In a country where you can get shut down for serving the homeless leftovers, get sued for attempting CPR with an expired license, fined for feeding a parking meter that’s not being used by you, or (ask any kindergarten teacher) fired for hugging a child or committing other acts of “inappropriate” touching in the classroom, I sometimes wonder why the laws of the land sometimes make it so difficult to show love for one another. But for all the laws, rules and regulations that the secular world has to tolerate, I take solace in the fact that for better or worse, the church in America is the most unregulated institution in America, and consequently, it has a lot of potential to be a wellspring of love. Many churches have been and are currently undertaking many altruistic and effective programs that are voluntarily funded. In America, we can worship who we want to worship, how we want to worship, and we don’t have to pay taxes for the privilege. We don’t have to get our religious doctrines approved by a state board or get permission to host a holy day in our respective communities. This is not the case in many countries, where the belief in a religion other than the state-approved ones can cost you your life or liberty. One example that lovers of liberty are most likely not aware of is the persecution that members of the Baha’i Faith face in Middle Eastern countries, but particularly in Iran and Egypt. Egypt, however, gives the worldwide Baha’i community hope because a particular court case has been pending that if ruled in the Baha’is’ favor would give de facto recognition of the religion in Egypt. Being the cultural and academic center of Islam, a ruling like that would positively reverberate throughout the Islamic world, giving new hope for Baha’is throughout the Middle East, but especially in Iran – the birthplace of the Baha’i Faith – where they not only make up the republic’s largest religious minority, but also have been subjected to the most severe forms of religious persecution, namely imprisonment and death, though the latter has tapered off in the recent years due to persistent international outrage. People are paying attention to the current Egyptian court case since so far the lower courts have upheld the Baha’i plea for official recognition. A similar case was struck down in 2006 by the country’s highest court, so this year’s case is tantamount to Round 2. The details of the case are as follows: like many other Middle Eastern countries, Egypt recognizes only three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Your religion must be marked on all official documents. You cannot leave the field blank, nor can you mark it as "other." Though Baha’is are committed to following the laws of the land in which they live, the one religious law that Baha’is will not break due to government decree or compulsion is to deny their faith. So Baha’is voluntarily choose to be personae non gratae rather than to indelibly mark their official documents with a religious orientation other than their own. Consequently, the life of an Egyptian Baha’i means a life without access to schooling, healthcare, and gainful employment. Egyptian Baha’i children cannot even officially be born since birth certificates too must be marked with a religious preference! This is the price Baha’is pay for the simple desire to acknowledge their religion. For now, Baha’is outside of Egypt and other sympathetic voices can only indirectly influence the officials in Egypt through human rights organizations and diplomatic pressure. In Iran, this method has been marginally successful in reducing the severity of persecution, but every time a victory is won, a new crisis begins. Shortly after Iran’s revolution in the 1980s, Baha’is were put to death in droves. In the 1990s, they were "only" imprisoned for life. In this decade, Baha’is can still count on being rounded up and arrested from time to time or have their religious sites razed and their cemeteries bulldozed. If average Iranians could investigate the writings of the Baha’i Faith without fear of imprisonment, they’d wring their hands at the rulers’ attempt to rid the country of people who adhere to a religion whose primary tenets are rooted in love:
Love is the secret of God’s holy Dispensation … the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness … that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle … Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.
My belief is that even if the Baha’is win the battle to be recognized as a religion in Egypt, the rulers and clerics there will find other ways to institutionally discriminate against the Baha’is. Due to the whims and vagaries of politics, one’s rights can be rock solid one day and taken away the next. However, no one has asked the obvious question: why does the Egyptian state have so much control over the basic necessities of life? Why are the schools, the healthcare system, the right to work, and most importantly, one’s own religious identity, controlled by government fiat in the first place? Instead, I say let the free market decide whether or not it should discriminate against Baha’is. Would an employer turn down a qualified candidate just because he’s not an adherent of one of the three major religions? Would a teacher close the doors on a couple’s children because their parents marked “Baha’i” on their birth certificates? Would a doctor, upon encountering a Baha’i dying of a curable disease, kick him out on the street because he’s a member of the wrong religion? Sadly, even in a free society, people are allowed to discriminate in this manner, but I wager that the majority would see through the nonsense of religious discrimination and take the initiative to employ, heal, and educate their fellow Egyptians, regardless of their religious orientation. But ending institutionalized bigotry would have a much greater effect, whether it's done in Egypt or any country. As it is, laws that allow the state to discriminate one group from another sends the tacit message to the populace that some groups are more equal than others. By absconding the laws that either discriminate or venerate a particular group, we may actually live in a world where love has a chance.
Without artificial barriers in place that dictate how we should officially treat each other, we may actually sit face to face with one of our fellow brethren and make that decision ourselves. I am confident that if left to our own devices, we would choose to love to our fellow man rather than hate him. We would find ways to interact with him in profitable ways and in the process get to know him on a deeper level. Through some of these interactions, we’d discover new truths about ourselves and invent new ways to upraise all of humanity’s standard of living. We’d realize the essential unity that defines the human race: that we were created noble and equipped with the ability to overcome any challenges mankind faces through decentralized trial and error, an inherent feature of the free market system. Though on paper, most forward-thinking individuals know that one’s superficial physical traits do not make any one of us more special than the other, we still fall victim to the pernicious influence from hundreds of years of state-sanctioned discriminatory institutions: namely slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the counterproductive Civil Rights Act. Though state sanctions such as these are strong, the vital bond of love is stronger as love is more powerful than the state or any man-made institution. Love is above any law. Love is here; it just needs to be unbound so mankind may be set free.
May 1, 2008
