^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Baha’i

No Baha'i flag
Commercial Banner

See also:

Flags and Religion

No Baha’i Flag

There is no "Baha'i flag". A banner with a 9-pointed star was noted on a Polish website ... this banner is more akin to Tibetan Buddhist prayer-flags than what we regard as flags that have an official standing of some sort. They are definitely not official flags of the Baha'i Faith and there is no flag that meets that description.
These banners were created and are sold by an artist in Hawaii, and are about 20cm (9") square, probably on very light unhemmed cloth. They include a large number of pictorials of "sacred personalities" ranging from the Virgin Mary to Ganush. The series that includes the nine-pointed star Baha'i logo also includes ligatures or monograms in several languages for other faiths, Mogen David, Shinto torii, but no star and crescent, oddly enough. Instead, a monogramatic rendering of "Allah" stands for Islam.
(Parenthetically, there is a similar artistic monogram used by Baha'is, a sort of "Baha'i shihada," if you will. Generally, most Baha'is regard this symbol as too sacred for everyday display everywhere ... not unlike the official Saudi flag restrictions. The 9-pointed star or rosette is the acceptable public symbol ... it even shows up as a Microsoft dingbat!)
One of the pillars of Baha'i belief is individual and communal obedience to the civil laws of wherever they may reside. Another is strict avoidance of political factions (Baha'is don't join any party, but vote as independent citizens, and stay clear of political revolutions of any sort). Thus, in Israel, Baha'is follow legal restrictions on any local administrative organization of their community, even though they live under the shadow of the global administrative body of their religious community.
Ergo, Baha'is are not big on representing their faith community with a flag to fly alongside those of political entities.
Curiously, around 1915 or so, an American Baha'i did make and fly a standard-looking flag that simply had the word "PEACE" in green on a white bedsheet. This was a personal display, not in any way an official emblem, although it reflects, I'm sure, the urgent hope of most members of the Baha'i Faith.

Bill Dunning, 12 July 2002

Commercial Banner

by António Martins-Tuválkin

The source for this banner was a Polish Baha'i website, where there was a picture of it, with the white or yellow star on blue, but it was replaced recently by some different photograph. The nine-point star symbol of the Baha'is can be seen, among many other sites, on www.bahai.org and in historical context, on
dmawww.epfl.ch/~owhadi/star.html

Chrystian Kretowicz, 11 July 2002