Anti-Baha’ism, an Echo of Anti-Israel and Anti-American Sentiments
In 1868, after increasing differences between the two branches of the Babis, and reciprocal killings between the Azalis and the Baha’is, the Ottoman government took Mirza Yahya Nuri and Husayn-Ali Baha, who had been sent to Istanbul from Iran, to court.
The court exiled Mirza Yahya and his family and followers to the island of Cyprus, and Husayn-Ali Baha and his family and supporters to Akka, near Haifa (Palestine).
The Ottoman government was mostly under the influence of rumors spread by the Iranian authorities, who persisted in suggesting that Husayn-Ali Baha and his followers were in contact with Bulgarian revolutionaries and were a threat to Ottoman rule.
Baha’u’llah made Akka and Haifa the headquarters of his religion. Around the same time, Theodor Herzl in 1890s established the Zionist movement. The government of Israel came into being in 1948 in a region known as Palestine. The inauguration of the Zionist movement, formation of the nation of Israel and geographical position of the center of the Baha’i Faith were coincidences that became a new pretext for advancing conspiracy theories about the relationship of Baha’ism with the Jewish government of Israel.
In the context of anti-western proclivities, the closeness of the United States to Israel, and protests of western countries (as well as Russia) against anti-Baha’i repression, made the Baha’is targets of vehement attacks — particularly once clerical rule was established, the Baha’is of Iran were stripped of their citizenship rights.
Ref.
The Baha’is of Iran and Contact with Foreign Nations
By Mehdi Khalaji
IPW, March 31, 2009
