Curious markings on a pilgrim route
Some years ago Mrs Barnabas and I took a holiday in the Basque region of south west France, close to the Spanish border.
One of the attractions in the area the tiny settlement of l’Hôpital St Blaise (more detailed page on French Wikipedia) on the Way of St James, the ancient pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela (St James of Compostela). The star building was a tiny 12th century Romanesque church with features that were clearly derived from Islamic architectural practice.
There are waymarks along the pilgrim route and, sadly, these get vandalized with graffiti. Curiously, and doubly sad for me as a Bahá’í, some of the waymarks have had the letters BAHAI or BAHAI.ORG painted on them, as the reports on this website show.
What people thought of the Bahá’ís
One pilgrim commented in March this year:
In the evenings in the albuerges this led to quite a few heated discussions, someone had found out that it is the name of a non-christian religious group. Well, I don’t know anything about them or if it really was a member of this group but whoever did these graffitis didn’t do this organization a favour….
An old woman in a village told us that they appeared between December and February.
Others took a more moderate view:
I’m sure we all condemn such vandalism - and many of the waymark stones on many of the routes are vandalised in some way. Simlarly there are those who disrespect the routes by throwing litter and trash all over the place.
However I’d make a plea that we don’t get into any controversy about the authorship of this particular graffiti - http://www.bahai.org appears to be the website of the Bahai faith which is clearly not Islamic.
And:
I agree. When I walked the Camino in December, the ‘Bahai’ graffiti had been freshly done. I too found it irritating, but my thoughts turned to the poor (and perhaps damaged) individual who found it necessary to spoil the environment in that way. I did not imagine for a moment that it was the expression of a group. Followers of the Bahai faith are respectable and peaceful people and would not be in sympathy with an individual who spoiled the environment in this way. Neither - in all probability - is that individual anything to do with them!
Bahá’í graffiti condemned
As a Bahá’í I absolutely condemn the use of the name of my faith as graffiti to damage the waymarks on this (or indeed on any other) pilgrimage route - of whatever faith. Pilgrimage is an ancient, respected and universal religious practice and one that Bahá’ís share.
Sadly, it seems that the person who perpetrated this outrage was a Bahá’í, as this entry on the pilgrimage site shows:
Afraid the chap got a bit cocky, and left his details in the visitors’ books along the way.
He is a 56 year-old, from Metz in France, named Jean-Marc Tesson. I even have his National ID number that he left in the book in Arzua.
I find it difficult to believe that a Bahá’í perpetrated this outrage and I am deeply ashamed and saddened that this is the case. What did he hope to achieve? It clearly was not the act of a balanced or rational person. I hope his conscience is giving him a hard time.
Interestingly, a number of the pilgrims were more inclined to be forgiving towards this vandal than I am!
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, pilgrimage, pilgrim route, Santiago de Compostela, St James of Compostela, Camino, Way of St James, vandalism, graffiti
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6 comments
Glad you posted this Barney. It is really sad to see that this was done. Hopefully as you said the offender will see the error of his ways and not do this in the future!
This is a most unfortunate situation. I believe that it also provides an opportunity for the national governing body of Baha’is in Spain to take steps to help correct the situation while working together with the historical preservation agencies there.
The Baha’i who did this should think for a moment what his reaction would be if a Christian marked up Baha’i pilgrim sites in a similar manner. Baha’u'llah has restated the golden rule, that we should not do unto others that which we would not have them do unto us.
People, including Baha’is, sometimes do not clearly apprehend the meaning that something holds for another. We have no right to deface any property or to put Faith’s name in front of people where it is not appropriate or acceptable to do so.
The Baha’i who defaced these pilgrimage sites should be required to pay all cleaning and repair and also receive fair warning that any similar acts could jeopardize his standing as a Baha’i.
Dear Barney
Last March I mentioned this issue on my blog (and I wasn’t as polite as you are in this post).
When I first came across the original post I could not believe my eyes!
Vandalizing religious property is not a legitimate way to teach any religion! I wonder if the person who did this would like to see the Bahá’í center cover with graffiti with propaganda to another religion!
But what shock me more were the comments I received from two of Baha’is who were condescending with the person who did this: “Maybe the person who did this had no bad intention…” “There are already so many graffiti there… why should we bother with one that has the word «bahai»”
Marco, somehow this only just came up on a Google alert, hence my blogging about it so recently. I’m glad you’ve already blogged about it and I share your sense of shock at the reaction of the two Bahá’ís you mention.
There is absolutely no justification for vandalizing any property, particularly religious property or property that has religious significance.
It seems that the person who did it was not particularly remorseful and seemed to think he had done no harm - in fact he seemed to think he’d done a good thing (or so I learned from email correspondence with a Bahá’í friend).
Wow. I know this man you speak of. I was curious about him and did an on line search and found this. I haven’t seen him since 1992 when I finally pushed him out of my life. Someone put it well when they said “It clearly was not the act of a balanced or rational person.” My past with him bears witness to this.
I have no doubt this is of great embarassment to the local Bahais as it would never be tolerated by the Faith as a whole. It would be just for him to pay or work to make repairations for his individual and non-sanctioned actions. Regardless, I hope someone will scrub it off with or without his aid.
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