1 Answers
The Baháʼí Faith is a relatively new religion teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.
The religion began with considerable controversy. Its first leader, the Báb, was imprisoned and executed for heresy in 1850, and Baháʼu'lláh, another central figure, was exiled from Iran and both the Ottoman and Persian Empires tried to destroy his movement. In Iran and other parts of the Middle East, Baháʼís continue to be criticized for breaking with Islam and accused of conspiring with western powers, resulting in intense persecution and the loss of civil rights.
The criticism and challenges it has faced vary considerably in different regions of the world. In the West, liberals have criticized the Baháʼí Faith for some of its conservative social practices, notably the prohibition on premarital or homosexual intimacy for Baháʼís. Western academics have criticized the requirement for Baháʼís to seek pre-publication review when publishing on the religion and the exclusion of women from serving on the Universal House of Justice. These issues may be only marginal to the numerically dominant Baháʼí community outside of Europe and North America.
The religion's rise in the Middle East and subsequent movement into the West has given rise to a body of anti-Baháʼí polemic. Christian and Islamic authors have attacked its history and founders, institutions, teachings, and use of prophecy.