Striving for Human Rights in an Age of Religious Extremism

by Nazil Ghanea

About: Bahá’u’lláh emphasizes, “Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in” (Gleanings 213). Undoubtedly two such “needs” in this present age are dealing with religious extremism and clarifying the role of religion in human rights. The message of the Universal House of Justice to the world’s religious leaders in April 2002 bemoans the fact that, “Tragically, organized religion, whose very reason for being entails service to the cause of brotherhood and peace, behaves all too frequently as one of the most formidable obstacles in the path; to cite a particular painful fact, it has long lent its credibility to fanaticism” (¶ 2).