The Duty of Kindness and Sympathy Towards Strangers and Foreigners:
As enjoined in `Abdu'l-Bahá's Paris Talks and as reflected in the Italian "Charter on the Values and Significance of Citizenship and Integration"

By Julio Savi

First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #97
Centre for Bahá'í Studies: Acuto, Italy
July 3–6, 2010
(see list of papers from #97)

published in Lights of Irfan, volume 12, pages 245-279
© 2011, ‘Irfán Colloquia


    The abandonment of racial, religious and nationalistic prejudice is one of the central issues in the talks `Abdu'l-Bahá delivered during His travels in the West. A ground-breaking concept in those days when the Western world was still "heaving with the explosive forces of a blind and triumphant nationalism," the idea of integrating immigrants into the culture of the country where they have moved is slowing becoming a part of the policy of a number of Western states. In 2007 the Italian government has issued a "Charter on the Values and Significance of Citizenship and Integration," which upholds many of the concepts expounded by `Abdu'l-Bahá almost a century ago.

    Read below or click to download PDF.
    irfancolloquia.org/pdf/lights12_savi_kindness.pdf