- 1954-02-15 —
Charles Duncan (a musician and composer) and Harry Clark, both Americans, arrived in Brunei from Kota Kinabalu (Jesselton) in Sabah, where they had been waiting for several weeks, and were named Knights of Bahá'u'lláh. [BW13:451; PH63]
- Later he pioneered to Thailand where he learned the language. See Servants of the Glory page 19
- 1954-04-00 — Dr John Fozdar arrived in Brunei in April 1954 and was named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. [BW13:450]
See Remembering Dr John Fozdar. - 1954-07-01 — The first person to become a Bahá'í in Brunei, Daphne Hassan, enrolled.
- 1957-04-21 — The first local spiritual assembly in Brunei had already been formed. [BW 13:302]
- 1960-12-00 — Mr Yan Kee Leong of Malaysia took the Bahá'í Faith to the remote Iban people of Brunei.
- 1960-12-01 — Philip Suning, the first member of the Iban tribe to become a Bahá'í, enrolled.
- 1966-04-21 — The National Spiritual Assembly of Brunei was formed with its seat in Brunei town. [BW14p99; Ridván Message 1965: Ridván 1966]
- 2019-12-31 —
Bahá'í Communities in a number of countries experienced persecution during 2019:
- In Egypt where it had been estimated that there were between 1,000 and 2,000 believers, the law does not recognize the Bahá'í Faith or its religious laws and bans Bahá'í institutions and community activities. The law does not stipulate any penalties for banned religious groups or their members who engage in religious practices, but these groups are barred from rights granted to recognized groups, such as having their own houses of worship or other property, holding bank accounts, or importing religious literature. Since a 2009 court order, Baha'is are identified on their national identity cards by a dash where it indicates "Religion". Since the state does not recognize Bahá'í marriage, married Bahá'ís are denied the legal rights of married couples of other religious beliefs, including those pertaining to inheritance, divorce, and sponsoring a foreign spouse's permanent residence. Bahá'ís, in practice, file individual demands for recognition of marriages in civil court. The government continued to ban the importation and sale of Bahá'í literature and to authorize customs officials to confiscate their personally owned religious materials. [US State Department report]
- In Brunei the Bahá'í community was banned as the Faith was considered "deviant."
- In Iran, Bahá'ís faced multiple restrictions and were barred from certain types of work, especially in the food industry, because they were considered "unclean." Members of the faith also were blocked from government jobs, higher education institutions and receiving national pensions. They could not inherit property or have their marriages fully recognized.
- In Eritrea, only four religious groups were officially recognized: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea. Other religious groups cannot register and are treated as illegal. [Pew Research Centre report 15 November 2021]
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