There are those who, either lacking proper information or promoting their own political agendas, regard the establishment of the Bahá’í World Centre in Israel as a political statement—as evidence of ties to the Zionist movement. Yet anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of historical facts knows that the location of the World Centre can be attributed to the machinations of the Iranian government itself. It was that government which exiled Bahá’u’lláh from His native Persia and instigated His final banishment to the Holy Land—then under the sovereignty of the Ottoman empire—some one hundred and forty years ago, eighty years prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The relationship of the World Centre with that State is governed by the same principles being followed by any Bahá’í community—it is characterized by obedience to the laws of the land and a strict abstention from partisan politics.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 31 October 2008 addressed to the Believers in the Cradle of the Faith; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)
