Baha’i Proclamation To The Government Of Israel

 

EX MANUSCRIPTIS INEDITIS CAROLI MASONIS REMI

NOTIFICATION

OF THE APPOINTMENT OF
MASON REMEY

GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA’I FAITH

BY

THE LATE GUARDIAN OF THE FAITH

HIS EMINNENCE SHOGHI EFFENDI RABBANI

SENT TO

THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL

AND
THE MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL.

FROM WASHINGTON D.C.

U.S.A.

15 MAY 1960

The problems and affairs of many sect of the several religions of the people of Israel is of such importance in the life of that country that the Israeli Government has created a Ministry of Religious Affairs of Israel to adjust and to regulate many religious problems that arise in that land.

Israel is the Holy Land of several religious bodies that make up its inhabitants; Jewish, Christians, Moslem and Baha’i, the Druses and perhaps others. There is religious freedom in that land but there are many problems that are to be judicially solved and administered. It is to the Ministry of the Religious Affairs of Israel that I have addressed the following letter that they may know of the appointment of the Second Guardianship of the Baha’i Faith to follow that of the Guardianship of the First Guardian of the Faith.

When the Hands of the Faith took over the affairs of Shoghi Effendi very shortly after his death in November 1956, the Israel Government allowed them to arrange their own Baha’i affairs as they, the Hands saw fit. That is, the Government did not take any stand with or against anyone. They allowed the Baha’is to make their own decisions, but the Israeli Government did not take any responsibility themselves i.e., they did not agree to stand by the Hands of the Faith in their decisions. In fact, they, the Government, did not agree to uphold or to give protection to any rights that the Hands of the Faith might claim for themselves. The Government simply allowed the Hands of the Faith to take over the management and the direction of Baha’i affairs.

The very large Baha’i properties upon Mount Carmel and at Bahjí upon The Plain of Acre were considered as belonging  to the Baha’i Faith. They were religious properties and that they were always to remain as such and were beyond the possibility of being taken over by any individual or individuals of the Faith, but in addition to these lands with their buildings, shrines and other structures sacred to the Baha’is, there were large sum of money that belonged to the Faith but that had been held in the personal name of the First Guardian of the Faith as his own property.

It was arranged that these monies should be turned over to the Hands of the Faith to administer and to expand for whatever they chose-presumably for the Faith.

Thus, the matter still stands. The Israeli Government allows all this but has never committed itself nor vouchsafed to continue to allow the Hands of the Faith to thus administer these monies.

While I am not a lawyer I have an idea that the Baha’is now under the present second Guardianship of the Faith, have a very clearly defined legal case against the Hands of the Faith in the tenure and in the administration of these monies as well as the hands of the Cause.

The case of appointment of second Guardian of the Faith by the First Guardian of the Faith and during his life time upon earth is a very clear case indeed and the one that legal minds of jurors would recognize and respect.

To be sure, Shoghi Effendi did not come out in a written Will and Testament (as did Abdu’l Baha in the case of Shoghi Effendi) and mention me. Mason Remey, as his heir to the Guardianship and the moral recipient outright of all that he possessed in his own name- properties, lands, moneys etc., but Shoghi Effendi did appoint me President of the embryonic Universal House of Justice of the Baha’i Faith. This was a most explicit appointment and one that would be recognized beyond a doubt by court action. There is no other person to contend this because Shoghi Effendi never appointed any other man to any other position in the Faith of any description whatsoever, therefore there can be no other man to claim this Guardianship.

According to Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, this appointment must be made by the Guardian during his lifetime. This, Shoghi Effendi did and there is no one contesting for this.

Now the Will and Testament of Abdu’l Baha which is the foundation of the law and order of the Administration of the Baha’i Faith says that the President of the Universal House of Justice is the Guardian of the Faith and can never be anyone but the Guardian of the Faith; therefore when the Beloved First Guardian appointed me President of the embryonic Universal House of Justice of the Faith, destined to be the President of the Universal House of Justice of the Baha’i Faith which could be none other than the Guardian of the Faith. Therefore no one other than I could be the Second Guardian of the Faith.

A court would see this point very clearly and beyond a doubt.

But all these legal matters need not give us immediate concern now, when the spiritual problems of the present moment need to be met with and righted. The very first concern of the people of the Baha’i Faith now is that they should study the Will and Testament of Abdu’l Baha and study the Administration that the Beloved Guardian built upon the foundation of the Will and Testament for by such study will the believers understand that the present danger to the Baha’i Faith is that the Hands of the Faith are now attempting to substitute their plans for 1963 so not as to have the operation of the Guardianship of the Faith no longer.