CommuNIqué

Issue 56 - 19 Mulk 157 BE / 1 March 2001 CE


The following is part two of an article by Betty Reed, which is being serialised. The subject is particularly apt, as, only a few weeks ago the International Teaching Centre was officially opened and the Arc was completed. No doubt we will all hear soon from the House of Justice with regard to this historic period. We thank Betty for her willingness to share her own particular thoughts at this time. (Editor)

TOWARDS THE LESSER PEACE

The Bahá'í Community's Role in the Age of Transition.
(PART TWO)

3: Defence of the Baha'is in Iran.

Time moves relentlessly on. It is 21 years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when the Bahá'ís in the Cradle of the Faith were again engulfed in a storm of persecution, when hundreds were executed, many of whom were serving on Bahá'í administrative institutions locally and nationally: when the House of the Báb in Shiraz was demolished: Holy Places, properties. the Bank and pension funds were confiscated: Bahá'ís were discharged from their jobs, from universities and schools: and the administrative institutions were banned all in an effort systematically to exterminate the Bahá'í Faith.

Baha'is throughout the world arose to defend their fellow believers. At that time Europe was unique in the way the Governments of those countries rallied to the defence of the Baha'is in Iran. The unique feature was that the Governments of Western Europe joined forces in this. Not only through the Parliament of the European Economic Community. but also through the Parliament of the Council of Europe - which was a larger body of nations. They both debated and made resolutions that were immediately sent to Iran calling for the persecutions to stop. In addition. the German Bundestag, the Dutch Parliament, the British House of Commons and House of Lords, made and sent additional resolutions: the Governments of Denmark. Finland. Iceland, Norway and Sweden. And others, through their Ministers, protested and strongly defended the Baha'is in Iran. This would not have been possible without the structure of National and Local Spiritual Assemblies that existed in Europe. The effectiveness of those Institutions was clear. Guided by the Universal House of Justice they took action and did what they had never done with such intensity before, confidently taking steps beyond their experience - as an act of Faith!

In the Message to the lnnsbruck Youth Conference in July 1983 the Universal House of Justice brought to our attention an important aspect of this defence of the Iranian Baha'is: "Can one doubt that the manner in which the governments of the European nations have rallied to the defence of the persecuted Baha)'s in Iran will draw down blessings from on high upon this continent?" It is noteworthy that Europe passed without bloodshed to develop in a new direction, and the Bahá'í Faith moved into the Eastern Regions!

4: The World in this Age of Transition

In his last Ridvan Message to the Baha'i World (1957), Shoghi Effendi clearly speaks of a calamity which must purify the human race. As well as purifying humanity this calamity will weld its component parts into "a firmly-knit, world-embracing Fellowship". This Fellowship, in the Guardian's own words - "Is destined, in the fullness of time, to be incorporated in the framework, and to be galvanised by the spiritualising influences of a mysteriously expanding, divinely appointed Order, and to flower in future Dispensations into a civilization the like of which the world has never seen." (See "Messages to the Baha'i World.")

In one of his Messages to the United States ("Citadel of Faith," p.117), the Guardian says that we shall - "witness the entry by troops of peoples of diverse nations and races into the Baha'i World" This entry by troops will be followed by - "a mass conversion on the part of these same nations and races. (which) will suddenly revolutionize the fortunes of the Faith', and reinforce a thousandfold the numerical strength as well as the material power and spiritual authority of the Faith of God". Shoghi Effendi says that this mass conversion will come about - "as a direct result of a chain of events, momentous and possibly catastrophic in nature, and which cannot as yet be even dimly visualised . (which will) derange the equilibrium of the world." On p.23 of "Citadel of Faith" the Guardian in another letter to the United States writes: 'It must, however long and tortuous the way, lead - through a series of victories and reverses - to the political unification of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, to the emergence of a world government and the establishment of the Lesser Peace, as foretold by Baha'u'llah and foreshadowed by the Prophet Isiaih. It must in the end, culminate in the unfurling of the banner of the Most Great Peace, in the Golden Age of the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah."

To be continued

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