2018

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Categories:	Births - Deaths - Declarations Establishments - Publications
Media:	2018 (Events)

2018 was a common year of the Gregorian calendar, the 2018th year of the Common Era (CE), the 18th year of the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2010s decade. 2018 corresponds to the years 174–175 of the Bahá'í Era (BE) according to the Badi calendar.

Events

Visitors enter the Bahá'í House of Worship in Norte del Cauca, Colombia, dedicated in July 2018.

• January 25: A new educational facility is established on the grounds of the Lotus Temple, the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India.
• March 21: The design for the national Bahá'í House of Worship of Papua New Guinea is unveiled.
• April 15: The design for the local Bahá'í House of Worship in Matunda Soy, Kenya, is unveiled at a gathering of over 1,000 people.
• April 25–May 2: The Twelfth International Convention takes place at the Bahá'í World Center.
  • Juan Francisco Mora and Praveen Kumar Mallik are newly elected to serve on the Universal House of Justice.
  • The film A Widening Embrace is released, showcasing the development of a number of Bahá'í communities throughout the world.
• May 9: The film The Gate: Dawn of the Bahá’í Faith, the first ever documentary about the origins of the Bahá’í Faith, premieres in Los Angeles.
• June 9: Liberian Baháʼí Sam Karnue is inducted as appointed Commissioner of Yarpea Mah Administrative District. It is noted in a local report that Baháʼís do not campaign or lobby for such positions and Karnue was in Sierra Leone serving the Faith at the time of his appointment.
• July 8: A play about Tahirih, called Daughter of the Sun, opens to an audience of 450 people at the Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama.
• July 22: The Bahá'í House of Worship in Norte del Cauca, Colombia, is dedicated in a ceremony gathering over 1,000 people. It is the second local Bahá'í House of Worship ever to be dedicated.
• September: The first substantial book of Baha'i prayers in the Maori language is published.
• October 19: The Bahá’í International Community participates in the 6th Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan.
• November 1–7: More than 7,500 people attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Toronto, Canada. The programme includes fourteen Bahá’í presenters, including Bani Dugal, Hugh Locke, Payam Akhavan, Nader Saiedi, Paul Hanley, Robert Stockman, and Sovaida Maani Ewing.
• November 8: The Bahá’í community of Spain co-organizes a conference on the causes of and responses to violent radicalization.
• November 14: The Kitáb-i-Aqdas is translated into Cebuano for the first time.
• November 19: The Bahá’í International Community participates in the second annual Arab Sustainable Development Week in Cairo, Egypt, marking the first time the Bahá’í community had an official presence at a space convened by the Arab League.
• December 10: The Bahá’í International Community releases a statement, Viewing the movement of populations in the larger context of humanity's collective life, in advance of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Global Compact for Migration.

Persecution of Bahá’ís

Main article: Persecution

In Iran

• February–March: Three of the seven Bahá’í leaders imprisoned in Iran are released after ten years of unjust imprisonment, including Saeid Rezaie (released 16 February), Jamaloddin Khanjani (released 16 March), and Vahid Tizfahm (released 19 March).
• May 13: The ten-year sentence of Afif Naeimi, the last of the seven Iranian Bahá’í leaders remaining in prison, is extended, despite a judicial ruling stating that he is too ill to be incarcerated.
• October 24: Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian, an Iranian Bahá'í citizen from Gilavand, dies and is buried in the Gilavand Bahá'í cemetery. Her body is exhumed by unknown individuals several days afterwards and abandoned in the deserts of Jaban.
• November: In response to the desecration and excavation of the grave of Iranian Bahá’í Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian, a group of progressive Muslims releases an open letter condemning the act, referring to her as a “Bahá’í compatriot,” acknowledging “such acts to be contrary to religion and morals” and describing them as “anti-national” practices that “violate or weaken the solidarity of Iranians.” The statement further denounced the “systematic and deeply rooted denial of Bahá’í citizens’ rights”, and called the violation of their citizenship rights a “hateful” act, “born of ignorant prejudice.”
• December 20: Afif Naeimi is released from prison after serving an unjust ten-year sentence.

In Yemen

Yemeni Bahá’í Hamed bin Haydara was sentenced to death on January 2, 2018; the same court ordered the dissolution of all Baha’i Spiritual Assemblies in the country.

• January 2: A court in Sana’a, Yemen issued an unprecedented ruling sentencing Yemeni Baha’i Hamed bin Haydara to death due to his religious beliefs, and calling for the dissolution of all Baha’i Spiritual Assemblies in the country.
• March 23: ‘Abdu’l-Malek al-Houthi, leader of the Houthis, delivers a televised speech in which he vehemently vilifies and strongly denounces the Bahá’í Faith. He warns Yemenis of the “satanic” Bahá’í “movement” that is “waging a war of doctrine” against Islam, describes Bahá’ís as “infidels” and deniers of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, and spreads other falsehoods about the Bahá’í Faith. He finally urges Yemenis to defend their country against the Bahá’ís under the pretext that “those who destroy the faith of people are no less evil and dangerous than those who kill people with their bombs.”
• March 30: The Mufti of Yemen, Shams al-Din Muhammad Sharaf al-Din, spends a portion of his weekly Friday talk, aired live on television and radio, cautioning Yemenis of the influence of the Bahá’ís.
• August 17: The persecution against the Yemeni Bahá’í community is confirmed independently by a report from the United Nations Group of Regional and International Eminent Experts on Yemen.
• September 15: Yemen’s Houthi authorities, with the support of Iran, target some 20 Baha’is with a string of baseless charges, including espionage and apostasy. The action comes amidst a climate of hostility and incitement to violence against Baha’is and other religious minorities, promoted by Houthi leaders. The judge in the case is Abdu Ismail Hassan Rajeh, the same judge who presided over the case of Hamed bin Haydara in January.
• September 29: In the second court hearing presided over by judge Abdu Ismail Hassan Rajeh, three additional Yemeni Bahá'ís are sentenced to death, with five of the indicted Bahá'ís in attendance at the court. The judge requests the prosecutor to publish the names of 19 others indicted in a newspaper, and orders that all of the properties belonging to the Bahá'ís indicted be frozen until the court verdict is issued. He furthermore objects to a request by the lawyer for the five to be released on bail, and defers any such decision to the next hearing.
• October 11: While on his way to the market in Sana’a, Abdullah Al Olofi, member of the Bahá'í community in Yemen, is surrounded by armed soldiers in a pick-up truck, blindfolded and taken away.

In Iraq

• December: The Iraqi Deputy Justice Minister, Hussein al-Zuhairi, claimed that the Bahá’í Faith is not a religion or faith. He further expressed the Iraqi government’s commitment to legislation prohibiting the Bahá'í religion in 1970.

Deaths

• May 14: Howard Menking, Knight of Bahá’u’lláh.
• October 24: Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian, a Bahá’í from Gilavand.
• November 15: Shapoor Monadjem, member of the International Teaching Center and member of Brazil's National Spiritual Assembly.

Publications

Compilations

• Institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár: The Dawning Place of the Mention of God prepared by the Research Department.
• Words of Light: A Selection of Bahá'í Prayers compiled by Bahá'í Publishing.
• Divine Springtime: Selections from The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh illustrated by Elaheh Bos.
• Bahá’í Readings for Children illustrated by Elaheh Bos.
• Give Me Thy Grace to Serve Thy Loved Ones compiled by the International Teaching Center.
• Call to Remembrance: The Life of Bahá’u’lláh in His Own Words compiled by Geoffrey W. Marks.

Books

• Starting with Me: Knowing Myself Before Finding a Partner by Susanne M. Alexander, Johanna Merritt Wu, and Jeremy Lambshead.
• Rethinking Prosperity: Forging Alternatives to a Culture of Consumerism prepared by Bahá'í International Community.
• Religion and Public Discourse in an Age of Transition: Reflections on Bahá'í Practice and Thought edited by Geoffrey Cameron and Benjamin Schewel.
• Melissa & Kasho by Camilla Chance.
• Coronation on Carmel by Michael Day.
• Heroes of the New Age by Edward Nadeau Diliberto.
• A New Approach to Science by Leonardo Duque.
• The Apostle of Peace, Volume Two: 1912-1921 by Amin Egea.
• Bridge to Global Governance by Sovaida Ma'ani Ewing.
• Seeking a State of Heaven: The German Templars by Carolyn Sparey Fox.
• Learning How to Forgive by Susan Gammage.
• Letting Go of Anger and Bitterness by Susan Gammage.
• Strengthening Your Relationship with God by Susan Gammage.
• What Comes After Nations? Once Again From Religion's Renewal, A New Civilization Emerges by Harvey Garver.
• Man of the Trees: Richard St. Barbe Baker, The First Global Conservationist by Paul Hanley.
• In the Beginning Was a Word: How Language Knits Reality Together by John S. Hatcher.
• God's Plan for Planet Earth and Your Neighborhood by John S. Hatcher.
• Arising by Kevin Locke.
• Equality for Women = Prosperity for All by Augusto Lopez-Claros and Bahiyyih Nakhjavání.
• Fellowship Farm, Volume 6 by Melanie Lotfali.
• 1844: Convergence in Prophecy for Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith by Eileen Maddocks.
• Consulting Detective by Alan Manifold.
• Advancing Towards an Understanding by Robert I. K. Mazibuko.
• Our Seven Families by Elaine McCreary.
• Hand of the Cause of God Furutan by Iran Furutan Muhajir.
• Mirza Ali-Akbar-i-Nakhjavani by Alí Nakhjavání.
• For the Betterment of the World prepared by the Office of Social and Economic Development.
• Educational Leadership: A Guyanese Perspective by Brian O'Toole.
• Studies in Bahá'í Philosophy: Selected Articles by Harold Rosen, Peter Terry, and Mikhail Sergeev.
• Into the Kingdom of Light by Debashis Roy.
• Remembrance Suite: A Sonnet of Sonnets by Shirin Sabri.
• Valiant Horsemen of the Merciful by Shirin Sabri, illustrated by Sue Podger.
• 175 Years of Persecution by Fereydun Vahman.
• Equals and Partners: A Spiritual Journey Toward Reconciliation and Oneness by Patricia Verge.

Albums

• Bahá’í Prayers by Bob & Jene Bellows.
• Huerquehue by Felipe Duhart.
• Roses of Love by Klare KuOlga.
• Promised Land by Nima.

Videos

• A Widening Embrace released by the Bahá’í World Center.

References

• 2018 Publications at BahaiBooks.com.au