The US Congress will be voting soon on resolution H. Res. 1303 calling on the Egyptian Government to respect human rights and freedoms of religion and expression in Egypt.

The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf [R-VA] and cosponsored by several other congressmen, was submitted to the US House of Representatives and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 24, 2008.

Pre-2004 ID card with "other" on it

Today, a Cairo court (Administrative Court, First Degree, District-7) heard a challenge to the court ruling of 29 January 2008 allowing the Baha'is of Egypt to obtain ID cards and birth certificate with dashes "--" or "other" entered for religious classification in these documents.

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has just issued an urgent press release regarding the detained Baha'i leaders in Iran.

The ICJ is an international non-governmental organisation comprising sixty of the world's most eminent jurists and has a worldwide network of national sections and affiliated organisations.

An international effort spanning several continents has produced the most comprehensive online source yet for Spanish translations of the Bahá'í sacred writings in electronic form.

Available at: http://bahaipanel.org, it is the most current set of Spanish translations according to members of the International Panel for Spanish Translations of Bahá'í Literature.

The Seat of the Universal House of Justice on Mount Carmel in Haifa

The members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, the community’s national governing body, travel today to the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa, Israel to participate in the election of the nine members of the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i world community.

Immensely exciting news from Phoenix, AZ (A), which last week completed the expansion phase of their second intensive growth cycle. The response to the message was so overwhelming that the friends stopped the expansion phase early to begin consolidation work. The numbers are as follows:

*Days of the expansion phase: 8
*Declarations (adult and youth): 33
*Registrations (children and junior youth): 50
*Total new believers: 83

Wilmette Bahá'í House of Worship

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to one out of the seven Bahá'í Temples located around the world. The temple was located in IL and represents the continent of North America. The following site shows the dome area that I sang in: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-temple

I have never heard about this religion prior to my experience over the weekend. Coming from a nondenominational background, I was curious about what I was seeing.

Breaking news from Scottsdale, AZ (A), which launched its first Intensive Program of Growth this last Saturday: The results reported by the core team are exciting!

Vahid Manie-Oskoii, a business administration major at the University, believes in Jesus. And Muhammed. And Krishna and Buddha, too. Manie-Oskoii is a member of the Bahá'í faith, a religion centered around the idea that we're all united, spiritually.

"We actually believe in all of the religions," Manie-Oskoii said. "There's only one God and he sends prophets or messengers, if you will, for different times throughout the world."

Here is an inspiring story of a declaration in the Northwest region, but with a profound twist. In recent months the friends have become bolder at directly inviting people into the Faith while they are teaching. Even more recently, the friends have taken another approach: confirming people’s belief in Bahá’u’lláh. In other words, instead of warmly inviting them into the Cause, they simply speak to them as if they already were part of the Cause, because in their hearts, they are already believers.