Stepping into the gardens of the Shrine of the Bab is like entering a hallucination. They rise in steps all the way up the mountainside above Haifa’s downtown, and at the midway point, at midmorning, the clear light off the Mediterranean combines with the precise efforts of 150 gardeners to achieve a combination of lucid depth and dazzling color.

The Little Religion That Persists: The Baha’i in Israel

The Time magazine journalist talks to Rob Weinberg who is one of the BWC’s external communication people as well as to several regular people visiting the gardens.

Jonas Mejer, a student visiting from Copenhagen says:

“It’s kind of like a theme park, where they’re keeping everything ‘just so’. But it’s a holy place.”

I chuckled after reading that because it displays a child-like innocence and honesty. My own impression after visiting the gardens was that they were maintained and manicured to an inch of their lives.

From afar they were much more beautiful than from up close. It is difficult to explain or perhaps I lack the eloquence of Jonas but there was a cosmetic vibe to it that didn’t sit well with me. I suppose the House of Justice is only trying to maintain the high standards set by Shoghi Effendi when he, with his own hands, created the gardens with much effort and sacrifice.

You won’t have to look far to guess what one of my most favorite spots was in the gardens (look up!).

Here is a short video from August 2010 from CNN.com talking with Rob Weinberg:

Related posts:

1. Disney Amusement Park Coming to Haifa
2. “Let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind”
3. New Baha’i Renovation & Beautification Projects

As you probably know, I’m a sucker for data-mining: Declining Internet Interest for “Baha’i”. That was keeping track of the relative popularity of search incidents for the keyword “bahai”.

This new tool from Google is equally fascinating but it provides a different perspective. Whereas the previous one is a reflection of our modern times and our penchant for using google as a search engine to find answers on the internet, this new tool allows us to look at the usage frequency of certain words throughout history in published books.

Of course, I immediately typed in “Bahai” to see what it would show. Keep in mind that it is very sensitive to alternative spellings. So the word “Bahai” that I used will produce different results than the word “Baha’i” or the word “bahai” or “baha’i”. In the end, I chose to show you the graph for the word “Bahai” because it has the most frequent usage in Google’s database.

Take a look at the graph and see if you notice the same things that I did:

Click to see larger graph

The first ‘bump’ is 1850 which is right around the time of the Babi movement in Iran, which then morphed into the Baha’i Faith. It is surprising to see such an immediate – albeit relatively small – reaction from the English press to this event halfway around the world. But then again, orientalists like E.G. Browne were deeply interested in the movement.

There is a clear spike between 1911 and 1918 (approximately). The line is smoothed with a smoothing coefficient of 3 – a setting which can be changed in the Ngram control panel. If you reduce the smoothing coefficient, there are two distinct spikes, one for 1915 and the other for 1919.

Knowing that Abdu’l-Baha’s visit to the West took place between 1911 and 1913 provides a simple explanation for this sudden increase in exposure. And providing that we give a few years lag time for research and publication we have a very neat match for this sharp increase in the prevalence of the usage of the word “Bahai” in English books.

The second spike occurs a few decades later between 1944 and 1946. What might account for it? My hunch is that it is the outbreak of World War II and the inevitable soul searching that occurred in reaction to the horrific tragedy that is war.

The other standout years are 1973 and 1982. I’m not sure what 1973 corresponds to but 1982 would probably be explained by the Islamic revolution of Iran and the systemic persecution of Baha’is – which continues to this day.

Here is the same graph restricted to “British English”:

Click to see larger graph

The prevalence of the word “Bahai” in British books is somewhat different. The first spike occurs in 1921. Then there are other spikes of activity in 1974 and 1981. And finally, most curious is the astounding increase in 2008 – the final year for which there is data.

Take a look yourself and see what sorts of things you can discover. As always, if you have any insight or comment, I’d love to hear about it below.

If searching through billions of words in the span of seconds isn’t amazing enough, you can also bore down into the books themselves using the links provided at the bottom of the graph at the Google Ngram website and actually read where each mention is featured.

No related posts.

Since Google is the king of internet when it comes to search, I was somewhat saddened to see that the number of worldwide searches for the keyword, “Baha’i” is continuing to decline. The chart below is from Google Insight for Search and it shows the incidence of people searching for the word Bahai on Google:

Since 2004 (the farthest Google has data) there has been a consistent decline in the number of Google searches for the term Baha’i. By the way, alternative spellings such as “bahai” provide the same results – Google is smart like that. Since Google loves numbers more than the Count, they crunch the numbers to come up with a short term forecast one year ahead (not visible in the chart above). Based on their forecast, the search index will decline from 39 (May 2010) to 33 in June 2011. You can see the chart including the forecast here.

To get some perspective we can compare this to, say, the term “Islam”. For starters, Islam’s index is flat, indicating a consistent level of online search interest. But I didn’t show the two together because there is so much more interest in the term “Islam” that the two plotted together on one index makes “Baha’i”‘s index basically unreadable.

Searching for other religions is also interesting. For example, the keyword “Judaism” shows a similar decline in popularity but the amount of search is higher than Baha’i. As well, there is an annual peak of interest that centers around Yom Kippur – the holiest of Jewish religious holidays.

So what inferences can we draw from this?

For starters, it is important to realize the importance of the internt. The reality is that the internet is a now an integral part of life in most developed countries. And with time, the integration and usefulness of the internet is only growing. So on the one hand, this trend tells us that within the Western, or wealthy nations, there is a decline in interest.

Considering the significant correlation between religiosity and wealth that isn’t surprising. As well, the Baha’i world center has for some time now targeted the less developed nations and developed programs such as Ruhi specifically to gain inroads within them.

Related posts:

1. Iranians Curious About “Bahai”, Americans Not
2. Frequency of the Word “Bahai” in English Books
3. Bahai Research

To find out more about why this document is so important, you can read more about it here. Interestingly enough, there are many discrepancies between the contents of the Codex and what we consider as the Bible today. For example, it has no mention of a resurrected Jesus – a pivotal component of modern Christian doctrine.

I took the image you see above while playing around with the controls at the Codex Sinaiticus website. As the image shows, you can zoom in to see quiet a lot of detail.

Even you are not a librarian or a photographer or an archivist, it isn’t difficult to imagine the daunting task of digitizing a 1,600-year old manuscript that is literally falling apart.

This monumental achievement reminded me of the massive volumes of Baha’i texts which are hidden away in vaults and not accessible by scholars (or anyone else). To give you an idea of what a similar project for Baha’i texts would look like, here is a low resolution image of an excerpt from the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Baha’u'llah (written in the handwriting of Mirza Aqa Jan, Baha’u'llah’s amanuensis):

It is difficult to estimate the sheer magnitude of material that is locked away right now. But I would estimate that less than one percent of the total is currently published. Most are kept in special archival vaults under Mount Carmel but there is also an impressive collection in the Afnan Library in England.

Sadly, the website of the Afnan Library is merely a bookmark on the internet rather than the storehouse of information it could be if it were used as a portal to the contents of the documents held there.

The Baha’i Faith is the only world religion which has verified and authentic religious texts. As well we have an untold wealth of secondary documents. So it is frustrating that they are not shared freely with the world. After all, the documents are intended for all of humanity. So it would follow that they should be made available as widely as possible. Before, this meant either publishing the content as books in their original language – which had limited market and was an expensive undertaking – or translating them to English or other languages to open up a larger market – but this meant expensive and protracted translation projects.

With the advent of the internet, we have the solution. When texts are published online in digital format, as with the Codex Sinaiticus, they are available to as many people as possible for the least per unit cost. This opens up an incredible panorama of possibilities and advantages. Not only for scholars and others who are interested in the text but also for the dissemination and scholarly advancement of the content itself.

The Baha’i Reference Library is a good step towards this end but it is infinitesimally small compared to what could be done. For the price of one translation project, all Baha’i texts could be digitized and made available online in their original format.

Because the Baha’i texts are so young, they are in very good condition and could be digitized much easier than the Codex. As it stands now, a person would have to request permission (something that is not always given – especially if the person’s views vary at all with that of the UHJ/ITC) and then physically go to Haifa and London. This cumbersome and anachronistic process need not continue.

The Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the world religions and as such it is only natural that we should be at the vanguard of realizing the full potential of the internet. I hope to see this fulfilled in my lifetime.

Related posts:

1. An Alternative Understanding of the Bible
2. Baha’i Blogs & Other Online Baha’i News

Related posts:

1. An Interview With Brian Taraz – Part I
2. An Interview With Brian Taraz – Part II
3. An Interview With Brian Taraz – part III

Although the site is the work of Ian Vink and Runa Ali, it is hosted by USBNC.ORG (US Baha’i National Center web servers). And still the site is way too slow. Speed is extremely important for a search engine as it improves productivity and frequency of use.

It also supports 14 languages in total: most romance languages, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese and more. As well, new documents are being continuously added. The best part is that it features boolean searches. This means you can use OR AND NOT to zero in on what you want.

You can even download the whole thing and work offline. And we are told that there are “widgets” coming that would enable you to embed it on your website to allow people a portal to access it.

You might remember a while back we talked about majnun, a Baha’i search engine which basically filtered the web according to what… we don’t know. While majnun is simply a veiled exercise in censorship, Ian and Runa’s project is about disseminating knowledge openly.

BahaiResearch.com reminds me of Ocean, another similar tool (but it is only downloadable and has no online feature).

So take BahaiResearch.com for a spin and let Ian know what you think. He’s done a great job of not only designing a very easy to use application but one that has some real practical value.

Related posts:

1. Bahai Research

Recently he wrote a lengthy letter outlining a public apology to the Baha’is of the world. And he has approached several websites and blogs to distribute this apology further. I’m happy to oblige his request:

Between the years 2002 and 2008, I have gradually progressed from the point of condemning Baha’u'llah to hell (a judgment that only rebounded back upon myself while I believed it) to a recognition that, whether or not he was inspired by God and regardless of any specific mistakes he may have made, he was surely a man who was trying to make a positive difference in the world and deserves much credit for that.

So let me join the Baha’is this year, this day, in saying “Happy birthday Baha’u'llah!” The world is a better place and many souls have been lifted up to greater heights because you were born and lived on this earth and shared your spiritual message with its people. I love you — not in the way Baha’is do as a follower of the religion you founded, but as a fellow child of God who yearns to do good for my brothers and sisters in the human family and who appreciates the positive things you did in your life in the face of extraordinary trials.

I apologize for excessive and sometimes unfair criticisms I have voiced against Baha’u'llah, his successors, and the Baha’i community. I ask forgiveness from all of you — those who are in this world as well as those in the world beyond. I especially ask those who have been martyred for their Baha’i faith to forgive me. I know that you sacrificed yourselves for something worth dying for: a vision of humanity united in inclusive love, common purpose, and peace among nations and religions under One God. Let me have as much courage and strength to live for these ideals as you had to die for them.

I didn’t talk with Eric very much when he was active and seemingly angry at the Baha’i Faith online. I did join his online group briefly and left on amicable terms after taking part in a few discussions.

The history of the Baha’i Faith and polemics on the internet is quite rich and I’m sure at some point historians will wade through the archives or discussion groups, websites and blogs to write more about it.

At the beginning Baha’i activities online were mostly dominated by academics, mostly because it was they who had ready access to the internet and were at the forefront of adopting new technologies. Then as the internet became more widely available, a more diverse group of people entered the fray. For the most part, it remained a very small group of people.

Over time the discussion flowed from these smaller academic discussion groups to the wider newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai and talk.religion.bahai – the establishment of the latter is itself an interesting story.

From there the online presence branched off into many different discussion groups and then into separate Baha’i blogs, like the one you are reading. Many of the original forums are still ongoing, with Talisman, being one of the oldest. You can find a full list of online Baha’i communities and discussion groups to the right.

No one knows what the future holds, the only thing certain is that the nature of discourse has been forever changed. Whereas before Baha’is were confined by geographic locations and the ability to travel and perhaps on a limited basis, communicate via letters and books, now, we can instantly exchange ideas, share news and collaborate.

No related posts.

I went to check up on radioNUR’s website recently and because I’m using Firefox, I was shown this warning. I’ve removed the website URL which shows up in the warning because it is another attack site and if people don’t have up to date protection, their computers can get infected.

Apparently radioNUR’s website was recently hacked and taken over for some nefarious reason. It seems that they are back up and trying to clean up after the fact. I hope they are ok and can recover from this. They are a small operation that does good work and don’t really need this headache.

I’m not sure if they are struggling financially as they were before but I’m glad to see that Michael’s project continues to operate. Way back when I started writing this Baha’i blog, radioNUR was going through some extreme financial pressures and I offered some ideas and suggestions: radioNUR part I and radioNUR part II.

Unfortunately, not only have they not taken any of my suggestions regarding improving their useability but they’ve somehow managed to make it even more challenging for their listeners to tune in. Sheesh.

But if any Baha’is out there have money simply burning a hole in their wallets, consider buying a donation or ads on radioNUR. And if you are a fan of Baha’i Rants, you could do worse than buy an ad to mention and promote this blog on radioNUR

Or you can simply tune in and listen to the broadcast when you’re online. If you can make heads or tails of the instructions.

Related posts:

1. radioNUR [part I]
2. radioNUR [part II]

According to Google, a lot of folks are interested to learn more about the Baha’i Faith on the internet. The keyword “bahai” ranks at around 80, which is relatively high (out of 100). The trend over the past 4 years is moderately decreasing however.

Google also breaks down the search volume for keywords by geography. Perhaps you would be surprised to learn that, by far, the most curious, are Iranians:

According to Google, Iran’s search volume for the keyword Baha’ is 100 (the highest). I’m amazed to see such unbridled curiosity from the cradle of the Faith. Not just because I tend to read from most parts that people there are generally apathetic but also because of the technological limitations imposed by a nationwide firewall which rivals China’s.

If you drill down into the Iranian data, you discover that there has been a dramatic drop off in search volume for Baha’i in the past 4 years. It has gone from 100 to low double digits. Maybe that’s when the firewall went into effect. Or perhaps it was ratcheted up.

Understandably, the second spot goes to Israel, at a respectable 67. I don’t know about you, but I would be a tiny bit interested to learn more about this “Baha’i” thing if I had scores of Baha’is in my backyard every year.

Unfortunately for the proclamation efforts of the NSA of the United States, Americans are apathetic at an index reading of just 39. However, the people in the state of Illinois, for some strange reason, show the highest interest. Followed very closely by Alaska.

Another country scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of interest is Chile. Hopefully once the Santiago Temple is finished, that will change things.

If you want to tinker with the data, here is the link for the Google Insight worldwide, and Iran specific search data.

Related posts:

1. Frequency of the Word “Bahai” in English Books
2. Declining Internet Interest for “Baha’i”
3. Bahai Research