Baháʼí Faith in the Netherlands
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The first mentions of the Baháʼí Faith in the Netherlands were in Dutch newspapers which in 1852 covered some of the events relating to the Bábí movement which the Baháʼí Faith regards as a precursor religion.[1] Circa 1904 Algemeen Handelsblad, an Amsterdam newspaper, sent a correspondent to investigate the Baháʼís in Persia.[2] The first Baháʼís to settle in the Netherlands were a couple of families — the Tijssens and Greevens, both of whom left Germany for the Netherlands in 1937 as business practices were affected by Nazi policies.[3] Following World War II the Baháʼís established a committee to oversee introducing the religion across Europe and so the permanent growth of the community in the Netherlands begins with Baháʼí pioneers arriving in 1946.[3] Following their arrival and conversions of some citizens the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Amsterdam was elected in 1948,[4] with around 11 Baháʼís in the country.[3] By 1962, at the election of its first national spiritual assembly, there were 110 Baháʼís and nine local spiritual assemblies, by 1973 there were 365 Baháʼís and 16 spiritual assemblies, and by 1979 there were 525 Baháʼís and 27 spiritual assemblies.[3] An estimate from 1997 put Baháʼís in The Netherlands at 1500.[5] In 2005 the Netherlands had 34 local spiritual assemblies.[4]