Comments on Baha'i Faith in Egypt: Egypt: Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Response To US ...

We need hope and optimism. Also, there are Divine ...

2006-09-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

We need hope and optimism. Also, there are Divine forces that are beyond our comprehension. History illustrates the many victories that followed untold crises.

I think your conclusion at the end of the post is ...

2006-09-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

I think your conclusion at the end of the post is very optimistic, but one can still hope that there is some decency left, so that the authorities don't continue to fight the very ruling they are pointing to as proof of their reform and protection of minority rights. Otherwise, if there is no sense of shame left, .. words are a dime per two dozen or cheaper !!

Naseef

It is also critical that the country changes its p...

2006-09-24T20:27:00.000-05:00

It is also critical that the country changes its policies not because of outside pressures, but because it is the right thing to do. This way its dignity is maintained and it would be comfortable with the change since it is on its own initiative.

Of course world opinion matters because--after all--it is one human family, or as it should be, a one body--when one of its organs is diseased, the rest of the body suffers.

Probably it is a cliche to say that X or Y governm...

2006-09-24T18:20:00.000-05:00

Probably it is a cliche to say that X or Y government responds to outside pressure. Those of us on the outside, I am speaking from memory of my International Studies major as a dewey eyed undergrad, would summarize the outside "pressure" as no big deal. However after living in Japan, I can give several examples of US opinion expressed in some document, obscure or not, being able to influence political decisions here. Well as we all know, no one knows the "real reasons" things change in politics but the perception given by the press, often becomes the reality. We blame the press for so much don't we ;-)

So here is yet another example. The Egyptian ministry staff members, I can imagine hard at work trying to interpret which of various responses would give the most benefit to the US politicians they want to appease. I wouldn't doubt this is another example of, "If I do this for you, you will do something for me." However the Egyptians are, and I am assuming they will do something, probably worrying whether the right people in the US Admin will recognize the Egyptian actions in the way the Egyptians want it recognized..Politics is a complex game of "I think they think we think that they think I think we said they said that we would say that they said, etc."