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Publish Date : 11 April 2018 - 09:00  ,  
News ID: 3540

Nasim Aghdam’s Baha'i Faith Indicates Underlying Realities

TEHRAN (Basirta): Nasim Aghdam, the Iranian-born suspected YouTube headquarters shooter, wrote extensively about the Baha’i religion, a faith that is not recognized in Iran.

Her records show that Aghdam has most probably attacked the YouTube headquarters over money or for animal and environment protection concerns. Yet, the police said they are still working on her motivation. Although no official statement has yet been made about what motivated Aghdam in the shooting – and authorities have not alleged that her religion was in any way a factor – her writings on the topic of Baha'ism do help fill out the biography of the suspect.


One lengthy blog post by Aghdam at the Interfaith Vegan Alliance website was titled "Meeting the Bahai.” The blog post’s author bio refers to Nasim by her YouTube pseudonym of Nasime Sabz. It says "Nasime Sabz is a Bahai activist who has written extensively about her findings, her experience, veganism, and human-animal liberation. Nasime is mainly active on YouTube but has previously had her own TV Show on Persian Satellite (the first of its kind in Persia)". The TV channel is run by the opposition to the Islamic Republic. It adds that "however due to financial constraints Nasime is no longer on mainstream TV, but no doubt, she’ll be back. Nasime’s approach is aimed at ‘inciting’ kindness to all living beings", a phrase that is much bragged about by the Baha'i followers who claim to be after kindness and affection.


The bio mentions that Aghdam has posted about recipes, posted prolific videos on YouTube and Google Plus, had a Facebook page and had her own website. According to the US-based media outlet, Heavy, many of these pages have now been deleted. The bio concludes "Another Bahai leading the way.” She also mentioned the Baha’i religion in video posts. They are somewhat bizarre videos about cooking, exercise, being a vegan, and even include a Taylor Swift parody. One video highlighted her anger toward YouTube, which she accused of discrimination for filtering her content.


Although local news reports in California initially said it was possible the mass shooting – which wounded three people – might have been domestic violence-related, authorities now say otherwise. In fact, Aghdam’s father, Ismail Aghdam, told The San Jose Mercury News that his daughter was angry at YouTube because the company stopped paying her for advertising due to her YouTube videos on the platform. Authorities revealed in a press release that Nasim Najafi Aghdam was the shooter and wrote, "The San Bruno Police Department is investigating a motive for this shooting. At this time there is no evidence that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were specifically targeted."

According to the Mercury News, the father says he warned police that his daughter had gone missing and was angry at YouTube but they called and said they found her sleeping in her car. She had recorded a video ranting that YouTube was discriminating against her. However, she did write about religion in the context of the Baha’i.

The blog post starts, "At the turn of 2014, one of our campaigns led us to the Baha’i. Thanks to Supreme Master Ching Hai et al, we were already aware of some Baha’i texts containing guidance on diet and abstinence from animal flesh. Therefore, was very keen to meet people from the Baha’i community and learn more. Not long after, we were invited to attend a local Baha’i meeting on the 8th of January 2015 at Leeds Quaker house.” You can read more of the post here.

She also wrote, "It is now down to the universal house of justice to take affirmative action, to ensure that the growth of Bahai principles increases it must pay special tribute to Abdul’s prophecy, about the ‘pity’ and ‘compassion’ that he observes in his verses animals/vegetarianism.”

She also vlogged about Iran. "When it comes to freedom of speech do you think Iran is better than the USA or the USA is better than Iran?” Aghdam said in an Instagram video posted on March 25. In the video, Aghdam was wearing a hijab. However, she wore non-religious dress in all other videos and photos, in which she called herself a Persian vegan bodybuilder. For those who have no time to study her accounts, these photos and videos indicate right from the beginning that she is not a Muslim.


"Be aware! Dictatorship exists in all countries but with different tactics! They only care for personal short term profits & do anything to reach their goals even by fooling simple-minded people, hiding the truth, manipulating science & everything, putting public mental & physical health at risk, abusing non-human animals, polluting environment, destroying family values, promoting materialism & sexual degeneration in the name of freedom,….. & turning people into programmed robots! ‘Make the lie big, Make it simple, Keep saying it, And eventually they will believe it’ Adolf Hitler,” she wrote on her website.

What is the Baha’i religion? A website devoted to the faith says, "Baha’i Teachings says that many people falsely believe that Baha’i adherents are Muslim. Some still erroneously believe that the Baha’i Faith is a sect or an ‘offshoot’ of Islam. Since 19th Century Persia (now Iran) served as the cradle of the Baha’i Faith in its earliest days, that impression continues even among a few otherwise educated people. Despite all the legitimate and accurate information about the Baha’i Faith now available online, some websites still cling to that old misinformation."

The Baha'i faith is not recognized by the Islamic Republic and its followers claim that they have been facing restrictions and bans in the country. Muslims believe that Islam's prophet (PBUH) was the last of 124,000 divine messengers sent by God and hence do not regard Bahai'ism as a divine faith. Bahaollah, the founder of the religion, was first a Shiite Muslim, but then claimed to be a God prophet and established a religion under his name in Central Iran in 1863. He was immediately recognized as an apostate by the state, public and religious figures. He was sent to exile by the then rulers of Iran, the Qajar dynasty, where he was found as a blasphemous person again by other Muslim communities and imprisoned by the Ottoman empire. Muslims believe that the faith was established under a mission given by the 19th century British empire that sought to undermine Islam to wear off the power of the Ottoman empire and weaken Shiite Islam in Iran that was perceived as a major obstacle to the British hegemony over the region. The Baha'is have always been in excellent terms with Israel, where their most important religious center is located. They have always had strong ties and cooperation with London and continued their close relations and cooperation with the Freemason secret assembly. They also occupied vital posts during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty over Iran until the Islamic Revolution in the country in 1979. Hoveida, the longest serving prime minister under deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, held his post for 13 years. Friendship and shared agenda with Iran's arch foes and cooperation with anti-Islamic Republic spy agencies that admittedly seek to topple the Islamic Republic are just few of the reasons why they can't cope with Iranian rules and regulations. A small community of Baha'is live in Iran now. Iranians have always been showing acceptance and tolerance in dealing with other religious and ethnic minorities such as Jews and Christians throughout times, at least since Cyrus the Great according to recorded history. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians are represented in the Iranian parliament and enjoy citizenship rights equal to Muslims under the Islamic Republic's Constitution. But the Baha'is have always been seen as apostates since the birth of the faith nearly two centuries ago when the public took to the streets to demand an end to the heresy. They are tolerated in modern day Iran, but are still seen by the public as a political agenda of the West not just for the nature of their faith, but because of the record of its followers. They contribute a major share to the human rights violation claims against the Islamic Republic and are given a powerful ploy in all opposition media run from the West, specially the US and Britain. The community shows no interest in integrating into the Iranian society.

The police report as well as all other information available on Nasim Aghdam, including her biography, all indicate that if not a case of domestic violence, this has surely been an individual incident that could not at all be identified as an act of terrorism. Terrorists fire machineguns, and not a hand-held gun, and have a good volume of munitions with themselves when they go on such missions, and they spray bullets and kill at least several victims before they are gunned down. But in this case, she has wounded three and then committed suicide, another fact that shows this has not been an ideologically-driven attack by a Muslim. There is a very strong religious ban on suicide in Islam and even terrorists as diverted and far from Islam as ISIL members believe that suicide may send them nowhere but hell. Besides, the Baha'i faith is admittedly completely different from Islam, as mentioned above.

The mainstream media has been smart enough not to tie this attack to Islam or Iran, but still some Trumpsters have sought to mislead their audience through their social media accounts to link the case to Islam or Iran.

There are too many posts, pictures and videos in Aghdam's social media accounts showing that she had no respect for Islamic code of dressing, Hijab, when she appeared in front of the camera, and she shouldn't because she was a Baha'i. She has dressed as a typical western woman in all these videos.

In one video she is wearing a military uniform, claiming to have served in the Iran-Iraq war. The claim is so funny that doesn't need a rejection, but for those who may not be informed, mention should be made that first, Aghdam was born in 1979 and the Iraqi imposed war on Iran started in 1980 and ended in 1988. If true, then she should have registered her name in the Guinness Book of World Records because she has been the only 9-year-old girl who has managed to pick up a rifle.

Away from the ridiculous claim, mention should also be made about the fact that there is a ban on recruiting Baha'is in the military.

In addition, women are not recruited by the Iranian military and they are exempt from the compulsory military service, similar to the case in many other Islamic countries.

The chances of a Baha'i woman to serve in the Iranian military are smaller than an absolute zero in mathematics.

The case is so evident and unrelated to Iran and Islam that even a person as illogical as President Donald Trump has shown no interest in it.

SOURCE:FNA

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