Juan R.I Cole on the Baha’is

American Ex-Baha’i Scholar - Juan Cole

Professor Juan Cole, February 23, 1999: ”There is nothing to be puzzled by. Right wing Baha’is only like to hear the sound of their own voices (which are the only voices they will admit to being ”Baha’i” at all). Obviously, the world is so constructed that they cannot in fact only hear their own voices. They are forced to hear other voices that differ from theirs. This most disturbs them when the voices come from enrolled Baha’is or when the voices speak of the Baha’i faith. The way they sometimes deal with the enrolled Baha’is is to summon them to a heresy inquiry and threaten them with being shunned if they do not fall silent. With non-Baha’is or with ex-Baha’is, they deal with their speech about the faith by backbiting, slandering and libelling the speaker. You will note that since I’ve been on this list I have been accused of long-term heresy, of ”claiming authority,” of out and out lying (though that was retracted, twice), of misrepresentation, of ’playing fast and loose with the facts,’ and even of being ’delusional.’ I have been accused of all these falsehoods by *Baha’is*, by prominent Baha’is. I have been backbitten by them. This shows that all the talk about the danger a sharp tongue can do, all the talk about the need for harmony, for returning poison with honey, for a sin-covering eye, is just *talk* among right wing Baha’is. No one fights dirtier than they when they discover a voice they cannot silence and cannot refute....” http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/Cole71.htm

From Mission Problems in New Persia, 1926, p. 83, 87 and 89 quoted by William McElwee Miller in The Baha’i Faith: It’s History and Teachings, 1973, p. 289.

”...There is no conscience with them [ i.e. the Baha’is], they keep to no principle, they tell you what is untrue, ignoring or denying undoubted historical facts, and this is the character of both the leader and the led...As to morality and honesty, the whole system has proved disappointing...I have been in contact with many Baha’is, and have had dealings with many and have tested many, and unfortunately I have met not a single one who could be called honest or faithful in the full sense of these words...”

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