With regard to avoiding association with declared Covenant-breakers, Shoghi Effendi says that this does not mean that if one or more of these attends a non-Bahá'í meeting any Bahá'ís present should feel compelled to leave the meeting or refuse to take part in the meeting, especially if that part has been prearranged. Also if in the course of some business transaction it should become necessary to negotiate with one of these people, in order to clear up the business, that is permissible, provided the association is confined to the matter of the business in hand...." (From a letter In a dated 16 May 1925 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer included in ‘The Protection of Diversity in the World Order of Baha'u'llah’, a Statement dated December 29, 1985, released by the Baha'i International Community's Office of Public Information; Dialogue 2:2-3)
