Prof. Juan Cole on Baha’i Faith

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been on this list I have been accused of long-term heresy,  of “claiming authority,” of out and out lying (though that was  retracted, twice), of misrepresentation, of ‘playing fast and loose  with the facts,’ and even of being ‘delusional.’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