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Race, Immorality and Money in the American Baha'i Community: Impeaching the Los Angeles Spiritual Assembly

2000/04/01 by Juan Cole · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy #Islamic Studies and History #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Immorality #Morality #Power (physics) #Sociology #Ethnic group #Race (biology) #Immigration #Globalization #Law #Political science #Gender studies #Criminology

paper · doi:10.1006/reli.2000.0245

openalex publication_date 2000/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This article analyses the dissolution of the Baha'i local assembly of Los Angeles in 1986–88 by the National Assembly. Official explanations for this move focused on lapses in morality and administrative discipline, but local interviewees, as well as some official pronouncements, suggest that the conflict had two roots: the globalisation of the community and resultant ethnic conflict among whites, African–Americans and newly immigrant Iranians; and national/local conflicts over power and money. Low-information elections, the unaccountability of elected officials, censorship and difficulties in acknowledging social conflict were the causes of these episodes in the Baha'i religion.

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