Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community by Karen Bacquet

Karen Bacquet’s article, "Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community," outlines several criticisms focusing on the gap between the religion's progressive public image and its internal administrative practices.

Here are some key points:

• Authoritarian Governing Structure: The Baha'i Faith is governed by an elected body, the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), which is believed to be divinely guided and infallible, making its decisions unchallengeable by adherents.
• Lack of Institutional Accountability: Although the governing bodies are elected, they are not held accountable to the electorate but are considered accountable only to God.
• System of Censorship: Adherents are subject to "prepublication review," a policy where any Baha’i writing about the Faith for public consumption must have their work approved by the administration.
• Fear of Internal Enemies: There is a pervasive fear of internal dissent that might disrupt unity; those who challenge the administration are often labeled "covenant-breakers" and described as "spiritually sick".
• Practice of Shunning: Individuals designated as covenant-breakers are subject to mandatory shunning by the rest of the Baha'i community.
• Suppression of Dissent: The administration uses intimidation and investigations by appointed officials (Auxiliary Board Members) to monitor and silence members who express unorthodox views.
• Theocratic Ambitions: The Baha'i administrative order is viewed not just as a church structure, but as an evolving world theocracy that considers Western democratic systems inferior and eventually doomed.
• Inequality in Governance: Despite teachings on gender equality, women are excluded from serving on the supreme governing body, the Universal House of Justice.
• Internet Crackdowns: The leadership has threatened and sanctioned intellectuals for expressing liberal opinions on private email forums and the Internet.
• Summary Expulsions: In recent years, the administration has dropped critics from membership rolls without prior warning or due process for expressing dissenting views publicly.
• Hostility toward Modern Scholarship: The administration often condemns academic methods as "materialistic" and interferes with scholarly projects sometimes by deleting passages from primary sources.
• Pressure for Conformity: Adherents are placed in a psychological bind where they are attracted by liberal ideals but pressured into absolute obedience to an administrative system that does not tolerate public disagreement.

(Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha’i Community by Karen Bacquet. Published in Cultic Studies Journal - Psychological Manipulation and Society, Volume 18, 2001)

https://library.internationalculticstudies.org/24n77ga/2

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community assembly hall, schools, a university, a library, scientific research laboratories, hospitals and auxiliary medical units, homes for the aged, the orphaned and the handicapped.

Each town or village would have a community centre at the heart of which would stand the place of worship, a domed, nine-sided building, surrounded by trees, fountains and gardens. This house of worship is known as the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar or Dawning Place of God’s Praise. Other public buildings in the town or village would be the seat of the Local House of Justice, the community assembly hall, schools, a university, a library, scientific research laboratories, hospitals and auxiliary medical units, homes for the aged, the orphaned and the handicapped.

“The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar has important accessories which are accounted of the basic foundations. These are : school for orphan children, hospital and dispensary for the poor, home for the incapable, college for the higher scientific education, and hospice. In every city a great Mashriqu'l-Adhkar must be founded after this order. ... When these institutions, college, hospital, hospice and establishment for the incurables, university for the study of higher sciences, giving post-graduate courses, and other philanthropic building are built, the doors will be opened to all the nations and religions. There will be absolutely no line of demarcation drawn. Its charities will be dispensed irrespective of colour or race. Its gates will be flung wide open to mankind; prejudice towards none, love for all. The central building will be devoted to the purpose of prayer and worship. Thus...religion will become harmonized with science, and science will — be the handmaid of religion, both showering their material and spiritual gifts on all humanity.”

— ‘Abdu 'l-Baha.'

(The Earth Is But One Country - New Revised Edition By John Huddleston)

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This institution is under the protecting power of Bahá’u’lláh Himself.

He [Bahá’u’lláh] has ordained and established the House of Justice, which is endowed with a political as well as a religious function, the consummate union and blending of church and state. This institution is under the protecting power of Bahá’u’lláh Himself.

(“The Promulgation of Universal Peace”, 1982 ed., p. 455)

https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/compilations/universal-house-of-justice-compilation/5#692131058

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Mirza Yahya was the Bab's appointed trustee

No comment was made by Mirza Yahya Azal until later in Edime, where Baha’u’llah, in an epistle entitled Suriy-i-Amr, officially requested a statement from him as the Bab's appointed trustee. This document, written in Arabic in Baha’u’llah’s own hand, sets out clearly Baha’u’llah's claim to be the Man yuzhiruhu’llah foretold by the Bab and entrusted with a new revelation. This claim implied that a new dispensation had been initiated, that a new religion had come into being, and that the period of Mirza Yahya Azal’s trusteeship was over.

(Making the Crooked Straight: A Contribution to Bahá'í Apologetics, by Udo Schaefer, p. 612)

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after hearing the news of Badasht, Mulla Husayn vowed that if he had been present he would have punished the transgressors with sword.

...a march to Mazandaran was undertaken under the joint leadership of Qurrat al-'Ayn and Quddus, in order to establish a Babi foothold in his home town, Barfurush. This venture however, ended in total disaster when the Babis were raided by a band of villagers in the nearby Niyala. The local mulla who led the aggressive crowd was apparently outraged by the sight of the unveiled Qurrat al-'Ayn sitting inside a huda next to Quddus and chanting poems out loud, together with her companions. The assailants must have seen the Babi party as no more than a group of libertine infidels worthy of death. Even for the Babis, who witnessed with amazement, perhaps horror, the unrestrained conversation between a daring woman and her male traveling companion, perhaps even her unspoken affection for him, it was hard not to perceive the prevailing climate of emancipation as “abuse of liberty” and excesses from “bonds of moderation.” Reportedly, after hearing the news of Badasht, Mulla Husayn vowed that if he had been present he would have punished the transgressors with sword.

(Resurrection and Renewal - The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 844-850 by Abbas Amanat, p. 328)

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Mulla Husayn failed in Qum because there were no Shaykhi elements there

In Isfahan, during the first stage of his mission, Mulla Husayn succeeded in converting a number of favorable Shaykhi elements. As in Shiraz, his public preachings drew attention from prominent 'ulama and in due course led to their mild condemnation. En route to Tehran, Mulla Husayn stopped in Kashan, where he attracted a number of Shaykhi sympathizers and called upon a celebrated mujtahid. He then proceeded to Qum, where according to Nabil Zarandi “he found the people utterly unprepared to heed his call,” perhaps due to the absence of any Shaykhi connection there.

(Resurrection and Renewal - The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 844-850 by Abbas Amanat, p. 261)

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I give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the power of speech to the mute

I am serving God. I am the servant of God. I give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the power of speech to the mute and knowledge to the ignorant. I raise the dead, I deliver those who are in darkness and guide them into the realm of light. I make the poor rich and the weak powerful. I satisfy the hungry ones with the bread of life and allay the thirsty ones with the pure water of immortality. This is my work.

(Abdul-Baha: Diary of Mirza Sohrab, June 30, 1914)

https://bahai.works/Star_of_the_West/Volume_8/Issue_15/Text

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Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion

Schools must first train the children in the principles of religion, so that the Promise and the Threat recorded in the Books of God may prevent them from the things forbidden and adorn them with the mantle of the commandments...

(Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, Kalimát-i-Firdawsíyyih)

https://www.bahai.org/beliefs/universal-peace/articles-resources/universal-education-quotes

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industrial approach to religious expansion

The letter outlines a highly systematized, almost industrial approach to religious expansion, prioritizing numerical outcomes and institutional scaling over individual spiritual journeys. It utilizes language that treats potential converts as a quantifiable resource to be harvested through "systematic growth" and "intensive programs of growth". The primary objective is "advancing the process of entry by troops," a phrase suggesting a military-like maneuver to secure a "constant influx of new adherents". The document explicitly calls for an "acceleration of this vital process" and the creation of a "critical mass" of believers to "spearhead" efforts to "deliver the Message," emphasizing "large-scale expansion" and "vigorous personal teaching" as essential tactics.

The strategies detailed rely on "mobilizing" believers into "teaching teams" to "target receptive populations" and execute "teaching projects" designed to "enroll a large number" of people in short timeframes. The letter advocates for a "major shift from the gradualist approach," urging believers to "seize such opportunities" and engage in "direct teaching methods" to "lead them to embrace the Cause". By focusing on "targets"—such as taking "50 or so believers through the sequence" to trigger growth—and calculating the "pyramid of human resources," the document reveals a focus on "increasing numbers" and "large-scale expansion" that could be seen as prioritizing institutional growth and conversion quotas over the authenticity of an individual's personal belief.

(Summary of "Intensive Growth: 2004 letter to all Continental Counsellors", International Teaching Centre, 2004-11-28)

https://bahai-library.com/itc_28_november_2004

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a Baha'i who carries on teaching activities without the consultation and collaboration of the Assembly is not within the pale of the divine Administration.

[Abdu'l Baha] created... the Divine Administration, of which, through the blessed Guardian, the Beloved, is the heart and center and every individual Bahá’i is a living unit.

(Report of National Teaching Committee published in Bahá’í News, Issue 34)

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_News/Issue_34/Text

Then go before the Assembly, explain everything and humbly ask them to forgive you. This is true Baha’i love, and will prevent this whole matter getting much worse. As ... said last night, "We know, ...that according to the law of Baha'u'llah a Baha'i who carries on teaching activities in a city without the consultation and collaboration of the Assembly is not within the pale of the divine Administration." 

(The Maxwells of Montreal, Volume 2)

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between 1940 and 1952 alone, the Guardian gave the Municipality of Haifa over ten thousand dollars

In the years when the people of Palestine and, later, of Israel were undergoing great hardships, between 1940 and 1952 alone, the Guardian gave the Municipality of Haifa over ten thousand dollars for the poor of all denominations. In addition to such help given through government and municipal agencies, he also responded to the appeals of many charities, gave individually to those he deemed worthy, and even sometimes contributed money for some special purpose connected with the mosque in Haifa. Many times he gave contributions spontaneously, such as the £100 he donated to the Government Lunatic Asylum in Akka—the former Turkish barracks—when the room occupied by Bahá’u’lláh was turned over to the custody of the Bahá’ís, and the sum he presented towards the construction of the Institute of Physics which the Weizmann National Memorial was undertaking.

(The Priceless Pearl, Rúhíyyih Rabbani)

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Abdul Baha used to call a Muslim to chant to Shoghi Effendi the sublime verses of the Quran

The childhood nurse of Shoghi Effendi used to recount that when he was still a baby the Master was wont to call one of the Muslims who chanted in the mosque to come at least once a week and chant to the child, in his melodious voice, the sublime verses of the Qur’án.

(The Priceless Pearl, Rúhíyyih Rabbani)

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Initial history of the Baha'is in Haifa

Some years before the outbreak of the First World War, the Bahais had settled in Haifa. Persecuted in Persia; they had fled to Baghdad, from where they were exiled by the Turkish government to Adrianopolis and, finally, to Acre, where Baha Allah (‘the glory of God’) arrived in 1868. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the bones of his predecessor, Mirza Ali Muhammad, were brought to Acre and finally interred on Mount Carmel in 1909, at a spot chosen by Baha Allah. Today, the Golden Dome Shrine rises over it. Baha Allah had been a Shi’ite Muslim, but by the changes he introduced in the faith, he separated himself from Islam. By the time he died in Acre in 1892, he had acquired a number of disciples. In the course of his many trips, his son Abbas Effendi (Abd al-Baha) disseminated Baha Allah’s teachings throughout the world, acquiring hundreds of thousands of new adherents to the Bahai belief, especially in the United States. In 1908 Abbas Effendi came to live in Haifa, where his well-preserved house still exists (on Persian Street). Abbas Effendi rapidly became an admired and respected figure in Haifa. He attracted Bahais eager to listen to his preaching, and many of them decided to settle in Haifa in consequence. On the strength of contributions from all over the world, the Bahais bought up large tracts of land on the slopes of Mount Carmel, where they later built their shrine, surrounded by extensive gardens. In this way, at the end of Ottoman rule, Haifa became the centre of a new community, at the head of which stood Abbas Effendi, a personage of a stature the like of which Haifa had perhaps never known before.

(Ottoman Haifa A History of Four Centuries under Turkish Rule By Alex Carmel)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10977949-ottoman-haifa

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In the beginning the Baha'i faith permitted converts to maintain participation in their birth religion and thus not fully break with their communities.

...as pressures to convert to Islam diminished, and some economic success was achieved, the Zoroastrian community faced more challenges. One was the rise of Bahaism. Bahaism, founded in mid‑nineteenth‑century Iran, promoted equality, repudiated the concept of non‑Muslims as polluting, and permitted converts to maintain participation in their birth religion and thus not fully break with their communities. There were intra‑marrying Zoroastrian Baha’is, Jewish Baha’is, and Muslim Baha’is (Kestenberg Amighi 2022: 142). However, conversions to the Baha’i religion reduced the small Zoroastrian population by some 4,000 people (Maneck 1991: 1) and caused fierce rifts between Zoroastrian traditionalists who saw the Baha’is as a threat, and reform‑minded Zoroastrians and Parsis who believed that the Baha’is were laying a foundation for the liberalisation of Iran. The conflict grew so intense that, in 1915, a pro‑Baha’i Zoroastrian in Yazd, educator Master Khodabakhsh, was murdered (Kestenberg Amighi 1990: 166), and like‑minded Ostad (‘teacher’) Keyomarz was warned to flee Iran (Fischer 1973: 108 fn1). According to one theory, it was the conservative Zoroastrian organisation, Yazd Right Followers, which was responsible for the murder and threats (Dadbakhsh and Moftakhri 2018: 4–5).

(ZOROASTRIAN POLITICS IN THE ERA OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION IN IRAN
(1905–1911) by Janet Kestenberg Amighi)

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When Baha'u'llah read Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi he went into a state of acute depression for some time

Bahaullah had intimations of his prophetic calling while still a youth. He recounts an experience in his early years that changed his life, when he had read Mulla Muhammad Baqir Majlisi's (d. 1111A.H./ 1699C.E.) traditional account of the treachery of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, whose betrayal had placed the earliest Muslim community in mortal danger. On grounds of treason, the prophet Muhammad upheld a judge's order to punitively massacre all male members of that tribe (cf. Q. 33:26). MacEoin notes the impact of all this on the impressionable youth, writing that "the effect of this was to plunge him [Bahaullah] into a state of acute depression for some time, despite his recognition that 'what occurred had been the decree of God'" (MacEoin 1983, 223 on MA 7: 136; cf. ISH 34 and IQT 116ff). This characterization of the event truncates Bahaullah's own account of this psychological turning point.

(Paradise and Paradigm : Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Baha'i- Faith by Christopher Buck)

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