[Baha'is] 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 disctiminations or show
preferences. In all transactions and dealings that affect basic human rights,
the standard required of the chosen supporters of Baha’u’llah - 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.
- Shoghi Effendi (Translation of a letter to the Baha
' is of Iran, July, 1925, included in an article titled: ‘Human Rights
Discourses: A Baha’i Perspective’, by Matthew Weinberg; ‘The Baha’i World
1996-1997’)
