Baháʼí Faith in Tunisia

The Baháʼí Faith in Tunisia begins circa 1910^[1] when the first Baháʼí arrives, possibly from Egypt.^[2][3] In 1956, at Ridván, a marked holy day of the religion and a day on which major elections are held, three new Regional Spiritual Assemblies were established including that of North-West Africa with the chairmanship of Enoch Olinga^[4][5] In 1963, a survey of the community counted 1 assembly and 18 organized groups (between 1 and 9 adults) of Baháʼís in Tunisia.^[6] US State Department 2001 estimates mention the Baháʼí community at about 150 persons.^[7] However, Association of Religion Data Archives and several other sources point to over 1000 Baháʼís in the country.^[8][2][9]

Early phase

The first presence of the religion is not well documented but all suggestions point to the arrival of Baháʼís during the ministry of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá which is to say before 1921. It is suggested a Baháʼí visited circa 1910^[10] possibly from Egypt.^[2] Frenchman Baháʼí Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney [fr]^[11] is known to have obtained permission from the French authorities to have the Baháʼí teachings promulgated in Tunisia. Dreyfus-Barney was remembered by Shoghi Effendi, then head of the religion, for his "stimulating encouragement" to the Baháʼí community of Tunis.^[12] Later, Hafez Nadim Effendi, who died in 1933, was similarly encouraged by Shoghi Effendi to twice visit Tunis to teach and encourage the Baháʼís.^[13] Circa 1928 the first Bahaʼi pilgrim from Tunis and a representative of its Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly visited the Baháʼí spiritual and administrative centers of the religion.^[14] In 1937 Dr. M. Sálih, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt, visited Tunis again based on the encouragement of the head of the religion with a view to strengthening the Baháʼís in Tunisia and encouraging their activities.^[15]

In 1956 at Ridván, a marked holy day of the religion and a day on which major elections are held, three new Regional Spiritual Assemblies were established including that of North-West Africa with the chairmanship of Enoch Olinga^[4][16] covering Tunisia with its secretarial seat in Tunis.^[5] Another well known Baháʼí who served the area and that assembly at the time was Helen Elsie Austin.^[17][18] The assembly was established covering about 600 Baháʼís^[4] and 38 local assemblies across northwestern Africa.^[5] The seat of the national assembly was later transferred from Tunis to Rabat, Morocco.^[5] The regional national assembly including Tunisia achieved incorporation in 1961.^[5]

Growth

A survey of the religion taken in 1963^[6] found an Assembly in Tunis, groups between 1 and 9 adults in 18 locations, and an additional 6 locations isolated Baháʼís lived.

Local Spiritual Assembly	Tunis
Organized Groups of Baháʼís	Ben Arous	Douz	El Djem	Gafsa	Kebili	Kasserine
	Ksour Essef	Le Kef	Makthar	Manouba	Megrine	Rades
	Remada	Robaa	Sbeitla	Sidi Bouzid	Siliana	Sousse

During 1967–69 the regional assembly was reorganized and had jurisdiction over Algeria and Tunisia. When the pioneers to Tunisia were expelled in November 1968 the Attar-Hamedani family left behind a villa and office before eventually settling in Hong Kong. In 1969 the regional national assembly of North Africa was dissolved when Tunisia was placed under emergency rule. The National Spiritual Assembly of Tunisia was elected in 1972.^[5][19]

Persecution

In October 1984 Baháʼí institutions were banned and Baháʼís were interrogated in Tunisia.^[19] In the mid-1980s 6 known polemical attacks were made against the Baháʼís in Tunisia in newspapers.^[20] Near the same period Abdelfattah Amor served as dean of the faculty of legal, political and social science at Tunis University. He would later work professionally as a human rights lawyer who, as a Muslim, would serve as a UN Special Rapporteur who took a keen interest in the treatment of the Baháʼís of Iran.^[21] In the same period Muhammad Talbí, a professor of the Letters and Human Sciences at Tunis University, published an article "What Muslims Really Believe About Religious Liberty" in Liberty, a magazine of religious freedom, in 1986.^[22] Though it didn't mention the religion specifically it was considered significant enough that Baháʼís reprinted the article with permission in their publication the Baháʼí News in January 1987.^[23]

Traditionally the government regarded the religion as a heretical sect of Islam and permitted its adherents to practice their faith only in private.^[24]

Modern community

In 2005, a Tunisian Muslim academic, Dr. Iqbal Al-Gharbi, a psychology lecturer at the University of Ez-Zitouna in Tunis, called on Muslims to reconcile with Baháʼís and other religious groups, even to "apologise to the Baha'is that have been humiliated and denigrated in Muslim countries."^[25]

The modern Baháʼí community has been alittle in the news since the Arab Spring by commentators interested in events in Tunisia.^[26] A series entitled "Tunisia's Spiritual Pluralism" covered the religion in February 2013.^[2] It noted that though the Bahá's have "not been overtly persecuted by the Tunisian state, they nonetheless often feel socially marginalized and excluded".

Demographics

2001 estimates by the US Department of State counted some 150 Baháʼís.^[7] However, World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) claimed that the number of Baháʼís in Tunisia was 1,450 in 1990.^[9] The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated 2,000 Baháʼís in 2010.^[8] A recent mention in a newspaper quoted a Baháʼí estimating that more than a thousand exist in Tunisia.^[2]

Though the government has proscribed the religion publicly, it has permitted Baháʼís to hold meetings of their national council in private homes as well as three local spiritual assemblies that have been elected since 2004.^[24]

Religious reference to Tunisia

Referring to Revelation, Verses 3, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá provided an interpretation referring to the Umayyad Caliphate regions including Tunisia: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. … These signs are an allusion to the dynasty of the Umayyads who dominated the Islamic religion. Seven heads and seven crowns mean seven countries and dominions over which the Umayyads had power: they were the Roman dominion around Damascus; and the Persian, Arabian and Egyptian dominions, together with the dominion of Africa—that is to say, Tunis, Morocco and Algeria; the dominion of Andalusia, which is now Spain; and the dominion of the Turks of Transoxania. The Umayyads had power over these countries."^[27] Such an interpretation of history does not negate the affirmation of the exalted station held for Muhammad - ʻAbdu'l-Bahá said that a Baháʼí will choose death over denial of any of the great Prophets, whether Moses, Muhammad or Christ.^[28] Baháʼís place Islam as the penultimate religion before the end times, which the Báb ultimate addressed by claiming to be the Qa'im himself^[29] followed by Baháʼu'lláh claiming to be the return of Christ.^[30]

See also

• Religion in Tunisia
• History of Tunisia

References

1. Temple, Bernard (May 27, 1910). "Persia and the Regenerations of Islam". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 58 (2001): 652–665. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
2. Khlifi, Roua (26 February 2013). . Tunis is Alive. Archived from the original on 2013-03-06. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
3. Hassall, Graham (c. 2000). "Egypt: Baha'i history". Asia Pacific Baháʼí Studies: Baháʼí Communities by country. Baháʼí Online Library. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
4. Anthony Asa Lee (2007). The Establishment of the Baha'i Faith in West Africa: The First Decade, 1952—1962. ProQuest. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-549-40690-7. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
5. Hassall, Graham (2003-08-26). "Baháʼí Communities by Country: Research Notes". Asian/Pacific Collection. Asia Pacific Baháʼí Studies. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
6. Compiled by Hands of the Cause Residing in the Holy Land. "The Baháʼí Faith: 1844–1963: Information Statistical and Comparative, Including the Achievements of the Ten Year International Baháʼí Teaching & Consolidation Plan 1953–1963". pp. 118–119.
7. U.S. State Department (September 14, 2001). "International Religious Freedom Report 2001: Tunisia". The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affair. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
8. "Most Baháʼí Countries". International > Regions > Northern Africa. The Association of Religion Data Archives. 2010. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
9. "Tunisia: Treatment of Bahai's (or Baha'is) by non-Bahai's and Tunisian authorities; whether they have been targets of threats and/or violence; police attitude towards Bahai's, police response to complaints lodged by Bahai's and police protection available". Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 17 April 2003. TUN41362.E. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
10. Temple, Bernard (May 27, 1910). "Persia and the Regenerations of Islam". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 58 (2001): 652–665. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
11. Dreyfus-Barney, Laura C.; Effendi, Shoghi (1928). Linard, Thomas (ed.). "Biography of Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney". Baháʼí Library Online. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
12. Effendi, Shoghi (1981). The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha'i Community. London, UK: Baha'i Publishing Trust. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-0-900125-43-0.
13. "News of the Cause; International". Baháʼí News (81): 11. February 1934. ISSN 0195-9212.
14. Effendi, Shoghi (1970). Dawn of a New Day. Baháʼí Publishing Trust. p. 21.
15. The Baháʼí World; A Biennial International Record (PDF). Vol. IX, 1940–1944 A.D. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States and Canada. 1945. p. 606.
16. Universal House of Justice (1986). In Memoriam Enoch Olinga 1926–1979. The Baháʼí World. Vol. XVIII. Baháʼí World Centre. pp. 618–635. ISBN 978-0-85398-234-0.
17. Rabbani, Ruhiyyih, ed. (1992). The Ministry of the Custodians 1957–1963. Baháʼí World Centre. p. 411. ISBN 0-85398-350-X.
18. "Standing up for justice and truth". Baháʼí World News Service. Baháʼí International Community. 5 December 2004. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
19. Cameron, G.; Momen, W. (1996). A Basic Baháʼí Chronology. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. pp. 373, 393, 442. ISBN 0-85398-404-2.
20. MacEoin, Denis; Collins, William. "Anti-Baha'i Polemics". The Babi and Baha'i Religions: An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press's ongoing series of Bibliographies and Indexes in Religious Studies. pp. entries 190, 206, 207, 233, 281, 369. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
21. "Baha'i International Community mourns passing of human rights expert". Baháʼí World News Service. Baháʼí International Community. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
22. Talbí, Muhammad (September–October 1986). "What Muslims Really Believe About Religious Liberty" (PDF). Liberty. 81 (6): 16–19. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
23. "What Muslims Really Believe About Religious Liberty". Baháʼí News (670): 8–10. January 1987. ISSN 0195-9212.
24. International Religious Freedom Report 2010: Tunisia. United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (September 14, 2010). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
25. *"Liberal Tunisian Researcher Dr. Iqbal Al-Gharbi: Muslims Must Take Responsibility for Past Mistakes". Middle East Media Research Institute. November 4, 2005.
    • Dr Iqbal Gharbi (October 24, 2005). . Arabiliberali.it. Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2013-08-04.
26. Hennessey, Radia (May 2, 2013). "Tunisia's Theocratic Temptation". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-08-03.
27. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1990) [1908]. Some Answered Questions (Softcover ed.). Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-87743-162-0.
28. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1982) [1911]. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in London. London, UK: Baháʼí Publishing Trust. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0-900125-50-0.
29. Amanat, Abbas (2000). "Resurgence of Apocalyptic in Modern Islam". In Stein, Stephen J. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, vol. III: Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age. New York: Continuum. pp. 241–242. ISBN 0-8264-1255-6.
30. Buck, Christopher (2004). "The eschatology of Globalization: The multiple-messiahship of Bahā'u'llāh revisited". In Sharon, Moshe (ed.). Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Bābī-Bahā'ī Faiths. Boston: Brill. pp. 143–178. ISBN 90-04-13904-4.