Here is the full movie (excuse two short commercial interruptions) Baha’is In My Backyard.
When you finish watching, drop me a comment below (anonymous if you wish) about your thoughts or reactions:
To download the video, click on the Google Video button on the bottom right hand corner of the video above. Then click on the small pop-up window that emerges from the button. This will take you to a new page. From there, look on the right hand sidebar to find instructions on how to download the complete video.
Alternatively, can also find it here for download. To do so, follow these instructions. If you do use this method, make sure you upload at least as much as you download.
Although the film highlights the amateur status (both as documentarians and sleuths) of the producers, the film is fun and and does reveal several important aspects of the Baha’i mindset. Baha’is have argued that the film does not portray the Baha’i faith fairly. I disagree. The film shows that the Baha’is, at least those in official positions, see their faith as centered on administration. This comes through over and over in the interviews with Baha’i officials. The interview with Nigar Bahai Amsalem is important for showing how the designation of Covenant breakers makes the Baha’is appear very cult like. This great grand daughter of Baha’u'llah put it correctly when she refers to the Baha’i position toward her and her family as childish. Mostly, I was taken with the good spirit of the producers and they seemed to be having fun with the Baha’i material.
“O my God! O my God!
Unite the hearts of Thy servants
and reveal to them Thy great purpose.
May they follow Thy commandments
and abide in Thy law.
Help them, O God, in their endeavor,
and grant them strength to serve Thee.
O God! Leave them not to themselves
but guide their steps by the light of Thy knowledge
and cheer their hearts by Thy love.
Verily, Thou art their Helper
and their Lord.”
- Baha’u'llah
Baha’i Prayers
http://www.reference.bahai.org
ummm, thanks for the prayer. But what are you trying to say?
I thought Baha’u'llah’s Great Grand Daughter came across quite well. I think she has good genes!
What a lovely prayer!
What Knowledge are you imoarting?
Fritz
This was great!
Watching it I felt like Orwell was writing 1984 again.
Something is wrong we the Faith, smoke and mirrors, hands moving fast.
This movie adds to the group of knowlege.
Loved it
Fritz
Wow!
That was great! Holy Toledo!
When in my life will I ever get to see the underground supermarket or parking? What great shots of the gardens with the gardeners gardening.
The underground tunnel to the UHJ? The Bomb Shelter?
And how about the David Kelly espionage pursuit.
What a great piece of intent and labor!
Even the bits with Baha’u'llah’s grand-daughter (no reason to doubt that at all. She’s got the pictures) and with Fred Glaysher. They are wonderfully objective and really speak for themselves.
IF this Faith does attain a modicum of millenial endurance - if it does grow as projected - then this film will be eventually seen as an endeavour of utmost importance and value.
thanks for posting it.
Peace,
Brian
Steven Scholl begins his comment on Naama Pyritz’ “Bahais in My Backyard” with an off-handed, snide remark regarding the producers’ “amateurish status,” and one needs to ask why? Scholl should otherwise be elated at this long time coming come-uppance, instead he begins his commentary with hubris, and hubris that is typically the sort of hubrism of those otherwise loyal to the Haifan Bahaim organization. Smoke-and-mirrors, sleighting of hands, deception and double-triple blinds, nothing being what it seems - a point underscored by Frederick Glaysher in the documentary. Perhaps Scholl is disappointed and expressing his frustration at the fact that Pyritz nor her other producers deigned to contact him or the other so-called “liberal” posse, but instead, amongst real dissidents, contacted and interviewed Frederick Glaysher and one of the notable modern representatives of the Unitarian Bahais.
Funny, how history unfolds.
Wahid Azal
>> I thought Baha’u’llah’s Great Grand Daughter came across quite well.
Hmmm, she also is exceedingly proud of being directly related to Mirza Muhammad Ali — who caused overwhelming problems and pain to Baha’u'llah, Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi. It’s like watching the grand daughter of Judas brag about how much he contributed to the growth of Christianity.
…And people wonder why she is not welcomed into the Baha’i Community?
Hi Glen,
When did Mirza Muhammad Ali cause Baha’u'llah pain in His lifetime? Do you have some inside scholarly information you can post here that nobody else has? Baha’u'llah gave him, as His son along with Abdu’l-Baha, a position in the Faith in His Will and testament upon His passing in 1892 didn’t He? Or do I have this wrong? After that is apparently when people seemed to not have good parental supervision or something.
As a Baha’i I believe that Baha’u'llah did receive a tremendous Revelation from the Cosmos and really is the Divine Teacher for this just beginning World Age.
I also believe that, unfortunately, Baha’u'llah received it coming out of the dysfunctional and warped Arab original desert waste primitive North Jersey Sopranos culture of Islam where a man can have multiple wives and this causes way too much eventual psychological baggage in families among full and half siblings.
This is the unfortunate psychological root of the problem of “covenant breakers” in the sad and most unfortunate history of the Baha’i Faith. Too many mommies and too many step siblings and their dysfunctional descendants so people just could not get it together in life as one big happy family like they should have to help the Faith.
It certainly wasn’t Baha’u'llah’s fault. He was born into that warped culture and in my opinion magnificently transcended this handicap by creating something truly remarkable that still could do quite well if real adults started to appear in it at some point over the next one thousand years.
But this very same societal dysfunctionality plagues us in spades down to this very day. Osama Bin Laden was the 50th child in a psychologically warped family in that same culture. An apparently not too well adjusted guy in life. A guy that should have taken some of his millions and got on the analyst’s couch with some ink blots to look at.
Baha’u'llah did channel the Divine Message for this World Age and I for one feel this Mission should be honored by advanced spiritual insight and conduct among the Baha’is.
So I say we should all start to forgive and forget and be loving with all people. I did not detect this “unseeming proudness” in her at all that you mention.
The photos and genealogy “on-camera” riff was just to establish that she really is the Great Grand Daughter of Baha’u'llah. Pretty much Chapter One, Paragraph One, Sentence One at UCLA documentary film school.
The Baha’i Faith may start to advance again in the world in due time when it once again goes into the hands of open, broad minded, spiritually advanced people instead of petty narrow minded followers of blind imitation on their hand-me-down path of life. Fearful people that must keep coloring between the lines in life. I say people should start to lean to paint like Henri Matisse. Learn to paint in the colors of life.
I would be happy to have tea with this woman. I would find it quite interesting. As I said, “good genes” !
Dear Craig,
“I also believe that, unfortunately, Baha’u'llah received it coming out of the dysfunctional and warped Arab original desert waste primitive North Jersey Sopranos culture of Islam where a man can have multiple wives and this causes way too much eventual psychological baggage in families among full and half siblings.”
Your comments here are utterly racist, disgraceful to the max and off the mark by quantum levels, revealing your own mentality and deeply ingrained ethnocentrism - a trait exhibited by virtually every last self-professed liberal-disenrolled bahai out there, and now you! If you want to open the can of worms regarding cultural dysfunctionalities, I can open several supermarkets regarding the pathological criminal socipathologies of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Western European genocidal cultural impulses historically rooted (the same one that sent you to ‘Nam to kill “gooks” and brought you back completely messed up, hence making you soft to being plucked and brainwashed like a chump by a cult such as Bahaim): one deeply ingrained, whose track record is libraries longer than anything remotely exhibited by Muslim, Arab and Persian Islamicate cultures. Fortunately, unlike the sort of WASP racism that seems to animate your cultural lifeworld, Traditional cultures such those in the Mid East have patented cultural codes of respect and protection that your porno-obsessed, female-commodificatory culturally objectifying materially-obsessed pseudo-civilization of destructive demons can only dream about. Obviously your mind is utterly poisoned by the propaganda and sound-bites of the dubious manufactured consent of your racist media culture in AmeriKKKa.
Now the problem with Bahaism, besides the obvious, is not because of us sand-niggers, but arguably because it got contaminated from the get-go by people like you: deeply resentful cultural, neo-colonizing racist wolves masquerading as liberal-open-minded sheep.
You are an utter creep, like the rest of your liberal friends, and everything you have said is tout court invalidated with this luciferian slip!
Get help!
Wahid
It seems obvious that this post preceeding, many of the comments I have read previously in this blog over a number of months, and the assertions of the elderly woman in the video “Bahais In My Backyard”, are rooted in some sense of self seeking for attention or status…or retained and well cultivated umbrage.
It is a fairly well known fact among the Bahais in Haifa that there are a number of the members of Baha u llahs family descendents, from those that were at one time expelled, who have been readmitted but whom choose not to have their affiliation with Him known so that they can serve the Cause without undo attention.
I imagine had this been the position taken by this emminent lady that she too might find a greater personal fulfillment in serving selflesslessly rather than hanging on to some hope of recognition.
Wahid!
How nice to hear from you!
Thanks for that tip on R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz! I’m really into his writings now! Very useful insights!
Best regards,
Craig
Choke on the Temple of Man, racist creep!
Wahid
Wahid,
That would make a very good esoteric bumper sticker!
Blessings,
Craig
PS
Aren’t you up a bit early down in Australia?
BTW, “Wolfmother” played great at Live Earth!
No, I’m up at the normal hours one should be up at. The clock on your computer - not to mention your brain - is set wrong.
Wahid
Wahid, I’ve never erased or censored a comment on this blog. Please allow me to continue not to do so.
No problem. I won’t post here again. But since you are considering deleting my comments, kindly contemplate the sort of racism that people calling themselves “liberals” are continually articulating in various fora. I noted that this blog, for instance, had an entry about the Arab children of Islamist groups who are brainwashed to hate, but then were completely silent about the fact that during last summer’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, all major news outlets where reporting as well as showing how Israeli children where being encouraged and taken to sign bombs being attached to F-16s of the IAF that where about to kill Arab Lebanese children and their families. Nada!
The fact is that where the bahai unenrolled-liberals are concerned there is a very decidedly anti-Mid East, anti-Iranian, pro-US, pro-Anglophone and not so tacitly neo-colonial rhetoric that is continually being rhetoricized by them - as if the rest of the world, and especially the Middle East, are little more than beasts requiring edification and education by the more civilized white man (particularly the American) who has a right to do what he pleases with us. They might not articulate it outright or overtly, unless they be Craig, but it is very much a ‘presence’ a la Derrida animating the entire discourse of this group from start to finish. And that there is not a single Persian amongst this sub-culture, is also quite revealing.
In ant case, I have said all that needs to be said. Craig needed to be firmly put in his place for that utter ignorant nonsense, since he has been saying this kind of thing unchallenged and in other fora for awhile now.
Adieu!
Wahid
Wahid, you’re right. As I’ve said before, both sides need to make changes for there to be peace.
It is your decision to stay or leave. All I ask of you and everyone else who stops by to share their thoughts is that they do so by speaking of ideas and exchanging views. Personal insults are both unnecessary and unhelpful.
Wahid writes:
“The fact is that where the bahai unenrolled-liberals are concerned there is a very decidedly anti-Mid East, anti-Iranian, pro-US, pro-Anglophone and not so tacitly neo-colonial rhetoric that is continually being rhetoricized by them - as if the rest of the world, and especially the Middle East, are little more than beasts requiring edification and education by the more civilized white man (particularly the American) who has a right to do what he pleases with us. They might not articulate it outright or overtly, unless they be Craig, but it is very much a ‘presence’ a la Derrida animating the entire discourse of this group from start to finish. And that there is not a single Persian amongst this sub-culture, is also quite revealing.
In ant case, I have said all that needs to be said. Craig needed to be firmly put in his place for that utter ignorant nonsense, since he has been saying this kind of thing unchallenged and in other fora for awhile now.”
I think it is a bit of a stretch to say I said all this! Somebody is surely looking for drive by enemies to attack in in their limited event horizon psyche in such a mindset. Read my posts here and in other forums. I would be the very first to say that present U.S. policy in the Middle East is catastrophic beyond words. Nor have I ever said that military force solves anything. Quite to the contrary! Nor do I speak in ethnic or national terms in any of my analysis of the present human situation on this planet. I speak in an analysis of psychological archetypes. All currently existing nations, cultures, and “religions” have equally plenty of dysfunctional ineptitude and stupidity to go around. Nobody has a monopoly on it! The franchise is everywhere.
Many of the points Wahid made on Western and U.S. culture are quite valid. I’m not defending anything racist at all or the superiority of any one race or culture. I’m just saying that in my own humble opinion having four wives in a family can lead to dysfunctional psychologies in full and half siblings. That is my theory. Maybe someone has studied this and there is a body of literature on it. I’ll have to do some research. This thought only came up for me yesterday in my post so I haven’t really looked at any scientific or anecdotal studies. My premise is in the realm of psychology not in the realm of making racist statements. Making racist statements are so, well, mid last century. So retro! Let’s examine the psychologies involved in things. Dysfunctional families, dysfunctional religions, dysfunctional governments, dysfunctional posts on Internet blogs are everywhere. Let’s study the claims people make and examine the issues.
So Wahid felt the duty to “put me in my place”. No big wup. Whatever. I hope he feels better now and can enjoy the day down in Australia.
My whole point was that I, for one, would love to take Baha’u'llah’s Great Grand Daughter to tea. I would find it interesting. I have been a legally card carrying Baha’i for 36 years and I think the whole “Covenant Breaker” obsession thing is long past it’s usefulness. The current organization of the Baha’i Faith has catastrophicly failed so it may be advisable to start some new discussions while playing shuffleboard on the Titanic. That is all I am ever trying to do. Some might even say that the real Covenant Breakers are in plain site. But that argument is even wearisome to me too. I don’t care any more. Witch hunts are just too tedious and boring with all the real life and death issues in the great sorrow and monumental incompetence in the world right now. Let the dead bury their dead.
Craig,
One of your own posts which I forwarded to TRB about a year or so ago explicitly fantasized, in print and in public, about murdering Mitchell, a Jamaican-African member of the uhj, i.e. the dream you had with the shot-gun. Nothing about any of the very Anglo members of the uhj. You instanced a black man. Psychological archetypes indeed. If the archetypes you and your friends like Bacquet, the Marshalls and company keep articulating is anything to go by, I think ya’ll would be much better served donning white hoods and burning a few crosses on front lawns to get it out of your systems. Also I doubt you are yourself unaware of the ingrained enthnocentricism that trickles out of many of your posts on Talisman9 or ex-bahai from time to time; or that when push comes to shove - whatever principle you claim to profess on a given matter - you pull rank with your “own,” as you did on ex-bahai with me (an act of unforgivable but all too typical “liberal” spineless, if there ever was)!
Also, besides the very American-backed and sponsored Wahhabi state of Sa’udi Arabia and the corrupt Gulf Arab sheikhdoms which your country is quite chummy with, how many Muslim socities do you know of first hand where the 4 wives thing is a predominant norm? Thanks to the merciless economic and military imperialism of your country, most people can barely afford to feed themselves, let alone to afford feeding 4 mouths plus the offspring they might produce. Get out of the provincial “white” insularity of middle AmeriKKKa and you’ll begin experiencing a different world altogether. And maybe the examples you give in some of your otherwise great posts won’t be as ignorant-sounding and ethnocentric as before whenever you instance us sand-negros as your “archetypes” of cultural degradation. And go read Marshall Hodgson to edify your mind a little about Islamicate civilization, and if you have the stomach read some Franz Fanon to boot
Wahid X
Craig,
I just wanted to congratulate you for being so polite. These internet trolls can be very frustrating, but whatever you do, don’t get mad. That’a what trolls want. Just try to ignore them and keep providing your insights. Hopefully they will get bored and go away.
As for your comments about family dysfunction, I don’t think that you’re trying to say that this is limited to any culture. Every culture has presents its own variations, but the theme of messed-up family is universal.
What I don’t get is how Glen and Sincere Friend can both pick on this lady. She seems very classy and I don’t see how she can be blamed for being proud of her ancestry — aren’t we all?
I certainly don’t see any the attention-getting egotism that SF mentions. I admit that I could be plausibly charged with this — I made a choice to talk about public issues publicly. But this lady didn’t choose her ancestors because she liked the attention… That’s what life handed her.
Just my two cents. Good to hear from you, as always.
Brendan
>>Craig said: When did Mirza Muhammad Ali cause Baha’u’llah pain in His lifetime? Do you have some inside scholarly information you can post here that nobody else has?
Dear Craig,
In the “Revelation of Baha’u'llah” it indicates that while Baha’u'llah was in Adrianople Mirza Muhammad Ali wrote and distributed writings “…which he claimed were the verses of God and like those of his father, sent down by divine Revelation. In these writings he refers to himself as the revealer of the word of God, he who has ushered in the most great revelation, and through whose words all creation came into being!” “…Baha’u'llah severely rebuked Mirza Muhammad-Ali for his preposterous claims and chastised him with His own hand.” Baha’u'llah later wrote a tablet referring specifically to Muhammad Ali which stated that should he for a moment pass out from the shadow of the Cause, he surely shall be brought to naught.
Revelation of Baha’u'llah Vol 2 p.260-261
As far as explaining away Muhammad Ali’s behavior simply as the result of a dysfunctional family — this argument could be used to dismiss any crime that has been committed through the ages. But does this mean that we should overlook the actions of Hitler — or be charmed by one of his family members who happily displays his paintings in her home?
Here is what Abdu’l-Baha said about her grandfather Mirza Muhammad Ali:
“So grievous the deeds of this iniquitous person became that he struck with his axe at the root of the Blessed Tree, dealt a heavy blow at the Temple of the Cause of God, deluged with tears of blood the eyes of the loved ones of the Blessed Beauty, cheered and encouraged the enemies of the One True God, by his repudiation of the Covenant turned many a seeker after Truth aside from the Cause of God, revived the blighted hopes of Yahyá’s following, made himself detested, caused the enemies of the Greatest Name to become audacious and arrogant, put aside the firm and conclusive verses and sowed the seeds of doubt. Had not the promised aid of the Ancient Beauty been graciously vouchsafed at every moment to this one, unworthy though he be, he surely would have destroyed, nay exterminated the Cause of God and utterly subverted the Divine Edifice.”
Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha p5-6
and further:
“…A thousand times shun his company. Take heed and be on your guard. Watch and examine; should anyone, openly or privily, have the least connection with him, cast him out from your midst, for he will surely cause disruption and mischief. ”
Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha p21
So now the question may be: How proud is this granddaughter of her relation to Mirza Muhammad Ali? Personally, I would take her comments as she opened the cabinet that contained the photo of Muhammad Ali and his sons– as well as her enthusiasm as she displayed the final piece of calligraphy that he had produced (no doubt completed around the same time as he was making false accusations against the Beloved Guardian) — as evidence enough that she revers and upholds her connection to him.
So, I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be joining you for tea
“But does this mean that we should overlook the actions of Hitler — or be charmed by one of his family members who happily displays his paintings in her home?”
Hitler ranks third among the butchers of an unspeakably bloody century. After Mao and Stalin he was responsible for more deaths than anyone else, and that’s a lot. He brought ruin to several great nations, including his own, and he came close to extirpating an entire people from much of Europe. Compared to his crimes, any wrongs done by Mirza Muhammed Ali scarely register. On that scale, at least, they’re hardly wrongs at all.
And Hitler’s crimes are also different in that they are quantifiable — anyone can count the dead. But the things Mirza Muhammed Ali did are more a matter of opinion. This lady doesn’t feel the same way about Shoghi Effendi as you do, or as I do, so her grandfather’s actions don’t appear in the same light. I’m not saying she’s right, but it’s important in terms of coming to a considered judgment of her actions. It’s important in that she can still be, as she seems, a good and gracious person, while holding these opinions.
Which is all prologue to saying that I would be much more shocked by a relative cherishing one of Hitler’s paintings. If you want to equate that with being proud of the photos and caligraphy of one of Baha’u'llah’s sons, then you are casting aside all sense of moral proportion. You are diminishing one of the most heinous records of murder in the last century to the point of equivalency, or at least near-equivalency, with a sectarian feud between factions within a religion.
Brendan
Two words can best describe the documentary Amature and Boring……
P.S. Admin i bet you got all praises for the documentary as thats the whole point of your blog… to bring down the Bahai’s
Bored_Guy,
well, everyone is entitled to their personal opinion. Thanks for sharing yours.
As for your bet, I’m afraid it is a losing proposition. I have no interest to “bring down the Baha’is”. I am a Baha’i myself after all (or would like to think so since otherwise the UHJ would look silly with me walking around with a Baha’i ID). And as I first mentioned here, how exactly can one mortal “bring down” the Baha’i Faith when:
“The Hand of Omnipotence hath established His Revelation upon an unassailable, an enduring foundation. Storms of human strife are powerless to undermine its basis, nor will men’s fanciful theories succeed in damaging its structure.”
If you wish to know why this blog exists, please read the first post I wrote called boringly, Introduction.
Sorry that my reference distracted from the real point of the post. My response was meant to comment on the idea that Muhammad Ali’s behavior was simply “dysfunctional”. To make this point less complicated, just go back to my original comment about Judas — or respond to the quotes of Abdu’l-Baha on the actions of Muhammad Ali.
The point is that nearly everyone here is charmed by the 3 minutes of footage that they saw in a video — and completely ignores the fact that she in no way distances herself from the despicable acts her grandfather committed.
So pick any “iniquitous” person in history that you want — unless their granddaughter clearly distanced herself from their actions, I certainly wouldn’t consider them “classy” or look forward to having tea with them.
Nigar Bahai Amsalem
Does anyone have a mailing address for this woman? I’d like to correspond with a Great Granddaughter of Baha’u'llah!
and…as I am also described as a Covenant Breaker by the spurious UHJ…maybe she’d like to correspond with Me as well.
Where is Sumitra now, anyway?
She USED to be my closest ally in my confrontation with all things hypocritical in the “baha’i”over-administration.
Glen,
You apologize for distracting us by mentioning Hitler, but then you tell us to pick any “iniquitous” person and compare him to Abdu’l-Baha’s brother Mohammed Ali. Who are we talking about now? Ivan the Terrible? Caligula? Dick Cheney? The real villains of history have the blood of tens of thousands of people on their hands: minimum. Being proud of being descended from them — I might call that distasteful. But as far as I can tell Mirza Mohammed Ali never ruined a whole country or butchered untold thousands.
You ask me to compare him to Judas, but that’s my point exactly. How much of a villain Judas is depends on your religion. For someone who believes Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God, Judas is one of the greatest traitors in history. But if you don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus, Judas is just another sleazy guy who betrayed his friends, and there are a lot of those.
As I see it, it’s the same with Mirza Mohammed Ali. I hear he tried to kill his brother, which is pretty awful, but it’s not enough for me to hate his granddaughter. She’s not a Baha’i, at least not in the sense we use the word, and she doesn’t think of him the way Christians think of Judas. She doesn’t consider her grandfather evil, and even if she’s mistaken about that, I’m not in any rush to condemn her personally. I would be willing to bet that if we did sit down with her for tea, it would be lovely. I would rate the chance of her slipping anyone poison as very low indeed.
Brendan
Don’t mean to cause a digression but didn’t the Gospel of Judas call into question the perception of Judas as a betrayer?
And regarding tea, I don’t believe she has invited either of you (just joking).
On a more serious note, I wonder about something. What if a descendant of Baha’u'llah’s family were to not know of their lineage. Would you have to shun her/him simply because of their family tree? I wonder because Glen mentioned that they would have to distance themselves from their ancestors. What if they have no idea what is what? Should they still be shunned? What if you and a descendant of Baha’u'llah were to meet without either one of you knowing there was a connection between that person and Baha’u'llah… and you happened to say, purchase a refreshing glass of pomegranate juice from them on the street in Akka. Would you have done something wrong in engaging in a transaction and conversation with that person? Why or why not?
Brendan Cook can call me a troll all he likes with impunity when his absolutely disgraceful and duplicitous behavior, publicly displayed by this individual, towards a woman of exceptional integrity, viz. Brid, speaks volumes for itself. Cook is an all too typical example of the sort of double-standards and hypocrisy typified by the so-called “liberal” bahaim sub-culture, not to mention the racism that animates this group of individuals as a whole. If Craig has something to say, let him say it himself, instead of these dubious individuals of the so-called liberal posse coming to pull rank around him.
What are you afraid of?
Wahid
I enjoyed the film, though it did drag a bit (lots of filler). I thought the filmmakers could have done a bit more preparatory research than to just read that one book in Hebrew (by Moshe Sharon), but alas, that seems to be the way of journalists.
When Mr. Smith came in person to break the bad news to one of the producers (was it Naama or Asaf?) about not being able to join, I thought that was a very classy, chivalrous gesture on his part.
I loved the interview with Nigar Bahai Amsalem, and wish some researcher would go do this in-depth for her and the other relatives while they’re still around. When the film talked about getting “back on track” I was thinking “what, all this great history and you want to go chasing after underground bunkers?” By the way, does anyone know Ms. Amsalem’s religious identity? I assume she identifies as a Muslim, and that her reference to being “Baha’i” was just a turn of phrase. Yes, it does seem “childish” for the Baha’is to shun her, if that is indeed what they are doing. (If she has never been a Baha’i, then they wouldn’t have to shun her even according to their own rules, am I right?)
Who do the “conspiracy” people think killed David Kelly? The Baha’is? His own government spooks? And what was their motivation supposed to be? I recall reading someone (Wahid?) suggesting that the Baha’is wanted an Iraq war in order to get their shrines back, so maybe Kelly was supposed to lie to his own government about WMD’s…? (”Welcome to the faith! Now there’s something we want you to do for us, hardly any trouble at all…”) No, I’m not persuaded that the Baha’is did anything, and suspect the “unpublished” testimony involved Kelly and Pederson’s private life. Anyway, I feel sorry for Mai Pederson, for having all these people trying to track her down, and am glad the national Baha’is had the presence of mind to refrain from giving out her contact info.
Fredrick Glaysher never got to explain exactly why he was so paranoid. I mean, does he expect the Baha’is to shoot him or what?
I think the Baha’is came out of this okay. Their representatives were polite, professional, and reasonably open, given the tenor of the documentary.
“Dawud” muddying waters, as usual.
Negar Bahai Anselem explicitly identified herself as a Bahai, in fact emphasizing “True Bahai,” so whither does the question “does she identify herself as a Muslim,” one needs to ask? Seriously.
In every facet, this film makes the Bahais in Haifa and those tied to the Haifan organization look like total NWO cultist creeps. Here is what one recent correspondent wrote (profanities censored):
“yep, scary as ****. barney’s a ****** tool, and how’d that ancient couple in no. cal. know not to talk ‘beyond a certain point’ on the subject of kelly? they’re barely cognitive, yet were drilled with some sense of rules.
funny enough, i saw more of that place in said film than when i was over there over a decade ago.
what ******* nonsense.”
And here’s what another said a few days ago,
“I had never seen this place in Haifa - it’s too contrived and the
architecture is austere, foreboding and smacks of wealth, power and
control. There’s just a very bad feeling inside the gates (which
incidently are sinsiter in their excessive height). I don’t get the
same feeling here about the hammered stone as say Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul, or the Imam Mosque in Isfahan which were labours of love. I
have stood inside both of these and felt perfectly calm - I’m sure I
would tense up completely if I was to enter this Bahai compound. Can
only think of this as a compound, certainly not getting any sense of
the religious here.
The embedded energy in the stone gives me very negative vibes. It’s
all too neat, too perfect, too much a statement of materiality. And
it’s also a deception, a temporary deception of those poweful within
temporality that they are indeed powerful when in universal terms they
will not be in power for long
bas!”
Do all Bahais have the ID with the barcode?
Thought the most telling parts of this were the woman’s face when she
didn’t want to comment upon death of David Kelly - her knowing
expression. I personally never ever thought it was suicide.
Also that bit ‘permitted to be part of a future world police force’ -
that’s quite scary
About needing things/items/paraphernalia …
These people need so much, take away all that they possess in the
Bahai context and they would be little more than affluent clones in
suits. True love of Allah requires nothing doesn’t it.
They struck me very much as a cult that draws in people of certain
wealth and position. Can’t really imagine down and out types being
welcomed.
What are they planning for? It’s just this finite world they can’t
overrride what will happen.
Thanks for the link to this
bye for now
PS - Talk about a change of tone, did not expect stiff and stiff to
crop up in the middle of this. We don’t have ads quite like that
here”
Either “Dawud” was, as usual, not paying careful attention or watching a completely different film altogether. Of course, I have held for a couple of years now that “Dawud” - claiming to be a non-bahai yet so overly interested in bahaim things, saying he is an academic in Taiwan specializing in Buddhism yet exclusively devoting his under that alias to Bahaim things - is not what he claims to be; this, since as I hold - and as Naama highlighted - the entire Haifan Bahaim organization is crawling with intelligence hacks and Western government intelligence interests and agendas top down.
Watch the film again, “Dawud,” if you can bring yourself to do so!
Wahid
Wahid, I suggest that you get one of those little computer-cameras, film your own expose, and put it on You-Tube.
Along the way, be sure to explain what the conspiracy is actually about (I assume a conspiracy will be mentioned), who is in on it, how it works, and what evidence there is for all this, other than people’s feelings of uneasiness. After all, we wouldn’t want the waters to get muddied.
I look forward to learning my own role in all this. Fortunately my university continues to labor under the delusion that I am teaching for them (fools!) while I secretly…but that would be telling.
No need, when I have conscientious citizens of the state of Israel who are sick to the death of the organization you represent who supports and has propped the Haifan Bahaim cult (as well as other dubious groups or organizations), and has been progressivelu leading Israel and the rest of the Mid East into a path of destruction, doing it for me and as full scale, network prime TV documentaries seen by thousands and millions. But if it’s all the same to you, I am curious as heck to know what a “Zlaod Dawud” who claims to be a Buddhologist in Taiwan no one has ever heard of or seen before actually looks like. Have at it, YouTube is all your exclusive disposal.
And just so you know, BAHAIS IN MY BACKYARD was only the first installment in a series building up to a crescendo revealing what is “actually” behind this sinister organization.
Wahid
Oh excellent. (I take it you know these guys, then…?) Do you know when are the next installments coming out, and what will they be about? So I can run and warn my Baha’i masters, you understand…
There’s a photo of me on my university website, btw. http://www.hcu.edu.tw (unfortunately you have to navigate it in Chinese) Handsome devil, ain’t I?
Do learn to understand not-so-subtle allusions when they’re thrown your way, eh “Zlaod,” after all you’re supposed to be a tenured Buddhologist at Taiwan University (who no one has ever actually heard of). I never said your specific “masters” were the Haifan Bahaim. I do however believe on firm, solid evidence that the same people who once pulled Mai Pederson’s strings, pull yours.
Now I put “Zlaod Dawud” Taiwanese Buddhologist of Tibetan descendent past a few people in Buddhist studies (specifically the Tibetan sub-branch of the field), Robert Thurman amongst them, who are in a position to know these things and know virtually everyone in the field you claim to be a part of. Everyone explicitly said they’d never heard of you and that there is no one as an eminent Buddhologist by that name in Taiwan.
That picture could be anyone. But in the field you claim to represent, the people who actually matter in the field have no idea who you are. Nor would this explain why you have any active interest in Bahaism when you’re supposedly a Buddhologist.
Now what were you saying, again, about Madame Negar?
Wahid
From the start of this documentary it appears these film makers thought they would unravel some juicy secrets about the UHJ. I guess in the end they didn’t find the “forbidden underground city” they were looking for… LOL
Friends, consider the possibility that maybe the UHJ limits where people can and can’t go for harmless reasons, and not because of some weird conspiracy. Maybe those bomb shelters were put up to protect holy documents in case of an emergency, as well as people. I get the vibe that nowadays we’re all a bit too skeptical about the world. And who can blame us with all the crazy stuff going on in the world today?
All in all, the Baha’i ideals are centered around world peace and unity. Sounds like a nice idea to me!
John,
I got the sense that it was all tongue in cheek. But then again, I’ve got my tin foil hat on (just in case).
Wahid, I never claimed to be an “emanent Buddhologist” on the order of “Buddha Bob” Thurman, just an enthusiastic amateur. (Next year I hope to study through the Institutio Lama Tzongkhapa.)
And based on my limited knowledge of the CIA, I doubt they would be interested in your internet activities.
ok guys, please knock it off. This is going off topic and getting personal. thanks
An admission. We’ve made progress. Good to know that yanky spooks take me seriously. But we already knew that, go ask Uncle Chuckie, he’ll tell ya…
As for the comment by “John,” the sleight of handing by the Bahaim here is quite hillarious, and being noticed far and wide I might add. The producers of BAHAIS IN MY BACKYARD were deliberately barred from seeing anything other than what the apparatchicks of the WC determined for them to see, in the same manner that, say, a documentary film maker taking footage of the Kremlin in the 1930s would’ve had their movements controlled and barred from seeing more. That was “evident as the noon day sun.” Yet what was shown was an eyeful, enough to demonstrate to objective viewers (no Haifan Bahaim amongst them) that we’re dealing with both a quantitatively as well as a qualitatively different sort of organization than what Bahaim propaganda claims regarding itself, and decidedly of the sinister sort: The meglomaniacal architecture aside, open and overt admissions of support for World-Government and International Police force platforms, being one of the countless. I’m sure someone like Alex Jones, for instance, would have an absolute field day with this doco. Hmmmm, now there’s an idea……
Wahid
Can anyone upload this again ? The torrent is dead
The torrent is fine. You can also download it from google video, see instructions in post.
THANKS my bad
Never was much of an instruction follower
Wow what a film! An underground library? whoa, this is like the divinci code. Such a professional film, too, and the investigative work! hope the sarcasm is