Omid Djalili, Bajai B’hai Baha’i Comedian
This is just too funny (which is fitting since there’s a comedian involved), but it seems that poor Omid Djalili creates a vortex of inorthography around him wherever he goes. As noted in an earlier post, Djalili was identified as a “Bajai” on an HBO comedy special, and now The Daily Telegraph, in an otherwise dandy article, calls him a B’hai.
Then came the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and as members of the B’hai faith - persecuted under the new regime - a return to Iran was ruled out for good.
It is Djalili’s faith that provides him with his biggest inspiration of all. B’hai teaches that religion should be joyful and inclusive, and that all the major faiths have the same message at their core. “At a time when people are saying that multiculturalism doesn’t work,” he says, “I’d like to be a standard-bearer for it through comedy.”
So everyone repeat after me: Baha’i. B-a-h-a-’-i. ok? We all on the same page now? good.
Maybe we should get him to wear one one of those “I’m a Baha’i, ask me why.” t-shirts to all of his interviews.
Or maybe it’s a joke, one of those wacky comedian things that the rest of us just don’t get.
October 30th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
Yes, and to the journalists, I’d like to suggest some f-a-c-t c-h-e-c-k-i-n-g.
November 6th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
Those ‘á’ and ‘í ‘ characters are funny things - even though never as funny as Omid …
But there is a point here: individuals searching for bahai will find about 10% of Bahá’í websites because we insist in writing it correctly i.e. with the accent on the second á and the í .
Also ask an British journalist to find the á of Bahá’i on their keyboard ….
Should we be more google and UK/US keyboard friendly in the future and restrict all mentions of BAHAIS on the internet without using accents or apostrophes ?
What was that?! Was that the sound of a few hundred thousand - Bahá’í - Persians shouting in horror that I just heard ????
Ok SORRY it was just a thought ;-)