Hasan Ershad (Nasere Nasereddin) challenges Baha'i UHJ to literacy test in Arabic live via skype

SUBTITLED BY N. WAHID AZAL

Iranian scholar and critic of Bahaism Hasan Ershad challenges the Baha'i Universal House of Justice in Haifa, occupied Palestine to a live public literacy test in Arabic via skype to prove its competency in the legal and jurisprudential matters it is theoretically tasked with.

Text of Subtitles (by N. Wahid Azal).

At the beginning I indicated the following point; in summary...

...at the beginning of this discussion I indicated this point...

...that the [Baha’i] Universal House of Justice...

...has no expertise in creating a legal or jurisprudential order...

...outside of [very narrowly] defined [existing] textual issues.

Why?

Because these “dear ones” have no competent literacy [in Arabic].

One of the reasons negating…

…any entry into this area of discussion…

…is the illiteracy [in Arabic] of these “dear ones”…

…inasmuch I claimed …

….that one of the legal sources of the Baha’is…

… are the books of the Bab.

Because there are rules governing these laws [and regulations]....

…and it has been written by Mr. Baha’u’llah…

…that regarding those issues where…

…what he has clearly abrogated...

…all the remaining laws and ordinances of the Bab…

…still hold legal authority…

…and remain topical…

…and the Baha’is are meant to act according to them.

What does this mean?

This means that one of the [primary] sources…

…for legislation on issues outside of the Baha’i texts…

…are the works of the Bab.

And the works of the Bab are generally in Arabic…

…and the Persian is even worse than the Arabic…

I said to Mr. Sorbi, recommending to him…

…that for one program, for five minutes…

…broadcast a live program…

…from 1 to 9, write down [on pieces of paper] the names of the UHJ members…

…put it in a raffle cup…

…and pick one out…

Out comes Mr. X.

Via Skype I will make contact…

From my end, I will then take just one page…

…from [Baha’i] legal texts…

…relating to one of the legislations of Mr. Bab…

…and I will display it…

This “dear one” in the UHJ, or wherever he may be, should then read it out loud…

…and then translate it [out loud]…

…give a brief explanation…

…as to what it is about…

Forget about its textual exposition.

Forget about its legislative particulars.

They cannot do it!

So when they [the UHJ] don’t have the required expertise…

…this is in itself is a reason for the negation of entry into the very arena…

….of [proper] legislating [by them, and law making]…

And I keep saying…

…why hasn’t the UHJ discussed this matter and that matter etc…

One of the reasons is because they don’t possess literacy…

…and this area is closed off to them…

…and so they do not possess the expert competency [to act in that regard].

Source : https://wahidazal.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/hasan-ershad-nasere-nasereddin.html

What is the similarity between Saudi Laws and Baha'i Laws ? Here is a short debate...

Baha'i Scholar Foaad Haghighi posted this news item from HRW on his facebook page. Below is a short debate between Baha'is and David Smith on this topic.

Baha'i Debate on Saudi and Baha'i Laws

What is the difference between Saudi Arabia and Iran - both destroying cemeteries ?

Baha'i inspired writers compare desecration of Holy graves by Salafi / Wahhabis with the demolition of illegal cemeteries and graves of "Terrorists" in Iran.

One such writer Mr. Hamza Baloch at http://nation.com.pk/blogs/21-Jul-2016/isis-is-merely-following-al-saud-s-wahhabist-footsteps-by-destroying-holy-sites# stated that there is no difference between the two type of demolitions.

In the above article he states

"It is reported that in past decades, government authorities in Iran have demolished historic sites of great artistic and cultural significance, which are also sacred to the country's Bahai religious minority."

The author, mostly, a victim of Baha'i propaganda wrongly compared the situations. Here is some info for Hamza Baloch and his likes.

One prominent Baha'i Sen McGlinn on his blog Sensday has produced this report which hints to the fact that many Baha'i cemeteries in Iran may be "Private Properties" and may not have appropriate legal permission to bury their dead, hence illegal.

One such case recently reported by Sen is as follows :

Screenshot from Sen's blog : sensday.wordpress.com

Readers should be known that Baha'is did a lot of Propaganda that Iranian authorities banned the underground Baha'i University "BIHE" without any reason. This university like these very cemeteries was illegal and was operating without proper permissions.

Coming again to the article by Hamza Baloch that states "The grave-site of Quddus" was razed to the ground.... This is in fact the Great good that Iranian government has done. Mr. Hamza should know who Quddus was? and what Babis did to Iran in the earlier days of their history? Quddus was a Babi leader in Iran. The Babis were a 19th century ISIS the equivalent of the Wahhabis but in Iran. The Baha'i cult was born out of the Babi terror cult. According to Abdu'l-Baha, the laws of the Bab and his religion called the Bayan were like this:

“The utterance of the [book or religion] of Bayan in the day of the appearance of his Highness Ala (meaning the Bab) was to behead, burn the books, destroy the monuments, and massacre [everyone] but those who believed [in the Bab’s religion] and verified it,” Abdu’l-Baha, Makatib, vol. 2, p. 266.

They wanted to create a kingdom of death and terror in Iran similar to that of the Wahhabis. They started four internal wars in Iran but fortunately the government succeeded in crushing them and executed their leader. The house of their leader which was preserved by the Baha'is was razed to the ground because Iran doesn't want monuments standing for murderers.

The founder of the Baha'i cult, Husayn Ali Nuri, known as Baha'u'llah was a very violent man himself. It suffices to say that he uttered these statements regarding the murderous and terroristic rules of the Bab:

“I [swear by] He who in His hand is my soul and my essence, a single letter from the Bayan is dearer to me than everything that is in the heavens and the earth,” Fadil Mazandarani, Asrar al-athar khususi, vol. 5, p. 333 (citing Baha'u'llah)

Baha'is in Iran will never tell you these things. They spread false propaganda on the internet to play the victim and hide their true terroristic beliefs. They are in a constant state of Taqqiya and dissimulation waiting for the day when their numbers are high enough so that they can re-establish their kingdom of intolerance. Today, they are used by western governments as a tool against Iran.

Iran has learned a good historical lesson and will never ever allow Terroristic cults like Wahhabism and Baha'ism to gain a foothold in Iran, no matter how much propaganda is spewed against it.

This is what Wahhabis have done and doing...

Can these terrorist acts of Saudi Kings be compared to the destruction of illegal cemeteries ?

Prince Turki al Faisal supporting MEK terrorist organization.

The article of Prince Amir bin Abdul Aziz al Saud supporting Baha'is being distributed by Baha'is.

These very "peaceful" Baha'is are proselytizing in every country except Saudi Arabia and Israel !

How Haifan UHJ tortures independent Baha'i Scholars? Here is a Letter of Baha'i Scholar Ahang Rabbani to the Universal House of Justice.

Oppressed Baha'i Scholar Ahang Rabbani with his family.

Subject : Why me?
From : Ahang Rabbani
To : secretariat@bwc.org
Date : 3/30/2007 11:41 PM

Dear Universal House of Justice,

I have no idea how to start this letter, so I'm just going to type and then send the letter without reading it because if I read it, I would never send it.

I've been upset with the House of some time now.  I hate feeling this way.  I love the Faith and I love the House.  But I feel that i'm being persecuted unjustly by the House.  That sounds crazy, I know.
But that's how I feel.  I think I've been extremely loyal to the Faith and the House for all my life and have served it with dedication all my life, but I've been dealt with extremely harshly and unjustly.

I came to Haifa in 1981, giving up a very promising professional career, to serve the Faith.  When my service was no longer needed (or actually some folks had plans to bring Hoda Mahmudi from some rather strange designs they had at the time), I had to go through a most excruciating period of months of unwarranted criticism from folks I loved and respected.  To this day I don't know what crime I had
committed that warranted such treatment during those incredibly dark days in 1988.

When I came to the States my interests shifted to translation and scholarly activities.  I wish I had never done so because it has brought me nothing (absolutely nothing!!) but pain and heartache. Time and again, when I worked on something, I would send it to the World Centre (when I absolutely did not have to and was advised by family/friends not to do so) out of a sense of loyalty that getting the House's approval and blessing was a good thing.  Every time I was disappointed.  It's been going on for 15 years now.  I keep pouring my heart into my work just to find the World Centre has come up with some new excuse to block my labor from seeing daylight -- while all kinds of incredibily low quailty books are filling up Baha'i stores.  Along the way I;m terribly shocked to see that I'm target of all sorts of accusations by the House of Justice which only later prove to be false and baseless.

So I have to ask:  What have I done to warrant this?  Why I am being singled out for what appears to be ... well, I don't know what word to use.  But it doesn't feel good.  I can't sleep.  I'm very angry with the House and really hate myself for feeling this way.  I DON"T want to feel this way.  What do I do???

If you don't want me to be a Baha'i, just say so and I'll leave.  I have complete trust in whatever comes from teh House is from God (though I really hate it that I'm always criticized or and everything I do is rejected -- even though I know my manuscripts and work is firstrate.)

If you don't want me to do work (which I had understood naively to be what the House wants those of us with interest in such things to wrk on), then just say so and I'll close my books and go to something else in life.

I probably have made no sense whatsoever and will be very upset with myself after I send this, but at this stage if I don't, I'll never write a letter and won't know why I'm targetted for so much negativity.

Please help me to regain my faith.  With tears pouring from my eyes I beg of you!  i need your help please PLEaSE

Deepst love, Ahang.,

---

Note : There are some typos, but I preferred to keep them as they were to retain the originality.

Many many thanks to the sender.
Name of the sender not published as per his / her request.

The Baha'i administration silenced anyone who dared to do serious or independent scholarship - by Ahang Rabbani

Date: Sat, 16 Dec 95
05:41:01 -0500
From: "Ahang Rabbani"
To: talisman@indiana.edu

Subject: Zuhur'l-Haqq and Encyclopedia

Once again through sheer brilliance, Chris Buck has managed to cut through all the smoke and put his finger right on the heart of the issues -- the short answer is: yes, there are a lot of similarities between what happened to Zuhuru'l-Haqq and the current status of the Baha'i Encyclopedia.

Let me first state what I know as to what happened with Zuhuru'l-Haqq project. The lessons may then be obvious. On 11 Jalal 107 BE (1951) the NSA of Iran (Ali-Akbar Furutan was NSA secretary) published a 16 page open letter which at the end contains a short response by Fadil. This letter was the kiss of death for both Zuhurh'l-Haqq series and Fadil's scholarship and reputation.

He spent the latter part of his life away from the Baha'i community -- though extremely active in teaching field. After the passing of his wife, he married a Muslim woman and his three sons were raised with deep resentments towards the Baha'i community in general -- though they are very knowledgeable about the Cause and have many good Baha'i friends. His youngest son lives here in Houston, another passed away (in Ohio?) with the eldest (he is about 80 years old now) being in the States now seeking medical treatment (heart problem).

Of most concern is that Fadil had some extremely valuable and *unique* Texts and documents in his possessions, not to mention the fact that he had completed a number of very important books on the Faith which I believe he never shared with the administration and left with his sons -- which either have all been destroyed or awaits freezing of hell before they are handed over to the Faith. As an example of some of the books which he has completed but you never hear anyone mentioning it is a massive Encyclopedia on the Cause under the title "Asraru'l-Athar-i Umumi" (General Mysteries of the Writings). Years earlier he published a 5-volume Baha'i encyclopedia series titled "Asraru'l-Athar-i Khususi" (Specific Mysteries of the Writings) which no serious Baha'i student should be without. But his "Umumi" version was apparently the finest single piece of scholarship ever attempted in the Cause and its a great shame if destroyed -- or never published. But again, what is of greatest importance is the massive amount of Tablets and original documents which he had in his possession which never found their way to the Cause.

Some time ago, when I was posting on Quddus (I believe my first post on this topic), I discussed that for example he had a Tablet of Baha'u'llah in his possession where He states that had the Bab not declared, then Quddus would have. (Dr. Muhammad Afnan in Andalib states there is not such Tablet, but I think he knows better.) Anyway, the question is what happened with this most productive Baha'i scholar of all time (in my view, several orders of magnitude above Mirza Abu'l-Fadl or anyone else in the Faith)?

The answer to this question is with "the Dawnbreakers"! All roads eventually lead to "The Dawnbreakers" which the beloved Guardian has stated is the "standard for Baha'i history", but in reality has served as the standard for Baha'i fundamentalism. "The Dawnbreakers" in my view is the biggest barrier to Baha'i scholarship! In fact, one can trace back the emergence of Baha'i fundamentalism right to the publication of this book and then exaggerated statements about it being "THE STANDARD". And that's when Fadil's troubles began. Fadil's view of history was based on several decades of incomparable collection of Texts, documents, narratives, interviews with old believers and extensive travels throughout the region -- not to mentioned a very elevated sense of devotion to the Cause which both Abdu'l-Baha and the beloved Guardian have praised repeatedly. So, what happened? Fadil had completed his first 3 volumes when Ali-Akbar Furutan got all bent out of shape. Now Furutan was (and is) somewhat of intellectual lightweight (and I'm afraid history won't be very kind to him on his writings, unless the House send out (which they will!) an extremely glowing cable after his death to silence all his critics (which are many)). This is all in early 1930's. So, Furutan, knowing that he couldn't take on a great mind like Fadil, got together with a real intellectual superstar (well, fast becoming one in those days), namely, my other hero, Ishraq-Khavari.

Together they made a case that certain points in Zuhuru'l-Haqq series do not conform to The Dawnbreaker -- the "standard"! So, they write to the Guardian. This makes Shoghi Effendi all upset with Zuhuru'l-Haqq as he didn't like anything that deviated by a dot from the Dawnbreakers. So on 15 September 1932, he writes (my inadequate translation):

"Immediately organize a special committee to investigate, reorganize and bring into conformity Jinab-i Fadil's history with that of Nabil's history [the Dawnbreakers]. Of this task and grave responsibility, no delay is permitted, and utmost effort must be diligently exerted."

Poor Fadil. After a letter like this from the Guardian, well, his goose was cooked. What happened next is the ugliest chapter in Baha'i scholarship which has ever occurred. If you think things are bad now with respect to scholarship, well, you ain't seen nothing. (I have no intention of discussing the details on Talisman, and if pressed, will move the conversation over to Tarjuman, but in truth really rather not disclose any details, mostly because there is no guarantee that what I know is really what happened. Remember, I'm just a young lad in my 30's, I wasn't around in those days.) What is a matter of public record and I can safely state is that a committee was organized and closely (word by word) examined Zuhuru'l-Haqq. Now the Guardian wanted this to be done overnight. Well it took nearly 20 years to complete this process (Fadil's "confessional" letter is dated 1951).

So, those hoping for a quick resolution of Baha'i Encyclopedia impasse may wish to make note of this. At the end, as I said, NSA of Iran published a 16 page letter outlining all the "errors" in ZH-3 and included Fadil's own short letter giving a blanket agreement with their comments. This letter of NSA of Iran is the greatest stupidity ever committed by a Baha'i institution and shows only their depth of ignorance. I will share its content as our discussion of ZH-3 unfolds. This letter resulted in discouraging a model servant of the Faith from further association with Baha'i administration and silenced anyone who dared to do serious or independent scholarship.

Forever though the memory of this illustrious scholar of the Cause is inscribed upon the hearts of those seeking knowledge. The incredible injustice that took place a half-century ago must be set right, and it is my intention to speak publicly, openly and supportive of the Hand of the Cause of God Fadil-i Mazandarani wherever I can. If justice means anything to you, I implore you to do likewise.

With devotion to the Faith,

Ahang

Was Ali Mohammad Shirazi (Bab) a Sayyid ?

Sayyed-hood is passed down from Father to Son. For the Bab to be a Sayyed, all of his forefathers must also be Sayyeds but none of his forefathers (4 generations up) were Sayyeds.

This is the Bab's genealogy:

http://bahai-library.com/books/dawnbreakers/preface/genealogy.big.jpg

Click to enlarge

published in Shoghi's "The Dawn-breakers":

http://bahai-library.com/abid_dawnbreakers_genealogy_babi

On the far right these have been mentioned as the Bab's forefathers: Mirza Nasrullah, Mirza Ibrahim, Mirza Abu'l-Fath, Mirza Muhamad Rida.

As you can see, according to Baha'i history books, the Bab's forefathers were all "Mirza" and the claim that the Bab is a "Sayyed" is a lie made up by Baha'is and followers of the Bab.

Wikipedia page of Bab says that "He claimed to be a Sayyid"

This is how Baha'i Scholars react when engaged in respectful discussions

Question and Answers - Baha'i faith and Israel ?

April 1968: A Baha'i delegation met with Israel's President, Zalman Shazar

Question :

(A) Why are Baha'is forbidden to teach their faith in Israel?
Baha'i Answer : Bahaullah, founder of the Baha'i Faith, prohibited teaching the faith in Sham (the Ottoman province of Syria which includes present-day Israel and Palestinian territories) [1]. Note that this ruling was made at least 56 years before the establishment of the state of Israel.

Reality : Yeah! Right! Let's exclude people from attaining salvation simply because they live in a specific geographical location: The vast territories called "Sham"! I can just imagine how this law was introduced: "I Baha'u'llah, have brought a new religion from God but but but (stutters) God told me no one is allowed to teach the faith to those leaving in SHAM." Funny that Baha'is think this excuse is justified for Israel while they call the actions of the Iranian government for implementing the exact same rule but within its own borders persecution. Pure hypocrisy at its finest.
In case you didn't realize in my response, I said nothing about SHAM. I said Israel. The current ruling states Baha'is can have no activities in ISRAEL, not SHAM. ISRAEL is not SHAM. In case you didn't know Baha'is are merrily living in and teaching their beliefs in SHAM: http://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq-religion/bahai-faith ....
 
Question :

(B) Why are there no Baha'i community in Israel? Baha'i Answer : With the onset of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Baha'i community of Palestine left the region to avoid becoming involved in the political dispute.

Reality : Meaningless argument. Baha'is claim they do not involve themselves in politics in any manner. Stating that they left Israel "to avoid becoming involved in the political dispute" is pure baloney. Baha'i live in many many regions with grave political situations but they never leave those places. Do Baha'is take us for fools when they put forward these lame excuses?

Question :

(C) Do you know what Local Spiritual Assemblies do?
Baha'i Answer : They register marriages and divorces, organize devotionals (that is when they meet in each other's homes to pray), etc. None of this warrants persecution. 

Reality : Baha'is are not being persecuted or prosecuted for any of that. As I said Baha'is are free to practice their own beliefs within themselves. Get married according to their own customs, divorced, pray and... as long as they don't proselytize in Iran. That is the law in Iran. Disobey it and you will be PROsecuted like all laws in all countries.

You forgot to mention that Local Spiritual Assemblies are part of the Baha'i dictatorship hierarchy, they take orders from the next level in rank and convey it to the adherents. e.g. so and so Baha'i dude is now considered a covenant breaker and no one in the community including his parents, spouse, children can speak with him and must all shun him. The LSA also gathers intelligence from those in the community and threatens dissidents and those that dare to question the rulings of the dictatorship order. You didn't know all this or you simply ignored it?

Question :

A Baha'i pretending to be a Shiite claims : All religions have some sort of organization and hierarchy. Living in Canada, as a Shia, I am blessed to live near Shia mosques, community centers, and even a Shia highschool! All thanks to freedom of religion. And yet, we turn a blind eye to what happens in the only Shia country in the world. We forget that they too (eg, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus) should also have freedom of religion. Truth will ultimately prevail so why does the Iranian government resort to closing down Baha'i business and debar Baha'is from universities? 

Answer : No religion has a hierarchy and organization like that of Baha'ism. The UHJ is a pure dictatorship. They decide if you can be considered a Baha'i or not, they decide who you can or cannot socialize and speak with, they decide where you can or cannot travel to, they even decide what portions of there scripture can be translated or distributed... disobey and you will be punished big time. In its organized form it is a government within a government. No country will tolerate such behavior. If your going to practice your beliefs in this manner you're gonna need a legal Permit from the government and well, they don't have that permit in Iran. They have the freedom to practice their beliefs individually but organizational and proselytization is a big no no, just like in Israel.

Did you know Baha'is believe non-Baha'i schools are: death incarnate, a cause of stagnation, abatement and humiliation? No, well read this:
http://www.bahaibahai.com/eng/index.php/articles?id=92

That is all the stuff they never tell you about. If any organization or faith system with such sick beliefs wanted to erect a school where I live then rest assured that I would be the first person to oppose its establishment and propagation of its beliefs. But they are free to practice their beliefs among themselves, no one would care less let, even the Iranian government.