Moojan Momen

Dr. Moojan Momen "was born in Iran, but was raised and educated in England, attending the University of Cambridge. He is an MD and has a special interest in the study of the Baha'i Faith and Shi'i Islam, both from the viewpoint of their history and their doctrines. In recent years, his interests have extended to the study of the phenomenon of religion. His principal publications in this field include: Introduction to Shi'i Islam (Yale University Press, 1985); The Babi and Baha'i Faiths 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (George Ronald, Oxford, 1982) and The Phenomenon of Religion (OneWorld Publications, Oxford, 1999). He has contributed articles to Encyclopedia Iranica and Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World as well as papers to academic journals such as the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Past and Present and Iran and Reilgion. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a member of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, the Society of Iranian Studies, the "British Association for the Study of Religion," and the Association for Baha'i Studies."

In 2007, Momen published a controversial article entitled "Marginality and Apostasy in the Baha’i Community" in which he named and labeled numerous former Baha'is as 'apostates' to the faith, and identified "a group of articulate and well-educated marginal and apostate Baha’is who first appeared in  the West about twenty-five years ago and who reached the peak of their activity in the last decade"


 * Faculty Member, Wilmette Institute

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Baha'i Faith