Ravian Bilani

Newsflash! Man would not sign on the line !

Turns out the Bahai was actually expelled from Uzbekistan for resisting a police officer - by not signing a document:

This article was published by F18News on: 24 September 2009

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <//www.forum18.org>

One of the two Baha'is imprisoned for
fifteen days in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent after a raid on a July
meeting – and who was subsequently expelled from the country - has
insisted to Forum 18 News Service that he harbours no ill feelings. "I
don't want to complain – I don't blame anyone," Timur Chekparbayev told
Forum 18 from the Kazakh city of Almaty on 22 September. He said
accusations that he was a missionary are unfounded. "It is a
misunderstanding of the status and activity of the Baha'is. We don't
have priests or missionaries in our faith."

In the wake of the raid he and fellow Baha'i Eliyor Nematov – who was
visiting Tashkent from Bukhara [Bukhoro] - were accused of missionary
activity and proselytism. However, Chekparbayev insisted that, while a
Kazakh citizen, he had made his home in Tashkent in 2004, for family
reasons, and has the necessary temporary registration to live in the
city. His wife is Uzbek and their three children were all born there.

Chekparbayev said the youth meeting broken up by police on 24 July did
not directly concern the teaching of their faith. "It was about social
economic endeavour for the betterment of society," he explained to
Forum 18. "This programme includes acts of service such as helping
elderly people and cleaning the environment. By its nature it has
nothing to do with proselytism." He said Baha'is are forbidden by their
own laws to proselytise. "They engage in acts of service and this was
the case of the youth meeting in order to prepare for such service."

Defending what he termed the "check-up" on the Baha'i community was
Akram Nematov, the head of the Justice Ministry department that
registers religious organisations (no relation to the detained Baha'i).
"One official from Tashkent City Justice Department was involved," he
told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 23 September. "The Justice Department
investigation established that the community was attracting young
people to religious events without permission from their parents,
didn't inform the Justice Department that it was holding an educational
event on that day, didn't present written permission from parents
allowing their children to attend, and was using religious literature
that wasn't approved by the Religious Affairs Committee."

Missionary activity and proselytism are criminal offences in
Uzbekistan, and the authorities are hostile to children being involved
in religious activities (see Forum 18 religious freedom survey at //www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1170).

Nematov of the Justice Ministry told Forum 18 that officials "removed
for examination" – he rejected suggestions that this was "confiscation"
– religious books the Baha'is were using and sent them to the Religious
Affairs Committee to verify if they have been approved. Asked what the
evaluation of the Committee had been and whether the books have been
returned, given that the raid took place two months earlier, he
responded that he did not know.

Religious literature is often confiscated during raids on religious
communities, and may subsequently be destroyed (see F18News 1 July 2008
//www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1153).

Asked whether religious communities have to inform their local Justice
Department when they hold any religious event or drink a cup of tea
together, Nematov responded: "They can drink tea – that's not
forbidden, but they must inform the Department when they hold religious
education with young people."

Told that the Baha'is maintain that most if not all the parents had
given written permission for their children to attend events at the
Baha'i centre, Nematov declared: "That's not the information that I
have. How do you know they're not lying?"

Asked why if these accusations were made against the community, Timur
Chekparbayev and Eliyor Nematov were found guilty on a completely
unrelated charge of resisting the activity of a police officer, Akram
Nematov said he did not know. He said he was not aware that the two men
had been sentenced to prison terms nor that Chekparbayev had
subsequently been expelled from the country.

Nematov said that his department at the Justice Ministry had, after the
raid and a subsequent complaint from the Baha'i community, investigated
the actions of the Ministry's Tashkent city Department. He stressed
that his Ministry is only responsible for the actions of its officials
not of other agencies. He said if the Baha'is are still unhappy they
can challenge officials' actions in court.

Chekparbayev said the Baha'i community is shocked and mystified by the
raid and the detentions. "This is the first time we have experienced
anything like this," he told Forum 18. "The authorities have always
shown a good attitude. The government's Religious Affairs Committee has
always given us permission for the literature we have asked for."

He insisted that most if not all the literature had been approved by
the Religious Affairs Committee or had been obtained before 1998 when
religious censorship was introduced, that most if not all the parents
had signed letters permitting the attendance of their children and that
the meeting had been a regular event that fell within the activity
specified in their registered charter.

The official who answered the phone at the Religious Affairs Committee
in Tashkent on 23 September said Committee chair Artyk Yusupov and its
specialist Begzot Kadyrov were both away on work trips and said no-one
else could answer Forum 18's questions about the raid on the Baha'i
community and the punishments, or what has happened to the literature
confiscated from them.

The Baha'i community in Tashkent has had state registration since 1991.
The Baha'is have four other registered communities in Uzbekistan – in
Samarkand, Jizak, Bukhara and Navoi.

Meeting raided

Trouble began on the afternoon of 24 July, during the day-long meeting
for teenage Baha'is. More than ten officers from the police and NSS
secret police, together with an official of the City Justice Department
and the head of the mahalla (city district) committee arrived at the
Baha'i centre in Tashkent's Khamza District. They said it was a
"planned check-up", Chekparbayev said, though they then locked the
door. Police began filming participants.

Police insisted that the nine members of the governing Spiritual
Assembly be summoned, and Chekparbayev – who had not been present at
the meeting – was the first to arrive. He said he was asked to explain
on camera who he was and what role he had. "I explained on camera that
this was a regular meeting to deepen knowledge of our faith in line
with the provisions of our charter," he told Forum 18. "I pointed out
that only Baha'is and the children of Baha'is were present."

Chekparbayev said police were questioning the teenagers directly, and
he told them not to answer any questions as children are not allowed to
be interrogated unless their parents or a lawyer are present.

Chekparbayev said the parents of the children had given written
permission for them to attend events at the Baha'i centre, but said
officials insisted that such letters of permission had to be officially
notarised. (Nematov of the Justice Ministry told Forum 18 that such
letters do not need to be notarised.)

Police then took all the teenagers and about ten adults to the Khamza
District Police station, including Chekparbayev. All the adults were
photographed. The teenagers were later that evening put in a bus and
taken to a holding centre for their parents to collect them.

Prison terms

While all the other adults were also freed that evening, Chekparbayev
and Nematov were held overnight. They were accused of conducting
proselytism and missionary activity, as well as of resisting a police
officer. The following day they were separately brought before Khamza
District Court. They were each found guilty of violating Article 195 of
the Code of Administrative Offences, which punishes "resisting police
officers in carrying out their duties". They were each given the
maximum term under the Article of fifteen days' imprisonment. Neither
was fined.

Forum 18 believes that several other adults who had attended the
meeting were also subsequently fined. The chancellery of Khamza
District Court refused to confirm to Forum 18 on 23 September the
sentences imposed on Chekparbayev and Nematov, or to reveal how many
Baha'is had been fined.

Chekparbayev and Nematov served the prison term in the detention centre
of the City Police in Kuyluk District. This is the same prison where –
a few weeks later - four Protestants were held after being sentenced to
fifteen days' imprisonment on 24 August (see F18News 26 August 2009 //www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1341).

However, when the two Baha'is' prison sentences were over on 9 August,
Chekparbayev was not freed but instead taken to the border post with
neighbouring Kazakhstan on the pretext of checking his immigration
status. He told Forum 18 that border guards indicated to him that his
documents were in order, but the police insisted he had to leave the
country. "They gave no reason and no documentation." However, he said
he believes there is no reason why he cannot return as he was not
deported and his passport has not been marked.

Chekparbayev told Forum 18 that he was treated well both in the police
station and in the detention centre. He believes he may have been
singled out because he refused to sign any document at the police
station or when he was expelled from Uzbekistan.

Hostile state-backed media coverage

Chekparbayev's case became known when the state-backed website
Gorizont.uz published an article on 16 September accusing him of
"active propaganda for the ideas of the Baha'i religious community".
Stressing that he is a 36-year-old Kazakh citizen, it claimed – wrongly
- that because of this he had been deported without the right to return.

Pointing out that the Baha'i faith has its roots in Iran, and ignoring
the fact that Baha'is have suffered severe persecution there since the
Islamic revolution of 1979, the website declared: "It is completely
clear that Mr Chekparbayev arrived in Uzbekistan with the aim of
creating an Iranian transplant, relying for support on the lavish input
from sponsors."

Chekparbayev expressed his concern to Forum 18 at the allegations,
which he rejected. "How can the authorities accuse us of being Iranian
agents when the case of the persecution of Bahais in Iran is well known
to the world?" he asked. "Baha'is are persecuted in Iran just because
of their belief. The whole thing is a big misunderstanding."

The Gorizont article also pointed to the Baha'is' worldwide
headquarters in the Israeli city of Haifa, claiming that some Jews have
identified the Baha'i faith as a means to "smash the unity" of the
Muslim community. It also claimed that the Baha'i faith "is not
recognised by the international community as an independent and
official religion" and accused it of conducting "ideological
subversion" aiming to "sow confusion in the souls of millions of
inhabitants of Uzbekistan".

Gorizont.uz reported Chekparbayev's 24 July detention - but did not
reveal the extent of the raid - and his sentence, though without
reporting the punishments imposed on the other Baha'is.

The state-controlled mass media is used to encourage intolerance of
religious groups the government dislikes, as well as opposition to
freedom of religion or belief in the country (see eg. F18News 12
January 2009 //www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1239). (END)

~~~~~~~~~~

What I can do, is keep my arm
from bringing others any harm.
How can I give the enviers ease?
They are themselves their own disease.
(Sa'di, Gulestan 1:5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//senmcglinn.wordpress

~~~~~~~~~~

What I can do, is keep my arm
from bringing others any harm.
How can I give the enviers ease?
They are themselves their own disease.
(Sa'di, Gulestan 1:5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//senmcglinn.wordpress

Note

Baha'i CULT FAQ

Also note that when the following story broke in 2006, Baha'is also denied it:

Baha'i Spy Ring Busted

Fasiqa, Plato says, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Obviously your utter lack of examination, and that of your co-religionists (or co-cultists, rather), of your hand-me-down so-called religious doctrine of Bahaism is ample testimony to a completely wasted life. Love without knowledge is neither life nor love. It is blind fanaticism and a danger to all posterity, a kind of hellbound inversion of all that true love represents. Your kind of so-called love is the kind of love that hijacks airplane's and rams them into metropolitan buildings. Blind, stupid, ultimately murderous and so totally dangerous!

Dear ex programmer :

He really is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! believe it or not , there are hate monsters amongst us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This ravian bilani is a human with hate in his heart, so, I will dedicate this quote from kahlil Gibran to him:))))

"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit."

Tahirih

Ravian Bilani

You are advocating persecution of religious minorities? Seriously?

How convenient...

There is no source for this information. I can't find this anywhere on Google except for right here in this blog.

And there is also this gem:

Baha’ism is a tool in the hand of the modern colonialism, weapon of the
enemies of the country and a threat to the independence of Iran.

That pretty much gives away the inherent bias in this blog and is also an indicator of how seriously we are really supposed to take this character, Ravian Bilani, which itself is a play on the name of Dr. Kavian Milani, a medical doctor and Baha'i scholar. For a relatively short refutation of silly claims such as these (i.e. "tool of colonialism"), please refer to my book, Debunking the Myths.