Baha'i Studies Review - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2009

Refugees commonly experience physical and emotional displacement. Such experiences reflect Tuan's theories relating to the anxiety of separation from home and sense of estrangement or alienation in a new land. Despite this adversity, many refugees ultimately form hybrid or trans-national identities, which allow them to operate and be accepted in two (or more) cultures. This facilitates a sense of belonging and the adaptation process to a new country and culture.

The Baha'i Faith is considered to be the second most globally widespread religion after Christianity. Thus, refugees can potentially join a community anywhere in the world and be provided with a sense of familiarity, which the commonality of values and administrative structure provides. In addition, newcomers arriving in a new land are automatically affiliated to a collective identity to which they already belong.

This paper draws on case study and secondary source evidence to argue that the refugee participants in this study have used the Baha'i writings, international administrative structure and global community, to construct and maintain a notion of home and sense of belonging, and thus ultimately reflect a hybrid or trans-national identity in a new land. Preliminary findings indicate that religion plays a vital role in the lives of these refugees as the central tenets of the Baha'i Faith appear to actively inform the resettlement process in a new country. Life history narratives were used as a tool for analysis in seven in-depth case study interviews with Iranian Baha'i refugees residing in and around the city of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, Australia.

The participants in this study indicated that social space gave them the strongest sense of belonging, rather than place attachment. Religious identity is explored through the affiliation to a collective membership, as it is within this context that religious identity can be strengthened via official and legitimate recognition or undermined via persecution.

Collective identity on a macro scale can be associated with nationalism and trans-nationalism. The Baha'i attitude to nationalism is to afford a country its rightful respect, but discourage extreme nationalism as it is characteristically exclusionary by nature. However, the Iranian Baha'i refugees in this study identify primarily as Baha'i rather than Iranian or Australian; that is, the values under-pinning their religion outweighed the importance of place or national identity. The participants in this study embraced the notion of a global home and considered themselves citizens of the world, consequently adopting trans-national and hybrid identities. This attitude ultimately impacts on the adaptation of refugees to a new country, as they do not see themselves as moving from one home to another, but merely relocating to a different part of the one global home.

Happiness is generally considered an important if not the ultimate goal of life. Religion, by giving a prescription for living, purports to give the key to happiness. It prescribes a pattern for living to promote the happiness of individuals and collectively of humankind. There are numerous references in religious writings in general, and in Baha'i writings in particular, to factors/behaviours/social arrangements that lead to happiness. But is there empirical support for the claimed happiness-enhancing effects of these factors and behaviours? The paper asks how much support there is, in the social science literature, for the religious prescription for living.

One of the more esoteric terms in ShiiShaykhi thought that has found its way into the vast corpus of the BabiBaha'i sacred scriptures is called the realm of subtle entities or lam-i dharr (lit. world of particles). The source of inspiration for this term (dharr) in the early Shii cosmology and cosmogony lies in one of the more important and dramatic scenes which informs the whole spectrum of Islamic thought, namely the Primordial Covenant of Qur'an 7:1712. It is there, in what seems to be pre-existence, that God addresses humanity in the form of particles or seeds (dharr) saying, Am I not your Lord? (alastu bi-rabbikum) while the archetype or potential of all future generations of humanity responds with the loving reply, Yes (bal). In light of the significance of this term for the Covenant in the BabiBaha'i revelations it is surprising that there has only been but passing references to it in some secondary Baha'i sources. In this paper we will outline the history and background of this term and examine some of the interpretations or hermeneutics accorded to it by select examination of its use in Shiism, Shaykhism, and the BabiBaha'i religions. Among other themes that will be touched upon in relation to alam-i-dharr is the hermeneutics of the pre-existence of souls, the question of free will and predestination, the seven stages of creation (martib-i sabih), and the mystic colour hierarchies (alwn).

Saysan in the north-west province of Azarbayjan is one of the villages in Iran where almost all of the inhabitants became Baha'is. This paper looks at the history of the Baha'i community in Saysan, focussing in particular on social and economic development in the village. Although facing considerable problems of geographical isolation, poverty, lack of education and persecution by surrounding villages, the Baha'i community responded to its situation in an organised, united and creative manner. It established the community institutions of the Baha'i Faith to provide consultative decision-making, leadership and a focal point of unity. It created new and innovative income-generating pathways that enabled the rising population of the village not only to survive but to establish community projects such as schools. In doing this, it also experienced the problems that many developing village communities face, the fact that their young people, once educated, find that their potential cannot be developed within the confines of the village and are attracted to the cities for further education and occupational opportunities unavailable in the village. This problem was also being tackled in the village when the Islamic Revolution of 1979 occurred, as a result of which, in an operation of ethnic cleansing, all of the Baha'is of the village were cleared and their houses razed to the ground by bulldozers.

This is the translation of that part of Dr Choubine's Introduction to Al Dasht, 23 Sl (23 Years) that deals with the persecutions of the Baha'is of Iran during the reign of Muhammad Reza Shah. It has been published in Persian on the Internet as a separate work and covers such episodes as the forged Dolgorouki memoirs and the collusion between the shah and the highest-ranking cleric of the Shii world, Ayatu'llah Burujirdi, in the campaign of persecutions that occurred in 1955 following the radio broadcasts of Falsafi. Dr Choubine also deals with the role of Ayatu'llah Khomeini, Ayatu'llah Muntaziri and the Hujjatiyyih in this period.

Two manuscript accounts of the early history of the Baha'i Faith in the British Isles are published for the first time. The first is by Prudence George (with the assistance of Mary Virginia Thornburgh Cropper, the first Baha'i in the British Isles, and Lady Blomfield). This history was probably produced in response to a request from Shoghi Effendi and takes the history up to the 1920s with much of it dealing with the visits of Abdu'l-Baha to the British Isles. The second account is by Isobel Slade and has been written in the form of a history, taking events up to the 1920s, followed by pages of reminiscences mainly of individual British Baha'is but also of some American Baha'is who visited or resided in the British Isles and also some later episodes in which the author participated up to the 1950s.

This note provides a summary of information presently available on the extent and distribution of the Baha'i communities around the world during the 1930s.

The Baha'i Faith is in a unique position compared to other religions in that it possesses numerous original writings of its central figures, Baha'u'llah, the Bab and Abdul-Baha. These original writings are a source of guidance and inspiration to over five million Baha'is around the world. They are also critical to the spiritual and administrative development of the worldwide Baha'i community. Possession of original writings such as these carries a dual responsibility, the delicate balancing of preserving and providing access to them. During his lifetime, Baha'u'llah addressed the issues of preservation of and access to his writings. He stated, for example, general principles on the way his writings should be preserved, and gave practical advice on how to handle his tablets and documents. Preserving this body of original writings will ensure their availability in the future, and allow historians and scholars to delve into past, present and future religio-historical developments of the Baha'i Faith. This paper reviews modern preservation and conservation theory and compares them with Baha'u'llah's statements on preservation. Examples of current conservation and restoration practices at the Baha'i World Centre are also presented.

The following is a memorandum from the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice on the subject of Reincarnation, Rebirth and the Progress of the Soul, dated 25 April 1995. Attached to the memorandum is a compilation from the Bah' authoritative texts. The memorandum and compilation are reproduced below exactly as they appear; this includes the footnotes.

The Equality of Women and Men: The Experience of the Bah' Community of Canada, Deborah K. van den Hoonaard and Will C. van den Hoonaard (2006) Douglas, New Brunswick: Deborah K. and Will C. van den Hoonaard. 266 pp. (including index), ISBN 0-9685258-1-4 (pbk), Can$20.00

Beyond the Culture of Contest: From Adversarialism to Mutualism in an Age of Interdependence, Michael Karlberg (2004) Oxford: George Ronald, xvii + 265 pp. including index. ISBN 0-85398-489-1 (pbk), 13.95/US$26.95

The Baha'is of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies. Dominic Parviz Brookshaw and Seena B. Fazel (eds.) (2008) London: Routledge. xv + 283 pp. (index, 14 photographs and 3 tables). ISBN 978-0-415-35673-2. Hardback 75.00

Between Foreigners and Shiis: Nineteenth-Century Iran and its Jewish Minority, Daniel Tsadik (2007) Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. xxiii + 295 pp. (including index, one map, no illustrations). ISBN 978-0-8047-5458-3 (cloth). $60.00