Baha’i population now stands at 6 millions minus 2.2 millions

It is indeed a notable act that the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of India deleted the figure “2.2 million Baha’is” from Official website of the Baha’is of India. But it is equally regretted that the actual number of Baha’is which is 11,324 was not put on instead to give the exact number of Baha’is to its viewers and as amark of respect for the dedicated census officials of India who wentdoor to door for carrying out such a huge census.

Well it is hoped that the NSA of India will bring some more corrections like the number of localities which they still insist on being more than 10,000. It is very clear that if there are only 11,324 bahais than how their can be 10,000 localities?

The number of Local Spiritual Assemblies also have been changed from 700 to 600, again in Baha’i Administration official census it 500. It looks like a hundred assembly doesn’t matter much to the NSA. The NSA is well aware that there are not more than 20 LSAs.

Now the Baha’i Administration should not expect that the Government of India will carry out a separate census for the Localities of Baha’is and the number of LSAs in India, so that again they may do that correction.

It should be made clear to the Baha’i officials that the official sites are for providing true and exact information to its loggers and at any point of time it should not be false and misleading.

Ravi kumar
talk.religion.bahai

Hossein Danesh is Back : By Baquia

... The Baha’i Faith has its own, albeit small, share of these sort of public scandals. In the 1990’s Dr. Hossein Danesh, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada (and a long time secretary of the body – from 1985 to 1989) gave up the right to practice psychiatry as a result of charges of sexual abuse brought forward by a handful of his former patients.

Far from being sanctioned and sent away in shameful seclusion he was soon given a plum job at the new Baha’i Landegg university in Switzerland. He then proceeded to run that institution into the ground. The university closed its doors in 2005.

Recently Danesh’s “old boy” network connections at the NSA got him a heavily promoted gig in Canada. With the full backing of the national Baha’i institution, he conducted a $50/person seminar on “Healthy Marriage and Family Life”. Here is a promotional flyer for one of the many planned seminars:



They key element in this is to ask whether Danesh would be able to slink back to Canada and receive such a warm welcome had he not been a long-standing member of the NSA. Would the NSA have gone out of its way to promote the workshop of a regular Baha’i who had a checkered past?

The other question is why other Baha’is who are infinitely more qualified in this field and have a stainless reputation are not being given the same platform? The only distinction is the personal connections that Danesh made through his many years of membership on the NSA. This is what leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Rather than being loyal to virtues and principles, the NSA has betrayed itself as being loyal to personal connections.

There was another scandal a few years ago involving a young Baha’i in the developing world who alleged that she was being sexually abused by her father. It turned out that her father was a member of the country’s NSA (and its chairperson). Instead of considering her physical and mental health as the highest priority, the institutions instead focused on how to mitigate any fallout this might have on the Baha’i administration and the image and reputation of the same....

Comments can be made on the blog of Baquia
http://bahairants.com/lessons-of-the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal-460.html

Baha'i sexual abuser Hossein Danesh is back, with the blessings of his NSA

I'm sure most here remember Hossein Danesh, the disgraced Canadian NSA member from a few years back. Now that Landegg is no more, he's back with the full support of the Canadian NSA:

http://bahairants.com/lessons-of-the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal-460.html

As you can see in the poster, Danesh is referred to as Dr. and as a psychiatrist. This is completely untrue. He gave up the right to practice psychiatry and was stripped of that rank by the governing body of that profession as part of his settlement. He was accused of sexual abuse not by one patient, not by two but by three patients.

To shield him, the Baha'i administration moved him away from Canada where his reputation was in tatters to the lakeside resort in Switzerland called Landegg Academy to be the grand-poobah there with a paid salary. Now with about 15 years having gone by and people's memories faded, he returns and is presented thusly:

"Dr. Danesh was an Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, establishing and directing the Marriage Therapy Centre. He is an author, international lecturer and consultant, with more than 35 years of academic and clinical experience as a phsychiatrist and peace educator. He is also a former member of the National Spiritual Assembly."

If someone is going to give a seminar on weight loss, you would balk if they waddled onto the stage, wheezing from the exertion of having to cart their massively obese form around. I think it is as ludicrous to have a man who was disgraced and thrown out of his profession for sexual misconduct to give a seminar on relationships.

Especially when the Baha'i community has no shortage of excellent and impeccable professionals that have the same or better academic qualifications. Why is Danesh given the star treatment? why are seminars arranged for him? why are the seminars promoted heavily by the NSA in Baha'i communities through the national Baha'i publication and through LSA notices? why is the truth about his past hidden? why is he referred to as "Dr." and a "psychiatrist" when he does not have the right to use those titles by law?

Why indeed. The answer is as clear as it is unpalatable.

Larry Rowe