Read a Free Chapter, Letters from the American Desert Amazon, Hardcover, Kindle. Abdul-Baha's 1912 Covenant http://www.amazon.com/Letters-American-Desert-Signposts-Journey/dp/0967042119/ Baha'is in My Backyard - Full Interview with Belfilms, Israel. 2.4 hours. Given the US Federal Court decisions ruling three times against the Haifan Baha'i denomination in 2008 to 2010, I believe it is the right moment to make available this full interview for people researching the Bahai Faith. The original movie that my Full Interview was filmed for is available on Vimeo: Baha'is in My Backyard http://vimeo.com/22467795 My interview is also available at The Baha'i Faith & Religious Freedom of Conscience http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensorship/Bahais_in_My_Backyard.html The three segments were uploaded original on Mar 30, 2011, with over 2,500 hits by April, 2012. I was interviewed for the movie Baha'is in My Backyard on October 18, 2004. The movie was produced by the Israeli company Belfilms. At the time I had not yet realized that the 1912 Covenant of Abdul-Baha existed, as documented in the early Bahai magazine the Star of the West and by Ruth White, as well as other sources, and was the formative document for the Bahai Movement in the West, during Abdul-Baha's lifetime, both in the United States and Europe. Consequently, the 1912 Authentic Covenant of Abdul-Baha is the central document for the renewed and revived Reform Bahai Faith. Accordingly, some of my remarks in this interview on Shoghi Effendi would be revised today, as would my acceptance of approximately a million Baha'is in India, which now appears actually to be closer to merely 11,000 people, mostly Iranian immigrants, according to the testimony of an Indian who was a former NSA member. Otherwise, my opinions and concerns would remain the same today, though perhaps my comments on the maniuplation of Google search results for Baha'i were more applicable in 2004. Google has increasingly become aware of and responsive to how people and organizations attempt to manipulate its results. Please note that I was interviewed by Belfilms for two and a half hours but they chose a highly selective two minutes to use, carefully arranged and presented, which distort the full context of my comments and portray me in an unfavorable light, at best, and in a way that is reminiscent of the tactics of the Haifan Baha'is themselves. They also violated client confidentiality by making our contract public, including my persoanl signature, without my permission, and in a way that casts suspicion upon me. Although required by our mutually agreed upon contract, Belfilms both failed to notify me before the first public broadcast of the film and to provide me with a requisite DVD copy until I had heard of the airing several months after the event and reminded them of their obligations. The short clip of my interview is further framed with a lead-in and closing that is meant to present me in a ridiculous and paranoid fashion. I maintain the fullness of the interview allows the viewer a more comprehensive perspective on both myself and the manner in which the movie was created, as well as the issues involved. While people elsewhere on the Internet have speculated that the Unitarian Baha'is and Baha'u'llah's great-grand-daughter Nigar Bahai Amsalem may have funded, or been behind the movie, or the Haifan Baha'is in what would be a highly characteristic counter-disinformation effort, since much of the movie simultaneously attempts to diffuse suspicions raised in the film, presenting Haifans as innocuous, the fact remains that in 2011 it is still unresolved from whom or where Belfilms received funding for the movie and what was the true motivation for its production. Others have speculated that the Israeli government was behind the movie in some way. To a perceptive viewer aware of the actual historical record of Haifan Baha'is when it comes to religious freedom and speech, the movie clearly constitutes more than a "mockumentary." Baha'is in My Backyard - Segment 1 - Full Interview - Naama Pyritz from Belfilms was the interviewer. Baha'is in My Backyard - Segment 2 - Full Interview - There were two Israeli cameramen present throughout the full interview. Baha'is in My Backyard - Segment 3 - Full Interview Bahais in My Backyard - trailer on Youtube - Sets up Juan Cole and I as the demons of the paranoid fantasies of the illegitimately elected uhj. For further details, also see the Reform Bahai Faith http://www.ReformBahai.org About the Reform Bahai Faith http://www.reformbahai.org/about.html Abdu'l-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.html An Analysis of Abdul-Baha's 1912 Authentic Covenant http://www.reformbahai.org/Covenant_comments.html

• published: 24 May 2012
• views: 6398