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Righteous Warfare |
Although Bahá’u’lláh, like Christ, counsels His follows as
individuals and as a religious body to adopt an attitude of nonresistance
and forgiveness toward their enemies, He teaches
that it is the duty of the community to prevent injustice and
oppression. If individuals are persecuted and injured it is wrong
for a community to allow pillage and murder to continue unchecked
within its borders. It is the duty of a good government
to prevent wrongdoing and to punish offenders.
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So also
with the community of nations. If one nation oppresses or injures
another, it is the duty of all other nations to unite to prevent
such oppression. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes:—“It may happen
that at a given time warlike and savage tribes may furiously
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attack the body politic with the intention of carrying on a
wholesale slaughter of its members; under such a circumstance
defense is necessary.”
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Hitherto the usual practice of mankind has been that if one
nation attacked another, the rest of the nations of the world
remained neutral, and accepted no responsibility in the matter
unless their own interests were directly affected or threatened.
The whole burden of defense was left to the nation attacked,
however weak and helpless it might be. The teaching of
Bahá’u’lláh reverses this position and throws the responsibility
of defense not specially on the nation attacked, but on all the
others, individually and collectively. As the whole of mankind
is one community, an attack on any one nation is an attack on
the community, and ought to be dealt with by the community.
Were this doctrine generally recognized and acted on, any nation
contemplating an aggression on another would know in
advance that it would have to reckon with the opposition not
of that other nation only, but of the whole of the rest of the
world. This knowledge alone would be sufficient to deter even
the boldest and most bellicose of nations. When a sufficiently
strong league of peace-loving nations is established war will,
there, become a thing of the past. During the period of
transition from the old state of international anarchy to the
new state of international solidarity aggressive wars will still
be possible, and in these circumstances, military or other coercive
action in the cause of international justice, unity and
peace may be a positive duty. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes that in such
case:—
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A conquest can be a praiseworthy thing, and there are
times when war becomes the powerful basis of peace, and
ruin the very means of reconstruction. If, for example, a
high-minded sovereign marshals his troops to block the
onset of the insurgent and the aggressor, or again, if he
takes the field and distinguishes himself in a struggle to
unify a divided state and people, if, in brief, he is waging
war for a righteous purpose, then this seeming wrath is
mercy itself, and this apparent tyranny the very substance
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of justice and this warfare the cornerstone of peace. Today,
the task befitting great rulers is to establish universal
peace, for in this lies the freedom of all peoples.—The
Secret of Divine Civilization, pp. 70–71.
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1. | See also section on Treatment of Criminals, pp. 153–155. [ Back To Reference] |