Bahais Celebrate Unity, Diversity of Their Faith : Beliefs: The religion founded in the 19th Century in Persia has 5,000 Southland followers.

It was a warm, festive spiritual gathering at the home of an Anaheim Hills couple--one that Ghodisi Najafabadi could have only dreamed of in her native Iran, where hundreds of members of her Bahai faith have been tortured and killed for their religious beliefs.

“People here are really open,” Najafabadi, 47, marveled during a recent Bahai unity feast. “In Iran, you had to be very quiet.”

Najafabadi, an Anaheim Hills resident who fled Iran after the fall of the shah, is a member of an obscure, low-key Eastern religion known as the Bahai faith, which claims 5,000 followers in the Southland.

Later this month, Bahais around the world will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the death of their founder--a 19th-Century Persian known as Baha’ Allah who preached the oneness of the human race and urged followers to work toward uniting the world under one religion.

A highlight of the anniversary year for Southland Bahais will be a daylong celebration May 30 at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.

The Bahai Faith is one of the youngest and most socially progressive of world religions. Followers promote equality among the races, as evidenced by the high rate of marriage between members of different ethnic groups. And women are equal to men in all aspects of social and religious life.

Bahais also believe all religions are divinely inspired. Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Moses and Krishna are all revered as prophets sent to Earth to provide guidance. However, they believe that Baha’ Allah’s teachings are more timely than those of earlier prophets.

“I was receptive to the Bahai Faith because I believe that God gives updates,” said Ed Diliberto, 56, a retired schoolteacher from Long Beach. “We accept that there is a Creator, but we have no concept of His essence. The prophets are intermediaries who appear from age to age . . .”

Diliberto, a former Roman Catholic who is now an adviser to elected Bahai spiritual assemblies throughout Southern California, said he accepted the faith because it fills a void left by Christianity.

“I believed in Christ, but I didn’t feel that the modern form of Christianity met human needs,” he said. “It seemed the needs of mankind had gone beyond what current religion could solve.”

The Bahai faith is an unusual religion by most standards: There are no churches or temples, and no clergy. Bahai teachings strictly prohibit the use of pressure tactics to win new followers. The faith spreads mostly through word of mouth and informal meetings known as firesides, to which prospective members are invited.

There are about 110,000 Bahais living in the United States from all walks of life. They range from jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie to U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dorothy W. Nelson.

Bahai membership is open to anyone who accepts the teachings of Baha’ Allah. Among other things, Bahais are required to pray daily, fast 19 days a year and abstain from drugs, alcohol and other mind-altering substances.

Before marrying, a couple must obtain the consent of both sets of parents. Under Bahai law, couples seeking a divorce must first undergo a mandatory, yearlong period of trial separation to determine whether their marital problems can be resolved.

All local Bahai communities are governed by a nine-member spiritual assembly elected by members in their city. A nine-member body elected from the various Bahai communities around the country oversees national affairs. The world headquarters--known as the International House of Justice, which is also a nine-member elected body--is in Haifa, Israel.

Bahai followers are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to Haifa and Acre, where the faith’s founders are entombed.

Until his death in 1892, Baha’ Allah taught that all world religions--regardless of their origins--were part of a progressive divine plan for the education of the human race. He urged his followers to work toward unifying competing faiths under a universal religion.

It is this embracing of all religions that appealed most to Judy Afsahi Shad.

“When I was growing up, my parents sent us to Baptist churches, Methodist and Assembly of God. But I just couldn’t believe . . . if you weren’t Christian, you were going to hell,” said Shad, a high school teacher who lives in Anaheim Hills. “So when I found the Bahai faith, I thought, ‘This is the way.’ ”