The Baha'i struggle in Qatar: A tussle of theology and state power

Qatar is a frequent yet sophisticated broker in global diplomacy, manoeuvring key deals to maintain peace in international politics. The image of Qatar appears to be pluralistic. Institutions such as the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue have been established to promote and foster peace, coexistence, and mutual understanding among the world’s religions. But the introspective reality is different from what is portrayed to the world. Because the treatment of its very smallest and most vulnerable religious minorities tells a different story. The Baha’i community has been residing in Qatar since the 1940s, long before the Emirate attained independence. This raises a question: how can a state erase or persecute the people who were there all along and still call the land their home? The persecution by Qatar is not violent or prima facie; it is camouflaged by a sophisticated network of immigration mechanisms, financial regulations, and overreaching cyber-surveillance to dismantle the community’s footprint systematically. Currently, there are about 200-300 Baha’is in Qatar.

The tussle between the state and the Baha’i community begins with ideological friction rooted in the tension between Islamic Jurisprudence and Baha’i theology. Unlike the Abrahamic religions, the Baha’i faith is newly born, chronologically succeeding Islam. The Islamic framework does not protect the status of the Baha’i as the “People of the Book”, unlike Jews or Christians. Rather, the state considers Baha’i principles to be basically heterodox, often labelling the faith under the legal term “deviant doctrine” or an apostate sect. Under the Penal Code of Qatar (Law No. 11 of 2004), such theological friction may result in grave statutory liabilities. Article 256 punishes with up to seven years in prison for misinterpreting or insulting Islamic injunctions, while Article 259, in clear language, criminalises any public utterance that “opposes or doubts the basics and tenets of Islam”. In a legal order where the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad is a constitutional basis, the public existence, literature, or philosophy of the Baha’i community is structurally criminalised as a baseline “threat to public order and morality”.

The domestic leadership of the community became the target of weaponisation of the legal architecture through the high-profile arrest and trial of Remy Rowhani, an elderly Chairperson of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Qatar, last year. Arrested under the sweeping provisions of the Cyber Crime Prevention Law, Rowhani was initially sentenced by a lower court to five years in prison. The state’s prosecution was based solely on harmless public posts from an official community social media account that juxtaposed standard Baha’i aphorisms on equal gender and global citizenship with celebrations of Qatari national holidays. Although the latter Court ultimately acquitted and released Rowhani based on constitutional guarantees of freedom of belief and freedom of expression. The case was marked by intense persecution and state surveillance.

In fact, the state has shifted its tactics from a high-profile legal battle that attracted unnecessary international scrutiny to a more covert approach: erasure through bureaucratic immigration procedures. Due to Qatar’s highly centralised residency and sponsorship regime, most of the resident Bahá’í community, many of whom are second or third generation born in Qatar, are legally classified as foreigners requiring valid residency permits. Various human rights organisations and the office of the UN’s human rights chief (OHCHR) have documented an increasing campaign by the Ministry of Interior to systematically deny the renewal of residency, work, and business permits to Baha’i families. Through the implementation of a silent, non-violent eviction policy aimed at over 40% of remaining people, this allowed the Qatari state to effectively erase an unwanted minority, under the thin layering of normal immigration management.

Moreover, this administrative strangulation is deliberately applied across the social and economic aspects of daily life, creating a “cradle-to-grave” vulnerability. The state continuously denies the Baha'i community formal legal status as an independent corporate body. Consequently, they cannot open organisational accounts or manage community assets as a legal entity. When members of the community engage in voluntary religious giving, A core spiritual obligation within the religion, the state uses Law No. 15 of 2014 Regulating Charitable Activities to prosecute leaders on arbitrary charges, illegal fund collection, and unregulated financial transfers. The elected Baha’i institutions in the country issue each married person’s certificate (also called a marriage certificate). The state does not recognise their marriage certificate. Because the state refuses to recognise their marriage certificate, each couple is legally considered illegitimate. As a result, family security regarding spousal sponsorship, child registration, and inheritance is fractured.

The internal dynamics of Qatar, in a nutshell, cannot be separated from regional geopolitical pressures, particularly Iran’s ideological influence. The Islamic Republic has long since had an official government policy aimed at preventing and eradicating the global Baha’i community and its cultural roots.

The criminalisation of the faith in its entirety runs counter to the principles Qatar projects, as it brokers almost a dozen peace deals but is unable to secure one within the country. Moreover, Al-Jazeera, which according to the description is very much independent of the state and covers the nitty-gritty of what other states in the world are up to, never runs a headline of its own state’s persecution of the Baha’i community.