CG Didymus
Veteran Member
Okay, so he is making things up about the Baha'i Faith now. But what about when he was a Baha'i? Why would he feel he was forced out? Was he treated justly? Here's something Juan Cole wrote about the situation...(continued)
"Panopticon" is blatantly propagandistic. To create reader receptivity for his thesis that Bahá'í Faith in the U.S. has become deceptive, controlling and manipulative, Cole begins the article with diction carefully chosen to arouse suspicions and negative emotions. Indeed, his first sentence encourages readers to adopt a suspicious, paranoid mind-set and engage in conspiratorial thinking: "Despite the large literature on American religious bodies, some groups remain curiously off-limits to investigation"
The phrase "curiously off-limits" (ibid.) suggests that something odd or `fishy' is going on. "Off-limits" has strong authoritative (police, military) connotations, which, of course, is exactly what Cole wants to suggest about the Administrative Order. The word "curiously" insinuates that perhaps somebody may even be hindering a "careful investigation" (ibid.), a possibility that feeds Cole's portrait of a dishonest and manipulative Administrative Order. that, according to him, maintains a network of spies.
Cole's attempt to arouse emotions is reinforced in the second sentence of "Panopticon" which points out how these "curiously off-limits" (ibid.) religions "carefully cultivate public images that hide important facets of their outlook and internal workings" As used here, both of the italicized words carry strong suggestions of intentional deceit. To complete this orchestration of connotations, Cole refers to the disastrous "collapse of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's Oregon commune" (ibid.). This reference is intended to arouse reader's emotions by recalling the extreme isolation and regimentation undergone by Bhagwan's followers as well as the absolutely uncritical adulation they accorded him. Cole wants readers to transfer such associations to his portrait of the Administrative Order.
I became a Baha'i in 1972 at the age of 19... Under the influence of Shoghi Effendi's Advent of Divine Justice, I
immediately began studying Arabic at Northwestern and switched to majoring in
religion, completing a B.A... In 1974 I pioneered to Lebanon as part of the Five Year Plan... I then went to UCLA in fall, 1979, to begin a doctorate in Islamic Studies, studying with Professor Amin Banani (son of the Hand of the Cause) and others...
At the request of the Association for Baha'i Studies, in 1980-81 I wrote "TheConcept of Manifestation in the Baha'i Writings." In the '80s I also translated two books by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl. The House of Justice commended me for the latter and asked me to do some translating for them...
I went back to UCLA, finished writing up, and came to the University of Michigan in 1984, after which I was very much immersed in trying to establish myself in Middle East scholarship. I heard only vague echoes of the 1988 crackdown on *dialogue* magazine (I was abroad when the heavy action occurred), which had been published by some friends of my in Southern California...
In the '90s I occasionally published articles on the Baha'i faith in places
like History Today or scholarly journals...
Now the part where he gets in trouble with the Baha'i administration...Then [email protected] came along, and I was introduced to the new medium of electronic mail on a big listserv. I think all of us were astonished at what followed, with feminist Baha'is discussing with rather conservative Iranian males, fundamentalists discussing with academics, mystics meeting bureaucrats, and all sorts of diverse views being expressed. [email protected] was controversial in a community that was used to pretty tight controls on public, written discourse, but I had no reason to think it was somehow illegitimate as an activity,..
I still have no idea why it was that in late April, 1996, I was called up by a member of the Continental Board of Counselors and informed that I had on [email protected] "made statements contrary to the Covenant." I have been back over my messages there numerous times and find nothing in what I said that in any way challenged the Baha'i Covenant... I am sure that the entire thing was an unfortunate misunderstanding, and have heard back privately from members of the Universal House of Justice to that effect...
I have to admit, with some shame, that my faith in Baha'u'llah was shattered by this episode. Leaving ideology aside, the officials I was dealing with seemed to me very weird. When, full of unutterable sorrow, I announced my resignation from the faith under this duress...
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