More Persecution of the Baha’i in Qatar 

One might have thought that a Middle East war that has badly reduced Qatar’s natural gas exports and greatly harmed its economy would fully occupy the Qatari government. Not so; it has found time throughout 2026 to persecute the small and law-abiding Baha’i community. 

As I wrote here earlier this year,  

“In recent months there has been a surge of refusals to renew residency permits and even curtailment of existing permits…. ‘Qatar’s small and law-abiding Baha’i community has been systematically reduced in size over decades through patterns of discrimination and pressure, including imprisonment, family separation, denial of employment, and forced departure from the country, solely on the basis of their Bahá’í identity.’” 

This is what led the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to urge the U.S. government for the first time to put Qatar on its “Special Watchlist” of countries violating religious freedom. 

Now the Qatari government is acting again. Four leaders of the Baha’i community have just been told to get out of the country. On August 26, the Baha’i International Community reported that  

“Qatar’s discrimination of its peaceful Baha’i minority took a grim turn for the worse this week, with news of the illegitimate and unjust deportation of two prominent Baha’is from Qatar and the imminent deportation of two others….No official documents have been issued for the deportations and the four Baha’is were verbally informed only that it is a matter of “public order,” without explanation.” 

These illegal and discriminatory actions are personal tragedies for the families involved, including children and sick, aging parents, but they are also part of the broader Qatari assault on the Baha’i. Why? Pure prejudice seems to be the best explanation. As Human Rights Watch reported, “In January 2025, Qatari authorities issued a deportation order for a member of the National Spiritual Assembly for the Baha’is in Qatar. A high-ranking Qatari religious figure told him that if he announced his conversion to Sunni Islam, he could “make the deportation go away…” 

The continuing denial of religious freedom violates the commitments Qatar made in 2018 when it acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR says that: 

“Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” 

“Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.” 

The ICCPR also holds that “No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice,” a provision Qatar is also violating.  

No due process (also guaranteed by the ICCPR) has been accorded the Qatari Baha’i. The Baha’i International Community statement notes that “No official documents have been issued for the deportations and the four Baha’is were verbally informed only that it is a matter of ‘public order,’ without explanation.”  

Qatar seeks a reputation as a progressive, even enlightened modern state, and has used its great wealth to persuade audiences around the world that it merits that view. The treatment of the Baha’i in Qatar shows that it is false.  

I repeat what I wrote here in March: Whatever explains the timing, these discriminatory and repressive actions by the Qatari regime are indefensible. These attacks on the small and law-abiding Baha’i community are victimizing people who have committed no crimes and seek only to live in peace and worship freely. This campaign by the Qatari regime deserves condemnation by the United States government and by all Americans who value freedom of religion.