Shoghi's stand towards modernization of the Arab world and his hate towards Islamic institutions

However, Shoghi Effendi’s writings went even further: the major difference between the tenets of Ottoman reformers and the views he expressed is that in his, Islam features as the factor behind the East’s obscurantism and as a bar to progress, whereas in theirs, it had a role as a unifying factor capable of modernization and reform (Makdisi 2002). With the defeat of 1918, the fall of the Ottoman dynasty, and the accession to power of Kemal Atatürk, Orientalism in Turkey morphed into Kemalist Orientalism, a reversion to a hard-line Western form that branded “Oriental backwardness and Muslim civilization” as equivalents, manifesting between the wars as the “anti-clerical rage” of Kemalists who saw it as “imperative to destroy ‘tradition’“(Szurek 2015, p. 113; original italics). Shoghi Effendi’s employment of Orientalism to pronounce on the incorrigible character of Islamic institutions aligns much more clearly with the contemporary project of Kemalist Orientalism with respect to the implacable opposition both raised against continuing Islamic entities. As Guardian he inspired the Bahai community, especially in North America, to express open support for the programs of anti-traditionalism and anti-clericalism promoted by both Atatürk and Reza Shah, in particular noting approvingly the forced Westernization of the apparel of Islamic scholars (pursued alongside the outlawing of Sufis in Turkey) and the banning of women’s Islamic attire (Shoghi Effendi 1961; Nash forthcoming). The following passage presents a Muslim mullah dispossessed of his religious attire with a satirical tone unusual for Shoghi Effendi, although it strikes an obviously Orientalist, anti-clerical pose:

the once lofty turbaned, long-bearded, grave looking aqa . . . as he sits, hatless, clean-shaven, in the seclusion of his home, and perhaps listening to Western music, blared upon the ethers of his native land . . . Well might he muse upon the havoc which the rising tide of nationalism and scepticism has wrought in the adamantine traditions of his country. Well might he recollect the halcyon days . . . seated on a donkey, and parading through the bazaars and maydans of his native land . . . (Shoghi Effendi 1961, p. 68).

(What Is Bahai Orientalism? by Geoffrey Nash)

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/1/2