Muslim Responses and a Future for Mahdi Movements

Abstract

Finally, some Muslim responses to Baha’is and Ahmadis are raised. Individual Muslim thinkers like Iqbal and Maududi pointed both movements out as the fractious products of Persian Magianism. However, the evidence from Muslim societies which subject mahdi or former mahdi movements to discriminatory policies flags up different emphases. Muslim states’ have employed varying and inconsistent terms (such as ‘heretic’, ‘non-Muslim’, ‘apostate’) to categorise Baha’is and Ahmadis and have exacted diverse penalties. Passing on to the study’s findings, it is argued from the evidence of Shoghi Effendi’s writings in particular that a specifically Baha’i form of orientalism was formulated. This is accounted for by deploying a postcolonial methodology which explicates his adoption of a position of self-orientalising easterner. It is concluded though, that the broader charge their enemies often crudely lay against Baha’is has never been proven - that is: that they were creatures of imperialist powers, whether British or Russian. However, the incorporation of orientalist axioms into Baha’i discourse undermines the Baha’i faith’s mission for world unity and peace. In the context of Muslims’ inter-sectarian strife, due to their own sectarian positions, neither the Baha’i nor Ahmadi movements have emerged positions which present constructive and practical solutions.