Anonym

Dr Tavakolli

Since in recent years my blood pressure has been quite low, I think we can safely dispense with your diagnosis.

Zulfiqar

Zulfiqar-e aziz,

Despite what I said earlier I have to go against myself and add one more comment, to tell you to be careful with salt, it is bad for your blood pressure.

Sincerely,

Stavackoli

Dr Shahin Tavakolli

Dear Dr Tavakolli,

I did a little googling of your name and found out sundry details, especially that, besides being a member of the Baha'i community, that you also enjoy, shall we say, linkages with several individuals which have been Sourcewatched over the last year by us and linked to the Baha'i lobby organizations briefly alluded to here. Given this, it is sufficient to point out that your vigorous argumentative denials, besides being completely transparent, is an exercise of plausible deniability on your part.

Now the evidence you asked for has been submitted here, the details being amply documented on Sourcewatch. It is pretty obvious from your offensive/defensive responses that you are merely trying to spin for your religious organization, and as such your words ought to be taken with modest grains of salt.

Good day to you, sir!

Lobbying

Ok, this is going to be my last comment on this pointless and useless discussoin.  Lobbying means a lot of things to different people.  The Baha'i Faith's stand on political issues is rather clear.  Do we discuss the atrocities that go on in Iran with the governments of different countries through whatever means we see legal and appropriate? Yes we do.  I don't see why we should sit around and let these killers in Iran do whatever they please.  If you actually read the original article where this whole discussion started before Nima got himself into it, you'll see that it doesn't say anything along the lines of Baha'is are the only ones suffering.  While I have no doubt the other religious minorities are also actively "lobbying" for the rights of their people in Iran, I am sure most of them (with the possible exception of the sufis) are not as systematically hunted and persecuted as the Baha'is.  The Baha'is are perhaps as highly regarded because they show courage similar to the young people seen on TV over the past couple of months.  They do not denounce their faith, and their communities outside of Iran have proven that their faith has no intention of harming anyone or any government.  This is abundantly clear.  I have neither the time nor the inclination to sit here and argue with any of you about something that is clear as day.  Nima has decided some things are true in his head.  There is no reason to be offended by this.  I am a physician, we see this everyday.  The lines between what is reality and what is not, have disappeared for Nima.  He lives in his own little world.  We will proceed with our task and that is to unite the world and become one people.  The rest is just the sounds of a fly flapping its wings. 

Oh, please.....

Stavockoli: "Zulfiqar, or Nima or Nasrin or Sophia, or whatever it is you're calling yourself these days, So, it appears you have assigned lobbying tasks to some offices in NY and other places. Did you send them a memo so that they know what they're assigned to do?"

 Yeah, stavackoli, this doesn't really make any sense. See also:

 //www.leithjb.net/blog/2009/05/12/spreading-corruption-on-earth-new-accusation-against-irans-bahai-leaders

"You are absolutely right, Tess. It is heartbreaking and ugly. We are maintaining our lobbying of parliament and government, and we shall soon be asking local Baha’i communities to contact their MPs."

(Barney Leith- May 13, 2009, 16:25) 

//www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Barney_Leith 

"He has been a member of the UK Bahá’í community’s elected national governing council since 1993 and has served as its Secretary and Secretary for External Affairs. He is currently the community’s principal diplomatic representative, with a focus on the human rights of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt." (see full article) 

Lobbying

Zulfiqar, or Nima or Nasrin or Sophia, or whatever it is you're calling yourself these days, So, it appears you have assigned lobbying tasks to some offices in NY and other places. Did you send them a memo so that they know what they're assigned to do?

And in the case of the Baha'is in India, was there ever a conviction? Just curious.  I believe we should go so far as trust in the statement "innocent until proven otherwise", don't you?

And about the professor and his wife in Florida.  Did anyone on this site or any other claim that Baha'is are holy creatures that don't cheat or embezzle, or do other unlawful things?  There are criminals who claim to be Moslems, Baha'is, Orthodox Baha'is, Nouris (Azalis), Christians, Jews, etc.  Does that mean there is something wrong with their religion? 

Come on, you can do better than that, I know you can.  Because we all have seen it. 

Baha'i lobbying

See the book "Government'send: why Washington stopped working" by Jonathan Rauch, pg 41-42:

"A sign of the times was the opening of the Baha'i religion's Washington lobbying office  in July 1987, complete with a staff of four and a budget of $400,000 - a telling moment, because the Baha'i faith requires its members to abstain from politics. When I peaked through the Baha'is window one day, the only remarkable feature of their Washington office was that it looked exactly like every other Washington office".

//books.google.com/books?id=2HPv0LjncOUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Government%27s+end:+why+Washington+stopped+working#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Book overview

Limited preview - 1999 - 295 pages - Business & Economics This book has a more recent edition (2000).

Dispute this if you can...

The proof has been provided many, many times here and elsewhere, and I have no problem providing it again. But dispute this if you can:

1. TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER. A professional Baha'i political lobby organization masquerading as a women's rights group.

2. The Baha'i UN NGO in NYC. Engaged in active political lobbying in NYC on behalf of the Baha'i International Community.

3. The Washington DC based Baha'i Office of External Affairs of the US National Spiritual Assembly. Engaged in active political lobbying of US lawmakers, the Executive branch, and assorted political action committees in the DC area.

Not counting the innumerable other corporate agencies and third party lobbyist organizations hired by the Baha'i organization, these three outlets are just the three most prominent of the Baha'i lobbyist names functioning with huge annual budgets at the present time.

Now the government of Iran might be a bunch of shits, together with the basis of their regime, but they have scored a hole in one on the sinister activities of the Haifan Baha'i cult. If they can get Zia Mody, attorney at law and her mother, to pull strings for them in India, fully endowed lobbyist organizations in the US is a matter of course.  And I have never said otherwise. Take this, for example:

//bahaispyringnusted.blogspot.com/

HINDUSTANI TIMES

July 13th, 2006

SPY RING BUSTED? - Bahai trustees accused of embezzling funds

NAZIYA Alvi
New Delhi

IN
A complaint filed in a city court, a few trustees of the National
Spiritual Assembly of Bahais of India have been accused of espionage by
their colleagues. Apparently, they were supplying classified documents
from India's defence establishments to Israeli and Iranian spying
agencies and making huge amounts in foreign currency. Taking cognisance
of the complaint, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Kamini
Lau, has directed the Economic Offence Wing Cell to immediately
register a case against the accused persons. The court has also asked
the cell to file a status report with it by August 10.

As
per the allegations in the complaint, one of the accused, N.K.
Bhudhiraja, general manager of finance with the spiritual organisation,
forged an identity card and af fixed his photograph on an armed forces
concessions form for fee baggage allowance, which is needed for
military officials travelling to places in India and abroad.
Apparently, he also used to travel under the fictitious name of
'Captain S. Budhiraja' of the air force station at Yelahanka.

Apparently,
the accused, by using such impersonations and forgery managed to
clandestinely penetrate into the prohibited defence establishment of
the country and get hold of classified documents. In turn, he supplied
the sensitive documents to spying agencies in Israel and Iran in return
of foreign currency.

The
complaint has also alleged that the stamp of the air force station at
Yelahanka had been forged with some amount of accuracy and was being
used by the accused trustees of the 'spiritual assembly'.

The
complaint also alleges that another accused, Payam Shoghi, also a
trustee with the society, is in truth an Iranian national. He
fraudulently got his name inserted in the ration card of another
accused and also got it attested.

On
the basis of the ration card he managed to procure an Indian passport.
The complaint also states that such passports have been issued to a
number of other foreigners by the accused people through a similar
fashion of forgery.

The
counsel of three complainants Swadesh Kumar, Khub Singh and Gulshan
Kumar told the court that they have definitive documentary evidence to
prove that the accused were, in addition to the other violations,
involved in a large scale Hawala transaction network.

or

FBI raids office of Baha’i at Univ. Florida
//groups.google.com.au/group/talk.religion.bahai/browse_thread/thread/97aed7a172da675/1b8eb9f1758c241b?lnk=gst&q=FBI+%2B+Bahai#1b8eb9f1758c241b

Zulfiqar, are you sure...

you're really NUR? Because this last post of yours has the exact same ideas as his but it's not exactly in his style. And as you know, if you're him, I know his style very well. Not to say though that styles don't grow and evolve over time, so you might be him even if you're not him.

But anyway, so what?. The really important issue and what I'd really like to debate here is the differences between Yazedi and Yarsani rituals. I have no doubt you've been to Saghez, but have you ever visited Suleimanya?

PS Keep those kangaroos hopping here, will you? You're doing a great job. And god knows some of them need the exercise. You make it seem just like...Australia. So far but yet so close...this global mind.

Zulfiqar110

Dear Zulfiqar,

 Kindly provide the proofs behind your comment regarding:

"But because they don't have paid professional lobbyists in the West working for them full-time, and because certain noisy transplanted minority groups in the West with money who like to the pretend to gullible audiences outside Iran that they are the most persecuted in Iran, these Sufis can't manage to get their stories out or otherwise widely covered."

Where is this professional lobbying group, that are being paid? I believe Osama bin Laden has a paid profession lobbyist in Washington, D.C.  See? making baseless comments is not hard. Proof is needed before your comments are taken seriously.  The fact is, there is no paid professional lobbyist.  The fact is there are hunderds of thousands of Baha'is around the world doing their bit by personally writing letters to their heads of state and government officials regarding the atrocities in Iran.  If the Sufis, whom I do greatly respect and feel for, do not do the same thing, it is not the fault of the ones who do. 

 In essence your comments are the same ones echoed by the government, hmmm, I wonder if there is a connection.

Zulfaqir

I read your comment but I can't understand what point you want to get across. Your comment is a conundrum.

Re: Alborz

I'd treat Alborz's Mazlum-Nama'i on behalf of his community with some level of caution. The biggest persecuted minority groups in Iran today are Azeri-Kurdish Yarsan/Ahl-i-Haqq adherents, Sufis and the like. In the case of Sufis, ten times the amount have been imprisoned and accosted since 1979. But because they don't have paid professional lobbyists in the West working for them full-time, and because certain noisy transplanted minority groups in the West with money who like to the pretend to gullible audiences outside Iran that they are the most persecuted in Iran, these Sufis can't manage to get their stories out or otherwise widely covered.

The past 30 years has turned the question of human rights in Iran amongst some groups in the West into a lucrative business venture which they would not like to see the actual end to. That is not to negate the question of HR violations in Iran, which are all too real. It is rather a question of who is accurately representing what to audiences in the West. 

Yes Alborz ...

That note from Shiraz is very sad and disgusting. No one should be labled "Najes". These are some of the things that infuriated my mother there.

My family does not know any Bahai's in Tehran but my mother knows a few Armenian and Jewish Iranians and she was saddened by some of the things they had to say. I am sure it is much worse in the case of Baha'is.

As for Iranians living in USA and Europe/Canada, if they have family and friends in Iran, they can contact them and ask them to give good support to minority owned businesses there. The word might just spread around.

All the best.

Your thoughtful appeal is appreciated and yet ...

... I cannot help but to think how much more it would mean to minorities if it was directed to those living in Iran, as this site is not accessible to them.

An 'uncomfortable situation' is an understatement though!  While situations like this persist -

//iranian.com/main/blog/alborz/naming-names-and-inciting-fear-shiraz

//iranian.com/main/2009/aug/closed-door

- hundreds have been executed and many more imprisoned.

Let's call a spade a spade irrespective of how difficult it may be for those devout Moslems like yourself.  Thousands of Iranians in Iran have already demonstrated their integrity by preserving the dignity of their fellow neighbors who are at risk every day.   Many more, unfortunately have chosen to remain silent and the consequence of this silence is upheaval that our society is now experiencing and the many that have lost their lives and freedom as a consequence.

Be Well and thanks again,

Alborz

Thanks ...

I'm glad that you see things that same way.

All the best.

.

.