Date: Thu, 24 Apr 97 14:40:25 IDT
From: "Bahá'í World Centre"
Prepared-By: Correspondence Office, Document Distribution System

Transmitted by email

DATE: 17 April 1997

MESSAGE:

The Universal House of Justice has received your email letter of 7 October 1996, referring to Web pages about the Bahá'í Faith which you have created. We have been asked to reply as follows. We apologize for the delay, which is due to your email's having been inadvertently mislaid.

In general, at this stage in the development of the World Wide Web, the House of Justice feels that those friends desiring to establish personal homepages on the Internet as a means of promoting the Faith should not be discouraged from doing so. It is hoped that the friends will adopt etiquettes consistent with the principles of the Faith, including clearly indicating what materials constitute their own interpretations. While it is inevitable that some attempts will be found wanting, the House of Justice has not formulated guidelines or policies specifically addressed to Internet sites.

With regard to the projects referred to in your email, particularly in the case of a Web site for a local Bahá'í community, the Local Spiritual Assembly may wish to approach the National Spiritual Assembly to see if it has any particular guidance to share. Individual projects, if they contain Bahá'í content, should also be referred to one's National Spiritual Assembly for possible advice or guidance.

We wish you every success with your endeavors to serve the Faith by using your skills in this area.

Department of the Secretariat

Items that do not need review are: anything that has no Bahá'í content; dissertations on the Faith (which have to reviewed only when they are to be published as books); abstracts of professional talks about the Bahá'í Faith for publication in conference proceedings; individual pieces of art with Bahá'í content (a quotation or a Bahá'í theme); and electronic publications. While there is no requirement at this time for review of Web pages or electronically available works, the Research Office is happy to review anything voluntarily submitted to it. Items that have only a passing reference to the Faith do not need to be reviewed.