Baha'i

History

The Baha'i Faith arose out of the Babi religion. Baha'u'llah (1817–1892, q.v.), the founder of the religion, was exiled from his native Iran successively to Baghdad, Istanbul, Edirne, and finally to Akka (Acco) in what was then the Ottoman province of Syria and now is in the state of Israel. The spiritual center of the Baha'i Faith is the shrine of Baha'u'llah [Page 105]near Akka, while the world administrative center is on Mt. Carmel in Haifa. Under the successive leaders of the Baha'i Faith, ‘Abdu'l-Baha (1844–1921), who led the religion from 1892 to 1921, and Shoghi Effendi (1897–1957), who led it from 1921 to 1957, the religion moved away from its Islamic origins and spread throughout the world. The religion is now established, according to its own 2006 statistics, in 191 countries, with some 5 million adherents among 2,112 indigenous tribes, races, and ethnic groups. Independent sources broadly agree with these figures and reckon it to be the second most widespread religion after Christianity. A framework of local and national elected councils (called Local and National Spiritual Assemblies) has been established in 179 countries, and these form the basis for the election of the Universal House of Justice, the present head of the religion. There is essentially a single united Baha'i community; sectarian groups and dissident factions are insignificant in numbers and influence.

Global Teachings

The vision of a single united world can be said to be at the heart of Baha'u'llah's teachings. In the late 19th century, when the process of globalization was underway in the world but was swamped by a much stronger nationalist movement, Baha'u'llah stated that love of one's country should be superseded by a vision of the whole earth as one united and peaceful country under democratic rule. Baha'u'llah's successor, ‘Abdu'l-Baha, went on to detail those factors that were obstacles to a united world. He spoke during his public addresses in North America and Europe of the need, for example, to eliminate extremes of poverty and wealth, to achieve universal education, to advance the social role of women, to bring science and religion into harmony, and to educate humanity away from all types of prejudice (e.g., racial, religious, class, gender). Thus, for example, the lack of gender equality perpetrates an injustice and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations.

Global Structures

In the writings of the central figures of the Baha'i Faith, there are a number of specific suggestions oriented toward global unity. For example, in the 1870s, Baha'u'llah called for an international conference of the world's kings and rulers to resolve all outstanding issues between nations and to agree on collective security based on binding treaties, following which nations should agree to reduce their armaments to a level that would preserve internal order and to use the savings from this for social development. Expanding on these ideas, his successors wrote of the need for measures such as an international parliament, a world executive, a world tribunal with powers to enforce its judgments, a constitution for a global system of governance, a world currency, an international language to be learned by all in addition to their mother tongue, and an international system of weights and measures. They outlined how a united world should operate at the communal and global levels. For example, at the global level, the culture of conflict that has characterized most international relations is to be replaced with a more cooperative system of governance, evolving away from the model of relations between states that is driven by hegemony, excessive national sovereignty, and power and toward a system of collective security, collaborative problem solving, and formulation of and adherence to a single code of international law. Thus, the same changes are envisaged as occurring in this process of world unification as happened when, for example, the different states came together to form the United States of America.

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