January 7, 2008 - Letter to Judge Amy J. St. Eve
http://www.reformbahai.org/amici_curiae.htm
Reform Bahai Faith
www.reformbahai.org
reformbahai@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
January 7, 2008
Re: Civil Action No. 64 C 1878
The Honorable Amy J. St. Eve
United States District Court
Northern District of Illinois
Courtroom 1241, Chambers 1260
Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Building
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Dear Judge St. Eve:
The Reform Bahai Faith submits to the Court that the NSA of Wilmette,
while publicly hiding behind a facade of liberalism, is
essentially practicing Islamic "takfir," in the words of the scholar of
Islam Bernard Lewis, "recognizing and denouncing apostasy,"
labeling people "kafir" or infidels, and issuing "fatwas" or decrees,
denying the very existence of other Bahais and denominations,
all indicative of the worst in the ****ite Islamic heritage of the Bahai
Faith-practices Baha'u'llah specifically rejected, teaching
tolerance of different religious views congruent with modern Western
custom and practice. Nothing could be more diametrically
opposed to the democracy of our civic and legal order. The NSA of Wilmette
is essentially seeking to use the Court in a type of
jihad.
Although the Reform Bahai Faith is not a party to Civil Action No. 64 C
1878, we have knowledge of what we believe are malicious and
slanderous misrepresentations made to the Court on behalf of the NSA of
Wilmette in Do***ent 49-2:
"14. The Web site at 'reformbahai.org' is the site of an outspoken critic
of NSA named Frederick Glaysher. While the Web site gives
the impression that an organization is associated with Mr. Glaysher, there
is no such organization. On information and belief, Mr.
Glaysher's claims are simply not taken seriously by any one. The Web site
is merely a stage, in a comer of the Web, for Mr.
Glaysher's
unusual fixation upon, and animus toward, NSA. This, of course, is not
evidence of a Baha'i Faith denomination. The attached
affidavit of Tracey Giertz indicates there was no content at this site
until September 3, 2004. See id at ¶ 18."
The NSA of Wilmette offers the Court no "information" but ad hominem and
slanderous vilification, which it has routinely used
against other Bahai denominations since as early as the 1930s. Tracey
Giertz, in her affidavit ends with Paragraph 16, making no
mention of the Reform Bahai Faith or www.reformbahai.org, only the Free
Bahais. Neither I nor the Reform Bahai Faith has ever had
any interest in, or owner****p of, the Free Bahais and their website. Nor
have I or the Reform Bahai Faith ever been involved in any
way with the Unitarian Bahais and their website. Our website was available
online beginning August 19, 2004. By chance, the Reform
Bahai website is registered through the same registration service as the
Free Bahais, GoDaddy.com, one of the least expensive, used
by over 25 million people, and which protects personal information from
identity thieves. The Archive service Tracey Giertz used
often takes a week or two to find and do***ent new websites.
With approximately [deleted] members, most of whom are US citizens, Reform
Bahais indeed do exist and are actively seeking to grow
and develop in accordance with the rights and obligations of the
Constitution and Bill of Rights. The NSA is seeking to use the
ruling of a US Court against Bahai denominations who hold other religious
opinions and thereby prohibit the "free exercise"of their
and our First Amendment rights.
I also wish to inform the Court that the Reform Bahai Press has just
published its first book of Bahai writings, The Universal
Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith, available for sale throughout the
country and much of the world since December 14, 2007. I
have enclosed a copy of the book for the Court as further evidence of our
existence as a growing, independent Bahai denomination.
The Reform Bahai Faith does not use either an apostrophe nor diacritical
marks in the generic word Bahai, a spelling widely used in
the USA since as early as 1900.
The Reform Bahai Faith emphatically presents before the Court the fact
that it does not look to other Bahai denominations for its
understanding of the Teachings of Baha'u'llah, especially all those
denominations who are named parties, all of which we believe are
based upon a fraudulent will and testament, pur****ting to be that of
Abdu'l-Baha, and which do***ent gave birth to the
fundamentalist religious organization that has initiated the lawsuit
before the Court, pretending to be a mere cor****ation. We
provided the Court with a certified copy from the Library of Congress of
Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell's Re****t on the Writing Shown on
the Photographs of the Alleged Will of Abdu'l-Baha on March 8, 2007.
The animus of the NSA of Wilmette against the Reform Bahai Faith stems,
among those reasons already alluded to, from the fact that
the Reform Bahai Faith does not believe in an eventual Bahai theocracy;
but a separation of church and state; rejects the
infallibility of any Bahai Universal House of Justice; accepts that women
can serve at all elected levels, including someday on a
properly elected Bahai Universal House of Justice, unlike the corrupt one
now located in Haifa, Israel.
We draw the attention of the Court to twenty-six pages of selections from
Mirza Ahmad Sohrab's Broken Silence: The Story of Today's
Struggle for Religious Freedom (1942), do***enting the attempts by the NSA
of Wilmette to trademark and copyright the generic term
Bahai in 1928, though Bahais of different belief already existed at that
time in Ruth White and others; the 1941 case before Judge
Valente of the New York Supreme Court, in New York County; both revealing
the unmitigated viciousness that the NSA has directed in
the past against American citizens who were Bahais holding different
religious convictions. Available via the Internet, Excerpts
regarding the 1941 New York Supreme Court Case before Judge Valente:
http://www.fglaysher.com/bahaicensor****p/archives/BrokenSilence,CourtCase.pdf
We again appeal to the Court to protect our Constitutional rights to
religious freedom and liberty.
Most respectfully yours,
Reform Bahai Faith
Enclosure: The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith. Reform
Bahai Press, 2008. 148 pages.
-----------------
http://www.reformbahai.org/amici_curiae.htm
June 18, 2007
The Honorable Amy J. St. Eve
United States District Court
Northern District of Illinois
Courtroom 1241, Chambers 1260
Everett McKinley Dirksen Federal Building
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Re: Civil Action No. 64 C 1878
Dear Judge St. Eve:
As amici curiae, members of the Reform Bahai Faith are very concerned
about the impact of this lawsuit upon our denomination.
The lawyer [delete] has re****ted to us that the nsa of the Haifan Baha'i
denomination has claimed in Court that the Reform Bahai
Faith does not exist. I am writing to inform you that there are
approximately [delete] members of the Reform Bahai Faith, most of
whom are citizens of the United States of America. The Reform Bahai Press
is a legally registered entity in Oakland County, Michigan
and will publish its first book in 2008.
As mentioned in my March 8, 2007 amici curiae letter to you, while members
of the Reform Bahai Faith believe the will and testament
of Abdu'l-Baha was a fraudulent do***ent, the Reform Bahai Faith looks to
the beginning of our denomination in the numerous books
and writings of Ruth White, Julie Chanler, and Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, from
1928 through the 1950s. The latter two were both described
in New York Times obituaries as members of the Reform Bahai Movement, and
I herewith provide do***entation.
In our view, the nsa of the Haifan Baha'i denomination is hiding behind
and using, indeed manipulating cor****ate law to conduct what
is essentially a doctrinal struggle with the several Bahai denominations
that have evolved and have existed since as early as 1928
in the case of Ruth White. The nsa has done this repeatedly through the US
courts and legal system: in 1928 through
misrepresentation and fraud it copyrighted and trademarked the word Bahai;
in 1941, it sued unsuccessfully Chanler and Sohrab twice;
it sued Mason Remey in 1966 but he was re****tedly too old and feeble to
show up and defend himself being out of the country; it is
now attempting to use the US District Court of Northern Illinois to
silence the several active and existing Bahai denominations with
which it differs on religious doctrine and interpretation. For decades, in
and out of the courts, the nsa has used such
reprehensible tactics as slander, ad hominem, shunning, and intimidation,
and the like, to muzzle and discredit dissenters and other
denominations.
We ask the Court to protect both our Constitutional right to religious
freedom and conscience and to protect us from having to
choose between our loyalty to our government and legal system and the
integrity of our beliefs. Though small in number from our
beginning in 2004, we are sincere in our religious convictions, and ask
the Court to protect our right to grow and develop
unharassed by those who under the guise of cor****ate law seek to destroy
us.
Respectfully,
The Reform Bahai Faith
95 Theses - On Bahai Liberty
www.ReformBahai.org
Mirza Ahamd Sohrab died Apr 20, 1958. In his obituary he is described as
"leader of the Reform Bahá'í Movement in the United
States". The New York Times, Apr 22, 1958; p. 33 "Obituary."New York Times
Preview attached as do***entation:
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70B11F73D59107B93C0AB178FD85F4C8585F9
Wikipedia biography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirza_Ahmad_Sohrab
Julie Olin Chanler. She died on March 11, 1961, in her obituary she was
described as "spiritual leader of the Reform Baha'i
movement...." The New York Times, Mar 12, 1961; pg 86. Her husband was
Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, an ex-Lieutenant Governor of New
York (1907-08) and a former Democratic candidate for Governor.
Wikipedia biography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Lynch_Olin
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