Bahá’í World/Volume 32/Promoting Unity in Europe
Promoting Unity in Europe[edit]
The Bahá’í International Community’s exhibitions at the European Parliament in France and Belgium offered an opportunity to showcase the Bahá’í Faith’s contribution to unity in European society.
The European Union faces its most ambitious expansion in May 2004, and with the addition of 10 new states it will feature the largest economy and the third largest population in the world. But the economic and political alliance is not an easy one. The governments that compose the EU must work hard for compromises, and its people must reckon with a dense conglomerate of languages, cultures, and ideologies. Though there is a great deal of hope for the future, Europe’s diversity has historically been a source of conflict, witnessed in the last century as tragedy, upheaval, and unparalleled change, including two world wars and their aftermath.
Considering both the recent past and Europe’s more distant history, the merger of nations into the EU is a striking reverse of divisions that have characterized the continent for most of its existence. Though still unsettled by friction and politics, the European Union offers an economic and political unity welcomed by the Bahá’í Faith, whose members—even in the midst of world wars—firmly held that the fissions between nations would be overcome and those wars would give way to peace, as the whole human race began to regard itself as a single entity and the earth its collective home.
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‘Abdu’l-Bahá, during a visit to London in 1911, addressed a gathering with His hope that “through the zeal and ardor of the pure of heart, the darkness of hatred and difference will be entirely abolished, and the light of love and unity shall shine . . . human hearts shall meet and embrace each other; the whole world become as a man’s native country and the different races be counted as one race.”¹
At that time, the Faith had only recently been introduced in Europe, but in the years since, the Bahá’í community there has grown in both size and influence. Bahá’ís now reside in more than 7,100 localities throughout Europe, and they have established some 860 Local Spiritual Assemblies, in addition to the National Spiritual Assemblies in 37 European countries. There are well-established Bahá’í communities and National Spiritual Assemblies in all 15 member nations of the European Union, as well as in the new nations scheduled to join the EU.
It is fitting, then, that when the Bahá’í community of Europe wanted to create an exhibit about its activities and members, its chosen theme was “Unity in Diversity,” an essential ideal in the Faith, whose members come from thousands of ethnic, tribal, and cultural backgrounds.
The exhibition, titled “The Bahá’í International Community: Promoting Unity in Diversity throughout Europe for over a Century,” was created by the Bahá’í International Community to welcome the new states that will join the European Union on 1 May 2004. It opened at the main building of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 June 2003, and again on 10 February 2004 at the Winston Churchill Building in Strasbourg, France.
“This exhibition aims to show the degree to which the Bahá’í communities of Europe are involved with the life of society at large, and are seeking to promote and contribute to social progress on a number of fronts,” said Silvia Fröhlich, a representative of the Swiss Bahá’í community who assisted the Paris branch of the Bahá’í International Community’s Office of Public Information in designing the display.
Composed of 14 panels, the exhibit highlighted the contribution to social harmony made by Bahá’í communities in Europe through photographs and text about how the Bahá’í communities of Europe
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Member of the European Parliament Jean Lambert (right) opens the exhibition in Belgium. Christine Samandari represented the BIC.
Socrates Maanian, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Greece (right), introduces the exhibition to Greek MEP Efstratios Korakas.
and a variety of Bahá’í-inspired organizations have sought to promote peace, integration, and ethics throughout Europe.
Titles of the panels included: “An Emerging World Identity,” “The Bahá’í Vision,” “Collaboration with the United Nations,” “Corporate Social Responsibility,” “Environment and Development,” “The Advancement of Women,” “Youth in Action,” “Peace and Understanding,” “Interreligious Dialogue,” and “Multicultural Integration.” Each panel included a quotation from the sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith along with an explanation of the relevant principle and examples of action being taken by Bahá’ís in Europe to promote these principles.
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Through the exhibition, visiting members of the European Parliament were able to learn about Bahá’í-inspired projects such as the Institute for Social Cohesion in the United Kingdom and the Bahá’í International Community’s innovative collaboration with the Stability Pact for Eastern Europe (formerly known as the Royaumont Process).²
The exhibition also featured the European Bahá’í Business Forum (ebbf), dedicated to promoting ethical values, personal virtues, and moral leadership in business as well as in organizations of social change. ebbf members from Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Slovakia participated in the exhibition staged by the Office of Public Information of the Bahá’í International Community. The ebbf panel and the exhibit brochure described ebbf partnerships and coaching activities with organizations such as business schools and international student organizations, the International Labour Organization, and the ongoing courses in ethical economics taught by ebbf members at Italian universities.³
The exhibition in Brussels ran from 11 to 13 June 2003 and was opened by its sponsor, mep Jean Lambert. Other notable attendees at the exhibition included Ana de Palacio, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain; Professor Nicolas Dehousse, the former President of the Royal Belgian Academy; mep Elmar Brok from Germany, chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security, and Defense Policy; Efstratios Korakas, a Greek mep and member of the same committee; Rytis Martikonis, assistant secretary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania; Geneviève Tuts, executive assistant to the Vice Prime Minister of Belgium.
Professor Suheil Bushrui, who holds the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, gave an address on “The Ethics of Globalization,” a topic of particular relevance to the expanding eu in its role as the world’s major economic power.
In Strasbourg, the exhibit ran from 10 to 12 February 2004. Some 30 members of the Parliament attended the opening reception. Other dignitaries included judges from the European Court of Human Rights, representatives of the Council of Europe, members of the European Commission, ambassadors and diplomats, and prominent personalities from the Strasbourg region.
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Baroness Ludford (center) at the exhibition in France, with Ronald Mayer, the Ambassador of Luxembourg to the Council of Europe and the European Parliament (left), and Ulrich Bohner, chief executive of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (right).
Baroness Sarah Ludford, a member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom, sponsored the event. She addressed the gathering during the opening reception, speaking warmly about the potential of the Bahá’í Faith to influence Europe’s course in the world. “I believe this little-known religion of global reach is of interest to people like ourselves who work in an international context in this expanding and enlarging European Parliament,” said the Baroness.
She said that Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, “warned of the dangers of unconstrained nationalism and called for a system of global governance, which has led Bahá’ís to be particular supporters of the United Nations. He would have applauded the success of the European Union in ensuring collective security and protecting human rights.”
“Over the years, the Bahá’í communities of Europe have sought to engender and encourage social harmony and progress, through a wide range of activities,” said Lucien Crevel, Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of France. “It is this
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experience, which the exhibition seeks to highlight, that we hope will be helpful to the Parliament and its members.
“The idea of social harmony, which this exhibition seeks to promote, is of critical importance as the European Union becomes larger.”
The EU’s ongoing plans to expand its membership will undoubtedly increase not only its influence but also its complexities. The new states that will be admitted in 2004 will raise new issues to be addressed collectively, as the new and old member states work to integrate into a cohesive whole. Throughout that process, the Bahá’ís will be working in their own communities and in the wider society to bring into practice the principles of unity that animate their Faith.
NOTES[edit]
1 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London: Addresses, and Notes of Conversations (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1987), p. 38.
2 For more information about the Institute for Social Cohesion, see The Bahá’í World 2002–2003 (Haifa: World Centre Publications, 2004), pp. 113–16. For more about the Bahá’í involvement in the Royaumont Process, see The Bahá’í World 1998–99 (Haifa: World Centre Publications, 2000), pp. 145–50.
3 For more information about the European Bahá’í Business Forum, see The Bahá’í World 2001–2002 (Haifa: World Centre Publications, 2003), pp. 149–54.