World peace and ex-communication of the first relative of bahaullah !

Baha’s Household

1. Baha’s Family Chart

Mirza Husayn Ali Commonly called Baha or Bahaullah married:

i Asiya surnamed Nawwaba (Highness) who bore him:

1. Abbas

2. Bahiyya or Sultan surnamed the Supreme Leaf (Waraqa-i-Ulya). She died a spinster.


Asiya is stated to have been surnamed the mother of the Universe ( ام الکائنات). This is denied by the followers of Mirza Muhammad Ali and dismissed as devoid of historical foundation.
To his first wife (Asiya) he gave the title Nawwaba, because she was the daughter of Nawwab of Tehran (Al-Kawakib-al-Durriyya by Awara, vol. II., p. 4; Materials, p. 62).

ii BiBi Fatima surnamed the Supreme Cradle (Mahd-i-Ulya), who bore him:

3) Muhammad Ali
4) Samadiyya, married 37
5) Ziyaullah
6) Badiullah

BiBi Fatima and her four children were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.
To his second wife (BiBi Fatima) he gave the title ‘The Supreme Cradle’ [a title reserved for the Queen-Mother in Iran, T.A p. 361] (al-Kawakib, ibid, p.8; Materials, p.63).

iii Gawhar, who bore him:

7) Furughiyya

To his third wife (Gawhar) he gave no title. Furughiyya was excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.

1. Abbas Married Munira, who bore him:

8) Ziyaiyya
9) Tuba
10) Ruha
11) Munawwar.
Hadi Afnan married Ziyaiyya who bore him:
12) Shoghi
13) Ruh-Angiz married 24
14) Mihr-Angiz married 28
15) Husayn
16) Riyadh

12 to 14 were surnamed Rabbani. Mirza Hadi Afnan and their children (13-16) were excommunicated by Shoghi Effendi (12), on whom the title of Effendi was conferred by Sir Abbas Effendi.

Muhsin Afnan married Tuba (9), who bore him:
17) Ruhi married 22
18) Suhayl
19) Thuraiyya married 26

Muhsin Afnan, Tuba and their children were excommunicated by Shoghi.

Jalal Shahid married Ruha (10) who bore him:
20) Munir
21) Hasan
22) Zahra married 17.

Jalal Shahid, Ruha and their children were excommunicated by Shoghi. Ahmad Yazdi married Munawwar (11). No issue.

Note: Ahmad Yazdi and Munawwar were excommunicated by Shoghi.

Sayyid Ali Afnan married Furughiyya who bore him:
23) Husayn
24) Nayyir married 13
25) Hasan married 14
26) Fawzi married 19

Sayyid Ali Afnan, and Furughiyya were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi. Their children were excommunicated by Shoghi and Husayn posthumously.

3. Muhammad Ali married:

i) Masuma, who bore him:

27) Shuaullah
28) Aminullah

ii) Hizariyya who bore him:

29) Musa married 34.

Mirza Muhammad Ali, his wives and children were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.
Majd-al-Din Musa married Samadiyya (4) who bore him:

30) Maryam
31) Zar-Azngiz

Majd-al-Din Musa, Samadiyya and their children were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.

5. Ziyaullah married Thuraiyya Samandar. No issue.

Note: Ziyaullah and his wife were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.

6. Badiullah married Aliya, who bore him:

32) Sazitch
33) Salah
34) Ghamar married
35) Iffat
36) Ismat married Jalal Azal

Note: Badiullah, Aliya and their children were excommunicated by Sir Abbas Effendi.

Baha’s full brother Musa surnamed Kalim (Interlocutor) because he talked with god, Baha. His children:

37) Majd-al Din married 4
38) Jamil
39) Jalal / Jaleh
40) Hizaiyya married 3

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reference : www.bayanic.com

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Baha'i followers pay tribute to Kelly

Baha'i followers pay tribute to Kelly


Elements of the Baha'i faith will feature in the funeral service
The funeral of weapons expert Dr David Kelly is likely to feature elements of the Baha'i faith to which he converted four years ago.
The religion follows the teachings of Baha'u'llah - an Iranian nobleman whose name translates as "the Glory of God" - and seeks to eliminate conflicts between faiths.



Barney Leith, secretary of the UK National Spiritual Assembly of Baha'is, described Dr Kelly as a friend who was a "warm and witty man".

The Baha'i community, which has 6,000 followers across the UK, was greatly saddened by Dr Kelly's death and has been praying for the progress of his soul, Mr Leith said.

He was a very warm person, an honourable man and a witty man

Barney Leith National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the UK
Mr Leith said: "I very much liked him. He was a very warm person, an honourable man and a witty man.

"Conversations with Dr Kelly were always fun and interesting."

Dr Kelly is believed to have adopted the 159-year-old Baha'i faith during his travels in connection with his work.


Soul

While its followers are not pacifists, they take no sides in the political controversies of the day and believe that there will be lasting world peace only when major injustices such as racism, gender inequality and poverty are resolved.


"We see the life after death as continuing the process that begins in this life, that the soul develops qualities and values which it needs in the next life on its journey to come ever closer to God," said Mr Leith.

"What life is about here is about developing those spiritual qualities which then become part of us and which we take over into the next life.

"We don't believe in heaven and hell as places - we believe in life after death. Like an athlete training for a race, if we take care of our spiritual bodies in this life, we have a better start in the next life."

The faith, which has five million followers worldwide, has no clergy or leaders and Baha'i services can be led by any believer, said Mr Leith.

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Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3128109.stm

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Where is Abbas Effendi's certificate of British knighthood??

Where is Abbas Effendi's certificate of British knighthood ?

"Sir" Abbas Effendi being knighted on April 20, 1920, in the presence
of the British High Commissioner for Palestine Sir Herbet Samuel :



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Samuel




and asorted British
mandate, military and local dignitaries:

http://povodebaha.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/AB-cavaleiro-thumb.jpg




As those who know about modern knighthoods by the British crown, every
knighthood is for a specific reason; such reasons always being
explicitly spelled out in the Certificate of Knighthood. Over the past
87 years we have been repeatedly shown the picture of Abbas Effendi's
knighting ceremony in April 1920, but never have we been shown the
actual certificate of Knighthood itself which explicitly spells out
the reasons for the knighting.
Among other things, over the past several years, through various
contacts, I have been deliberating over facsimiles of local archival
material related to the Acre-Haifa areas of the Ottoman period of the
Young Turks, the British Palestinian mandate years of 1917-1948 and
Israeli material for the years 1948-57, all relating to the activities
of the Nuri family in that area. Thankfully, I have been paid for this
job by certain unamed private and well endowed employers/independent
contractors, which has allowed me time to write and publish a book
(work on 8 more) as well as conduct a war against the haifan bahaim
organization. Specifically I have looked at deeds of property (sales,
notaries, taxes etc) and what have you in the Acre-Haifa areas. But
especially I have looked at zeroing in on material specifically
relating to the contention in bahaim histories regarding the nature of
Abbas Effendi's so-called humanitarian activities during the
Palestinian war years of 1915-1917 in order to determine the precise
nature of such activities. Over 50,000+ pages alone of archival
documentation and sources has been looked at specifically for the
years 1910-1917 (i.e. the years of the Young Turk Ottoman period). To
date, whether they be files by public notary or police files, there is
not a single leaf of evidence (whether circumstantial or otherwise)
remotely establishing the bahaim claim that Abbas Effendi was engaging
in humanitarian activities during the Palestinain war years of
1915-1917. Nada!
Add to that the fact that the actual certificate of Abbas Effendi's
Knighthood has not been publicly seen since 1920 nor has it been
published, and the issue of Abbas Effendi's knighthood becomes another
suspicious enigma much like his purported (and largely fictitious)
will and testament. As stated, the reason for this is obvious: all
Certificate of Knighthood spell out the reasons for the knighthood. It
appears that the bahaim establishment is somewhat uneasy to disclose
the true nature of Abbas Effendi's knighthood and so have hidden this
document from public scrutiny. But, that stated, the Knighthood had
absolutely nothing to do in fact with any so-called humanitarian
activities on his part. Had it been, plenty of local archival material
would have corroborated it, and the certificate of knighthood would
have been released for display and public scrutiny long ago.
Another bahaim myth busted!
w


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Reference : http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.bahai/msg/abf1414272e93155


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The Baha’i Faith in America as Panopticon

The Baha’i Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997

Juan R. I. Cole

( Professor of History at the University of Michigan )

Originally published in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 37, No. 2 (June 1998): 234-248. Digitally republished here with additional notations, May, 1999.

Despite the large literature on American religious bodies, some groups remain curiously off-limits to careful investigation. In many instances, these largely unstudied contemporary faiths carefully cultivate public images that hide important facets of their outlook and internal workings. Thus, the collapse of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s Oregon commune surprised many observers. Some of these groups have developed control mechanisms that discourage adherents and often even apostates from writing about these workings. Scientology, for instance, employs techniques of harassment against critics. Others employ shunning which can be an extremely powerful deterrent, endangering a lifetime of friendships and even family relationships. The problem with strict internal controls for missionary religions, however, is that they are most often incompatible in Western societies with significant growth. One solution to this difficulty is to attempt to control what are thought of as key pressure points—vocal intellectuals, media, prominent institutions—and to give greater leeway to ordinary believers. This solution has the further advantage of making charges of repression less plausible to the rank and file, who have not personally experienced such constraints.

Here I wish to examine social control mechanisms in the American Baha’i community. These include mandatory prepublication censorship of everything Baha'is publish about their religion, administrative expulsion, blackballing, shunning and threats of shunning. What are the ideological bases of these control mechanisms? How is power attained and managed in a lay community without a clergy? I wish to stress here that this article is not concerned with the essence or scriptures or theology of the religion, but with the actualities of its day-to-day technologies of control. Many of my remarks cannot be generalized to other national communities, and concern mainly the U.S.

Anyone familiar with the public relations literature produced by the movement will be surprised at the description of control mechanisms given above, since Baha’is are often grouped in the media with Unitarian-Universalists. Why should the Baha’i authorities wish to project an image more liberal than the reality? First, the movement’s scriptures are liberal in their orientation, and as a result even administratively conservative Baha'i leaders support the U.N. and race unity, and pay lip service to the rule of law. But when it comes to the internal governance of the religion, the same leaders wield these control mechanisms to enforce on prominent believers what might be thought of as “party discipline” in the Marxist sense. Second, Baha’i leaders are aware that if the U.S. press understood how their administration actually operates, journalists might be far less favorable to them than is now the case. Third, the Baha'i leadership and intellectual class includes some powerful liberals, and some of the contradictions between self-presentation and policy derive from conflicts among the leadership. Fourth, since the 1960s this non-Christian Iranian religion has not attracted many white evangelicals or working-class Catholics, whereas more pluralist college-educated persons have been much more open to it. Thus, an open insistence on a fundamentalist orthodoxy and a clear condemnation of human rights principles might deprive the religion of an important recruiting ground. Although antiliberals have captured the key posts, they shape the community’s ideology subtly, by controlling media and silencing liberals who begin to become prominent. Because of these techniques of dissimulation, power can remain in the hands of conservatives, while liberals can continue to be recruited at the local level, and often remain unaware of how marginalized they really are.

In the past, the paucity of anything but official literature formed a difficulty in studying the approximately 60,000 adult American Baha’is, but the emergence of Baha’i electronic mail forums in the 1990s has led to the airing of Baha’i individual opinions in public. I will outline some key control mechanisms employed in the U.S., based on published literature, following email debates, and participant observation. The author has been studying the Baha’i religion for a quarter of a century, and spent much of that time as an adherent. This movement originated as a messianic offshoot of Twelver Shi`ite Islam in nineteenth-century Iran. By the time it came to the United States, in the 1890s, it was already an established religion in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East (Smith 1987). It is now among the more widely-spread religious bodies in the world, and since the mid-1980s has officially claimed about five million adherents (Smith and Momen 1989)--a number that has remained stagnant since then and which was probably somewhat exaggerated even at the time. Let us begin with a brief historical overview.

For complete text click here

Reference :

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/bahai/1999/jssr/bhjssr.htm

Financial Scandal Rocks Italian Baha’i Community

Recently the small Italian Baha’i community was shocked to learn that one of its most prominent, long-serving and active members, the former General Secretary of the NSA: Franco Ceccherini, had been ousted from the NSA and formally charged for embezzlement and fraud in the amount of 360,000 Euros.

Ceccherini allegedly stole the money over the lengthy period of time that he served at the highest levels of the Baha’i community in Italy. It appears that he embezzled funds from 1992 until 2006 by fraudulently producing invoices, letters and documents and then pocketing the funds he received for them. Throughout the more than 14 years that Ceccherini served in the institutions, he alternated between high level positions: sometimes he served as the General Secretary of the NSA of Italy, while other times he served as the Head of the Office of the Secretariat - which included several other individuals employed by the NSA. And at times Ceccherini served as both General Secretary and as Head of the Office of the Secretariat.

Through the uninterrupted access granted to him by these positions, Ceccherini was able to allegedly perpetrate this scheme for almost 15 years. It is still a mystery how the Treasurer could not detect such a large and prolonged fraud. Nor is it known what, if any, control measures were circumvented by italian NSA euros3.pngCeccherini. As it stands now, neither the Treasurer, any of the other NSA members nor any employees of the NSA have been charged.

The scheme began to unravelled when the Italian equivalent of the IRS contacted the NSA of Italy and filed a charge of tax evasion against it. Through the ensuing audit and investigations it came to light that all these years Ceccherini had been pocketing the funds that should have been going to the INPS and the INAIL (state pension and worker’s compensation/insurance plans).

My suspicion is that since most continental European Baha’i communities (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc.) do not have the privilege of incorporation enjoyed elsewhere, the actual banking was in the name of an individual. And my guess is that individual was Ceccherini; because of his tenure within the Baha’i community or simply because he was trusted. After all, when you are unincorporated, you must trust an individual to administer the finances in their name. There is no other option. If my suspicions are correct it explains why the Treasurer or other person were not caught up in the fraud and how one person alone could perpetrate it.

Consequences of this tragedy are many. For one, the NSA of Italy has been thrown into total chaos. It has had to deal with an extensive internal investigation and financial audit. Theis is a serious financial blow to the community as funds which should have been paid to the government for more than a decade now need to be paid in lump sum. Thankfully the government has agreed that the NSA as an institution was not perpetrating the fraud and agreed to dismiss 90,000 Euros in interest and fines they had levied. Which means that the NSA has to pay back 275,000 Euros. The House of Justice has loaned the Italian NSA 200,000 Euros to buffer the blow to their annual budget. This loan will have to be repaid to the House in installments over time but the NSA will still have to make a lump sum payment of 75,000 Euros. A significant chunk of change for a community the size of Italy.

Other consequences are more intangible. The spouse of Ceccherini, also a prominent Baha’i was removed from her position as an Auxiliary Board Member (Propagation). The news has left the Italian community shell-shocked since Ceccherini was seen as a pillar of the community. nsa franco ceccherini.pngOn top of this, several projects such as the office of public information have had to be closed or curtailled sharply due to lack of funds.

No matter how extensively one creates control measures, nor how draconian in nature, they can be circumvented by another person. Ultimately, nothing short of personal transformation can prevent such criminal acts. As Baha’u'llah says in the Hidden Words:

“Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold and with gold We test Our servants.”

But this does not mean that there aren’t lessons to be learned from such a sad state of affairs. Nor that common sense should not be used. What we have in the institutions of the Baha’i Faith basically relies on the good character of those within it. If they falter, then there are no measures to protect the community. This has to change.

We have no transparency, no control measures, no accountability and no term limits. Combine these and you have a potentially explosive situation. Add the spark of human shortcoming and you have a bomb that can devastate whole communities and lay waste to decades of painstaking growth and development.

TRANSPARENCY
The Baha’i community has gradients of financial transparency. At the local level, things are quite clear with regular reports by the local treasurer and detailed reports of budgets and expenses. At the national level, things get decidedly more murky. Less detail is divulged: only income and expenses are shared (not assets and liabilities) , while the delegates to the national convention are the only ones who get to see and look at the full accounts - but they can’t share them with their communities and they have a very tight schedule with limited time to look over them. At the international level, the picture gets pitch dark with absolutely no information divulged except for the estimates of large scale projects (recent examples are for the Arc and the Chile temple). Beyond that, trying to pry financial information at this level is like trying to shuck an oyster with jello.

Financial reporting is most detailed and most transparent at the local level, where ironically the least amount of money is involved. The Italian incident involving 360,000 Euros may seem like a lot of money but it is a rounding error in international budgets. This culture of opacity and secrecy is fertile ground for the nastier attributes of human nature and must be blotted out from the Baha’i community.

CONTROL MEASURES
If due to an inability to incorporate, the affairs of a whole community have to be placed in the hands of a person, a simple control measure is to open a shared or joint account. This way two people must be aware of and make authorization for any transactions. Second, I for one am still not convinced how the Italian national treasurer can not be atleast found to be culpable of gross negligence in this case. Pleading ignorance is no defense for them. If anything they should be fully investigated and asked to resign, if for nothing more than their incompetence in recognizing and preventing such a long lived scheme. Similarly simple and easy control measures are left unimplemented in Baha’i instititutions. Blame incompetence, ignorance or a childish innocence. Whatever the reason, it is plain stupid to not have them.

ACCOUNTABILITY
My fellow Baha’is usually bristle at that word since we believe that the institutions are not to be held accountable to their community. But this only extends to decisions. I’m speaking of management. An NSA should be held accountable to its community for mis-management, as this case clearly illustrates. If you are incompetent, you have to answer to the community. Period. The principle of non-accountability is not a free pass for negligence and idiocy.

TERM LIMITS
This is a much broader concept than I can do justice to here but put plainly it means that individuals have a limit to the number of years they serve in Baha’i institutions. In almost all Baha’i communities, large and small, we find that a small group of individuals dominate the elected and appointed institutions year in and year out. This has sadly become the norm. The consequence is that these individuals start to create little fiefdoms and get quite comfortable. Even getting a sense of entitlement. Can anyone doubt that Franco Ciccherini could have perpetrated such a massive (both in length and in quantity) fraud had we had term limits which limited his access to the highest levels of administration? There are many, many other benefits to term limits beyond the prevention of fraud and crime within the administration. I will explore this topic in more detail at a later time and hope to do justice to it.

It is my hope that the Baha’i community in Italy will learn from this tragedy, rebuild, move on and continue to grow. And that Baha’is elsewhere will use this opportunity to avoid similar painful learning experiences by beginning to consult on how to increase transparency and accountability with the institutions; how to implement common sense control measures and how term limits can benefit the community.

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reference : http://bahairants.com/financial-scandal-rocks-italian-bahai-community-209.html

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Bahais in India - Espionage and Embezzlement

Recent developments in India regarding the Bahai Faith may come as an eye-opener for many. For long, I have maintained that the Bahai Faith is nothing but a front for Zionist activities, directed against Muslims. Ordinary Bahais and the populace at large may not be aware of the happenings behind the Faith. For them the apparent external good behaviour of Bahais is probably a sufficient cause to believe that Bahais are good in general and the Bahai Faith is progressive in nature. Hence this article will be unpalatable for many. However facts are unbiased and unprejudiced. They speak the truth and spare no person. Is the Bahai Faith really about peace and brotherhood? Or is it about embezzlement, illegal money movement and most importantly, espionage? Let us find out.

In July 2006, Hindustan Times, a leading national daily in India reported that a few trustees of the Bahai Faith were involved in espionage by none other than their own colleagues. Taking cognizance of the complaint, a case has been filed against the trustees with the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi Police.
As per the documents of the case, N K Buddhiraja, general manager finance with the National Spiritual Assembly of India forged documents with the purpose of entering defence establishments. He also managed to secure documents which were passed on to Israel and Iran in exchange of foreign currency. In addition, up to 80 false passports were also made, some in the name of Iranian nationals.
One of the trustees, Payam Shoghi, named as an accused in the case was caught by the New Delhi police while trying to flee the country.
Since the story broke out there have been two follow ups - one in The Hindu (another leading Indian daily) and the other on the Internet. The links to all the three stories are provided here for the reference of my readers.
One of the stories mentions that Zena Sorabjee, the wife of the former attorney general of India, Soli Sorabjee, is one of the trustees of the Bahai organization. Needless to say, the Bahais in India seem to be well connected. This explains that despite the court proceedings, there seems to be a complete ban on the coverage of the story in all media.
Not too long ago, the Bahais were all over the media all over the world harping that their colleagues were being persecuted in Iran. Why are the Bahais keeping quiet now? There seems to be no update on this story even on the Bahai web site despite India being an important country for their propagation (remember, India is one of seven countries where the Bahais have a prayer house.)
As mentioned earlier, while this story may be unpalatable to many, for a student of the Bahai Faith for a long time, it did not come as a surprise to me.
The Bahai Faith actually espouses espionage and fraud. Pay attention to how the Bab and his followers practiced deception and dissimulation. Even Bahai missionaries followed this practice (they prayed namaz along with Muslims to deceive them) and more recently, Abdul Baha encouraged his followers to hide their true beliefs. The trustees of the National Spiritual Assembly of India have simply followed the tenets of the Bahai Faith which encourages deception and employs devious methods to achieve its aim.
Nevertheless, Bahais will do what they need to do. It is really up to ordinary Muslims like us and the general populace to recognize this deception and raise our voices against it. I sincerely hope that the Government of India and other independent agencies take note of this case and ensure that the trustees of the Bahai Faith are brought to book. This will ensure justice for the citizens of the country and also bring to front the true nature of the Bahai Faith for all to see.
Authored by Mohammed Reza Isfahani, October 2006

reference : http://www.bahaiawareness.com/bahai10.html