Diversity Spans All Races

Today the diversity of the South African Bahá'í community spans virtually all of the races, ethnic groups, and tribes that reside here. More than 90 percent of the approximately 10,000 Bahá'ís in South Africa would have been classified as non-white under the old race laws -- a ratio that roughly matches the proportions of the population at large. The Bahá'í community is spread throughout South Africa, too, with local Spiritual Assemblies in more than 200 cities and towns.

"You've not only got Zulu and Xhosa in the Bahá'í community, and those are the major tribes in conflict at the moment, but you've got representatives of the Venda, the Sotho, the Swazi and the Tswana," said Mr. Naidoo, who was interviewed at the height of pre-election violence.


At funeral services for the three murdered men in East London on 19 March, family members were among some 500 people who were present. Left to right are Hooshmand Anvari Sr., Mr. Anvari's father; Dr. Amin Bakhshandegi, Shamam Bakhshandegi's father; Mrs. Badri Bakhshandegi, his mother; Mrs. Dina Anvari, Mr. Anvari's wife; Mrs. Vera Razavi, Mr. Riaz Razavi's wife; Mr. Razi Razavi, Mr. Razavi's brother; and Mr. Hooshang Anvari, Mr. Anvari's brother.

"When you come to the national Bahá'í convention, you find that while others of their tribes or groups are the very people who are fighting outside, so to speak, the Bahá'ís inside are consulting and being in unity with each other," said Mr. Naidoo.

"Bahá'ís in South Africa haven't been involved in civil disobedience, or in throwing stones and bottles," Mr. Naidoo said. "Rather they have concentrated on moral reconstruction, on building our own community as evidence that attitudes can be changed.

Increasingly, said Mr. Naidoo and others, outsiders are taking notice of the Bahá'í community and its accomplishments.

"It is absolutely true that this transitional period [between white and multi-racial rule] has brought people of different faiths much closer together," said Sheena Duncan, a representative of the South African Council of Churches to the Panel of Religious Leaders on Electoral Justice. "And the Bahá'ís are part of that process. They are now very firmly part of the interfaith community in South Africa."

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