Conference in Egypt on media and religious discrimination:

Basma Mousa, a prominent Baha’i activist, talked about the need for journalists to seek primary sources when tackling any issue. “The media should seek the truth from its sources when writing stories, especially on sensitive issues like discrimination.” She referred to a story covered by Haqiqa TV and the state-owned Al-Gomhorriya newspaper in 2009 that caused people to torch the houses of Baha’is in Upper Egypt.

Bahais sponsor worldwide action on 22 Khordad / 12 June 

A global day of action demanding an end to human rights abuses in Iran

The blood libel : Qom variant

An Iranian version of the ‘blood libel’ story has been doing the rounds in Iranian media this week.  

 On the news page:

Economic and social pressure on Bahais in Birjand
Bahai property confiscated
Another Bahai arrested in Sari
Next trial date for 7 Yaran
Two Bahai women enter prison in Hamadan

Jun 2, 2010 -- 4:08PM, Kalzera wrote:

I don't know whether to make a sarcastic remark or just sit here in utter shock. I can't believe someone would actually buy that. 

*steps in*

If I may...

By virtue of being a Latter-Day Saint (better known as the Mormons), I've had the misfortune of seeing such things up close and personal.

Human psychology holds that, at the most basic level, people will automatically be wary of anyone and anything they do not know; while this is generally a survival mechanism, at times it goes too far.

As a part of this, if people fear or are ignorant of something that they hear about, they are likely to pay closer attention to the negative information that is presented to them than the positive (compare, if you will, the moral panics over such things as rock & roll, Dungeons & Dragons, and violent video games).

Now, in the case of Iran and other such repressive regimes, there's a good chance that the vast majority of the populace has heard nothing but propaganda of this sort for some time now. All Christians are crusaders who want to conquer Muslim lands. All Zoroastrians are pagans who blight the land. All Baha'i are traitors to the faith. Et cetra. These people have likely heard it from childhood, and have now grown up into adulthood hearing it yet again.

Given such an environment, is it any wonder that people would be willing to believe such an obviously bogus story? It plays into what they've been told for some time, and the details added by the fabricators (drinking alcohol, a raucous party on a Muslim holy day, murder, open display of a dead body, et cetra) are such that, for the culture, it's overt outrage and blasphemy on top of it all. That fuels a person's sense of rage, which in turn causes people to disengage the part of their brain that handles logic and reason.

Thus, what we have are less enlightened people being fed a carefully crafted story specifically designed to provoke hatred, a story that reinforces the negative stereotypes they've already been handed over the years.

Fortunately, there's a rising generation of Iranians who are becoming more enlightened as part of their efforts to oppose the current regime. They've got internet access, illegal satelite TV sets, and other Western luxuries that are helping to expose them to the real world, the world outside of what the mullahs are telling them. As we've seen over the last few years, they're getting increasingly bold and increasingly impatient with the regime. We may well see them clean house within our lifetimes, such that stories like this may finally rest in pieces when the truth is allowed to show through.

**

For a more humorous example of how such wild stories can circulate, there's a perfect example from Mormon history.

During the 1860s, all sorts of wild rumors were flying around when it came to Mormons. That we were in league with Satan. That we performed human sacrifices. That we paid bounties for converts, with women getting a higher fee. Et cetra. All of these were obviously bull, yet they played into the preconceived notions that people had and so were believed even when people tried to tell them the honest truth.

Enter J. Golden Kimball, a man who would ultimately become a prominent folk hero within the church.

Kimball, in his younger days, found himself serving a mission in the Southern United States right after the Civil War, during the period known as Reconstruction. Non-whites and non-Southerners were often targeted for physical violence by the populace, with the Klu Klux Klan leading the charge. As you can imagine, Mormons were near the top of the hit list.

Kimball and a few other Mormons down there realized this, and so decided to have their weekly get-together late at night inside a remote copse of trees. They apparently figured that this would keep them safe, but the KKK found out about it anyway and sent riders to break things up.

Kimball soon realized that the riders were simply circling about; he figured that if they could see well enough to enter the treeline, they would have done so. In what would later become his signature form, he decided to bluff them by loudly declaring that Mormons had horns which would grow out at night and that if the riders didn't leave them alone they'd all get impaled.

150+ years later, folks down here in the Southern United States still spread the word about us Mormons and our horns.

*steps out*

...oh, and I almost forgot.

I too, thought Mormons we're crazies with horns. That is, until I actually read books about them from non anti-Mormon sources. They ain't so bad. 

My friend recently joined your church, and I seem to be one of the few, if not only, people she has supporting her. Mormons aren't "accepted" in my community as other Christian groups are. (Sometimes even the Catholics have a problem!) Not that they're segregated or hated, just...distrusted and looked upon as "crazy." 

Jun 3, 2010 -- 6:17PM, Kalzera wrote:

So I guess what I really don't understand is why someone would want to live a life blindly following any idea (even true ones) without ever questioning it. But, as you say, that does seem to be human nature. 

Comfort zone.

Suppose you lived all your life being told that X was true.

Then someone came along and told you that Z is the actual truth.

Human nature is to reject Z and stick with X, owing to the fact that X is regarded as "safe" and "secure" in the sense that it's what people are familiar with.

For some, it's simply that they're too afraid to step outside their boundaries.

For others, it could just be laziness.

Then you have those that are so apathetic they could care less.

And last but not least, you have those who suffer from a serious case of pride; admitting that there is even an alternate POV, let alone that this alternate POV might be correct, is something they don't want to own up to.

I'd recommend that if you have time, you peruse this scholarly writ done by two critics of the LDS faith. As a graduate paper they decided to survey Mormon and anti-Mormon writings in order to see how they compare, and were horrified when they found that the anti-Mormon authors they read cited each other to an incestuous degree; no one from that camp seemed interested in reaching out to see what the other side was saying / doing.

For those who suffer from pride, it may simply not be possible to reach them. But for the others, over time they can get the message if given half a chance. That Ahminijad (sp?) so very nearly lost the election (he actually would have lost were it not for some last-minute meddling with the vote counts) in favor of a more open-minded individual says that the mullahs are soon to be relegated to history.

All we can do right now is give one part effort and one part hope.

Jun 3, 2010 -- 8:00PM, in_my_opinion wrote:

Dear Ironhold,

Thank you for contributing that wonderful history! Please, "step in" more often.

Your stride is most welcome. It is good to hear from good folk!

Pardon the pun, but is what J. Golden Kimball told them called a "gory goring story"?

 

Kimball spent most of his adult life working with mules and other stubborn farm animals, and as such developed a rather colorful vocabulary and a short temper. This, coupled with his quick wit, made him something of a folk hero because he so very often stood up against those who he felt were in the wrong or said a few words to disarm a situation.

Another example from his time in the South came when he encountered a Reverend Weatherbee, a fire-and-brimstone minister who made it a point to be a jerk to people. Kimball and a fellow missionary were walking along one side of the street when Weatherbee appeared on the other side.

"Good morning, you sons of the Devil!" Weatherbee shouted.

"And a good morning to you too, Father!" Kimball replied, without missing a beat.

(Weatherbee, as you can imagine, was rather annoyed...)

Kimball was in his 90s when he was killed in a car accident while returning from a vacation; IIRC, he was hit and killed by a drunk driver. Shortly thereafter, one of his grandchildren slowly began to collect what anecdotes about the man that could be verified and were suitable for print. The first collection of tales was released about 10 years ago, and another collection came out a few months back. Not only was it a way for the grandson to come to understand his famous ancestor, it also served to remind people of the importance of family history and other such work.

If you're curious, the ISBN for vol. 1 is 1-56684-549-1, and it has a cover price of $9 US. I will warn you, though, that owing to just who and what Kimball was there is some cursing; one of the anecdotes actually hinges on it (then-church president Heber J. Grant was so afraid of Kimball cursing during a live broadcast that he handed Kimball a script to read, but Grant's handwriting was so poor that Kimball lost it on-air anyway).