilo quotes the following passage from the document One Common Faith on his side bar:

Everything in its history has equipped the Bahá’í Cause to address the challenge facing it. Even at this relatively early stage of its development—and relatively limited as its resources presently are—the Bahá’í enterprise is fully deserving of the respect it is winning. An onlooker need not accept its claims to Divine origin in order to appreciate what is being accomplished. Taken simply as this-worldly phenomena, the nature and achievements of the Bahá’í community are their own justification for attention on the part of anyone seriously concerned with the crisis of civilization, because they are evidence that the world’s peoples, in all their diversity, can learn to live and work and find fulfilment as a single race, in a single global homeland.