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The home page of the new, official, international Bahá’í Web site, “The Bahá’ís.”
Haifa, Israel (BWNS) — A new official Web site has been launched by the Bahá’í International Community to provide an introduction to the Faith for general inquirers, researchers, and journalists.
The Web site, titled “The Bahá’ís,” is also a portal to the family of official Web sites of the Bahá’í International Community.
This site at http://bahai.org replaces the previous site at the same address, “The Bahá’í World,” as the main official site of the Faith on the Internet.
The content of “The Bahá’í World” will continue to be available as the “Bahá’í Topics: An Information Resource,” http://info.bahai.org.
The new site gives visitors concise initial summaries of aspects of the Faith, said Douglas Moore, director of the Bahá’í International Community's Office of Public Information at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel.
“The visitors then have the option of obtaining more comprehensive and better integrated information on those topics,” Mr. Moore said.
It also provides access to the latest Bahá’í news and feature stories, he said.
“The inclusive feel of the site demonstrates the Bahá’í belief that the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are for everyone and not just those who have joined the Faith,” Mr. Moore said.
“Those who read about the current main activities of Bahá’ís will see that all are welcome to participate in them, whether they be study circles, children's classes, or devotional meetings,” he said.
A map assists visitors to find the official Bahá’í Web sites of their respective countries.
The site acts as a portal to the family of official sites of the Bahá’í International Community including:
Bahá’í Topics: An Information Resource (http://info.bahai.org); a comprehensive collection of articles about the Faith, its teachings, history, and community.
Bahá’í World News Service (http://news.bahai.org); the latest Bahá’í news and feature stories.
One Country (http://www.onecountry.org); a news and features magazine.
Bahá’í Reference Library (http://reference.bahai.org); the authoritative online source of the Bahá’í sacred writings.
Bahá’í Statement Library (http://statements.bahai.org); an archive of statements by the Bahá’í International Community.
The Bahá’í International Community will launch two more official sites in the near future: a media library that includes a collection of Bahá’í images for use in publications and Web sites, and a glossary, which will offer definitions and a pronunciation guide to key Bahá’í terms.
Baha'i International Community Lauds Passage of UN Resolution on Human Rights in Iran
NEW YORK, 21 November 2003 (BWNS) -- Noting that the Baha'is of Iran face continuing religious persecution, the Baha'i International Community today expressed appreciation for the support of those countries that co-sponsored and voted for a new resolution in the United Nations General Assembly about ongoing human rights violations in Iran.
"International support remains the key to protecting the long oppressed Baha'i community of Iran," said Bani Dugal, the Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations. "We are extremely grateful today for the support of those countries that have once again expressed concern about human rights violations in Iran -- especially as regards Iran's Baha'is."
By a vote of 73 to 49, with 50 abstentions, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution today that expresses "serious concern" over continuing violations of human rights in Iran -- and mentions specifically "continuing discrimination" against Baha'is and other religious minorities.
Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, the 300,000-member Baha'i community of Iran has faced on-going and systematic persecution. In the early 1980s, more than 200 Baha'is were killed, hundreds were imprisoned, and thousands were deprived of jobs and education, solely because of their religious belief.
Although killings and imprisonments have abated in recent years -- in large part thanks to international pressure -- Iran's Baha'is remain victims of systematic oppression. Baha'is continue to be deprived of employment, property, education, and the right to freedom of assembly and worship.
Two years ago, for the first time in 18 years, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights failed to pass a resolution expressing concern about human rights in Iran, an event that ended UN-sponsored monitoring of the Iran's human rights situation.
"Since the end of international monitoring, the situation of the Baha'i community has not improved -- as was hoped by those countries that urged a 'dialogue' with Iran on human rights," said Ms. Dugal.
"Indeed, if anything, the situation of the Baha'is in Iran has deteriorated, with an increase in short term arrests and detentions, the confiscation of more properties, and continued harassment of Baha'i teachers and students.
"We laud those countries that recognize the importance of continued pressure on Iran and that have taken a principled stand by co-sponsoring it and/or voting for it," said Ms. Dugal. "At the same time, we must state that we regret the lack of support from those nations that have chosen to turn a blind eye to the oppression of Iran's largest religious minority."
"For Iran's beleaguered Baha'is, a resolution from the United Nations is a sign of hope and a source of comfort, confirmation that the international community indeed stands behind its words on human rights."
Those countries who co-sponsored the resolution were: Andorra, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Micronesia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sweden, The Netherlands, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Approval of the resolution in the Third Committee virtually assures its passage by the full General Assembly in a final vote, an event that is likely to occur in December.
Translucent Temple to be Built in Chile
HAIFA, Israel, 13 June 2003 (BWNS) -- A temple of light is to grace the continent of South America.
Light shines from within the new Baha'i Temple chosen for Chile.
> Larger Photo. Click here for temple web site.
The Universal House of Justice has appointed Siamak Hariri of Toronto, Canada, as architect of the Baha'i Temple (also known as a House of Worship) to be built near Santiago in Chile.
Mr. Hariri said he hopes to complete the project within the next three years.
The approved design has "nine gracefully torqued wings, which enfold the space of the Temple," Mr. Hariri said in his presentation to the Universal House of Justice.
"These vast wings are made of two delicate skins of translucent, subtly gridded alabaster, one on the outside and other on the inside," Mr. Hariri said.
"Between these two layers of glowing, translucent stone, lies a curved steel structure (the source of the faintly discernable gridding) enclosed in glass, its primary structural members intertwining with secondary support members, not unlike the structural veining discernable within a leaf.
"Light moving through and between each of the wings becomes light as structure, lines of radiance moving and arcing gently about The Greatest Name (calligraphy of Baha'u'llah's name at the center of the dome)."
Mr. Hariri said the wings, identical in form, are organically shaped and twisted slightly to produce a nest-like structure, a soft, undulating dome positioned around a raised base.
In a night sky the dome of the Temple forms a glowing spiral.
> Larger Photo
Mr. Hariri said the inner form of the Temple would be "defined by a finely articulated tracery of wood, which offers a delicately ornamental inner surface, rich in texture, warm by nature, acoustically practical and responsive to the cultural givens of the area."
During the day, the soft undulating alabaster and glass skin forms the outer expression, he said.
"At night, the image reverses itself, the entire volume then becoming a warmed totalized glow, with the inner form of the building visible through the glass."
The Temple, notable for its absence of straight lines, will rise amidst an extensive radiating garden comprising nine reflecting lily pools and nine prayer gardens.
The new Temple will seat approximately 500 people.
Mr. Hariri said it would take its place as a sister Temple to the other Mother Temples - and yet "find its way into its own gentle and compelling uniqueness."
Prominent Toronto-based architecture critic, Gary Michael Dault, said the Temple was a "hovering cloud, an architectural mist." He said it "acknowledges blossom, fruit, vegetable and the human heart -- but rests somewhere between such readings, gathering them up and transforming them into an architectural scheme that is, simultaneously, both engagingly familiar and brilliantly original."
Inside the Temple of Light.
> Larger Photo
A Baha'i, Mr. Hariri, of Hariri Pontarini Architects was born in Bonn, West Germany and educated in Toronto, Ontario. He attended Yale University School of Architecture, New Haven, where he received his Master of Architecture in 1985.
Among his commissions have been the $70 million new Schulich School of Business at York University, and the award-winning, $15 million office building for McKinsey & Company in Toronto. He was the winner of the Toronto Urban Design Awards (2000). Internationally, he completed the Landegg Academy Master Plan in Switzerland.
In September last year, the national governing body of the Baha'i community in Chile called for submission of designs for the House of Worship.
The call came after an announcement in 2001 by the Universal House of Justice that efforts should begin to build what would be known as the "Mother Temple of South America". Submissions were open not only to Baha'is, but to all qualified designers.
After considering 185 submissions the Universal House of Justice selected four teams based on the creativity of their designs and asked for further developments or additional concepts. It then selected the design by Mr. Hariri.
The Temple will be built outside Santiago on the Pan-American Highway. Funding for the construction will be provided by voluntary donations from the Baha'is of Chile and from local and national Baha'i communities around the world.
There are now seven Baha'i Temples: in Australia, Germany, India, Panama, Uganda, United States, and Western Samoa. The House of Worship in the United States was the first one of these to be dedicated, in 1953. The most recently completed was the Indian Temple, in 1986.
The Temples themselves are created as beautiful structures that provide places to commune with God in silence and reverence. Their Arabic name, Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, means "dawning place of the mention of God."
Baha'i Houses of Worship are open to all. In the future, each Temple will be the central feature in a complex designed to provide social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits.
Call to World's Religious Leaders
Bahá'í Faith's governing council calls on world's religious leaders to put out the fires of religious prejudice and fanaticism
NEW YORK, 15 May 2002 (BWNS) -- Decrying the persistence of religious prejudice as a barrier to global peace and prosperity, the international governing council of the Bahá'í Faith has addressed a message to the world's religious leaders. Bahá'í communities around the world are conveying it to religious leaders in all their countries, thus transmitting its appeal that they act decisively on the need to eradicate religious intolerance and fanaticism.
"With every day that passes, danger grows that the rising fires of religious prejudice will ignite a worldwide conflagration the consequences of which are unthinkable," writes the Universal House of Justice in the message addressed simply "to the World's Religious Leaders." (Full text)
"Tragically, organized religion, whose very reason for being entails service to the cause of brotherhood and peace, behaves all too frequently as one of the most formidable obstacles in the path; to cite a particularly painful fact, it has long lent its credibility to fanaticism," the appeal states. "We feel a responsibility, as the governing council of one of the world religions, to urge earnest consideration of the challenge this poses for religious leadership."
The theme of the message of the Universal House of Justice, the internationally elected council that guides the worldwide, five-million member Bahá'í community, points to the striking developments in the past century whereby prejudices based on gender, race or nationality have been recognized as unacceptable by all thinking people. Although they continue to exist in practice, there is a strong groundswell towards their abolition. Religious prejudice persists, however, triggering a crisis, the message states, that should compel religious leaders to make a "break with the past as decisive as those that opened the way for society to address equally corrosive prejudices of race, gender and nation."
The statement offers the assistance of the Bahá'í community in working for religious unity to which the interfaith movement has been aspiring and, in closing, asserts: "We owe it to our partners in this common effort, however, to state clearly our conviction that interfaith discourse, if it is to contribute meaningfully to healing the ills that afflict a desperate humanity, must now address honestly and without further evasion the implications of the over-arching truth that called the movement into being: that God is one and that, beyond all diversity of cultural expression and human interpretation, religion is likewise one."
Source: Baha'i News World Service, http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/
Bahá'í International Community Statement at the Johannesburg Summit:
Religion and Development at the Crossroads: Convergence or Divergence?
A statement to the World Summit on Sustainable Development by the Bahá’í International Community
Johannesburg, South Africa
August 26, 2002
Over the course of the 20th century, ethnic, racial and national prejudices have increasingly given way to the recognition that humankind is a single family and the earth its common homeland.1 The United Nations (UN), which was created in response to this dawning recognition, has worked tirelessly to bring about a world where all peoples and nations can live together in peace and harmony. To help bring about this world, the UN has crafted a remarkable framework of international institutions, processes, conventions and global action plans that have helped to prevent conflict and warfare, to protect human rights, to nurture equality between women and men, and to uplift the material conditions of countless individuals and communities.
Despite these significant achievements, the United Nations has yet to grasp fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a peaceful and prosperous global order, and the destructive impact that religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world. This lack of attention to religion can be clearly seen in the development realm, where the United Nations has, for the most part, viewed religious communities merely as channels for the delivery of goods and services, and as mechanisms to carry out development policies and programs. Moreover, while the United Nations' human rights machinery has been used to condemn religious intolerance and persecution,2 UN development policies and programs3 have hardly begun to address religious bigotry as a major obstacle to peace and well-being.4
Religion as the Basis of Civilization and Progress
It is becoming increasingly clear that passage to the culminating stage in the millennia long process of the organization of the planet as one home for the entire human family cannot be accomplished in a spiritual vacuum. Religion, the Bahá'í Scriptures aver, "is the source of illumination, the cause of development and the animating impulse of all human advancement"5 and "has been the basis of all civilization and progress in the history of mankind."6 It is the source of meaning and hope for the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants, and it has a limitless power to inspire sacrifice, change and long-term commitment in its followers.7 It is, therefore, inconceivable that a peaceful and prosperous global society - a society which nourishes a spectacular diversity of cultures and nations - can be established and sustained without directly and substantively involving the world's great religions in its design and support.8
At the same time, it cannot be denied that the power of religion has also been perverted to turn neighbor against neighbor. The Bahá'í Scriptures state that "religion must be the source of fellowship, the cause of unity and the nearness of God to man. If it rouses hatred and strife, it is evident that absence of religion is preferable and an irreligious man is better than one who professes it."9 So long as religious animosities are allowed to destabilize the world, it will be impossible to foster a global pattern of sustainable development: the central goal of this Summit.
Religion and the United Nations: Working Together for Peace and Justice
Given the record of religious fanaticism, it is understandable that the United Nations has been hesitant to invite religion into its negotiations. However, the UN can no longer afford to ignore the immeasurable good that religions have done and continue to do in the world, or the salubrious, far-reaching contributions that they can make to the establishment of a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable global order. Indeed, the United Nations will only succeed in establishing such a global order to the extent that it taps into the power and vision of religion. To do so will require accepting religion not merely as a vehicle for the delivery and execution of development initiatives, but as an active partner in the conceptualization, design, implementation and evaluation of global policies and programs.10 The historically justified wall separating the United Nations and religions11 must fall to the imperatives of a world struggling toward unity and justice.12
The real onus, however, is on the religions themselves. Religious followers and, more important, religious leaders must show that they are worthy partners in the great mission of building a sustainable world civilization. To do so will require that religious leaders work conscientiously and untiringly to exorcise religious bigotry and superstition13 from within their faith traditions. It will necessitate that they embrace freedom of conscience for all people, including their own followers,14 and renounce claims to religious exclusivity and finality.15
It should not be imagined that the acceptance of religion as a partner within the United Nations will be anything but gradual or that religious hostilities will be eliminated any time soon. But the desperate needs of the human family make further delay in addressing the role of religion unacceptable.
Religion and the United Nations: Possible Next Steps
For its part, the United Nations might begin the process of substantively involving religion in deliberations on humankind's future by hosting an initial gathering of religious leaders convoked, perhaps, by the Secretary-General. As a first priority, the leaders might call for a convention on freedom of religion and belief to be drafted and ratified, as expeditiously as possible, by the governments of the world, with the assistance of religious communities.16 Such an action by the world's religious leaders, which would signal their willingness to accept freedom of conscience for all peoples, would significantly reduce tensions in the world. The gathering might also discuss the foundation within the United Nations System of a permanent religious forum, patterned initially perhaps on the UN's recently founded Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The creation of this body would be an important initial step toward fully integrating religion into the UN's work of establishing a peaceful world order.17
For their part, religious leaders will need to show that they are worthy of participation in such a forum. Only those religious leaders who make it clear to their followers that prejudice, bigotry and violence have no place in the life of a religious person should be invited to participate in the work of this body.
The Promised Reign of Peace and Justice
It is evident that the longer the United Nations delays the meaningful involvement of religion in its work, the longer humanity will suffer the ravages of injustice and disunity.18 It is equally clear that until the religions of the world renounce fanaticism and work whole-heartedly to eliminate it from within their own ranks, peace and prosperity will prove chimerical. Indeed, the responsibility for the plight of humanity rests, in large part, with the world's religious leaders. It is they who must raise their voices to end the hatred, exclusivity, oppression of conscience, violations of human rights, denial of equality, opposition to science, and glorification of materialism, violence and terrorism, which are perpetrated in the name of religious truth. Moreover, it is the followers of all religions who must transform their own lives and take up the mantle of sacrifice for and service to the well-being of others, and thus contribute to the realization of the long-promised reign of peace and justice on earth.
Source: http://www.bic-un.bahai.org
Notes
1. Along with this recognition has come the awareness that world-wide peace and prosperity will be impossible so long as human rights are routinely violated, women are denied equality, ethnic and racial minorities are discriminated against, the ravages of poverty are ignored, and unfettered national sovereignty is exercised.
2. Unfortunately, the UN has been unable to move beyond its Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, to create a convention on freedom of religion and belief. The ability of the United Nations to transform General Assembly declarations on race and on women into conventions only highlights its lack of success in the area of religion and belief - i.e., after producing the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the UN created the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
3. Although some of the global action plans from recent United Nations conferences suggest that misuse of religion poses an obstacle to development, the few references that they do contain neither explore the effects of religious bigotry and violence on development and security, nor offer any notable solutions. (See, e.g., The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, II-22, 38; The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action, 69; The Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, 24, 80 (f), 131, 224; The Habitat Agenda, 25; We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century, 200; and The Declaration of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 59-60.)
Agenda 21 mentions religion, but with no reference to the impact that its misuse has on development (see, Agenda 21, 5.53, 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.12, 6.32, 6.34 (a)(i), 36.13 (a)). Moreover, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21, which was produced at the Earth Summit +5, contains no mention at all of religion, and the Draft Plan of Implementation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development that was negotiated at the Fourth Preparatory Committee session (27 May - 7 June 2002), mentions religion but once, and then only in the context of ensuring that the delivery of basic health care services is "consistent with …. cultural and religious values" (A/CONF199/PC/L.5, #45). This omission of the destructive effects of religious fanaticism on sustainable development from the global action plans emanating from the Earth Summit, the Earth Summit +5, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, is all the more striking, given that some of the conferences of the 1990's did, at least, express concern about religious intolerance.
4. In its efforts to combat terrorism, the United Nations has been hesitant to address religious fanaticism. Through a series of resolutions, treaties and actions, the United Nations has sought concerted international cooperation to combat terrorism, branding it "one of the most serious threats to international peace and security in the twenty-first century" and inimical to "global stability and prosperity." (S/RES1377 (2001)). Yet, at the same time, the UN has been reticent to identify religious fanaticism as a source of terrorism, referring to it, if at all, mostly indirectly - e.g., "terrorism motivated by intolerance or extremism" (S/RES/1373 (2001)). In those few instances when it is mentioned directly, it is included in a list of various justifications - e.g., "criminal acts intended to provoke a state of terror…are...unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may be invoked to justify them." (A/RES/55/158, para 2; see also A/57/37, Annex III, Article 5, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee [charged with drafting a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism] Established by General Assembly Resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996; and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Article 6). Interestingly, even the various resolutions that were issued by the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights in response to the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001, failed to identify religious fanaticism as the force animating those acts (to find allusion to this fanatical motivation, one has to look to speeches by the UN Secretary-General: "We are in a moral struggle to fight an evil that is anathema to all faiths." SG/SM8013, Message of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Warsaw Conference on Combating Terrorism, 6 November 2001.) This hesitancy to acknowledge and forcefully condemn the religious bigotry motivating terrorist acts weakens the effectiveness of the UN's efforts to bring an end to international terrorism. For, it is only by identifying and understanding the peculiar motivation behind such acts that they can be effectively combated.
5. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL, 1982, p.361.
6. Ibid.
7. Religion has inspired in whole populations capacities to love, to forgive, to create, to dare greatly, to overcome prejudice, to sacrifice for the common good and to discipline the impulses of animal instincts. Against all odds and with little in the way of meaningful encouragement, it continues to sustain the struggle for survival of uncounted millions, and to raise up in all lands heroes and saints whose lives are the most persuasive vindication of the principles contained in the scriptures of their respective faiths. Indeed, its fundamental laws and cardinal principles have, throughout the ages, constituted the warp and woof of the social fabric, uniting peoples into communities and serving as the ultimate authority in giving meaning and direction to individual and collective life.
8. It is untenable to maintain that a regime of international human rights can replace religious purpose as the force capable of inspiring the profound sacrifices and driving the extensive changes necessary for the unification and pacification of humankind. While it is true that international human rights norms and standards are based largely on principles that have their foundation in the world's great religions, such a regime, standing on its own - unmoored from religious purpose - cannot elicit the moral vision and commitment required to establish and sustain universal peace and justice. In fact, severed from the virtues taught by all religions - such as kindness, forgiveness, compassion, generosity, love, sacrifice, responsibility, and service to others - human rights and fundamental freedoms are often used to justify selfish individualism, anti-social lifestyles, over-consumption, ethical relativism, cultural aggrandizement and national chauvinism.
9. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL, 1982, p. 181. This principle is repeatedly stressed in the Bahá'í Scriptures - e.g., "If religion proves to be the source of hatred, enmity and contention, if it becomes the cause of warfare and strife and influences men to kill each other, its absence is preferable" (Ibid. p. 298); "If a religion become the cause of hatred and disharmony, it would be better that it should not exist. To be without such a religion is better than to be with it" ('Abdu'l-Bahá, 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Oakham, England, 1982, p. 28); "If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division, it were better to be without it, and to withdraw from such a religion would be a truly religious act" ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks, eleventh edition, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, London, 1969, p. 130).
10. While religious principles have had a palpable influence on the UN, most notably in the human rights realm, the UN has yet to accept the world's religions as genuine partners in its work. The involvement of religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in certain activities at the United Nations; the religious sentiments that UN and governmental officials occasionally express during negotiations; the Permanent Observer status held by the Holy See (representing the State of Vatican City); and other such means through which voices of religion are sometimes raised in the UN; can hardly be said to constitute substantive religious involvement in the deliberations and conceptual work of the UN. This lack of involvement is perplexing, given that the world's religious scriptures promise an age of universal peace and world-wide harmony - an age whose establishment is the central purpose of the United Nations.
11. For an interesting view of the influence of religious NGOs at the UN, see Religion and Public Policy at the UN, Religion Counts, 2002.
12. Such initiatives as the World Faiths Development Dialogue (a collaborative initiative between the World Bank and several world religions), and the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders (a global gathering of religious leaders that was held, in part, in the UN General Assembly Hall, and that involved UN officials, but which was not officially endorsed by the UN) might be seen as initial steps toward directly involving religion in the work of the United Nations. The UN should build on such rudimentary steps, to establish mechanisms and processes that will bring, in a meaningful manner, religious values, aspirations and vision into the heart of the world-embracing enterprise that is the UN.
13. Religious leaders will need to accept science and religion as the two indispensable knowledge systems that must work together if humankind is to progress. At the same time, those who deny the relevance of religion to the resolution of the seemingly intractable problems confronting humanity must look, with unbiased minds, toward the insights and guidance of religion in order to ensure the appropriate application of the knowledge and skills generated by scientific inquiry. A fundamental principle of the Bahá'í Faith is the harmony of science and religion: "God has endowed man with intelligence and reason whereby he is required to determine the verity of questions and propositions. If religious beliefs and opinions are found contrary to the standards of science, they are mere superstitions and imaginations; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition. Unquestionably, there must be agreement between true religion and science. If a question be found contrary to reason, faith and belief in it are impossible, and there is no outcome but wavering and vacillation." ('Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL, 1982, p. 181)
14. Fostering freedom of conscience includes allowing all individuals to investigate reality, to study and to appreciate other religions, and to change their religion if they so choose. The Bahá'í Writings stress that force and coercion in matters of religion and belief are violations of the Divine command: "the conscience of man is sacred and to be respected." ('Abdu'l-Bahá, A Traveler's Narrative, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL, 1980, p. 91.) Surely, the hallmark of what it means to be human is for the individual to investigate reality for herself, to freely choose her religion, and to worship God in the manner she believes is right.
15. To move beyond such dogmas will require embracing the notion that all of the world's great religions are equally valid in nature and origin and are aspects of one divine, progressive, civilizing process, refining humanity's capacity to know, to love and to serve. Bahá'u'lláh states, "There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God." (Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, second edition, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL, 1976, p. 217.) The future of civilization ultimately rests on acceptance or rejection of this understanding of the nature and source of the world's great religions.
16. Other initial efforts might include the creation and ratification of international conventions on education and on the media. Building on the Convention Against Discrimination in Education, these conventions should unreservedly condemn and forcefully sanction those who, in the name of religion, use education and the media to oppress freedom of conscience and to promote division, hatred, terrorism, violence and bloodshed. There should be no tolerance for educational institutions and initiatives, or media policies and programs - whether public or private - that promote such attitudes and behavior.
17. The notion that the diversity of religions precludes the possibility of effective religious involvement at the United Nations is questionable. The world's religions hold many spiritual truths in common and are increasingly coming together, at all levels, to explore shared values and aspirations, to work to effect governmental policies and programs, and to carry out an array of initiatives. In fact, the common vision of a peaceable future, held by all of the world's great religions, indicates the immense dedication, energy and resources that religious involvement in the United Nations could bring to the organization as it seeks to fulfill its global mandate.
18. The growing danger of a religiously provoked global conflagration only highlights the need to hasten religious involvement in the work of the UN. However, such a danger civil government, unaided, cannot overcome. Nor should it be imagined that appeals for mutual tolerance can alone extinguish animosities that claim to possess Divine sanction. The situation calls on religious leadership for a break with the past as decisive as those that opened the way for society to address equally corrosive prejudices of race, gender and nation. Whatever justification exists for exercising influence in matters of conscience lies in serving the well-being of humankind. At this greatest turning point in the history of civilization, the demands of such service could not be clearer.
BIC Document #02-0826
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