Netherlands

Netherlands
European Bahá’í Teaching Conference & Summer School, Scheveningen, 1951.
Location of the Netherlands
National Assembly		Netherlands
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	17,501,696
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	6,812
History: Firsts
-	Bahá'í to visit	1913, Daniel Jenkyn
-	Pioneers	1932, Louise Drake Wright
-	Local Assembly	1947, Amsterdam
-	National Assembly	1962
Official Website		http://www.bahai.nl/
Related media
Categories: Netherlands • People

The Netherlands, known informally as Holland, is a country in Northwest Europe. Irreligion is the predominant belief system and Dutch is the official language with several other languages being recognised. It has been an independent nation since the late 16th Century.

The Bahá’í Faith was first present in the Netherlands in the 1910s and efforts to establish a community began in earnest in the 1930s. Bahá’í activity in the country was interrupted by the Second World War but resumed in the late 1940s with a community becoming firmly established which remains active to the present day.

History

English Bahá’í Daniel Jenkyn made a trip across Netherlands to teach the Faith in 1913 and received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá praising his efforts. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also revealed a Tablet for J. Isbrucken, a woman living in the Hague at some point.

In 1915 three Bahá’ís, including Ahmad Yazdání, submitted an essay on Bahá’í principles to the Central Organization for Durable Peace in the Hague and the Organization authored a letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as a result which they sent to Yazdání. He did not deliver the letter to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá until 1919 due to the First World War and in 1920 he brought a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed in reply to the Organization to the Hague with Ibn-i-Asdaq. Yazdání delivered talks on the Faith to Esperantist groups during his 1920 visit to the Netherlands.

As of 1925 a Mr. Mesdag had become the first Dutch Bahá’í while living in Egypt and he visited the Holy Land meeting with Shoghi Effendi that year. In 1925 Martha Root spent time traveling through the Netherlands while travel teaching across Europe. In 1926 she spent time in the Hague and although she was bedridden while in the city due to illness she arranged for Bahá’í literature to be sent to the Queen of the Netherlands, and in 1927 she passed through Rotterdam while traveling from Norway to Belgium.

Louise Drake-Wright moved to Amsterdam for a few months in 1932 to teach the Faith at the request of Shoghi Effendi and she returned to the Netherlands in 1933 to teach in Amsterdam and the Hague, and again in 1934 to teach in the Hague. She primarily taught the Faith to women's and peace groups, Quakers, Theosophists, Esperantists, and prominent women. In 1937 German Bahá’ís Otto and Emma Margaret Tijssen pioneered to the Hague and later in the year they were joined by American Bahá’ís Max and Inez Greeven. Captain Jacob Asmus Liebau of Rotterdam was introduced to the Faith through the Greeven's in 1939 and he went on to translate Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, The Kitáb-i-Iqán, and The Hidden Words into Dutch later becoming a Bahá’í in 1952.

In 1946 Rita Sombeek pioneered to Rotterdam in the Netherlands accompanied by her sister Jetty Straub who was not a Bahá’í although her sister had declared by January, 1947, and in March 1947 they were joined in the country by John Carre who pioneered to Bussum and Charlotte Stirrat who stayed in Rotterdam for three weeks then moved to Amsterdam in May with the Local Spiritual Assembly of Amsterdam having been established in April, albeit with Bahá’ís from across the Netherlands electing the body rather than only Bahá’ís residing in the city. In August 1947 Jan Piet de Borst became the first person in the Netherlands to officially enrol as a Bahá’í although he was not the first person in the country to believe in the religion. Several more people declared in the Netherlands and several American Bahá’ís pioneered before the end of the 1940's and the first national gathering of the Bahá’ís of the Netherlands was held in Bussum in 1949.

In 1951 the annual European Bahá’í Teaching Conference was held in the Hague which stimulated teaching work in the city with several people declaring allowing for the establishment of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Hague in 1952. When Shoghi Effendi launched the Ten Year Crusade in 1953 the Frisian Islands, north of the Netherlands mainland and partially under German and Dutch administration, were named a goal territory for establishing a Bahá’í community and Geertrui Ankersmit pioneered to Den Berg in the Dutch portion of the islands in October 1953. In 1957 the National Spiritual Assembly of the Benelux Countries was established which assumed responsibility for administrating the Faith in the Netherlands, and by 1959 there were sixty-three Bahá’ís in the country. That year the Hands of the Cause in Iran requested that Persian Bahá’ís pioneer to the Netherlands and thirty-eight Persians pioneered to the country allowing for Assemblies to be established in Arnhem, Delft, Haarlem, Leiden, Rotterdam, and Utrecht in the early 1960's.

In 1961 a Bahá’í International Youth Summer School was held in Delft in the Netherlands, and in 1962 the Netherlands established an independent National Spiritual Assembly with Hand of the Cause Hasan Balyuzi attending the nations first National Convention. There were one hundred and ten Bahá’ís in the Netherlands and nine Local Spiritual Assemblies upon the National Spiritual Assemblies formation. In 1967 the National Spiritual Assembly had a copy of The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh presented to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and received a letter of acknowledgement from her. As of 1968 the Netherlands community had eight Local Spiritual Assemblies and eleven groups, and that year the community launched a proclamation project which consisted of having posters placed in public transport centres across the country and held Regional Teaching Conferences for the first time.

In the early 1970's the community secured a Temple site near the Hague, and as of 1973 the community had grown to three hundred and sixty-five Bahá’ís and sixteen Local Spiritual Assemblies. From 1973 to 1976 Hands of the Cause Zikrullah Khadem, Collis Featherstone, Rahmatu’lláh Muhájir, and Abu’l-Qásim Faizí traveled across the Netherlands to encourage and support local Bahá’í communities and in 1975 Paul Haney attended a Bahá’í Youth Conference in Steevensbeek. Throughout the 1970's the publication of Bahá’í literature in the Dutch language increased in order to support deepening and the first Dutch Bahá’í Student Club was established at Nijmegen University. By 1979 the community had grown to over five hundred Bahá’ís and twenty-seven Local Spiritual Assemblies.

In the late 1970's the Bahá’í community of the Netherlands began holding Bahá’í children's classes at national and regional gatherings, and supporting efforts to teach the Faith in a German-speaking area of Belgium. In the 1980's teaching work continued in the Netherlands and by 1986 the country had thirty Local Spiritual Assemblies, and during the decade publication of Dutch Bahá’í literature continued to expand, and a property to host summer and winter schools was purchased by the community. In 1988 a European Bahá’í Youth School was held in the Netherlands with attendees coming from twenty-four countries, and in 1989 the Netherlands Council of Churches invited the Bahá’í community to participate in its inaugural Churches Day event.

In 1992 the Dutch Bahá’í community was officially represented at a meeting of the Dutch Women's Council for the first time with a presentation being on the Bahá’í International Community being made to the group, and in 1995 a seminar on how the concept of service in the Bahá’í Faith can empower women was held in the Netherlands. Also in 1995 Australian Bahá’í David Chittleborough participated in the Earth Charter Workshop held in the Hague during which he met with the Queen of the Netherlands. In 1996 the Bahá’í communities of Leiden and Leiderdorp participated in an interreligious meeting on anti-racism held by the Leiden Council of Churches, and the First European Bahá’í Conference on Law and International Order was held in the Netherlands. In 1997 an International Bahá’í Environment Conference was held in the Netherlands, and a Dutch translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas was published. In 1999 the Netherlands Bahá’í community and the European Bahá’í Youth Council manned exhibitions at the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference which was attended by over ten thousand people.

In 2000 the Dutch National Spiritual Assembly participated in a major interfaith conference titled Freedom of Religion: A Precious Human Right was held in the Netherlands which resulted in a national initiative on freedom of religion and belief in the country forming which aimed to advise the Dutch government on the matter. In 2004 the Law Association of the Tahirih Institute, a Dutch based Bahá’í inspired organization, held a European Bahá’í Conference on Law in the Netherlands, and in 2005 the Bahá’í Faith was represented at a commemoration of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands reign. In 2008 Bani Dugal signed the 2008 Faith in Human Rights Statement on behalf of the Bahá’í International Community at a commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held in the Hague.

In 2011 a series of Dutch postage stamps honoring victims of human rights abuses in Iran was released which included Bahá’í prisoner Mahvash Sabet. In 2019 the Bahá’í Faith was represented at Prince's Day celebrations, which are held annually to open the Dutch parliamentary year, and in 2022 the Dutch Bahá’í Office of External Affairs held a series of discussions on how spiritual concepts can foster social cohesion.