Dear readers,
we the Orthodox Baha’is of the world bring to your kind notice that the newspapers of India and other countries have reported that:
The Iranian ISNA news agency has reported that seven Baha’is are to be put on trial in an Iranian revolutionary court on charges of:
1. Espionage for Israel
2. Insulting religious sanctities
3. Propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Please note that we, as members of the Orthodox Baha’i Faith, are not affiliated with this Baha’i organization whose members have been accused allegedly of being against this government or country or shall we ever be involved in any kind of espionage, or be guilty of insulting any religion or issuing propaganda against the constitutions of any country.
We follow the commands of the living Guardian of the Baha’i Faith.Our beloved Guardian, Joel Bray Marangella, the third Guardian of Baha’i Faith, has taught us that according to the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, a true Bahai must be completely obedient to the government and follow the laws of the country. We should not insult any religion and must respect them all equally.
We have been enjoined by Him to eliminate:
1. Religious prejudice
2. Racial prejudice
3. Prejudice against women
4. National prejudice
We find in one of the Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in the book titled “Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha” in which He mentioned the Teachings of Baha’u’llah which He stated “abrogate and nullify religious, racial, political, patriotic and economic prejudices.”
The members of this Baha’i organization, who do not accept the living Guardian of the Faith, and who have therefore been classified by us as Heterodox Bahai’s, should consider the flagrant inequity and injustice of their own recent decision to initiate legal action against us in a civil court in the United States with the objective of preventing us from calling ourselves Baha’is and using the sacred symbols of our Faith.
We ask them:
Why cannot we call ourselves “Baha’is?
Why cannot we use the word Baha’i?
While these Heterodox Baha’is claim to believe in the elimination of the same prejudices that we do, as listed above, why do they not observe what they preach in their relationship with us?
We therefore invite and urge them to eliminate their blatant prejudice against the Orthodox Baha’is and permit us to freely practice the Baha’i Faith under the Guardianship of the living Guardian, Joel Bray Marangella.
We pray for the long life of our Guardian.
Dr. A. Parikh
(PNBC, India)
