June 27

The point that I should like to impress upon their notice is that they should have the most scrupulous regard to safeguarding the legitimate personal and civil rights of all individuals, whatever may be their chosen career or station in life, and irrespective of their racial, religious or ideological backgrounds. It is not permissible in matters related to such rights to make distinctions and discriminations or show preferences. In all transactions and dealings that affect basic human rights, the standard required of the chosen supporters of Bahá'u'lláh -- a standard that must claim their unhesitating and unreserved acceptance, and which they must meticulously and assiduously uphold -- is that they should not make the slightest distinction between friend and stranger, believer and unbeliever, supporter and antagonist. (Translation of a letter from Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá'ís of Iran, July 1925: courtesy of Research Department of the Universal House of Justice; 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)