Changing Times Blog

Stick with the Jojos

This is an advert created at Changing Times 2008 for the snack bar.

Music by Andy Grammer; produced by Amy Lim and Ryan Lash.

Proven innocent - but still guilty

There’s only one way to deal with busybodies trying to help young people become good citizens. Throw them in prison. Comedian Inder Manocha casts a wry look at the situation of Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, the Baha’is:

At a time when youth crime is on the rise and images of young people wielding weapons in the name of yet another cause are commonplace on our television screens, any group of people attempting to promote the opposite trend is worthy of attention.

There is only one fitting way to acknowledge the efforts of such individuals: jail them. Such people cannot be trusted; especially if they belong to some dangerous, deviant religious movement that espouses equality and tolerance. Thank heavens then for the Justice Administration of Shiraz in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They can spot a deviant a mile off.

In May 2006, fifty-three young followers of the Baha’i faith were arrested on the grounds of indirectly teaching their religion under the guise of a social service project for underprivileged children in Shiraz and the surrounding localities in the south of Iran, aimed at developing the moral values, literacy levels and hygiene standards of these young people. Three of the Baha’is were incarcerated in November 2007, having been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. So far, so good.

Read the rest of this piece

From Hungary to Frankfurt

Our Hungarian Friends are up with a new clip on ‘Going to Frankfurt’, Part 2 to the legendary ‘Masses are Waiting’ clip.

Rainn Wilson, the Rocker

Rainn Wilson is at it again telling the world about the Faith. In this interview with 24/7 Chicago he introduces his new movie ‘The Rocker’. Watch the interview below, the hilarious ‘The Rocker’ trailer on youtube, and in case you missed it watch Rainn battle Kanye West at the Emmy awards. God knows where we will see him next.

“My parents were Bahais, are Bahais, my family is Bahai, i am a Bahai, and we moved to the north-shore to be by the Bahai National Center. It was kind of weird I was this mis-fitted bohemian kid from Seattle living in the land of prepsters and Mercedes Benz’s.”

Harmony Film Fest

(ky) The glamour of Film Festivals; red carpet, beautiful stars, champagne flowing, debauched after-parties, and the inevitable tabloid scandals.  Then, maybe after all this excitement you’ll stop and think about the films themselves.  But only maybe.

This might describe some festivals, but Harmony is one that’s trying to promote something rather different. Founded in 2003 by Artist and Filmmaker Mehrzad Mumtahan, the Festival is growing year on year, and attracting entries from both Australia, where it’s held, and overseas.  Inspired by Baha’i teachings it promotes harmony and discourse amongst filmmakers about pertinent social issues.

This year’s winner of the Jury prize went to Sarah Tracton, a profoundly deaf Australian filmmaker. Her film ‘White Sound’ sensitively explored the idea of soundless existence.

The Audience also had the chance to vote and their award went to “Channel B Presents“, written and produced by Dellaram Jamali.  Together with a group of peers from Victoria, she has entered the Film Festival before, making it to the final every time.  This year, their film was about ‘Joy’ and questions the intense consumerism all around us ‘It seems in today’s society, the only way we can be happy is if we buy our way into happiness. We thought it would be a good idea to work with this concept and turn it into something which the audience could relate to and hopefully enjoy.’  (Watch the video down below)

To nurture diverse future talent, organizers hold annual film camps, where industry professionals teach and train less privileged communities in the Australian Outback. They also work with various educational and governmental institutions to encourage positive filmmaking.

And finally, as a treat for those of you coming along to Changing Times this year, there will be a screening of the winning films.

Watch award-winning ‘Channel B Presents’ now:

Little Mosque on the Prairie

(ja) What a riot.  At first I was admittedly a bit suspicious, but after watching first the pilot and then parts of the first episodes and finding myself riveted to my seat and laughing out loud I realized that it’s pure genius.

Originally aired in Canada and picked up internationally (France, Switzerland, French speaking African countries, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Dubai, Finland and Turkey that I know of so far) the sitcom tackles tough issues with a soft hand.

Written by Zarqa Nawaz, a Muslim British-Canadian woman of Pakistani origin raised in the Toronto area, it places a Muslim community smack in the middle of “Podunk nowhere” and watches its interaction with the generally Christian community at large. In a humorous and completely non-offensive way, common misperceptions and fears are examined through funny character interplay.  It also pokes a bit of fun at the Muslim community and parts of it’s various “inner workings” much the same way as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” did for the Greek communities.  According to the Producers (two Baha’i’s who spoke at the recent ABS conference in San Diego) when they ran the pilot for a Muslim test group it was a great hit.

The United States (Fox Network) will be airing the show with some changes, including the setting - which will, of course, now be in rural “Podunk” USA.

Scrap your dreams - Iranian Bahai students

Every year, millions of students worldwide prepare excitedly for a new academic year - a journey that will equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become active and productive citizens. But instead of worrying about homework, pop-up quizzes and detention, Baha’i students in Iran worry about being admitted to academic institutions in the first place.

Iranian authorities constantly deny that they discriminate against Baha’i students, citing a recent policy change that allowed students to enrol in universities for the first time in almost 3 decades. Although students were no longer forced to declare their religious affiliation when applying for the national university entrance examination, a memo revealed last year exposed their hypocrisy. The memo, sent from Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, instructed all institutions to expel any student discovered to be a Baha’i.

Over the past two years a new tactic was employed: namely, denying Baha’i students admission by alleging their files are incomplete. Last year, almost 800 (of over 1,000) students had their dreams shattered this way. But this year, when trying to login to the national university examination website, Baha’i students were redirected to: http://82.99.202.139/karsarasari/87/index.php?msg=error_bah

Whether the Iranian authorities were caught in the folly of their ways, or “error_bah” was intentional is a tough call. But should the authorities want to upgrade their message for the next academic year, we have a fitting suggestion:

We have a handy response for them to use, should they run out of excuses: “How can we be accused of denying Baha’is access to education when we do not recognize their existence? The accusations are baseless!”

Original Post at MidEastYouth.