ʿAbdu’l-Bahāʾ, the racist, white colonialist boot licker
...Before
the coming of Columbus America itself
was a wild, uncultivated expanse of primeval forest, mountains and rivers—a
very world of nature. Now it has become the world of man. It was dark,
forbidding and savage; now it has become illumined with a great civilization
and prosperity. Instead of forests, we behold productive farms, beautiful
gardens and prolific orchards. Instead of thorns and useless vegetation, we
find flowers, domestic animals and fields awaiting harvest. If the world of
nature were perfect, the condition of this great country would have been left
unchanged.
If a child is left in its natural state and deprived of education, there is no doubt that it will grow up in ignorance and illiteracy, its mental faculties dulled and dimmed; in fact, it will become like an animal. This is evident among the savages of central Africa, who are scarcely higher than the beast in mental development...
If a child is left in its natural state and deprived of education, there is no doubt that it will grow up in ignorance and illiteracy, its mental faculties dulled and dimmed; in fact, it will become like an animal. This is evident among the savages of central Africa, who are scarcely higher than the beast in mental development...
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Persian text
...اين قطعه زمين آمريک چه بود جنگل بود زمين خالی بود و اين به
مقتضای طبيعت بود پس چه چيز او را آباد کرد عقول انسانی پس ناقص است عقول انسانی
اين نواقص را کامل نمايد بعد از آنکه زمين بود جنگل بود حال شهرهای آباد شده پيش
از آنکه کلمبوس بيايد امريکا چه بود عالم طبيعت بود حالا عالم انسان شده اگر عالم
طبيعت کامل بود بايد همان طور باشد. حالا ملاحظه کنيد که اوّل تاريک بود حال روشن
شده اوّل خراب بود حال آباد شده جنگل بود حالا بوستان شده اوّل خارستان بود حال
گلستان گشته. پس ثابت شد که عالم طبيعت ناقص است و ظلمانی اگر طفلی متولّد شود او
را تربيت نکنيم بر حال طبيعی بگذاريم چه می شود شبهه ئی نيست بی ادراک و جاهل می
ماند و حيوان خواهد بود. در اواسط افريقا ملاحظه کنيد که مثل حيوانات بلکه پست تر
از حيوانند...
--
April 25, 1912
Washington, DC
BAHAI LEADER AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Head of Oriental Religious Sect Delivers Lecture to the Student Body.
FREEDOM HERE BROUGHT FREEDOM ELSEWHERE.
The Effect Of Freedom In This Country Reacted All Over The World
Washington, April 25 — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’í Abbas Effendi, oriental seer
and world leader of the Bahá’í movement, delivered the last of his
series of lectures here tonight.
In an address to the students of Howard University, he said: “Let us
recall the fact that the first proclamation of liberty, of freedom from
slavery, was accomplished in this continent.
The white man went into war for the sake of the colored. They were
forfeiting possessions and sacrificing lives in order that the colored
might be freed from bondage, and this has had tremendous effects upon
the sociology of other parts.
“The colored people of Africa were in a
most terrible state of bondage, and the European powers, emulating the
American altruism, accomplished a proclamation of universal liberty. So
you were the means here of liberating your fellow beings elsewhere. This
effort on the part of the white people in America should never be lost
sight of, and therefore you must be very grateful and must be very kind
to the whites here. And the white people in this cou[n]try should be
most happy and grateful to you, so that both may develop in the degrees
of altruism and humanitarianism.
“May you be further drawn together with the
whites, in order that extraordinary development may be accomplished by
you and in order that fellowship may become a reality, a true fact,
among you. In short, you must be grateful to whites, for they were
liberators of your people not only join this country, in the continent
of America, but elsewhere in Africa.
“Were it not for your freedom here one can
see that freedom elsewhere would not have been accomplished, and up to
the present day bondage would have been present. But now, praise be to
God, the bondage has passed away and the white and the colored are both
free from it, and I pray in your behalf that you may develop and advance
in ethics and morality; that you may achieve it in such a superlative
degree that there shall be no name other than one humankind. So that one
appellation may be invoked, and that is humankind.
