World Baha\'i Statistics

By: Ravian Bilani

One reason for huge discrepancy in Baha’i census is that, no one is ever removed from the membership rolls unless they write a letter to the National Center renouncing their belief. So a person who becomes disillusioned and simply drifts away can remain on the rolls indefinitely. Once a Baha’i then always a Baha’i even after his death.

There is another opinion by Mr. Larry Rowe who believes that “The gross exaggeration of world Baha\'i membership numbers is meant to placate all those who have been promised entry by troops for the past 80 years. The gross exaggeration of the number of actual Baha\'is in India goes hand in hand with the inclusion of tens of thousands of people who signed declaration cards in North America in the past 20 to 40 years and that was it; they never truly became Baha\'is they simply put their name on a card like you would on a Zellers card and never followed it up. Also the many others who signed declaration cards but who have become inactive and no long believe in the Baha\'i faith or have actually joined other religious communities but have never taken the time to resign and have been addressing unknown for many years.”

Well I feel that the real cause for such a huge exaggeration in Baha’i census is much deeper and that is ‘well planned strategy of Baha’i administration centered at Haifa to show to the world high acceptability and success so as to claim that Baha’i Faith is one of the major religions of the world. It can be considered as the thirteen unwritten principle of Haifa based organization. All the counselors, ABMs assistant and members of LSAs are trained to work towards achieving this goal. The one who is more expert in this exaggeration is promoted much higher in the Baha’i Organization.

The Ruhi book courses are just to collect the addresses and to claim these are Baha’is. False stories are fabricated that the whole world is just dying for doing Ruhi books and to be converted. Whereas the fact is that many countries have deported Baha’is for proselytizing children and Junior youths as young as fifteen years and in many countries the Priests have warned the baha’is not to do any moral classes with Christian children, they may do it only for Baha’i children.

There is virtually no Baha\'is in continental Europe. Very few in Holland, similar in Spain, Germany and France, fewer in Italy. From a demographic point of view this may as well be \"zero.\"

The Baha’is claim to be about 5,000 in the UK but who knows what that means, and it is not a lot anyway. Likewise the CIS countries have very few Baha\'is. Almost none in China. So, with Europe, Eurasia and China out of the way, where are they?

There are 60,000 adult Baha\'is with good addresses in the US, 12,500 in Canada. These are addresses only! It means the aim of Ruhi Books courses are implemented very successfully. Actually they are not more than 500 in US and same number in Canada

The Middle East is likewise very small. Mostly Persians who married deceitfully Arab women’s without giving their Baha’i identity and then claiming their Baha’i children as citizen of that country.

There are 2,000 at most in the Arab world mostly Iranian pioneers. There are less than 30,000 registered Baha’is in Iran. Maybe 200, mostly Iranian refugees, in Turkey.

Not more than 1500 in Pakistan (mainly former Hindus, mainly rural peasants). About 500 in Bangladesh.

There are 300 in Thailand. There were 400 in Vietnam before the revolution, but few are likely to remain. There are very few, then, in all of Southeast Asia. There are only a few hundred in Japan, and a similar number in Korea. East Asia is a wash.

All that is really left is Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and India. 2.2 millions are claimed in India but the official census of Government of India say the exact number of Baha\'is are only 11,324. Indians like to \'join\' things, but go on being Hindus.

The claim of millions of Baha\'is in Latin America is also fake. Mexico appears to have almost none. Columbia and Bolivia may have few hundreds each, to my recollection, but that is not the same as millions.

The biggest community was Uganda. But it has been greatly disrupted in the last 2 decades by war and dictatorship, and one doesn\'t know how many are left.

The Baha’i movement contains no potential for growth. It has only vertical potential of growth in terms of different sects originating in small time of 160 years. (www.sectsofbahais.com). The 7 million reported to Encyclopedia Britannica by someone in Wilmette or Haifa is.... wish-fulfillment rather than a solid social science statistic. This high exaggeration also points towards a high level of frustration which is developing amongst members of Haifa based organization. At any point of time the Baha’i population in the World is not more than hundred thousand (0.1 million).

Baha’i Faith is essentially Persian dominated organization. It is nowhere near Christianity. It is not the fastest growing religion, it is not the most widespread religion after Christianity. Yes it may be the most comfortable religion, well then that is not a religion.

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