A Glance at the Baha'i development in Western Europe, especially in Denmark In the Book Citizens of the World, by Margit Warburg

The study of the development of the Baha’i Faith in Western Countries answers the question of how much the absence of governmental barriers and non-biased behavior of the proselytized people may contribute to the spread of that Faith. By examining the documentation of Ms. Warburg, it can be seen that even when these two factors had no serious effect on the Baha'i propaganda policies, despite the use of various strategies such as presenting the Baha'i Faith as a new religion, presenting it as an organization with humanitarian policies, and using international organizations such as United Nations and international agencies, we do not observe a significant success in developing the Baha’i Faith in the West. The continuation of the study reveals the departure of Bahaullah and Abdul-Baha from their early teachings, to introduce a new version of the Baha’i Faith at the beginning of the twentieth century. This strategic shift took place in such a way that at first only social teachings were considered and then the Baha'i Faith was introduced to Europeans as an American religion. Although these two changes largely opened the way to the Europeans to accept the Baha’i Faith, however, the Western Baha’i missionaries and the Iranian Baha’i migrants to the West could not significantly change the demographic composition of the Baha’is in the West. To the extent of this matter, according to Ms. Warburg, in a country like Denmark, the Baha’i Faith will soon be recognized as an immigrant religious group. But this “policy change” has been more successful since the mid-twentieth century in the less developed countries of Asia and Africa. The main purpose and reason for the Universal House of Justice's emphasis on sending missionaries and propagating the Baha’i Faith in the West seems to be the qualitative development of its followers and earning more religious income from rich countries, which is well documented in Ms. Warburg’s research.