BK Simon Blandford on Wikipedia article

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BK Simon Blandford on Wikipedia article

Post02 Jun 2008

Posted July 21st, 2006

The Wikipedia article on the BKWSU has been the seen of much activity, mainly focusing on the vandalism of the article by junior and senior BKs and the removal of all references to PBKs, ex-BKs and links critical of the organisation, including those relating to the manner in which Senior BKs handled child sex abuse at their headquarters.

Today has seen an interesting development with UK based BK Simon B entering into discussion, apparently on an official basis as part of the BKWSU’s Information Technology Team.

The organisation may have come unstuck immediately when it attempted to re-write the history of the BKWSU to a more flattering and less contentious version. In his attack on “straight untruth“, Simon, a BK of about 12 years we understand, states that the group moved to India merely “at the request of relatives”.

This was immediately countered by an ex-BK teacher who refreshed the organization’s memory that until recently it taught that the move from Pakistan was “due to resistance and the court injuctions imposed on the group to stop them gathering in numbers“. The ex-BK asked Simon to prove his statement with another individual of 20 years experience offering a second opinion on the facts.

What is the truth? How can we tell? We do not know.

All that we can be sure of if that as far as the public is concerned, truth is moving target as far as the BKWSU goes and history is being slowly revised by “incremental changes ... over a period of time” as Simon puts it.

The Wikipedia article is here ; BKWSU Wiki topic

BKWSU information technology team

Greetings! I am a member of the BK information technology team approaching you, on their behalf, regarding the content of the article about the Brahma Kumaris on the Wikipedia page. It is a fairly comprehensive article with a clear structure and leaves the reader with an appreciation of the effort that may have gone into its research.

However, it is misleading in that whilst appearing to be authoritative, it is written in a way as to bias the uninformed reader against the organisation. In a number of places, use of disparaging language and a gross misrepresentation of facts gives the impression that the article hasn’t been written in good faith.

An example of a straight untruth appears in the fourth paragraph under “Origins”, where the entry states that the community moved to Mount Abu in 1950 “mainly due to the religious resistance to its activities in Pakistan”. In fact, the group had become well-respected in Karachi, where local leaders tried to dissuade them from leaving. They moved to India at the request of relatives.

Everyone has an equal right to contribute to this article and we respect that individuals have a right to express their opinions about the organisation. However, as the Wikipedia site is used by many as a reference for what they consider to be a neutral point of view, the existence of such a biased article is an issue that warrants attention.

With respect to the rules that Wikipedia sets out for proceeding forward amicably, I look forward to engaging in discussion with you so that proposed changes can be reviewed before any implementation occurs. Having read the discussion pages, I plan to start proposing incremental changes to the page over a period of time.
In the first instance, bearing in mind the above and evidence of obvious questioning of neutrality in the discussion pages, we would like to re-instate the neutrality warning box. I hope that this is acceptable.

Bksimonb 05:12, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
I am an ex-teacher of the BKs, Simon, and the official line of the BKs was that due to resistance and the court injuctions imposed on the group to stop them gathering in numbers so they decided to move. This was the official line until recently, and I would be interested in how you propose to prove otherwise.

Green108

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