Removing a believer from the Baha'i membership list

Inactivity alone is not a cause for removing a believer from the Bahá’í membership list. Removal can be done only when the believer himself withdraws from the Faith or is removed from the list of voting members by formal administrative action.

(Baha'i News, No. 195, May, 1947)

https://bahai.works/Bahá’í_News/Issue_195/Text

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General status of Baha’is in Iran according to a “confidential” memorandum

In 1991, the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council (ISRCC) drew a memorandum on the “Baha’i Question” which referred to the general status of Baha’is in the country, as well as their cultural, educational, legal, and social status. Dated 25 February 1991, this document which was stamped “confidential” was drawn up at the request of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (b. 1939) and President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934–2017).

The major summary of the memorandum is as follows:

1. General status of the Baha’is within the country’s system:

a. They will not be expelled from the country without reason.

b. They will not be arrested, imprisoned, or penalized without reason.

c. The government’s dealings with them must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked.

2. Educational and cultural status:

a. They can be enrolled in schools provided they have not identified themselves as Baha’is.

b. Preferably, they should be enrolled in schools which have a strong and imposing religious ideology.

c. They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha’is.

d. Their political (espionage) activities must be dealt with according to appropriate government laws and policies, and their religious and propaganda activities should be answered by giving them religious and cultural responses, as well as propaganda.

e. Propaganda institutions (such as the Islamic Propaganda Organization) must establish an independent section to counter the propaganda and religious activities of the Baha’is.

f. A plan must be devised to confront and destroy their cultural roots outside the country.

3. Legal and social status:

a. Permit them a modest livelihood as is available to the general population.

b. To the extent that it does not encourage them to be Baha’is, it is permissible to provide them the means for ordinary living in accordance with the general rights given to every Iranian citizen, such as ration booklets, passports, burial certificates, work permits, and so on.

c. Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Baha’is.

d. Deny them any position of influence, such as in the educational sector, and so on (BIC, 2008, p. 22).

This memorandum came to the attention of the international community in 1993 when it was disclosed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR). However, the Iranian government claimed that this document was a forgery.

(Baha’is in Post-revolution Iran: Perspectives of the Ulema by Ankita Sanya)

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How Baha'is invaded the Bans?

In 1917, ‘Abdu’l-Baha appointed an association (anjuman) to run the operations of the press and to establish a Baha’i magazine, Khurshid-i Kavar. Mirza Mahdi [Gulpayigani] drew on his previous printing expertise to publish the magazine, using it in part to respond to what Mashhad newspapers would write about the Baha’i Faith. Since the magazine was blocked from being imported into Iran from Khurasan, it was often brought to Gilan — a province in which Baha’is were in charge of customs duties — and circulated from there.

(Farzin Vejdani, Transnational Baha’i Print Culture: Community Formation and Religious Authority, 1890–1921, Journal of Religious History, Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2012)

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Names of some prominent former-Baha'is from western countries

Names of some former-Baha'is from western countries (most of whom were scholars)

1) Denis MacEoin

2) Juan Cole

3) Frederick Glaysher

4) William Garlington

5) Karen Bacquet

6) Jenifer Tidwell

7) Eric Stetson

8) Dr. Phyllis Bernard

9) Steven Scholl

10) John Ford Coley

11) Francesco Ficicchia

12) Phoebe Hearst

13) Hermann Roemer

14) Dann May

15) K. Paul Johnson

16) Dermod Ryder

17) Dale Husband

18) Inge Barthel

19) Kai Borrman

20) Darrick Evenson

21) August J. Stenstrand

22) Harrison Gray Dyar

24) Alden Penner

25) Brendan Cook (Raised a Baha'i, Brendan was refused formal membership in the Canadian Baha'i community when he applied as an adult.) https://bahaisonline.net/entries-by-category?start=600

About 66 individuals were identified as ex-Bahá'ís and Momen has written about some of them in his article, here - https://bahai-library.com/momen_marginality_apostasy

Prominent Marginalized Baha'is

1) Sen McGlinn

2) Jonah Winters

3) Alison Marshall

4) Steve Marshall

5) Fadil-i Mazandarani

https://public.websites.umich.edu/~jrcole/talisman/t95dec5b.htm

Scholars of the Baha'i faith who never accepted the Baha'i faith

1) Edward G. Browne

2) Margit Warburg

3) Vernon Elvin Johnson

4) Moshe Sharon

Some not so prominent former Baha'is (The list will be updated gradually)

1) Michael Zargarov

2) Jeff Bixby (Converted to Christianity)

https://www.dewittobserver.com/news/local/new-pastor-plants-roots/article_e2ceb6aa-3c18-11ec-985e-3ba1bcc71f59.html

3) Hilmar Zonneveld

https://www.quora.com/profile/Hilmar-Zonneveld

4) Lisa Armstrong

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2011/jan/06/bahais-plan-interfaith-powwow-20110106/

https://www.quora.com/profile/Lisa-Armstrong-18

5) Dennis James Rogers

6) Heather Carr-Rowe (Larry) Rowe

https://www.interfaith.org/community/threads/3693/

7) Emily Armstrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxaFpZoAfY

8) Dan Jensen

9) Timothy Mulligan

10) Andrew Turvey

https://www.quora.com/What-caused-you-to-leave-the-The-Bahai-Faith/answer/Andrew-Turvey-4

11) Elliott Hulse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXz5JJzHXD8

12) Anisa George

https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/chasing-cicadas/

13) Zohreh Davoudi (American - Persian)

https://alisonelizabethmarshall.com/book-review-mother-of-all-evil-by-zohreh-davoudi/

14) Michael McKenny

https://public.websites.umich.edu/~jrcole/bahai/1999/mckenny.htm

15) Anjali Sivan

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/orthodoxyandheterodoxy/2013/07/19/believing-thomas-how-i-left-the-bahai-faith/

16) Michael Tabor

https://web.archive.org/web/20151210012216/http://www.bahai-faith.com/ex-Bahai-3.html

17) Priscilla Gilman

http://bahaitheway.blogspot.com/2007/07/quite-few-friends-and-acquaintances.html

18) Timothy Casey

https://web.archive.org/web/20150813043133/http://timothycasey.info/why-i-am-no-longer-a-bahai/index.shtml

19) George Fleming

https://web.archive.org/web/20151124080136/http://www.bahai-faith.com/ex-Bahai-7.html

20) Jared Van Driessche

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMiUEfvHhDI

21) Jamal Lyksett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7DOJmoSGn4

22) Cyrus Mazkoori (India)

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/6538acaa1ca7ec37c646939a/amp

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"One who has lost his voting rights is considered to be a Bahá’í but not one in good standing. The following restrictions and limitations apply to such a believer"

 "…One who has lost his voting rights is considered to be a Bahá’í but not one in good standing. The following restrictions and limitations apply to such a believer:

He cannot attend Nineteen Day Feasts or other meetings for Bahá’ís only, including International Conferences, and therefore cannot take part in consultation on the affairs of the community.

He cannot contribute to the Bahá’í Fund.

He cannot receive newsletters and other bulletins whose circulation is restricted to Bahá’ís.

He cannot have a Bahá’í marriage ceremony and therefore is not able to marry a Bahá’í.

He may not have a Bahá’í pilgrimage.

Although he is free to teach the Faith on his own behalf, he should not be used as a teacher or speaker in programs sponsored by Bahá’ís.

He is debarred from participating in administrative matters, including the right to vote in Bahá’í elections.

He cannot hold office or be appointed to a committee.

He should not be given credentials (which imply that he is a Bahá’í in good standing)."

(From an attachment to a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Netherlands, December 9, 1985)

https://bahai.works/Lights_of_Guidance/Administrative_Rights,_Sanctions,_Dissimulation

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All the friends of God are my children, but these two are not.

Likewise Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, who is celebrated in all the world, when she believed in God and was attracted to the Divine Breaths, she forsook her two eldest sons, although they were her two oldest children, because they did not become believers, and thereafter did not meet them. She said: “All the friends of God are my children, but these two are not. I will have nothing to do with them.”

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í World Faith, p. 437-8)

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In 1957, Shoghi Effendi wrote German Bahá'ís stating he "was shocked"

He was shocked and indignant to hear of the conduct of certain of the Persian Bahá'í students in Germany which had been so criminal as to lead to their imprisonment.

http://bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/ldg/vol1/sec-206.html

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Birth of a child out of wedlock

"Generally, administrative rights should not be suspended because of the birth of a child out of wedlock. The questions to be considered are whether the party is guilty of blatant and flagrant immorality, whether such conduct is harming the Faith, and whether the believer has refused or neglected to improve her conduct despite repeated warnings.

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, March 23, 1983)
http://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance.html&chapter=1#n206

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The power to ex-communicate lies with the Guardian alone.

"...he feels that all National Spiritual Assemblies should bear in mind that this is the heaviest sanction we possess at present in the Faith, short of ex-communication, which lies within the powers of the Guardian alone, and is consequently a very weighty weapon to wield."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, March 3, 1955: Messages to Canada, p. 51)

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A Bahá'í deprived of his voting rights cannot be married in a Bahá'í marriage ceremony

"A Bahá'í deprived of his voting rights cannot be married in a Bahá'í marriage ceremony; a Bahá'í in good standing cannot marry a Bahá'í who has lost his voting rights; the marriage of a Bahá'í who has lost his voting rights does not fall within the jurisdiction of a Bahá'í administrative institution."


(From a letter of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly, February 25, 1976, cited by the International Teaching Center)

http://bahai-library.com/hornby_lights_guidance.html&chapter=1#n199

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Three kind of Baha'i Status

Hands of the Cause of God in the Holy Land:

The Guardian considers there are three conditions, so to speak, in regard to Bahá'í status or lack of it: a member of the Bahá'í Faith, in good standing, possessed of all his administrative rights; a member of the Faith who is being severely punished either because of flagrant disobedience of some very important injunction of the National Assembly, or because of conduct extremely detrimental to the good name of the Faith, which he has not rectified through having his voting and administrative rights suspended; and a person who is excommunicated by the Guardian because of disloyalty and enmity to the Faith. "Deprivation of voting rights" and "deprivation of membership in the Bahá'í Community" are really the same thing.

No contribution should be accepted from a person deprived of his voting rights. He is not eligible for election to Bahá'í bodies, cannot attend the administrative gatherings such as elections or Nineteen Day Feasts. However he can attend Bahá'í meetings as he is not excommunicated.

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_ministry_custodians&chapter=5

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Extreme punishment of deprivation of voting rights

Hands of the Cause of God in the Holy Land:

As you know, the beloved Guardian for a number of years before his ascension permitted the various National Assemblies to apply the extreme punishment of deprivation of voting rights in cases where believers continued to disobey an important decision of a National Assembly, or in cases where the conduct of an individual continuously and flagrantly violated Bahá'í standards to a point where the good name of the Faith was placed in jeopardy.

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_ministry_custodians&chapter=5

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You have shown insincerity... we are not going to readmit you to the Bahá'í community

"It was the approved practice for many years for Bahá'ís to leave blank the space for religion on official forms in Iran. This was not a denial of their religion, it was merely a tacit refusal to state it. In recent times, however, the authorities refused to accept forms made out in blank, and would deny passports and exit visas to anyone who entered Bahá'í' in the appropriate spaces. In order to get such documents a Bahá'í would either have to enter Muslim' (or one of the other recognized religions) on the forms or would have to employ an agent to do it for him. This thus became a conscious act by the Bahá'í to deny his faith, and the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran at that point warned all the believers that such an action was unacceptable."

"Those Bahá'ís who have left Iran by official routes since the governmental regulations changed have made a conscious choice. While the majority of their fellow-believers have preferred to face all manner of difficulties, rather than deny their faith, these people have chosen to make this denial rather than face whatever problems were before them. They have left Iran freely, with the permission of the authorities as Muslims. They have chosen freedom and comparative ease at the cost of giving away their faith, and have got what they wanted. Some, however, once they are free, want to have their membership in the Bahá'í community back again. The attitude of the Bahá'í institutions in refusing to immediately readmit them should not be regarded as a vindictive punishment. These institutions are simply saying: `You have shown the insincerity of your belief by denying it for your personal advantage, we are not going to readmit you to the Bahá'í community until we have some confidence that you are sincerely repentant of such an act. In the meantime you can abide by the choice you yourself have made.'

http://bahai-library.com/uhj_dissimulation_iran_emmigrants

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Stephen Birkland's warning to Juan Cole

Stephen Birkland's warning to Juan Cole in 1996

“the International Teaching Centre has asked me--with the knowledge of the Universal House of Justice--to warn you that your promulgation of views contrary to the Teachings was damaging to the Cause. If you were to resume in any fashion this course of action, the effect would be to bring you into direct conflict with the Covenant”

http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ejrcole/bahai/1999/jssr/bhjssr.htm

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No compromise whatever should be allowed, even though the outcome of it be death or expulsion.

A distinction of a fundamental importance must, therefore, be made between spiritual and administrative matters. Whereas the former are sacred and inviolable, and hence cannot be subject to compromise, the latter are secondary and can consequently be given up and even sacrificed for the sake of obedience to the laws and regulations of the government. Obedience to the state is so vital a principle of the Cause that should the authorities in Germany decide to-day to prevent the Bahá'ís from holding any meeting or publishing any literature they should obey and be as submissive as our Russian believers have thus far been under the Soviet regime. But, as already pointed out, such an allegiance is confined merely to administrative matters which if checked can only retard the progress of the Faith for some time. In matters of belief, however, no compromise whatever should be allowed, even though the outcome of it be death or expulsion.

http://bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/ldg/vol1/sec-35.html

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Treacherous Ruhi Afnan !

May 17. On this date in 1953, Shoghi Effendi addressed a cablegram to the Bahá'ís of the word, condemning his one-time close companion, secretary, and first cousin as "treacherous Ruhi Afnan."

Shoghi Effendi's eldest cousin and close friend, Ruhi Afnan accompanied him for rest and relaxation in the Bernese Oberland in the Swiss Alps on April 5, 1922, some four months after returning to Haifa subsequent to the death of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,

Treacherous Ruhi Afnan

Treacherous Ruhi Afnan, not content with previous disobedience, correspondence with Ahmad Sohrab, contact with old Covenant-breakers, sale, in conjunction with other members of family, of sacred property purchased by Founder of Faith, and allowing his sister to marry son of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's enemy, is now openly lecturing on Bahá'í movement, claiming to be its exponent and is misrepresenting the teachings and deliberately causing confusion in minds of authorities and the local population. Inform National Assemblies.

On December 13, 1951, Shoghi Effendi had sent a cablegram addressing "Old and New Covenant-breakers" wherein he states "Evidences multiplying attesting Ruhi's increasing rebelliousness, efforts exerted my eldest sister pave way fourth alliance members family Siyyid 'Alí involving marriage his granddaughter with Ruha's son and personal contact recently established my own treacherous, despicable brother Riaz with Majdi'd-Din, redoubtable enemy Faith, former henchman Muhammad-'Ali, Archbreaker Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant."

Old and New Covenant-Breakers

With feeling profound concern, grief, indignation, am compelled disclose Bahá'í world recent developments Holy Land furnishing further incontestable proof relationship established old and new Covenant-breakers demonstrating increasing boldness, marked, tragic decline in character and spiritual condition grandchildren 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Their shameful attitude and conduct receiving approbation their elders. Evidences multiplying attesting Ruhi's increasing rebelliousness, efforts exerted my eldest sister pave way fourth alliance members family Siyyid 'Alí involving marriage his granddaughter with Ruha's son and personal contact recently established my own treacherous, despicable brother Riaz with Majdi'd-Din, redoubtable enemy Faith, former henchman Muhammad-'Ali, Archbreaker Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant. Convey information all National Assemblies.

--Shoghi

[Cablegram, December, 13, 1951]

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Two Bahá’ís, when getting married, cannot have the religious ceremony of another Faith.

In reply to your letter of January 26th, we feel that while it is important to be flexible in requesting new believers, particularly youth who may encounter parental opposition, to withdraw from membership of other religious organizations, such flexibility cannot be allowed to extend to compromising Bahá’í law. Two Bahá’ís, when getting married, cannot have the religious ceremony of another Faith.

(Universal House of Justice, Lights of Guidance, p. 161)

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If as registered believers you are married in a non-Baha'i ceremony, you will lose your voting rights

5 May 1957

Miss ... and Mr.....

Dear .....,

Your letter of April 23rd has been received by the beloved Guardian, and he has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.

The question of your marriage is one which is clearly understood by the National Assembly, and the Guardian thought by most of the believers; and he is surprised that you should have been advised by fellow-Bahá'ís that you could have a Christian marriage, in view of the fact that you are both Bahá'ís.

It is only fair to tell you that, if as registered believers you are married in a Christian ceremony, you will lose your voting rights.

You did quite right to obtain the permission of your parents; and he hopes that now you will be able to extricate yourselves from this difficult position you find yourselves in, without angering Mr......

As you are aware, the Guardian feels that the Bahá'ís must, in view of the condition of the world today, stand forth firmly and courageously as followers of Bahá'u'lláh, obeying His Laws, and seeking to build his World Order. Through compromise we will never be able to establish our Faith or win others' hearts to it. This involves often great personal sacrifice, but we know that, when we do the right thing, God gives us the strength to carry it out, and we attract His blessings. We learn at such times that our calamity is indeed a blessing.

He will pray for the satisfactory solution of your problem.

With warm Bahá'í greetings, R. Rabbani.

May the Almighty guide, bless & sustain you, & aid you to promote the vital interests of His Faith,

Your true brother, Shoghi

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No one has any right to see the Covenant-Breakers without the permission of the N.S.A.

"No one has any right to see the Covenant-Breakers without the permission of the N.S.A., and Mrs. ... in doing so should realize she is putting herself in contact with a dangerous, contagious, spiritual disease, as the Master pointed out over and over again! She is also disobeying express instructions of the Master and the Guardian by contacting Covenant-Breakers."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to two individual believers, May 5, 1947)

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Sanctioning Sen McGlinn

[Update September 2016: It appears that an explanation for my disenrollment has recently been issued : “efforts, spanning over twenty-five years, to promote erroneous and misleading perspectives on the Baha’i teachings.” (NSA of New Zealand, June 17, 2016)

https://senmcglinn.wordpress.com/about/about-dissenrolment/

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