I just find it ironic that despite the center of Baha'i being in Israel, and their persecution in many places around the world, Baha'i do not teach the faith specifically to Israelis. I'm sure there's a reason?
Kismet, isn't it so that you can't convert to Baha'i as an Israeli?
Right, but no one seems to be answering the question. I'm wondering WHY the faith can't be taught to Israelis.
Again, you're all missing the point. Baha'i has a specific ban on Israelis being Baha'i. That is to say, if you're a permanent resident of Israel, they have a policy of not allowing you to be Baha'i, and will not accept any formal declaration of faith by an Israeli. I know Israel is a democracy - that's not the point. I want to know more about the nature of this policy.
Ahh...seven people totally didn't get the point of this question. I think I'll go ahead and delete it.
Who says it isn't?
I went to high-school in Israel where we were taught comparative religion, and one of our field-trips was to the Baha'i Temple in Haifa (which is breathtaking, by the way...)
EDIT:
Israel is a democracy; you can convert to ANYTHING; I knew a Jewish Israeli who converted to Christianity in order to marry his Armenian fiance. The only people who objected were some officials in the Armenian church (and the Gar's family), who thought that an Armenian only ought to marry an Armenian.
If only that was true! False "gods" and temples for idols isn't exactly what I want in the land of the Lord, God. Those who cling to worthless gods forfeit the grace that could be theirs!
Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?" (Jeremiah 8:19)
There is long-standing arrangement/agreement between the Baha'i World Centre and the Israeli Government that no active teaching of the Faith will occur in Israel. The Baha'is are guests there, and are there to serve the Baha'i World Centre, nothing more. So, if someone chooses to join the Baha'i Faith, they would have to go elsewhere to do so. The Baha'is can certainly answer questions that arise, briefly, but they don't go out of their way to teach.
They can teach it to their own followers.
They just are not allowed to proselytize to others and try and convert them.
No European country would allow Jews to convert non Jews either IF Judaism would be about converting people (and it isn't).
Israel will do nothing to prevent an Israeli from converting to another religion. Individual citizens might; however, it isn't an official state policy, as far as I know. Freedom of Religion is both an Israeli right and a Jewish teaching, where Jews are more concerned with the actions of one rather than the thoughts of that one. As such, that is why the Baha'i Gardens can exist in Israel, and not in their religious motherland of Iran, where they are persecuted. One thing, though, is that members cannot actively engage in proselytizing actions; however, that is like that for all religions in Israel, Judaism included. If there is a problem, Israel isn't the problem.
Saying that "Baha'i has a specific ban on Israelis being Baha'i" should be made more clear in your question, and not be in the Add'l Details. I would ask why the religion itself bans it, and if no clear answer is here than ask in R&S: Where more likely you will find someone more educated in Baha'i. If I had to guess, it might have some respect for the Jewish people; but, other than that, I have no idea.
Edit: 7 people didn't get the point? Explain, please. I am just saying that Israel is probably not the reason that there is not a lot, well at least not in a legal sense, and if there is something to do with the Baha'i preventing themselves from being active in Israel, then I'm ignorant of it and you should ask them. Actually, no matter the reason, I would ask them, first: As the country with a holy site easily accessible, they should know something about it if there is something that does in fact exist.
Apparently Baha'u'llah himself instituted the policy, according to several web sites, though he never made it clear WHY he prohibited it. There's a long history of persecution of Baha'is in many countries, and perhaps Baha'u'llah felt the possibility of persecution would be decreased if he for bad teaching the faith within the Holy Land.
The state of Israel came into being in the 1940s. Baha'u'llah died in 1892. If it's true that the policy comes from Baha'u'llah, then it predates the formation of Israel by more than 50 years.
Why can't the Baha'i faith be taught in Israel?
