Vignettes of Remarkable People in the Faith: Enoch Olinga:
News of the banning of the Faith in September 1977--the official dissolution of all its administrative bodies and activities--reached Enoch in Kampala; he is reported to have said: `No! No one can ban the Faith of God . . .' For the Baha`is it was a shocking and heartbreaking experience, the more so because the first Temple of Africa stood on Kikaya Hill, on the outskirts of Kampala, and the Ugandan believers had always been a distinguished and thriving community. Enoch drafted a letter to the President, which he and the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly delivered to the President's office, calling his attention to the nature and status of the Faith and the respect it had always enjoyed in Uganda. This and other petitions had no effect whatsoever.
Enoch's deep study of the Teachings and wide experience made him an ideal shield for the Cause of God during that crucial period; realizing the hopelessness of protest and petition, he set himself to do three things: to ensure that the believers obeyed the government implicitly; to encourage them and keep alive their faith; to protect the Baha`i properties and remove to a safe place its sacred and irreplaceable archive materials, which he stored in Tilling. Immediately following the edict Enoch and Mr. Isimai, the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, had closed the National Headquarters at the Temple site, refusing even to sell Baha`i books. There can be little doubt that this complete obedience to the government decree, conforming as it did with the explicit instructions of Baha`u'llah Himself that Baha`is must obey their governments, was the best possible way of protecting the precious Temple, which was never confiscated, occupied or damaged, but left in the custody of the Baha`ís.
[The Baha'i World, vol. 18, p. 630.]
Enoch's deep study of the Teachings and wide experience made him an ideal shield for the Cause of God during that crucial period; realizing the hopelessness of protest and petition, he set himself to do three things: to ensure that the believers obeyed the government implicitly; to encourage them and keep alive their faith; to protect the Baha`i properties and remove to a safe place its sacred and irreplaceable archive materials, which he stored in Tilling. Immediately following the edict Enoch and Mr. Isimai, the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, had closed the National Headquarters at the Temple site, refusing even to sell Baha`i books. There can be little doubt that this complete obedience to the government decree, conforming as it did with the explicit instructions of Baha`u'llah Himself that Baha`is must obey their governments, was the best possible way of protecting the precious Temple, which was never confiscated, occupied or damaged, but left in the custody of the Baha`ís.
[The Baha'i World, vol. 18, p. 630.]
Ruhi Gems:
"It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peacce, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness. It behoveth them to cleave to whatsoever will, in this Day be conducive to the exaltation of their stations, and the promotion of their best interests."
, [Baha`u'llaha'u'llah, uoted in Ruhi Institute, Book 5, reprinted in Reflections from the Sacred Writings of the Baa'i Faith, p.. 19.]
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