Nearly a century has passed and still Wilson’s phantasm is

being conjured by the ill-wishers.

His first article on religious assassination is rather surprising,
since a Christian scholar and missionary with an M.A. and D.D.
would know better what a religious assassination really is, since
the Bible and the Christian history show extraordinary examples
of it. History of either Protestants or Catholics is well known on
these subjects; the Bible shows many examples, these few
convey the idea:
Deuteronomy 13:15 “Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants
of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and
all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the
sword.”
Deuteronomy 20:16 “But of the cities of these people, which
the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheriritance, that halt
save alive nothing that breatheth: 20:17 But thou shalt utterly
destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the
Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as
the LORD thy God hath commanded thee."
Joshua 6:21 “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city,
both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and
ass, with the edge of the sword.”
And in Kings I, Saul lost his throne because he spared some
animals, the order being to kill everything that breaths.
Later, Jesus did not forbid the use of the sword, as the New
Testament shows:
Mathew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Luke 22:36 Then said He unto them :”… and he that
hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.”
Luke 13:15 “When they which were about him saw
what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with
the sword? 22:50 And one of them smote the servant of the
high priest, and cut off his right ear.”
What Wilson does not say is that, for the first time in religion
history, Baha’u’llah has abrogated the law of the sword, adding
the proviso that this law cannot be abrogated.
Rev. Wilson, as Rev. Miller after him, had an obsessed
phobia with the Baha’i Faith. Wilson’s article on Religious
“assassination” has been very well dealt by Balyuzi and also by
Tawfiq.
The sources for Wilson’s paper are summarized by himself
thus: “…the information regarding the matter is… Prof. E. G.
Browne, of Cambridge University, the greatest authority on
Bahaism,… This charge is found in the Hasht Behesht,...This
account is confirmed by Mirza Abdul Ali, the son of Subh-i-
Azal to Prof. Browne…Subh-i-Azal independently confirmed
this account.” So much for Wilson’s sources.
As to fratricide, the Hasht Behesht is the only source that
blames Baha’u’llah, all others blame Mirza Yahya. The fact is
that all sources agree that Baha’u’llah is the one that was
actually poisoned. At the end, only Yahya had a reason to get
rid of anybody that could challenge his leadership, as he did
with Dayyan. Besides, the Azali tract Hasht Behasht calls for
the killing of all unbelievers.
What is most surprising is that Aqa Khan Kirmani, the co-
author of the Hasht Behasht, while alerting and alarming
everybody with his assertion that going to Akka was going to be
assasinated, actually went there and met Baha’u’llah Himself
and most of the believers and, certainly, he was nor
assassinated. Later he wrote a Dantesque scene of what he saw
there, in his little “divine comedy.” He and Shaykh Ahmad Ruhi
were, by far, more formidable enemies that all those of the
Azali list put together. Children and family of Yahya Azal also
went to Akka, and they were happy and survived.
 MacEoin quotes in the paper that you have preceding those
of Rev. Wilson, that the Bab had several references “to the
appearance of John the Baptist [Yahya] and Imam Husayn”, and
they are the “‘Two signs’ expected to make their appearance in
the year six” (Panh sha’n, 258-9) . It is clear that one of the
signs has his name known (Yahya), and the other was hidden,
except by his number 238. So, Baha’u’llah could not have had
any interest in having Mirza Yahya killed, since he was to
announce that the “Kingdom of God is near”, just as John
(Yahya) the Baptist did before him, and has to deliver to the
eight believers named, the tokens left to him by the Bab, when
His Promised One comes.
With these writings, what Wilson is doing can be correctly
termed Religious character assassination.
As to his second article, “Bahaism and Religious
Deception”; the multitude of Baha’i martyrs is more than
enough to disprove Wilson’s claim. What is really surprising is
how this outstanding hypocrite could write on this matter.
At the beginning of last century Khayrullah was trying to
make Wilson a good Baha’i but, later he had to write: “I asked
him [Wilson] time and again concerning his profession which he
concealed from me.” (“O Christians…” Preface) Then, after
receiving much information, including the Aqdas, and denying
having any knowledge of Persian or Arabic, he told IGK that “he
had been a missionary in Persia for 32 years and that he was
writing a history of Behaism.” In his book on the subject (p.14)
Wilson wrote: “I have been in personal contact with Bahais in
Persia for a generation. My language teachers were Bahais,…”
> That much for “Religious Deception”

And so, Rev. Samuel Graham Wilson, M.A. and D.D., passed
to the mercy of God, guilty of “Religious Character
Assassination” and “Religious Deception”, forgotten by all,
except for a minuscule group of haters and, one or two Baha’is.

G.G.