Fostering Baha’i-Muslim understanding

January 28th, 2009

6 Comments

Many Muslims hold misconceptions and erroneous beliefs on the beliefs and practises associated with the Baha’i Faith. Amongst the most widely believed misconceptions is that Baha’is worship Baha’u’llah as a deity,and that Baha’i texts disparage the Qur’an and Islam and that the Baha’i Faith condones incest.

With these claims being circulated by respected scholars and clerics, it only follows that the public at large would take them to be true. Direct interaction with members of other faiths can no doubt lead to the dispelling of held misconceptions, but as Baha’is aren’t a visible minority in most countries, the Internet can fill up the void and facilitate communication.

Dr Susan Maneck, a Baha’i scholar, has started a blog in which she hopes to engage Muslims in dialogue and respond to some of the pressing concerns they might have. She says of her blog:

The purpose of this blog is to promote Muslim-Baha’i understanding, to provide Muslims with accurate information on where Baha’is stand on issues which are important to them and to refute some of the common distortions and misconceptions people have about the Baha’i Faith in the Middle East. I’m hoping this blog will be able to approach these issues in a positive manner which will be edifying for both communities.

Be sure to drop by her blog and address and queries you may have, in a respectful manner of course.

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Omid

January 28, 2009

Hi Kaw,

You are a great example of dialog, understanding and social relations. Thank you for this post!

Nasser

January 28, 2009

Great job! Keep up the good work. Dialogue and open mindedness is the key to success in everything in life. One can not succeed in life unless one is open to learning.

Your comment box is very small. This may prevent people from replying to your articles. So is “requiring” email address. Perhaps having a check box next to it to receive updates on your blog would be better than “requiring” it.

Kawthar (Sudan)

January 28, 2009

Hello Nasser,

Thank you for your kind words.

As for your input on the size of the commenting area – your feedback has been noted and will be taken into consideration.

Also, if you’d like to be notified when new content is posted, you can subscribe to our RSS feed and even our comment feed.

Kawthar (Sudan)

January 28, 2009

I also should that a convert to Islam, inspired by Dr. Maneck’s blog, has started a blog titled “A Muslim’s perspective of the Baha’i Faith” that would certainly enrich the level of dialogue between followers of the two faiths.

Esra'a (Bahrain)

January 28, 2009

Dear Nasser,

So is “requiring” email address. Perhaps having a check box next to it to receive updates on your blog would be better than “requiring” it.

Requiring an email address helps prevent spam and is standard on almost all comment forms, unfortunately if we remove it we’d have issues.

I should make one thing clear though: Requiring “updates” does not exist, if a commenter wishes to receive notificaitions, they will manually check “notify me of followup comments via e-mail” located on the bottom of this form, otherwise you won’t be notified via email. Emails submitted here would never be abused or used for anything other than a check for legitimacy. If we remove it we’ll find a major issue with spam.