Dennis MacEion is the researcher who turned against this organization after 15 years of being the member of the Baha’i community.
He was born on Jan. 26, 1949 A.D. in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After learning English literature from English Poet called Michel Langley, he became interested in theater and literature. During these years, he became familiar with Baha’ism, too. He went to Dublin to learn English language and literature. After that he has learned Arabic language, the holy Quran and Persian language in Edinburgh university in Scotland. Then, he travelled to Jordan, Turkey and Iran. After studying at Shiraz university, he received his Ph.D. from “king’s College Cambridge with a thesis on Sheikism and Babism in Shia Iran during 19th century.
Dr. Eion who was a Baha’i taught English, the Islamic civilization and translating English to Arabic in Muhammad V” university in Morocco for two years (1979-1980 A.D.). After that (1981 A.D.) he became busy teaching Arabic in Newcastle university when the Saudi Arabia investors dismissed him due to teaching Shia and Sufi issues.
During the time when he was a member of Baha’ism tried hard to explain this cult’s aims and nature scientifically and academically and such scientific and research focus caused his departure from Baha’ism to be paid more attention. After 15 years of continuous serving Baha’ism from being present at organizational conferences to teaching in Baha’i summer schools he was boycotted and dismissed from Baha’ism.
Dennis MacEion has written various articles about his scientific discoveries containing interesting notes.
In the following sentences, various notes can be figured out about the method of creating attraction for unaware non-Baha’i to clarifying their basic nature:
“… Basically, one of the cases that caused me to be attracted to Baha’ism were being modern, paying attention to the contemporary issues and the claim for passing previous religions by Baha’ism and for offering new dimensions of belief and action. However; now when I observe it with an open eye, I see it as a creed being managed by really traditional and conservative men and women; those whose beliefs are in line with merely the most conservative dimensions of ancient religions. The Baha’is beliefs are more in line with Jewish and Christian exterimists and Muslim fundamentalists and Salafis rather than with Jewish, Christians, Muslims and Shia reformists.[1]”
Mr. MacEion didn’t conclude it overnight or in a short period of time to withdraw from Baha’ism and basically in the beginning of the matter his aim of posing criticisms wasn’t to leave Baha’ism, but his mere measure was to make his research and scientific spirit awake. Alongside with his mastering over Persian and Arabic languages it caused him to confront with contradictions and many objections in theoretical foundations of Baha’ism, but he critically reviewed the Baha’is performance and people in charge of this organization, too.
As a matter of fact; with the passage of time, the expansion of his research and increasing of his awareness of the Baha’ism aspects, he tried to correct the existent situation by useful criticisms. Finally, he returned against the cult due to the Baha’is actions and performance and theological and historical positions. The following are the issues criticized professionally by this master of university:
- “Criticizing the distortion of the Babi and Baha’i history and hiding the historical facts, dishonesty in narrating events and their undocumentedness.
- Criticizing the lack of women’s presence in the Baha’ism leadership organization.
- Opposing non-democratic elections of Baha’is and paying attention to appointing organization instead of electoral one.
- Criticizing the unconditional submission of Baha’;is to the decisions of the universal house of justice and the Baha’i organization
- Opposing the widespread censorship of Baha’i texts and omitting some facts out of the books and works.
- Criticizing the violent treatment of the Babi and Baha’i leaders with others.
- Expressing basic contrasts between Babi and Baha’i creeds and the contradictions existing between them.
- Criticizing the indifference of Baha’ism towards the real problems of world people and making them amused with statistics and figures and that the Baha’is are living in some countries and lands and translating the Baha’i works into several languages instead of paying attention to important universal issues and offering strategies to solve them.[2]
These are some cases mentioned by MacEion in the form of letter, article and etc. offered to the Baha’is, but the Baha’ism organization wasn’t able to answer them, but people such as “Juan Cole” who once tried to defend Baha’ism against these difficulties turned against Baha’ism after a while.
Baha’is helplessness in confronting and responding appropriately to a person like Dennis MacEion and their coersive behaviors indicate that contrary to this cult’s claim for the importance and believing in the principle of “the necessity for harmony between science and religion” (one of the twelve principles of Baha’ism in which Baha’ism is believing and bond), it cannot stand the slightest scientific view and the scientific figures can’t tolerate the atmosphere dominating this organization.
The following is the examining one of the critical works of Mr. MacEion which has been translated into Persian language by Mrs. Leila Chaman Khah. In this book, three writings written by Dennis MacEion have been translated entitled: “Dennis MacEion’s letter concerning the Baha’i creed dated 1979 A.D.”, “Branches and leadership claims in Baism (1850-1866 A.D.)” and “Crisis in Babi and Baha’i studies”. Of course, some notes have been added by the translator.
The first letter (material) has been written by the author when he was still hopeful with the influence of mentioning. What can be acquired by the letter is the Baha’is treatments, the activities and the method of confronting with the teaching of “non-interference in politics”… He honestly presented some of the Baha’i activities which are merely proselytizing and has shown that how the teaching of the lack of interference in policy is in contradiction with the aims posed by the Baha’i creed concerning the Baha’i university government. In this stage, he hopes to be able to reform the community of the Baha’is.[3]”
With regard to the importance of Ali Muhammad Shirazi’s succession (the head of Babism) to prove Baha’ism for the followers of the cult, the author was going to present a brief narration of the events happened after Bab’s death in the article entitled “The leadership branches and claims in Babism” a bit after his turning against Baha’ism. He was also going to analyze the issues related to succession in this cult criticizingly… In this article, the author is studying a short-termed period of time of the history of forming Baha’ism that is power war and challenging over Babi community leadership after Bab’s death.[4]”
It is interesting to be noted that he hasn’t suffice mentioning the historical narrations and eventually the article is analyzing and investigating the validity of the statements remained in this regard. It should be noted that although this article is investigating the issue of Ali Muhammad Shirazi’s succession, but it doesn’t mean it is going to confirm his claiming for prophethood. It is going as a scientific and merely historical article to reveal the fact and events which have been happened not the veracity of surrounding claims[5].
The third article of this book has been written to oppose the Baha’i international study atmosphere; particularly to oppose Juan Cole. Of course, Mr. Cole turned against Baha’ism community later on and became one of the famous critics of the universal house of justice. In this article, the author shows a very important crisis in Baha’ism; that is, non-scientific approach of Baha’ism confronting historical-scientific criticisms. Meanwhile, the article suggests the organization whether to reform its approach or not to have any claim for being scientific.
As one can see the atmosphere of the Baha’ism studies and the limiting approach of the main center of the Baha’i organization in the freedom of expression; particularly in the area of free access to information in the field of the beliefs of Babism and Baha’ism history, the study of MacEion’s works and criticisms is important because it shows that a person who has been Baha’i for years and has spent a significant period of his struggled so much in line with the goals of this organization, is criticizing Baha’ism when he gains more information in the field of it!
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[۱] Farnagh, Hamid, Baha’ism in Dennis MacEion’s researches, Tehran: Gooy publishing house, 1400, p. 14.
[۲] Ibid, pp. 16 & 17.
[۳] MacEion, Dennis, branches and claims of the leadership in Baha’ism, translated by Leila Chaman Khah, Tehran: The contemporary look, 1392 S.H., p. 6.
[۴] Ibid, p. 7.
[۵] Ibid.
