Baha'i Faith: From a Religious Movement to a Software Arm of Colonialism in the Middle East

Baha'i Faith: From a Religious Movement to a Software Arm of Colonialism in the Middle East

In the second half of the 19th century, when global power relations were shaped around colonial competition, the Middle East, especially the Egypt-Palestine-Sham route, gained double importance. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 not only revolutionized the route of world trade, but also transformed the entire geopolitical equation of the region. This passage, which brought Europe closer to India and East Asia, was seen by the British as more than an engineering project, the lifeblood of the empire. Every point adjacent to this canal had to be either under direct British control or under its indirect influence in some way. 

In such an atmosphere, Baha'u'llah was exiled to Acre in 1868 CE/1285 AH. This exile was apparently the result of bloody conflicts and intra-religious violence among the Bábís in Ottoman territory, but an examination of its contemporaneity with the strategic projects of the British Empire shows that this transfer was not accidental. Diplomatic documents and narratives indicate that the British ambassador in Istanbul played an influential role in proposing the transfer of Bahá’u’lláh to Palestine; a region that, due to its proximity to the Suez Canal and the weakness of direct Ottoman control, was susceptible to long-term colonial plans. 

Bahá’u’lláh and, after him, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared in ‘Akká relying on a dual strategy. On the one hand, in their writings they declared Islam apostate and introduced the Bábí Faith as the superior religion, and on the other hand, in the social arena, they gained the complete trust of the Muslim residents by assuming Islamic religious roles such as the imam of the mosque. This trust provided a security cover to establish a secret and meticulous network of land purchases and sales. According to Ottoman documents from the 1880s, this network purchased Palestinian Muslim land and secretly transferred it to Jewish immigrants. This action was not only forbidden, but also, from the perspective of Ottoman national security, was seen as paving the way for foreign influence. 

Here, Baha’iism functioned not as an ideological movement but as a “soft influence project.” The security understanding of this phenomenon shows that Baha’i leaders filled the supervisory gaps in the Ottoman state by creating reliable communication channels between the colonial power of the time (Britain) and the nascent stream of Jewish immigration to Palestine; not to strengthen its sovereignty, of course, but in line with foreign goals. From this position, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was able to become an important player in changing the demographic composition of Palestine during his fifty years of presence, while maintaining the appearance of neutrality and piety. 

During World War I, this cooperation moved from an indirect level to an overt level. Historical sources and even direct statements by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá indicate that he collaborated in British military operations against the Ottomans. The provision of local manpower for the British army, logistical coordination, and intelligence support were among the actions that were later rewarded by London with a knighthood in 1919. In British political culture, such titles are awarded not for purely humanitarian activities, but for exceptional services to the interests of the empire. 

From a security perspective, the influential point of this process was the connection of three sides: the colonial power, the Baha’i network, and the Zionist project. The first side provided the necessary political and military tools, the second side facilitated social influence and the gradual purchase of land, and the third side, through investment and immigration, prepared the demographic and economic basis necessary for the formation of the State of Israel. The elimination of any of these sides would slow or disrupt the process, but the presence of the Baha’i as an indigenous and reliable element among local Muslims completed the equation. 

The historical result of these collaborations was the loss of ownership of many Muslims over their lands and the gradual change in the demographic makeup of Palestine, a process that was consolidated in the following decades under the British Mandate and led to the declaration of the existence of the State of Israel. From this perspective, Baha'iism was not only a religious movement that had formed in the context of the developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also became a practical part of the security and geopolitical strategies of the colonial power, playing a sensitive intermediary role between colonialism and Zionism.