On Discovering the Baha'i Faith: The Internet as the Primary Portal

The Internet is increasingly the first source of information about the Baha'i Faith that people encounter. Irene of Linkoping, Sweden, is a case in point. Reading a posting on BBC News about an Iranian Baha'i led her to her first investigation of the Faith. (Baha'i blogger Barney of Barnabas Quotidianus also cited the same post on his site.)

There it is on the BBC Homepage, home of the BBC on the Internet, under the heading "A - Z of religions and beliefs" is "Baha'i." Click further and you find "The basics" and then "Beliefs." Click on that and you find "Baha'is believe all people should be united spiritually." Click on that and you come to the page that so impressed blogger Irene that she excerpted from it on her blog Irene, the Little Bird.

Photo: Linkoping, Sweden
Have you ever heard about Baha'i? I have heard it before, but I wasn't too curious to find out what it's about.

But now, that I've found a detailed description about it, what it believes, its history, its guide of life,... I simply don't find anything that I don't agree with. It's a very beautiful belief, indeed.

A quote from the website:

Bahá'ís believe that humanity must now move forward to global maturity, recreating itself as a single human family: The reality is that there is only the one human race. We are a single people, inhabiting the planet Earth, one human family bound together in a common destiny, a single entity created from one same substance, obligated to 'be even as one soul'. Official Bahá'í statement, August 2001

This is life, this is world, this is love, this is humanity, this is unity, this is equality, this is respect.

Ironically, I found the link to this nice website from an article in BBC about several profiles of Iranian diaspora. One of them, Soroosh , told about why his family was better off [out] of Iran: because his parents are Bahais, and was oppressed by the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran during that time.

It is.. Baha'i is a beautiful belief. Why would any mind be against it, unless it is a sick mind?

Irene, "Baha'i Beliefs," Irene, the Little Bird