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Flora Teckie
Herald Correspondent
As racial, ideological, ethnic and religious conflicts divide people in many parts of the world, the need for building bonds of unity and understanding takes on a greater urgency.
The International Day of Peace, celebrated annually on September 21, is an opportune time to contemplate how we may achieve lasting global peace.
A passionate desire for peace is growing among people everywhere.
We now have, more than ever before, conditions for the establishment of a lasting peace on earth.
The scientific and technological advances of our times offer practical ways by which the problems of humanity may be solved.
They also provide the means for the administration of the complex life of a united world.
In spite of these advances, there are persistent barriers to peace.
The most common of which are misconceptions, prejudices, suspicions and narrow self-interest.
One of the major barriers to global peace, according to the Bahá’í writings, is racism.
In a statement entitled: ‘The Promise of World Peace’, the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community says: “Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to peace.
“Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism retards the unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress. Recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented by appropriate legal measures, must be universally upheld if this problem is to be overcome”.
Need for recognition of the oneness of humanity
We constitute one human species. Physical differences such as skin colour or hair texture are superficial and have nothing to do with any supposed superiority of one ethnic group or another.
According to the Bahá’í Writings, we are like flowers in one garden, the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. Although we differ from one another physically and emotionally, and have different talents and capacities, we all spring from the same root; we all belong to the same human family.
The Bahá’í writings state: “Consider the flowers of a garden. Though differing in kind, colour, form and shape, yet, in as much as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape and colour! Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when divers shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought together under the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest”.
We are members of one human family.
Any belief that advocates superior rights or privileges to one grouping of humanity over another is not only morally wrong, but fundamentally at odds with the best interests of even those who consider themselves to be in some way superior.
Just as fever is a symptom of disease in the body, racism is a symptom of disease in society.
Suppressing the symptom does not cure the disease, but curing the disease will eliminate the symptom.
The disease from which society currently suffers is failure to recognise the principle of the oneness of humanity and racism is just a symptom of this.
To eliminate racism in our communities, we must accept the principle of the oneness of the human family.
The rational soul has no race
The human nature is fundamentally spiritual. Although we exist on earth in physical bodies, the essential identity of each one of us is defined by an invisible, rational, and everlasting soul.
The Bahá’í Writings state: “… the rational soul has no gender, race, ethnicity or class, a fact that renders intolerable all forms of prejudice”, and that “God maketh no distinction between the white and the black. If the hearts are pure both are acceptable unto Him”.
The concept of the oneness of humanity goes beyond mere tolerance, it requires a change in our attitudes, and an active effort towards establishing genuine unity among the races.
The Bahá’í writings say: “Love ye all religions and all races with a love that is true and sincere and show that love through deeds and not through the tongue; for the latter hath no importance, as the majority of men are, in speech, well-wishers, while action is the best”.
If we wish to eliminate racism entirely, we must wholeheartedly embrace the concept of oneness of the human race.
“Close your eyes to racial differences,” is Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel, “and welcome all with the light of oneness”.
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