{"id":12844,"date":"2024-01-09T07:46:57","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T04:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/?p=12844"},"modified":"2024-01-09T07:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T04:16:57","slug":"bahaism-a-new-fascism-a-word-from-ex-bahai-scholar-francesco-ficicchia-from-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/?p=12844&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Baha\u2019ism, a new fascism A word from ex-Baha\u2019i scholar Francesco Ficicchia from Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in 1946 in Switzerland, he is a German scholar. He became the member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha\u2019is of Switzerland in 1970s. In 1974, he left the Baha\u2019i Faith after studying Herman Zimmer\u2019s book and wrote a book criticizing the Baha\u2019i faith. The massive 450 page book\u00a0Der Bah\u00e1\u2019ismus \u2014 Weltreligion der Zukunft? Geschichte, Lehre, Organisation in kritischer Anfrage\u00a0<\/em>(Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00edsm \u2014 World Religion of the Future? History, Teachings and Organisation: A Critical Inquiry) was \u201crefuted\u201d by Baha\u2019i scholars Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfiqh and Ulrich Gollmer, all loyal to the Universal House of Justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficicchia has also written a couple of articles exposing the Baha\u2019i faith.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He is one of the \u201cBaha\u2019i apostate\u201d\u00a0named by Moojan Momen in his article\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cMarginality and Apostasy in the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed Community.\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Moojan Momen says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Baha\u2019is considered the work as a \u201cdistorting mirror\u201d of their religion with \u201calmost everything\u201d being \u201ctwisted and disfigured beyond recognition\u201d (Schaefer et al., 2000, p.1), the work was warmly welcomed in the German academic world, reviewed approvingly by scholars such as Joseph Henninger (1983), Hans-Joachim Klimkeit (1984) and Olaf Schumann (1985). Ficicchia came to be regard as the \u201cproven expert\u201d (Schaefer et al., 2000, p. 3 n.7) and the book as a \u201cstandard work in the field of religious studies\u201d (Henniger, 1983). Ficicchia\u2019s work was soon finding its way into encyclopaedias (Lexikon der Religionen, 1987) and general academic works (J\u00e4ggi, 1987). Ficicchia himself launched on an apostate career that continues to the present day and has seen him publish several more papers and his own website (2001; see bibliography on that site).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many German Baha\u2019is left the faith after reading Ficicchia\u2019s book. He stated that the Baha\u2019i Administration was\u00a0overbearingly authoritarian\u00a0and the Baha\u2019i faith was a\u00a0\u201ccult\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

German Baha\u2019is loyal to the UHJ, began to see the effects of this book, particularly in their interactions with German officials. The book was largely responsible for the German courts refusing the registration of the byelaws of a local Baha\u2019i council because it was deemed to contravene German law. It was only in 1991, that the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany overturned this decision and declared the Baha\u2019i community legal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main theory of Ficicchia\u2019s book was that the entire \u201cdivinely-appointed\u201d Baha\u2019i Administrative Order is an ugly creation of Shoghi Effendi who used it as an instrument to direct and control his followers and satisfy his lust for power. To accomplish these aims, the Will and Testament of<\/strong>\u00a0\u2018Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0was forged under the direction of Shoghi Effendi. Ficicchia claimed that under Shoghi Effendi\u2019s dictatorship, the entire Baha\u2019i\u00a0Administrative Order was remoulded into a fascist, spirit-denying, rigid machinery designed to execute his despotic whims. According to Ficicchia, the Baha\u2019i institutions suppress any reasonable criticisms and free expressions of opinion, and dissenters are threatened with sanctions or excommunication.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficicchia claims that the Baha\u2019i\u00a0administration is hiding a missionary agenda. The Baha\u2019is are engaging in a large, hypocritical experiment in dissimulation and religious opportunism. He believed that in order to successfully complete its mission of world domination, the leadership of the Baha\u2019i\u00a0faith has deliberately concealed certain archaic, despotic, oriental teachings, particularly those of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, in order to make its appeal to modern westerners living in democracies. Other teachings have been brought to the fore in order to remake the image of the Baha\u2019i\u00a0faith so as to appeal the moderns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not just Shoghi Effendi\u2019s, but the entire corpus of\u00a0Bah\u00e1\u2019u\u2019ll\u00e1h<\/a>\u2018s and\u00a0<\/strong>\u2018Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s writings are driven by political pragmatism and opportunism, Ficicchia claims.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficicchia believes that the B\u00e1b,\u00a0Bah\u00e1\u2019u\u2019ll\u00e1h<\/a>\u00a0and \u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1 were cult leaders, the B\u00e1b was an indecisive waverer who lost control of his own \u201creform movement\u201d at the hands of his fanatical followers,\u00a0<\/strong>Baha\u2019u\u2019llah\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>was a Machiavellian usurper who cheated the B\u00e1b\u2019s true successor, Mirza Yahy\u00e1, out of his rightful position. He wrote that\u00a0Bah\u00e1\u2019u\u2019ll\u00e1h<\/a>\u00a0committed multiple-murders to achieve his aims.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2018Abdu\u2019l-Bah\u00e1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0claimed divinity for himself and justified by the law of taqiya (dissimulation), deliberately suppressed the laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, knowing that their publication would hinder the ambitious missionary designs he had devised for the conversion of westerners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baha\u2019is loyal to the UHJ allege that Ficicchia had some enmity with the UHJ!! One Baha\u2019i writer claims:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficicchia\u2019s threat made to the Universal House of Justice that he would fight \u201cwith all possible means\u201d suggests that he was willing to go beyond the norms of intellectual and moral honesty. His book provided ample evidence that he did in fact execute his threat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficicchia consider the Baha\u2019i organization as a threat for governments due to be extremist. He believes that the universal organization of Baha\u2019ism is threatening the governments to overthrow them to be replaced by the Baha\u2019i government. He believes that the universal organization of Baha\u2019ism is going to promote itself to the level of a universal government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in 1946 in Switzerland, he is a German scholar. He became the member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha\u2019is of Switzerland in 1970s. In 1974, he left the Baha\u2019i Faith after studying Herman Zimmer\u2019s book and wrote a book criticizing the Baha\u2019i faith. The massive 450 page book\u00a0Der Bah\u00e1\u2019ismus \u2014 Weltreligion der […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[823,985],"tags":[11383,839,5971,1280,11379,887,5429,8823,11381,11377],"class_list":["post-12844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-articles","category-slidshow","tag-bahais-of-switzerland","tag-bahaism","tag-criticizing","tag-ficicchia","tag-german","tag-scholar","tag-switzerland","tag-the-bahai-faith","tag-the-national-spiritual-assembly","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12846,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12844\/revisions\/12846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}