As to the patriotic prejudice, this is also due to absolute
ignorance, for the surface of the earth is one native land. Everyone can live
in any spot on the terrestrial globe. Therefore all the world is man's
birthplace. These boundaries and outlets have been devised by man. In the
creation, such boundaries and outlets were not assigned. Europe is one
continent, Asia is one continent, Africa is one continent, Australia is one
continent, but some of the souls, from personal motives and selfish interests,
have divided each one of these continents and considered a certain part as
their own country… Every limited area which we call our native country we
regard as our motherland, whereas the terrestrial globe is the motherland of
all, and not any restricted area. In short, for a few days we live on this
earth and eventually we are buried in it, it is our eternal tomb. Is it
worthwhile that we should engage in bloodshed and tear one another to pieces
for this eternal tomb? Nay, far from it, neither is God pleased with such
conduct nor would any sane man approve of it.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from
the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha; Tablet to the Hague, compilation on ‘Europe’,
prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, published in Baha'i Studies Review,
1.1, Association for Baha'i Studies of English-Speaking Europe, 1991)
