Abdul-Baha's Tablet of a Thousand Verses:

"In the religion of God, there is no practice of declaring believers to be morally corrupt (tafsiq) or of declaring them not believers (takfir), nor is debasing or showing contempt for others permitted." Majmu`ih-'i Makatib, INBA Private Printing Volume 59 (Tehran: National Baha'i Archives, 1978; digitally reprinted, East Lansing, Mi.: H-Bahai, 2000), pp. 340. Tr. Juan Cole.

Outside observers should be especially careful and alert for...
Hikmat & Taqiyya (taqqiya, taqiya, taqiyyih), "wisdom," deception, dissimulation, key Baha'i concepts
*****
Baha'i Takfir
, denunciation of people as infidels, apostates, non-believers, commonly known to Baha'is as"Shunning" Essential Reading *****
See also the comments by a dozen people about
The Baha'i Technique - Slander & Shunning Essential Reading *****


Baha'u'llah's Passport Photos

"The light of men is Justice. Quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny."  —Baha'u'llah 

"According to the direct and sacred command of God we are forbidden to utter slander." —Abdul-Baha  


Google Site Search Engine
at Bottom of Page

If an off-site link fails to connect, remove the "s" in "https://" to access it.


Bahai Forums Online

CAUTION Newcomers

Beliefnet.com
Censored
Talk.Religion.Bahai 1997+
Topix - Baha'i Rift Chicago Tribune
Interfaith Forums, Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant ***
Soulpancake ***
Huffington Post
Reform Bahai Faith Forum

Compare Baha'i Tactics to
Communist Cadre or
The Modern Inquisition of Catholicism


Links of Conscience
Dale Grider's Fireside Letters
Christian Critiques on Google
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Juan Cole's Talisman Archives
H-Net H-Bahai Censored
Dialogue: A Bahai Magazine
Talisman9 Censored

Archives
Talk.Religion.Bahai

BahaiCensorship Download this site! 150meg. Details
Google News Server Bahai Faith
WayBackMachine


Bahai Censorship

CAUTION -- Non-bahais & Newcomers -- Psychological War Zone

Especially on Soc.Religion.Bahai
Dmoz & Google Directories
Wikipedia Censored by Baha'is

BCCA, BahaiApologetics
Why I Don't Respond to Bahai Fundamentalists 4/2001 


"If he exercises his anger and wrath against the bloodthirsty tyrants who are like ferocious beasts, it is very praiseworthy...." --Abdul-Baha,  SAQ, 215
Psalm 35

Baha'i Hate Mail, AOL, Etc
Hate Mail
AOL - bahai Censorship
Susan Maneck - Bahai Scholar

Ex-Bahais, Recovery & Support, Etc.

Ex-Bahais Explain Why....
How Cults Work.Com
Cult 101: Checklist
Cult Information Centre
** www.factnet.org **

Religious Freedom, Liberty, Conscience
History of Insquistion in Spain, Juan Antonio Llorente
Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty
John Milton's Areopagitica
John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration
Roger Williams
John Winthrop - Liberty

Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial
William Penn - Conscience
Virginia Bill of Rights 1776
Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom
James Madison, Remonstrance
First Amendment
Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X

The Jesuits, Jules Michelet 1848
Freedom is a Light for which Many Men have Died in Darkness
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18
Inter-Parliamentary Union
International Association for Religious Freedom
International Coalition for Religious Freedom
The Religious Freedom Page
Acton Institute
A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

Amnesty International


DMOZ Bahai Directory

Search Bahai on Google

Various Websites on the Bahai Faith


Essential Books
Reform Bahai Press


The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle. ePub.

Baha'u'llah & Abdul-Baha. 148 pages. With a new Introduction and the original 1912 Foreword. Reform Bahai Press, 2008. 148 pages. 
The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith collects many of the early writings of  Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha, published in the West, seeking to restore and preserve their vision of the oneness of God, humanity, and all religions. 


Available on Amazon

Letters from the American Desert: Signposts of a Journey, A Vision.

Hardcover, Kindle, ePub.

Twenty years in the making, in Letters from the American Desert, FG reflects on the cultural, political, and religious history of Western and non-Western civilizations, pondering the dilemmas of postmodernity, in a compelling struggle for spiritual knowledge and truth. In what is a highly autobiographical work, fully cognizant of the relativism and nihilism of modern life, he finds a deeper meaning and purpose in a universal Vision. Confronting the antinomies of the soul, grounded in the dialectic, the author charts a path beyond the postmodern desert.

Alluding extensively to Martin Luther and W. B. Yeats at All Souls Chapel, “metaphors for poetry,” from Yeats’s book A Vision, FG considers the example of the global, universal message of the oneness of God, all religions, and humankind, holding out a new hope and peaceful Vision for a world in spiritual and global crisis.

Far from a theocracy, FG envisions a modest separation of church and state, as the will of God, in an unorganized religion, a universal synthesis of all spiritual and wisdom traditions, in harmony and balance with universal peace, in a global age of pluralism, where religious belief is a distinctive mark of the individual, not collective, communal identity.


Religion News Service By IRA RIFKIN, 1997. "Critics chafe at Baha'i conservatism." "According to the critics, the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA), which oversees the American Baha'i movement, is dominated by a tight-knit group of authoritarian officials who keep the lid on free expression by threatening dissidents with excommunication and by manipulating the process by which NSA members are elected."

The Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2009. "Baha'i rift: Baha'is upset with Orthodox Baha'i Faith."
"[Haifan Baha'is] contend that...the Orthodox Baha'i Faith can't call themselves Baha'i or use one of its key symbols without violating trademark law.... ...the case could set a precedent for settling religious schisms, doctrinal disputes and claims to truth."

The Chicago Tribune, November 23, 2010. "Judge: Baha'i believers can call themselves Baha'i." "...the judges criticized the ruling from more than four decades ago as wrongfully trying to resolve a question of religious authority...."

The Chicago Tribune, November 25, 2010. "Federal appeals court rules in favor of splinter Baha'i group." "Adherents of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith...be­lieve the mainstream Baha'i Faith...ha­s strayed from the religion's original teachings.­" "We're the true faith. That's what we would say," [lawyer Goldberg]. "That has to be decided in the hearts and minds of the Baha'i, not by a secular court order."

Early Reform Bahais

"Censorship is not wanted anywhere, especially in the Bahai Cause; and if we allow it to retain the upper hand in the great movement that has been entrusted to us, we will set ourselves up before the world and in the face of history as false trustees, and as men and women unworthy and unfit to call ourselves Bahais."Mirza Ahmad Sohrab. Broken Silence. The Story of Today's Struggle for Religious Freedom. New York: Universal Publishing, 1942 (399). EXCERPTS

Ruth White, EXCERPTS The Bahai Organization the Enemy of the Bahai Religion? 1929.

“A minute comparison of the authenticated writing [of Abdul-Baha] with the writing on every page of the alleged will....has failed to detect in any part of the will the characteristics of the writing of Abdul Baha” (Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell quoted in White's Bahai Leads Out of the Labyrinth. 259. New York : Universal Publishing Co., 1944). Ruth White Collection, Library of Congress, 1930

Hermann Zimmer, A FRAUDULENT TESTAMENT Devalues the Bahai Religion Into Political Shoghism. 1973. 
Pdf


"Other Muslim sects in the Arab world include Sufi, Alawi, Wahabi, and Baha'i." --Arab American Museum, Dearborn, Michigan. February 13, 2016. From the exhibit, "Three Monotheistic Religions."

Arab American Museum

Farewell

FG
Tiananmen Square, 1994

N.B. Please rely on my own books and publications as representative of my views.  Since at least 1996, I have been a critic of the fanaticism of the Baha'i Faith, a Scientology-like criminal cult, based on Iranian Shiite millennialism and a fraudulent will and testament, which is attempting to create a global theocracy by deceiving and brainwashing its unsuspecting members into a false version of its history and then using them to carry out Baha'i jihads against dissenters and critics.
I've been stalked, harassed, and misrepresented, on and offline, by fanatical Haifan Baha'is and Iranian Shiite and other Muslims for over a decade and a half, some of the latter frequently anti-semites, as well as possibly other religious fanatics, posting to the Internet false information and mashups intended to libel and discredit me.
By attempting to destroy all other Baha'i denominations through various methods characteristic of the worst in Islam, Haifan Baha'is think they can maintain their claim since 1921 that they alone constitute the Baha'i Faith. As Professor Juan Cole writes in his book Modernity and the Millennium, Columbia University  Press (1998), the Baha'i administration has increasingly come under the control of fundamentalists, "stressing scriptural literalism... theocracy, censorship, intellectual intolerance, and denying key democratic values" (196).

A Response to Moojan Momen's Takfir & Slanderous Vilification FG. Religion 38 No 4 2008.

Question? Ask at ReformBahai.org

Bahai Writings on ReformBahai.org
Including many suppressed and misrepresented books.

Desultory comments on Huffington Post


Reform Bahai Faith
ReformBahai.org
Speakers Corner, London, UK

FORUM:
Reform Bahai Faith Forum

Universal Religion, Jenabe Fazel Mazandarani


"Check for yourselves: during the last ten, twenty or thirty years, has rational argument ever been used against any dissident? No, never, because no such arguments exist. They always reply with curses and slander. Such was the 'answer' to Sakharov. And just as empty was the 'answer' to Heinrich Boll…" Solzhenitsyn, The Oak and the Calf


Expertise

As one of the people extensively harassed both on and offline, since as early as 1996, by fanatical Wilmette-Haifan Baha'is and Muslims, including being tracked, slandered, and misrepresented across the Internet, I bring a unique experience and perspective to all things Bahai. Since 1976 I've been a member of the Reform Bahai Faith, a universal, unorganized form of religion that respects the essential truths of all of the great religions and wisdom traditions. I have published in the Bahai journal World Order, and served in several Bahai communities throughout the United States. Having read extensively in the Bahai writings for over forty years and having had university coursework in Biblical and Islamic religious studies and theology, I can address issues of cultural, historical, and spiritual importance to members of the unorganized Reform Bahai Faith and other interested people of various religious and secular outlook. I no longer address questions directly related to the several other Baha'i denominations. I will not dignify antisemitism with a response.

Experience

I'm especially able to discuss the role of Iranian Shiite "takfir" in Baha'i circles, the identification and denunciation of "infidels" and "apostates," having witnessed its fanatical, pernicious use against countless victims on and offline, in the USA and elsewhere. As a member of the Reform Bahai Faith, I have been intimately involved in the issues of free speech and conscience within the Bahai Faith since 1996, if not longer. Most American Baha'is are naively uninformed about these issues, if not deceived and brainwashed into a cult-like and mindless acceptance of a distorted version of its history, "taqlid," which Baha'u'llah had explicitly "Removed from the Book."

Publications

I am also the editor or author of two books on the Bahai teachings. The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Baha'u'llah & Abdu'l-Baha. With a new Introduction and the original 1912 Foreword. Hardcover: ISBN: 9780967042138 148 pages. Reform Bahai Press, 2008. Letters from the American Desert: Signposts of a Journey, A Vision. ISBN: 9780967042114. Preface. 172 pages. 2008. Glaysher finds a deeper meaning and purpose for the individual and the world community in the writings and global vision of Baha’u’llah, as expressed in the Reform Bahai Faith. Glaysher invites readers to consider the implications of the universal, moderate form of the Bahai Teachings as interpreted by Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son, who had spoken throughout the West in Europe, England, and the United States from 1911 to 1913. Abdu’l-Baha’s message of the oneness of God, all religions, and humankind holds out a new hope and vision for a world in spiritual and global crisis. Far from a theocracy, the Reform Bahai Faith envisions a separation of church and state as the will of God, in harmony and balance with universal peace, in a global age of permanent pluralism, in a world of multiplicity, where religion is a reflection of individual distinctiveness, not of communal identity.

Education

MA, University of Michigan, English, 1981 BGS, University of Michigan, English, Biblical Studies, Islam, 1980 Illinois State University, All But Dissertation, English, Rhetoric. 1983- 1986. Ten years teaching, at the university and college level, English, Rhetoric, American literature, non-Western literature, World Religions, and other courses.

Awards and Honors

A Fulbright-Hays scholar to China in 1994, I studied at Beijing University, the Buddhist Mogao Caves on the old Silk Road, and elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. While a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in 1995 on India, I further explored the conflicts between the traditional regional civilizations of Islamic and Hindu cultures and modernity. I have been an outspoken advocate of the United Nations, an accredited participant at the UN Millennium Forum (2000), and attended the UNA Members Day 2012 on the Millennium Development Goals, held in the General Assembly Hall.


Cultural Context

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XII

Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven
To their own vile advantages shall turn
Of lucre and ambition; and the truth
With superstitions and traditions taint,
Left only in those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood.
Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names,
Places, and titles, and with these to join
Secular power; though feigning still to act
By spiritual, to themselves appropriating
The Spirit of God, promised alike and given
To all believers; and, from that pretence,
Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force
On every conscience; laws which none shall find
Left them inrolled, or what the Spirit within
Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then
But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind
His consort Liberty? what, but unbuild
His living temples, built by faith to stand,
Their own faith, not another's? for, on earth,
Who against faith and conscience can be heard
Infallible? yet many will presume:
Whence heavy persecution shall arise
On all, who in the worship persevere
Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part,
Will deem in outward rites and specious forms
Religion satisfied; Truth shall retire
Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith
Rarely be found: So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign;
Under her own weight groaning....

"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens . . . are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion . . . No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." —Thomas Jefferson

"Few things have done more harm than the belief on the part of individuals or groups (or tribes or states or nations or churches) that he or she or they are in sole possession of the truth: especially about how to live, what to be & do-& that those who differ from them are not merely mistaken, but wicked or mad: & need restraining or suppressing. It is a terrible and dangerous arrogance to believe that you alone are right: have a magical eye which sees the truth: & that others cannot be right if they disagree. ...the first people totalitarians destroy or silence are men of ideas & free minds." —Isaiah Berlin

"I, too, had to face the savage personal attacks by my former comrades that were designed to warn others to remain within the fold." —David Horowitz, Radical Son

"The right to search for truth implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true." —Albert Einstein"

"Unmeasured vituperation employed on the side of the prevailing opinion really does deter people from professing contrary opinions and from listening to those who profess them." —John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (51-52).

"Just and moderate governments are everywhere quiet, everywhere safe; but oppression raises ferments and makes men struggle to cast off an uneasy and tyrannical yoke." —John Locke

"In the past Americans have always been dissenters. Americans have never submitted for long to injustice." —Robert Hayden, interview in World Order, reprinted in Collected Prose, edited by FG. University of Michigan Press, 1984 (85).

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." —Pascal, Penses #894.

"When a mass movement begins to attract people who are interested in their individual careers, it is a sign that it has passed its vigorous stage; that it is no longer engaged in molding a new world but in possessing and preserving the present. It ceases then to be a movement and becomes an enterprise." —Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

"Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes." —Hamlet


A member of the Baha'i Faith since 1976. See further documentation.

"What among human endeavours can be nobler or more useful
than the protection of human liberty?"
John Milton


"The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions." —Abdul-Baha

"The conscience of man is sacred and to be respected."
—Abdul-Baha

"Refuse to set up once again a sect similar to that of the Shi'ihs."
—Baha'u'llah


Newcomers > Essential Readings in Red


"Mr. Glaysher, in my view, is taking some positive steps to resolve some serious issues in the Baha'i community. Because there are seven million Haifa/Wilmette Baha'is does not make them right or genuine Baha'is. It simply means that they are a large organization. And I emphasize the word "organization." While it is the main source of teaching, it is also an organization that has hurt a lot of people with authoritarian actions, and it has put a damper on honest scholarship unless it agrees with its policies. It is the only religion I know that has a "protection committee" and that spies on alleged dissidents. What are you Baha'is (I assume you are Baha'i) afraid of? What do you need protection from? The Faith widely claims "oneness and unity." There is none. There have been conflicts since the Faith began. This is shameful for a Faith that boasts unity. Fact is, it is a "party line" religion where to be a good Baha'i is to go along and keep your mouth shut. I have loved the Faith, but with its conflicts, I've been tempted to chuck the whole thing. But I've not been able to do that because in spite of them, there is a glitter of truth in it. And believe me, that "truth" is not the organization, but it is in the Faith self. You can't organize or legislate a faith, and, certainly, Haifa/Wilmette does not own it (even though they think they do). The Faith needs a total overhaul. It has forgotten what the real Faith is." --Joel Bjorling, comment #4 (Dec 14, 2014) on The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith, A new view of the baha'i faith.


Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant

An Analysis of Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant


Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell, British Museum document expert, in 1930, judged the supposed 1921 will and testament of Abdul-Baha fraudulent:

“That is to say, the writing does not agree with the hypothesis that it was all written by one person.... A minute comparison of the authenticated writing [of Abdul-Baha] with the writing on every page of the alleged will....has failed to detect in any part of the will the characteristics of the writing of Abdul Baha.”
FROM The Certified Copy of his Report at the Library of Congress:

"Report on the Writing Shown on the Photographs of the Alleged Will of Abdul-Baha." *****

Comments on Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell's Report

Ruth White, EXCERPTS Is The Bahai Organization the Enemy of the Bahai Religion? 1929. Discusses the unauthentic will of Abdul-Baha.  The foremost forensic expert of the British Museum, Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell,  judged it a fraud in 1929. For further details, see Ruth White's Bahai Leads Out of the Labyrinth. New York : Universal Publishing, 1944.
Ruth White Collection Deposited with Library of Congress, 1930

Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, EXCERPTS from Broken Silence: The Story of Today's Struggle for Religious Freedom, 1940 Lawsuit

Julie Chanler, EXCERPTS From Gaslight to Dawn: An Autobiography. The New History Foundation, 1956.


U. S. Federal Courts Rule *Three Times* against Wilmette, Haifan Baha'is:
November 23, 2010 (2)

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rules against Haifan Baha'is of Wilmette, Illinois

Court Opinion as a PDF from this website.
Related Newspaper Articles - Opinion of US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 08-2306

Opinion, Judge Sykes, p 14-15: "Considered in light of these First Amendment limitations on the court’s authority, certain aspects of the 1966  injunction are troubling. The decree declares that “there is only one Baha’i Faith,” that Shoghi Effendi was its last Guardian and none has come since, and the National Spiritual  Assembly was its representative and “highest authority” in the United States and was “entitled to exclusive use of the  marks  and symbols of the Faith,” including the exclusive use of the word “Bahá’í.” Declarations of this sort push the  boundaries of the court’s authority under Kedroff and Presbyterian Church. In church property disputes (trademark suits  obviously qualify), the First Amendment limits the sphere in which civil courts may operate. When a district judge takes  sides in a religious schism, purports to decide matters of spiritual succession, and excludes dissenters from using the  name, symbols, and marks of the faith (as distinct from the name and marks of a church), the First Amendment line appears to have been crossed" (boldface added).

December 7, 2010 (3) - Wilmette-Haifan Baha'i NSA Petitions for Rehearing to 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Denied by the Court on December 29, 2010

May 18, 2009. The Chicago Tribune Baha'i rift: Baha'is upset with Orthodox Baha'i Faith
Comments posted to Chicago Tribune Forum.

Februrary 20, 2009 - 3-minute Mp3 Recording - Oral Argument
7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges hammer NSA's attorney

Judge Diane S. Sykes: "Clearly raises some Constitutional concerns"

April 23, 2008 (1) - Judge Amy St Eve, US District Court of Northern Illinois rules against Haifan Baha'i Lawsuit filed in 2006 against Orthodox Baha'is, other Denominations

March 8, 2007 + Reform Bahai Faith Amici Curiae Letters to Judge Amy St Eve

Blog > Baha'i Faith & 7th Circuit Court of Appeals

9 Bahai Denominations


"The Wilmette NSA remains a threat to the First Amendment unless it gives up its mania for squelching the religious freedoms of those who disagree with it. It is my hope and wish that the Wilmette NSA will finally realize that you cannot enforce unity with a court order. The NSA simply must tolerate the existence of other groups of Bahá'í at least in the United States or it runs the risk of forever ruining the name of the Faith making synonymous the word "Bahá'í" with an "enemy of freedom of speech and religion." --Jeffery Goldberg, Lawyer. Personal Reflections on the Baha'i lawsuits in US Federal Courts 2006-2010. April 29, 2011 

Frederick GlaysherBaha'is in My Backyard - Full Interview of FG,
October 18, 2004, by the Israeli Belfilms. 2.4 hours.

Given the US Federal Court decisions ruling three times against the Haifan Baha'i denomination in 2008 to 2010, I believe it is the right moment to make available this full interview for people researching the Bahai Faith.

Transcript of key passages regarding the "Fraud Shop,"demonstrating the concern of Israelis about who is truly in control of the Baha'i Faith in Israel and where the vast sums of money are coming from for the massive construction projects on Mt Carmel, Haifa, Israel, which is to say, Shiia and/or perhaps Sunni fanatics whose antisemiticism is reflected in the ban on teaching the Baha'i Faith in Israel; Baha'u'llah's universal teachings coopted into a multi-generational form of Islamic dawah or call to become Muslim that Westerners especially fail to perceive and understand; ultimately furthering the goal of subjugation of non-Mulisms, around the world, into dhimmitude--which most emphatically was not Abdul-Baha's open and universal interpretation of Baha'u'llah's teachings for the modern world, highly analogous to the open, universal respect for all religions and viewpoints that has evolved in pluralistic democracies around the world, Abdul-Baha's "spiritual democracy."


Shunning > Essential Reading *****
The Baha'i Technique - Slander & Shunning Essential Reading *****
Steven Scholl - "Why I voluntarily left the religion" - Shunning of Family
Alison Marshall - "How the Baha'i administration behaves"
Individual Conscience": "A Dangerous Delusion from Christianity"9/23/2001 Doug Martin, uhj member


Professor Juan Cole Surveys Bahai Censorship
Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Brief Quotations - Professor Juan Cole     Menu - Selected Messages
Biography of Juan Cole on his blog (search keyword "Baha'i" ), for his criticism of "the secretive and duplicitous leadership," among other things.

"Counselor" Birkland Calls Cole in the Night 1996

"Fundamentalism in the Contemporary U.S. Baha'i Community" RSR 2002
"The Baha'i Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997" JSSR 1998  
"Abdul-Baha's 'Treatise on Leadership'" May, 1998 (separation of church & state)
"Race, Immorality and Money in the American Baha’i Community [LA]" Religion 2000
In "The Evolution of Charismatic Authority in the Baha'i Faith (1863-1921)," in Robert Gleave, ed., Religion and Society in Qajar Iran (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005), pp. 311-345. [Important article not available online.], Cole writes, "This tying of wealth to charisma was to be crucial for the fortunes of the religion" (314). "Baha'ullah was committed to a separation of religion and state, and renounced any theocratic claims on the civil government by himself or his religion, saying, he only desired the hearts of men" (317). Speaking of Abdul-Baha, Cole states, "...His first major work to be published after Baha'u'llah's death, his Treatise on Leadership. There he explained that leadership is of two sorts, worldly and spiritual. Spiritual leaders 'have no relationship to corporeal concerns, affairs of political leadership, worldly matters'. He added, 'These latter souls have nothing to do with affairs of civil leadership, nor do they seek to interfere in them. Thus, in this most great cycle of the maturity and adulthood of the world, this matter has been put into the text of the divine Book as one might put lead into the structure of a building.' He was emphatic that the 'funcition of the religious leaders' is only to attend to spiritual matters, and that whenever such leaders have 'intervened in the world of political leadership it was has resulted in disaster" (323). Later Cole quotes Abdul-Baha teaching, "'In the religion of God, he asserted, 'there is no practice of declaring believers to be morally corrupt (tafsiq) or of declaring them not believers (takfir), nor is debasing or showing contempt for others permitted' (331, cf. 332-333 for more details on "shunning" )." "Baha'u'llah believed that true discourse (bayan) would always win out, and although he counselled against close association with the ungodly, he never developed a system of shunning" (333). "Once established, shunning became a tool for later leaders with implications far beyond the Muhammad Ali schism, and was used to control and manipulate adherents with regard to issues of personal conscience and even sometimes choice of place of residence! A suspicion of non-conformity, a demand for blind obedience [taqlid], and a concern with being constantly 'firm in the covenant' came to characterize important elements of the community over time" (333). "Still, Abdul-Baha continued to respect individual conscience and individual contributions that acknowledged his authority, and in his talks in the US he often spoke with fervent admiration of rights, liberty and parliamentarly democracy" (339). "The dispute over the succesion to Baha'ullah demonstrated the instability of the system of authority he created" (340). It can not be overemphasized that the role of the "Baha'i merchant clans" is insightfully discussed.
See Juan Cole on New Orthodoxy of Baha'i Faith 2005
Dr. Linda Walbridge, Obituary, 2002, by Juan Cole; Selection of her Talisman posts
"Reply of Juan Cole to Peter Khan Talk in New Zealand of June, 2000"
>>>Ratcheting further and further toward being similar to Scientology
1999.
>>>Juan Cole On Baha'i Takfir
Declaring people infidels, apostates, non-believers.
Cole mentions on his blog that he was "forced out of the community in 1996 by fundamentalist elements in the leadership, who try to impose censorship and conformity on vocal intellectuals.... The more fundamentalist side of the religion is usually hidden from outsiders and new believers, and is probably more pronounced in the US than
in the UK anyway."
"A weird Baha'i sub-cult has arisen. It structurally resembles al-Qaida." Juan Cole 2002


What the Haifan Baha'i Faith shares with Scientology, (but from Iranian Shiism):

"THE basic core belief in Scientology that is cult-like and dangerous:
Scientologists believe that Scientology is vital to themselves, mankind and the universe and its success, here on earth, right now, is more important than ANYTHING."

"...Scientology's extreme policys on its importance makes it vilify its critics to the point that it figuratively blinds its members. ANY complaints, no matter how legitimate, are seen as "attacks" in the eyes of its members."

"...Naysayers are officially labeled a "Suppressive Person" or "SP" for short. ["covenant breaker," "apostate," in Baha'i.] They are not to be associated with and members who are connected to them are threatened with the same label unless they agree to disconnect from them. This has destroyed many, many families." [and in Baha'i, where husbands and wives are forced to divorce their spouse or they will be considered a "covenant breaker."] More on Scientology...


Abdul-Baha - Select Quotations

"These are effectual and sufficient proofs that the conscience of man is sacred and to be respected; and that liberty thereof produces widening of ideas, amendment of morals, improvement of conduct, disclosure of the secrets of creation, and manifestation of the hidden verities of the contingent world. Moreover, if interrogation of conscience, which is one of the private possessions of the heart and the soul, take place in this world, what further recompense remains for man in the court of divine justice at the day of general resurrection? Convictions and ideas are within the scope of the comprehension of the King of kings, not of kings; and soul and conscience are between the fingers of control of the Lord of hearts, not of [His] servants. So in the world of existence two persons unanimous in all grades [of thought] and all beliefs cannot be found." —Abdul-Baha, A Traveler's Narrative, 91.


"This is a goodly temple and congregation, for--praise be to God!--this is a house of worship [Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn on 16 June 1912] wherein conscientious opinion has free sway. Every religion and every religious aspiration may be freely voiced and expressed here. Just as in the world of politics there is need for free thought, likewise in the world of religion there should be the right of unrestricted individual belief. Consider what a vast difference exists between modern democracy and the old forms of despotism. Under an autocratic government the opinions of men are not free, and development is stifled, whereas in a democracy, because thought and speech are not restricted, the greatest progress is witnessed. It is likewise true in the world of religion. When freedom of conscience, liberty of thought and right of speech prevail--that is to say, when every man according to his own idealization may give expression to his beliefs--development and growth are inevitable. Therefore, this is a blessed church because its pulpit is open to every religion, the ideals of which may be set forth with openness and freedom." —Abdul-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, 197.


Baha'i Harassment and Persecution of Other Bahais

LA Study Class and origins of conflict (1970)  2/4/2001Karen Bacquet 
LA Study Class Documents and Newsletter 1976-83
Censorship of Salmani's Memoirs by the Baha'i Authorities re Kalimat Press 1982
"A Modest Proposal" 1987 David Langness ****
"The Service of Women" 1988 Several authors
Abbas_Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, 1989.
Denis MacEoin, Crisis in Babi and Baha'i Studies Bulletin, (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 17, No. 1 (1990), pp. 55-61.
Denis MacEoin, A Few Words in Response to Cole's 'Reply to MacEoin.' British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1991), pp. 86-87.
[Bahai] "Psychiatrist cuts deal on sex assault charges" 4/94 re Dr. Danesh
The Majnun Post 2/7/96 (On talisman) John Walbridge
The Pickering Tape 4/96
"Crisis of Faith" 5/15/96 Steven Scholl ****
Letter: Stephen Birkland, Continental Board of Counsellors 7/16/96
"Baha'i Leaders Vexed by On-Line Critics" Winter 1997 K. Paul Johnson
The suppression of Dialogue Magazine 1997 Steven Scholl
"Critics chafe at Baha'i conservatism" IRA RIFKIN 2/27/1997, Religion News Service
Mark Towfiq's NO Vote Campaign on BCCA mailing lists 3/12/97
uhj expulsion of Michael McKenny from the Bahai faith 7/97 Michael McKenny
BCCA Collusion Suppressing talk.religion.bahai Fall 1997
Susan Maneck's NO Vote Campaign on AOL 12/7/98
Ex-Bahai - NSA warns Australian Bahais 11/4/97 Nima Hazini
Baha'i Encyclopedia hijacked by Farzam Arbab 2/17/1999
To LSA of Arlington. Massachusetts March 21, 1999 Jenifer Tidwell
Dismissal of NSA Member Judge James F. Nelson... April 1999 Juan Cole
Full Text of UHJ's Letter of April 7, 1999
"Commentary" on UHJ's "outburst of vehement ignorance" 6//6/99 Juan Cole
My case - a letter to my friends 7/28/99 Terry Culhane
uhj  to Anthony A. Lee, editor of Kalimat Press re Cole's book  Cf Cole below 8/99 
Juan Cole Responds to the uhj's Backbiting Campaign  Cf Kalimat above 8/99 
Brief History of Douglas Martin, member, uhj 1/31/2000 Juan Cole
How "Review" acts as Censorship 3/28/2000 Alison Marshall re Bahai World
"Removed your Name from Membership Rolls" 3/29/2000 Alison Marshall
My experience as a member of the Baha'i Faith 2001 Dennis named deleted
New Mexico LAWSUIT against bahai institutions for FRAUD & LIBEL 3/2/2001 Deborah Buchhorn
New Mexico LAWSUIT - Response to Motion to Dismiss 5/2001 Yorgos D. Marinakis, Attorney
New Mexico LAWSUIT - Attorney's Statement 5/26/2001 Yorgos D. Marinakis, Attorney
New Mexico LAWSUIT - Amicus Curiae 7/13/2001
"Enemies Within:  Conflict and Control in the Baha'i Community"2001 Karen Bacquet Cultic Studies Journal
Denis MacEoin Reviews Making the Crooked Straight H-Bahai, 2001
Review of i baha'i by Margit Warburg. Turin, Italy, 2001. Daniela Pinna
bahai faith & its Influence on the United Nations 5/2002
Hoda Mahmoudi's program on the Iranian TV Network (NITV) Nima Hazini 8/30/2002+
Obituary for Linda Walbridge by Juan Cole 12/10/2002
EVIDENCE grows... Dr. David Kelly & the Baha'i Faith > Bahai in Politics
Talisman9 "Moderator" Steve Marshall - "Baby Torturer" summer 2004
Bahai institutions DRIVING people out - Maneck's "get over it" - i.e., injustice of uhj 9/17/03; 12/2005
False Membership Statistics for US Baha'i community, India, & elsewhere 
BANK FRAUD: Baha'i technique of loan application, false, inflated statistics to qualify for loans 5/2005
BCCA (Bahai Computer and Communication Association) long history of censoring Baha'is on the Internet
The Baha'i Cadre System, EXCERPTS Randy Burns 2005
The Modern Inquisition: Seven Prominent Catholics and their Struggles with the Vatican. 2000. Australian former priest Paul Collins.
Kalimát Press Petition 2006
Professor Dann May, Phyllis E Bernard Please leave us alone. 2006
Why I Left.... 2-16-07
Susan Maneck - The Video: Shiite Ideology of Baha'i Fanaticism 2007
An environment of intellectual repression September 10, 2007
Lessons for Christians in the history of the Bahai faith. Adrian Worsfold. Episcopal Café. 2008
A Response to Moojan Momen's Takfir & Slanderous Vilification FG. Religion 38 No 4 2008.
Challenging apostasy: Responses to Moojan Momen's ‘Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha’i Community’
Original Online FG, et al.
Wikipedia Entry > Baha'i Censorship May 21, 2010


The Tribunal of the Inquisition, Francisco de GoyaFG | universal house of justice

To the UHJ - March 31, 1997
Essential Reading


"Please remove my name and address from your mailing list."
1996
Antinomies 1996 - 2000
Open Petition for Baha'i Reformation  2/ 8/ 2001 
A Bahai in *Perfectly* Good Standing 11/2001
Letter to the Editor - O&E Newspapers MODEL News Release 3/7/2002 circ. 120,000
uhj message to Iranian baha'is Day of the Covenant 11/26/03
Letter to a Baha'i Scholar 2-14-04
The Old Lie
Scapegoat
Straw Man 9/14/06
William Garlington. The Bahai Faith in America. Praeger. 2005. Review.
Sen McGlinn & FG - A 1996 Conversation, Censored....
Sen McGlinn, Church and State. Leiden, 2005. Review.
Letters from the American Desert: Signposts of a Journey, A Vision 2008 
Abdul-Baha's Fraudulent will and testament 2007 *****

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Talk.Religion.Bahai - Finally Passed on 3rd Vote Jan. 1999 - 218: 63

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Disclaimer: Given Abdul-Baha's respect for the individual's conscience and the frequent lack of it in everyday Bahai life, I must emphasize all ideas and opinions belong to their authors and do not necessarily reflect my views. And given the difficulty of authenticating identity on the Internet, I caution the reader that it is possible that people of ill-will of various opinion, whether Sunni or Shia Muslims and others, opposed to the Bahai teachings, however interpreted, might misrepresent themselves. It is left up to the individual here to make such judgements for him or herself.


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