• Baha'i sexual abuser Hossein Danesh is back, with the blessings of

    From Melissa Nicol@21:1/5 to diamondsouled on Sun Sep 20 12:43:00 2020
    On Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 8:55:32 AM UTC-7, diamondsouled wrote:
    I'm sure most here remember Hossein Danesh, the disgraced Canadian NSA
    member from a few years back. Now that Landegg is no more, he's back
    with the full support of the Canadian NSA:
    http://bit.ly/cFF37J
    As you can see in the poster, Danesh is referred to as Dr. and as a psychiatrist. This is completely untrue. He gave up the right to
    practice psychiatry and was stripped of that rank by the governing
    body of that profession as part of his settlement. He was accused of
    sexual abuse not by one patient, not by two but by three patients.
    To shield him, the Baha'i administration moved him away from Canada
    where his reputation was in tatters to the lakeside resort in
    Switzerland called Landegg Academy to be the grand-poobah there with a
    paid salary. Now with about 15 years having gone by and people's
    memories faded, he returns and is presented thusly:
    "Dr. Danesh was an Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University
    of Ottawa, establishing and directing the Marriage Therapy Centre. He
    is an author, international lecturer and consultant, with more than 35
    years of academic and clinical experience as a phsychiatrist and peace educator. He is also a former member of the National Spiritual
    Assembly."
    If someone is going to give a seminar on weight loss, you would balk
    if they waddled onto the stage, wheezing from the exertion of having
    to cart their massively obese form around. I think it is as ludicrous
    to have a man who was disgraced and thrown out of his profession for
    sexual misconduct to give a seminar on relationships.
    Especially when the Baha'i community has no shortage of excellent and impeccable professionals that have the same or better academic qualifications. Why is Danesh given the star treatment? why are
    seminars arranged for him? why are the seminars promoted heavily by
    the NSA in Baha'i communities through the national Baha'i publication
    and through LSA notices? why is the truth about his past hidden? why
    is he referred to as "Dr." and a "psychiatrist" when he does not have
    the right to use those titles by law?
    Why indeed. The answer is as clear as it is unpalatable.


    I am not Bahai' but I was lured to Landegg under the false pretense of a position in Administration, a masters degree, room and board, etc. When I arrived, it was obvious there was something very creepy going on there. It seemed like a cult of wealthy
    Bahai' children and children from very impoverished countries. Luckily, several of the lovely people there took me under their wings, and I am thankful the I had this experience. However, as an outside observer, this man was very tyrannical. He was very
    elitist. And just made lots of promises that were not kept. I could not stay there it was not the experience I was promised. I was shocked years later when I read information online about this sexual misconduct. I feel very lucky that he didn't choose me
    to pry upon.

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  • From Melissa Nicol@21:1/5 to affirma...@gmail.com on Sun Sep 20 12:52:01 2020
    On Monday, December 16, 2013 at 8:00:21 AM UTC-8, affirma...@gmail.com wrote:
    On Tuesday, July 6, 2010 1:13:32 PM UTC-7, Susan Maneck wrote:
    On Jun 4, 10:16 pm, diamondsouled <r...@sasktel.net> wrote:
    Had it only occurred once that would be gray. With Danesh there were 3 women who claimed abuse. If there were three there was likely several more who didn't come forth. 40-60% of victims of rape and sexual
    assault do not report those assaults to the police. The percentage is even higher when the victims know the assaulter.

    However you paint it Danesh was abusing his position of trust and authority with these women.

    According to court records the 'abuse' these other women accused
    Danesh of was putting his arm around a woman who was crying and taking
    off his shoes during a session. For that reason the court dismissed
    the case against him.
    I am not privy to what happened, and I would hope people would be very careful about maligning people on the Internet, and putting out their criticisms without first absolutely looking at their own selves and responsibilities. "Breathe not the sins of
    others..." is quite a high standard. If you have put out false info that is easy to access (I was just looking for the prayer "The Blessings" I think you are responsible to remove it - whoever posted it.

    CG

    3 different patients complained and he was stripped of the honor of being a practicing doctor. That is a HUGE deal. Don't bring religious scripture in to shame people who were needlessly victimized. I worked for this man. His is not healthy.

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  • From Melissa Nicol@21:1/5 to NUR on Sun Sep 20 12:56:19 2020
    On Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 3:40:28 PM UTC-7, NUR wrote:
    On Jun 3, 2:13 am, diamondsouled <r...@sasktel.net> wrote:
    This lax attitude towards sexual abusers in the Baha'i Faith and the converse hard line taken against several Baha'i scholars/intellectuals
    for simply voicing their personal consciences/interpretations starkly outlines what presently ails the Baha'i Faith. That they see more of a threat to their religion from those who freely express their personal consciences then they do from perverts like Danesh is very telling
    IMHO.

    Cheers

    Larry Rowe
    Larry, I was around when this case broke out. My opinion of this guy
    was the same as yours. But the more I think about it, the more it
    dawns on me that on the sex abuse front, I don't think you can really
    call Danesh an abuser in the same way you can call a child molester or
    rapist a sexual abuser. The legal system in Canada is extremely PC-
    obssessed and there have been cases of people whose careers have been destroyed over trifles. Danesh is an asshole for other more important reasons, but the more the facts of his case are interrogated, the more
    it dawns on me that there was consensual sex involved in the romp
    fests Danesh was having with his patients. It is his professional code
    of ethics that prevents the man from getting involved with patients on
    that level and then pigeon-holes the man as a sex abuser. But take
    that aspect away, and there is absolutely no difference between what
    happened with Danesh and his posse of willing women and what regularly happens behind closed doors in many corporate environments. He wasn't
    exactly hypnotizing these women or raping them. They were obviously
    putting out and so the sex was consensual, regardless that they
    changed their minds about it afterwards. I think on the sex abuse
    front this guy might have gotten a bum rap.

    I worked for him at Landegg. It was like I was recruited. I remember sitting in his office when I first arrived and it was odd. The woman I was replaced had a career launch from working for him. They had a very odd relationship. Now knowing he had this
    record, I can see she probably was one of these women. He was a typical boss misusing power.

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