"Many Persian Jews in Tehran have become Baha'is and I have attended some of their meetings."

Bernard Temple, (Editor of The Gazette, Karachi) read a paper before the Royal Society of Arts, London, "Persia and the Regeneration," which was published in that Society's Journal, saying: 

 

"Sometimes the world has had cause to regret its inattention. Europe, at the present time (1910), is not showing itself regardful of the rise of the new religious movement, called 'Bahaism' of Persia.... Shiah and Sunni Mohammedans in large numbers have been converted. In European Turkey, and more notably in Asiatic Turkey, they are increasing yearly. I conversed with some in Baghdad. In Egypt they are becoming numerous; also Morroco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli and the Northern Provinces of India. I have met in Bombay, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Delhi and Lucknow. Converts from among the Sikhs of Amritsar, and the Brahmans of Benares; among the Buddists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam; amongst the Taoists of China and Shintoists of Japan.

 

"Many Persian Jews in Tehran have become Bahais and I have attended some of their meetings. In Hamadan, one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world, at least a third of the Jewish community has openly gone over to the Movement. No Christian missionary to the Jews in any part of the world can boast a triumph equal to this.... A more intellectual form of Bahaism has expanded into Europe, in Russia, Germany, France and England. In Baku I found a large number; in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow an appreciable number. The United States of America promises to become a great western stronghold of Bahaism; also Quebec, Montreal and Toronto, in Canada.

 

"Before going further perhaps I ought to state that I am not a Bahai." All this world-wide spreading While the founders were behind prison walls!

 

"The followers of Baha'u'llah already include members of the ruling family of Persian Viziers, Deputies, Governors of Provinces and several Mullahs!"

Bernard Temple was himself a Jewish.

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