Subject: Re: SRB Censored: 3-31-97 Open Letter
to UHJ talk.religion.bahai
From: FG <FG@hotmail.com>
Date: 1997/04/04
Message-ID: <860151456.2991@dejanews.com>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian,news.groups,alt.religion.bahai
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Subject: Re: SRB Censored: 3-31-97 Open Letter to UHJ
talk.religion.bahai From: hallaj@online.com (Hallaj) Date:
1997/04/03
Message-Id: <33451e13.28773281@news.online.no> Newsgroups:
soc.culture.iranian,alt.religion.islam [More Headers]
On 2 Apr 1997 13:35:11 GMT, FG@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>
>From: "Rick Boatright" <boatright@cjnetworks.com>
>
>To: FG@hotmail.com
>
>Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 11:43:54 -0600
>
>Subject: Re: Open Letter: UHJ (Universal House of Justice): talk.religion
>
>CC: srb-mods@bcca.org
>
Dear sir,
I see you have posted this note to soc.culture.iranian and
alt.religion.islam. Do you think the moderators of SRB would refuse to
publish this post there?
THEY HAVE REFUSED TO POST THIS MESSAGE ON SOC.RELIGION.BAHAI
IN DEFIANCE OF THEIR CENSORSHIP, I HAVE THEREFORE POSTED THIS MESSAGE
ON NEWS.GROUPS AND A FEW OTHER PLACES.
Anyway, I am sorry that one cannot discuss freely there. Once they
censored my post too !
THANK YOU FOR SAYING SO, HALLAJ.... YOU ARE NOW AT LEAST ABOUT THE
FIFTEENTH TO TWENTIETH PERSON WHO HAS STATED THEY HAVE BEEN
CENSORED
BY SOC.RELIGION.BAHAI IN THE PAST, SO THE "MODERATORS" CONTINUE TO
DENY IT....
Regards
Hallaj
>
>
>Dear Frederick,
>
>
>
>I have forwarded your letter to the secretariat at the world center,
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>and to Dr. Hoda Mahmoud since your note replies in part to his email.
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>
>
>I explicitly deny that the moderators of soc.religion.bahai have
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>participated in any program to block the formation of
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>talk.religion.bahai. While we have never acted as advocates of the
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>proposal, the moderators have publicly expressed their dismay at the
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>number of votes from individuals who clearly are not usenet users. I
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>will also point out that the moderators where the first to point out
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>the irregularities of Mark Towfiq's note, and other posts about TRB.
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>
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>At no time have the moderators participated in "back channel
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>communications" to block the formation of TRB.
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>
>
>As I said, I have forwarded your note to the House, and I an
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>returning it to you unposted on SRB. The moderators are of the
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>opinion that the proper forum for the discussion of moderation
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>practices in a usenet newsgroup is in news.groups. The moderators
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>participate there, and will continue the discussion as long as you
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>need.
>
>
>
>As an individual, I am brought to ask you another question. How is
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>the request for a meeting and discussion from Dr Mahmoudi
>
>"threatening and coercive"? It looked a LOT like a request
for a
>
>discssion to me. Further, I am forced to ask how your publishing his
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>private emails to you without his permission is an appropriate
>
>action?
>
>
>
>Rick Boatright
>
>co-moderator
>
>soc.religion.bahai
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>>
March 31, 1997
>
>>
>
>> The Universal House of Justice of the Bahais of the World
>
>> Haifa, Israel
>
>>
>
>> Dear Members of the Universal House of Justice:
>
>>
>
>> After careful reflection and prayer for the past few days, I've
>
>> decided that open public discussion and knowledge are more
>
>> important than my own status as a Bahai.
>
>>
>
>> I have been a Bahai for more than twenty years, since 1976. I
>
>> became a Bahai by reading almost every single Bahai book
>
>> published at the time. Given my background as a Catholic and
>
>> poet, I was deeply moved by the beauty and profundity of the
>
>> Bahai Writings. As a young person, I spent two months travel
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>> teaching throughout Michigan with several other youthful,
>
>> innocent Bahais. Like many, I have sacrificed financially to
>
>> contribute to the Bahai Faith. I pioneered for a year and a
>
>> half in Japan, for two years on an American Indian reservation,
>
>> and have travel taught in China. The spiritual profundity of
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>> the Bahai vision, as reflected in the work of the
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>> African-American poet Robert Hayden, inspired me to study at
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>> the University of Michigan under him and to spend considerable
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>> time and labor editing his collected poems and prose for
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>> Liveright and the University of Michigan Press. I have
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>> published two essays in the Bahai magazine World Order and
>
>> spent more time than I can remember at Bahai summer camps,
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>> workshops, and deepenings. Throughout all my varied Bahai
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>> experience, I have loved the Figures and Teachings of the Faith
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>> even as the conviction has grown that all information and
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>> discussion in the Bahai Faith is subtly manipulated, controlled,
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>> and distorted for the "good of the Faith." There seems to be
a
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>> pervasive, rigid control of all thought, ideas, and information
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>> that calls into question the motives of the individuals in
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>> power in the Bahai Administration.
>
>>
>
>> As a published writer and former college and university
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>> instructor of rhetoric and literature for over ten years, I
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>> believe the whole process of "review" has become a complete
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>> farce and disgrace to the Bahai Faith and is suggestive of the
>
>> worst censorship under the most repressive regimes, religious
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>> or secular, of historical experience. If one truly wishes to
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>> understand why many Bahais, both highly educated and others,
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>> leave the Bahai Faith or become "inactive" and withdraw into
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>> silence and uninvolvement with the religion, one need only to
>
>> look objectively at what seems to be the oppressive and
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>> coercive methods of people in the Bahai Administration itself
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>> to find the answer.
>
>>
>
>> My experiencing of these same methods of censorship and
>
>> distortion on soc.religion.bahai proved to be the last
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>> intolerable straw. My attempt to form an unmoderated newsgroup
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>> on the Internet that no one could manipulate and censor has a
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>> long experience of Bahai tyranny in the background. The
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>> resorting to deceit and back-channel communication by the
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>> moderators of soc.religion.bahai and others naively believing
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>> they're working for the benefit of the Bahai Faith by
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>> campaigning for 691 unethical NO votes on talk.religion.bahai
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>> further proves the pervasive acceptance of disreputable tactics
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>> by Bahais in their attempt to maintain a stranglehold over all
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>> thought and discussion.
>
>>
>
>> Recently, more than ever, I've often recalled the words to me
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>> in private several times of Robert Hayden, the only Bahai to
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>> be appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress:
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>> "Why I continue to have anything to do with the Bahai Faith, I
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>> do not know, I do not know." I myself no longer know.
>
>>
>
>> I suppose I hope that the oppressive, coercive methods that
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>> have come to be accepted and justified in the Bahai
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>> Administration, demonstrated for instance in the crushing of
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>> the magazine Dialogue, the incidents surrounding the Bahai
>
>> Encyclopedia, the listserv Talisman I, and the continuingly
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>> crude, unreadable propoganda vehicle of the American Bahai,
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>> might yet be put aside in favor of the beautiful vision of
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>> Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha for freedom of religious conscience
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>> and belief and a humane, tolerant universalism. I fear that all
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>> too often the religious totalitarianism of Baha'u'llah's
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>> fanatical homeland has seeped into every nook and cranny of
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>> His religion, smothering out the free light of the human soul
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>> and hamstringing His Administration.
>
>>
>
>> It was with the bitterest of feelings that I observed some
>
>> time ago the Bahai exhibition, a deceitful propaganda event
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>> really, on freedom of religious conscience and belief sponsored
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>> by the National Spiritual Assembly in the rotunda of the
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>> Capitol in Washington, D.C., so far in reality from the truth
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>> was it, so misled, trusting, and uninformed were the
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>> Congressmen of my country....
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>>
>
>> If censorship is allowed in the Bahai Faith, I would like to
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>> know what passages of the Bahai Writings support it and what
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>> are the "rules," if you will, of Bahai censorship. It
seems to
>
>> me that censorship pervades the Bahai Faith so thoroughly that
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>> some Bahais regularly use it as a method of intimidation and
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>> silencing of anyone with an unconventional opinion by accusing
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>> the individual of being a covenant breaker. This tactic was
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>> used against me by at least three Bahais during the discussion
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>> period for talk.religion.bahai and tacitly condoned by the
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>> moderators and others.
>
>>
>
>> I include, at the end, a threatening, coercive email message I
>
>> received on March 27, 1997, from Mr. Hoda Mahmoudi,
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>> Auxiliary Board Member for Michigan, at a crucial juncture of
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>> the discussion and voting for talk.religion.bahai and would like
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>> an explanation of his motives.
>
>>
>
>> I, and perhaps the rest of the world, would greatly appreciate
>
>> evidence that there are not now nine ayatollahs residing in
>
>> Israel on Mt Carmel.
>
>>
>
>> Respectfully,
>
>>
>
>> FG
>
>>
>>
>
>> --------
>
>> >Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 15:45:46 -0500
>
>> >To: FG@hotmail.com
>
>> >From: Hoda Mahmoudi <hmahmoudi@olivetnet.edu>
>
>>
>
>> >Dear Mr. Glaysher:
>
>> >
>
>> >I have been reading your e-mail postings recently. I would
like to speak
>
>> >with you by phone about some of your throughts and opinions
regarding
>
>> >matters relevant to the Baha'i Faith. As an Auxiliary Board members
for
>
>> >Michigan, I am always interested in issues which relate to
individual
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>> >spiritual responsibility and the Baha'i Faith's principle of
unity. My
>
>> >phone number is 616/789-0590.
>
>> >
>
>> >Hope to hear from you soon.
>
>> >
>
>> >Hoda
>
>> >
>
>> >
>
FG
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