Tagesschau, November 28

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has ruled that the Ministry of Religions in the State of Hesse, in central Germany, must recognise the Bahai community as a body corporate. The Baha’i community has 5600 members in Germany, and applied for recognition as a corporation in the state of Hesse, because the National Spiritual Assembly is based in Hesse. The Hesse state government rejected the request on the grounds that Bahai membership was less than one per thousand in the population, which would require 6089 members. The court said that neither the absolute number of Bahais, nor the proportion of the population, was a decisive indication of whether a religious community would continue to exist. The court gave more weight to the fact that the Bahai community had already existed in German for more than a hundred years, is part of a world-wide community, and were able to reorganise themselves after they were banned under the Nazis, and following the reunification of Germany. The legal recognition will reduce the taxes and fees the Bahai institutions pay.

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