Kalimát Press Petition

[Baha'i Censorship - See Website]

Kalimát Press Petition
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/

Background Information on the Kalimát Press Petition

The Bahá'í Faith is perceived by most people - Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís - as
a generally liberal religion, far closer to the Unitarian-Universalists than
to the Southern Baptists. Yet over the last 30-40 years the governing
institutions of the Bahá'í Faith have become ever more conservative in
nature and in many ways are adopting strict control mechanisms on Bahá'ís to
maintain a form of Bahá'í fundamentalism.

Bahá'í fundamentalism is an odd development. The scriptures of the Bahá'í
Faith are generally progressive - calling for cooperation and understanding
among faith communities, equality of the sexes, promotion of the oneness of
humanity, the harmony of science and religion, the elimination of extremes
of wealth and poverty, support of the United Nations and international
order. In contrast to this liberal dimension, the Bahá'í community,
especially through its conservative administrative order, promotes
theocracy, forbids women to serve on the highest elected offices of the
religion, defines homosexuality as a psychological disorder, forbids Bahá'ís
to join progressive groups like Amnesty International or the Interfaith
Alliance, requires Bahá'ís to stay aloof from controversial political
issues, requires mandatory pre-publication censorship of all that individual
Bahá'ís seek to publish about their faith, has implemented internal spying
on suspected believers, exercises administrative expulsion of Baha'is, and
threatens shunning of Bahá'ís who are targeted as "internal enemies."

Kalimát Press has been a leader in Bahá'í publishing since its founding in
1978. It has experienced a series of conflicts with the Bahá'í
administration over its attempt to publish academic studies of the Babi and
Bahá'í religions. Although Kalimát Press has faithfully followed the demand
of the Bahá'í administration to submit all works by Bahá'ís to
pre-publication censorship, the process of pre-publication review and
censorship has created tension between Kalimát Press and the National
Spiritual Assembly of the United States. The Universal House of Justice, the
international head of the Bahá'í Faith based in Haifa, Israel, has been
drawn into these disputes and has also expressed its dissatisfaction with
Kalimát Press's agenda to foster Bahá'í studies.

Besides works by Bahá'ís published under the Kalimát Press imprint, other
academic books from Bahá'í and non-Bahá'í publishers are distributed by
Kalimát to their main market: the American Bahá'í community. These
distributed titles include books on Islam and Iran. A handful of books
written by non-Bahá'ís, former Bahá'ís, or liberal Bahá'ís published by
university presses or self-published has triggered the National Spiritual
Assembly's call for a boycott of all Kalimát Press titles.

The offending titles appear to be the following:

1.

Juan Cole's Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Bahá'í
Faith in the 19th-Century Middle East (Columbia University Press).
2.

Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi
Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 (Cornell University Press).
3.

William Garlington, The Bahá'í Faith in America (Praeger Publisher).
4.

Sen McGlinn, Church and State: A Postmodern Political Theology. Book
One (self published, MA thesis, University of Leiden).

All of these books have received positive reviews and are not particularly
radical. Each of them does however rub against popular Bahá'í beliefs and
the favorite theological views of conservative members of the Bahá'í
leadership. For example, Sen McGlinn's book provides an exhaustive
examination of Bahá'í texts, from Bahá'u'lláh to Shoghi Effendi, on
Church-State relations and makes the case that the Bahá'í founders did not
expect a Bahá'í theocracy to emerge in some distant future. Mr. McGlinn was
subsequently expelled from the Bahá'í community by the Universal House of
Justice for publishing his research. The Universal House of Justice
complained that the author was attempting to impose his theology on the Bahá'í
community. McGlinn was expelled from the Bahá'í community without a hearing
or any semblance of due process.

Shortly after the expulsion of Mr. McGlinn, the boycott of Kalimát Press was
announced.

For more background on Bahá'í fundamentalism and the liberal-conservative
debates within the Bahá'í community, see the following articles available on
the web:

1.

Karen Bacquet. "Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Bahá'í
Community" Cultic Studies Journal. Vol. 18 (2001): 140-171.
2.

Juan Cole, "The Bahá'í Faith in America as Panopticon, 1963-1997"
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 37, No. 2 (June 1998):
234-248
3.

Juan Cole, "Fundamentalism in the Contemporary US Bahá'í Community"
Review of Religious Research, Vol. 43, no. 3 (March, 2002):195-217.

You are invited to read and sign the petition.
http://www.petitiononline.com/cgi-bin/mlk?http://bahaisonline.net/petition

[Baha'i Censorship - See Website]

Post by Baha'i Censorship - See Website
Kalimát Press Petition
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/

To: The Universal House of Justice

Esteemed members of the Universal House of Justice

This petition is a response to the recent decision of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States to stop its agencies
from distributing all titles marketed by Kalimat Press of Los Angeles.

We are deeply concerned about this decision, which runs counter to the
universal vision and world-embracing teachings of Baha'u'llah.
The decision is part of a trend by American institutions to censor and
publicly criticize Baha'is who take seriously their divine duty to
investigate truth for themselves and express their considered views in
responsible ways. These punitive actions erode the freedom of expression
guaranteed to every Baha'i in the Baha’i writings.

The mission of Kalimat Press is "to ensure the continued production of
serious Bahá'í books which will enrich and diversify the range of Baha'i
literature available in English". Since its founding in 1978, Kalimat Press
has brought out more than 100 separate titles, which cover a wide range of
Baha'i literature, including prayer books, children's books and scholarly
works. Kalimat has been a leader in advancing the scholarly study of the
Babi and Baha'i religions through its series "Studies in Babi and Baha'i
Religions". The 21-volume series is the most prominent and influential
collection of Babi and Baha'i studies in the world and features the best
work in the field by Baha'i and non-Baha'i scholars.

The academic study of religion is challenging. We recognize that some
tension will arise within the faith community as historians, sociologists,
anthropologists and theologians examine and publish their findings and
present believers with new information and ideas. However, Kalimat Press has
faithfully carried out its mission in accordance with existing Baha'i
requirements. All the books it has published have been approved by the
National Spiritual Assembly's own review committee. In light of this, the
National Spiritual Assembly's decision to call for a boycott of all Kalimat
Press titles is extreme and unfair. It was also made without adequate
consultation or due process.

The decision has far-reaching consequences not only for Kalimat Press
but for third parties. In addition to damaging the reputation of Kalimat
Press and its ability to continue publishing, it also casts a shadow over
the reputation and works of all Kalimat Press authors. The National
Spiritual Assembly circulated the decision widely, through its
communications with its agencies and in "The American Baha'i", which is sent
to every believer. It is inevitable that this action will harm the
reputation of Kalimat and, as a consequence, those whose works it has
published.

Most importantly, we believe that this decision will backfire with the
scholars and intellectuals the Baha'i community now calls upon to speak out
against the suppression of intellectual freedom in Iran. Will they be
willing to accuse Iran of something the Baha'i institutions appear to do
themselves? It could also detract from Iran's willingness to listen to the
international community and the international community's willingness to
listen to the pleas of the Baha'is. In short, it will sully the name of the
Baha'i Faith for decades among those whose support it most seeks, and impact
negatively on the Baha'is in Iran.

The Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the
United States, Mr. Robert Henderson, has claimed that the National Spiritual
Assembly is not calling for a "boycott" nor does it wish to draw up a list
of banned books. However, these outcomes are exactly what its decision has
produced. Moreover, the decision fits with Webster's definition of
"boycott", which is "to engage is a concerted refusal to have dealings with
(as a person, store, or organization), usually to express disapproval or to
force acceptance of certain conditions."

We the undersigned appeal to the Universal House of Justice to request
that the National Spiritual Assembly:

1. Suspend the boycott of Kalimat Press and

2. Enter into consultation with the owners of Kalimat Press to resolve
this conflict.

It is our hope that these conflicts can be resolved in the spirit of the
Baha'i teachings that promote openness, dialogue, humility, service to the
cause of truth, unity in diversity and, above all, justice.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

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