The Removal of All Prejudice

By: Dr. Mohammed Alam Qurayshi

Among the 12 principles of the Baha’i faith is the important one “The Removal of all Prejudice”. Abdul Baha is quoted to have said:

\"All warfare and bloodshed in human history have been the outcome of prejudice. This earth is one home and one nativity. God has created mankind with equal endowment and right to live upon the earth. Racial prejudice or separation into nations proceeds from human motives or ignorance. Why should we be separated by artificial and imaginary boundaries? This is one globe, one land, one country.\"

At the onset let me say, this is no new idea that the Baha’is are reveling in. Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) had declared fourteen centuries earlier,

All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over a white – except by piety and good action. (The Last Sermon of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh))

The Islamic teaching is well demonstrated in the annual pilgrimage – Hajj. This philosophy is so deeply ingrained in the Muslim world (and also recognized to be part of Islam by non-Islamic scholars) that it is not even mentioned. But the Baha’is have chosen it, above everything else and are promoting it as if it is invented by the Baha’is. It could probably be because Baha’is have not found anything as persuasive as this in the teachings for them to showcase or maybe they are just riding the global wave of equality and want to leverage it.

On another note, it is also important to understand what is meant by removal of prejudice and how has it been proposed to be removed by the Baha’i Faith.

Bahaullah says, \"Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness. We desire but the good of the world and happiness of nations; that all nations should become one in faith and all men be as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race annuled .... Is not this that which Christ foretold?\"

If you read it carefully, you will realize that Bahaullah has proposed that the entire mankind accept the Baha’i Faith to effect unity and strengthen bonds of affections. There should be no Muslim on the face of the earth, no Christian, no Hindu, no Buddhist. All religions should be wipped out and only Baha’is should exist.

My question is why should anyone accept the Baha’i Faith? What is the reality of the Faith? How do we determine that the Baha’i teachings are from God or have they been plagiarized by some few to further their strategic goals?

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