Excommunication

== Bahá'í Faith ==
{{main|Covenant-breaker}}
[[File:Mirza MuhammedAli-Ghusn-i-Akbar.gif|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí]], son of [[Bahá'u'lláh]] was excommunicated by [['Abdu'l-Bahá]].]]

Excommunication among [[Bahá'í Faith|Bahá'ís]] is rare and generally not used for transgressions of community standards, intellectual dissent, or conversion to other religions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7zdDFTzNr0C|title=An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith|year=2008|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86251-6|page=115|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Momen|first=Moojan|date=September 2007|title=Marginality and apostasy in the Baha'i community|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.religion.2007.06.008|journal=Religion|language=en|volume=37|issue=3|pages=187–209|doi=10.1016/j.religion.2007.06.008|s2cid=55630282|issn=0048-721X}}</ref> Instead, it is the most severe punishment, reserved for suppressing organized dissent that threatens the unity of believers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Sergeev|first=Mikhail|url=https://brill.com/view/title/32083|title=Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Bahá'í Faith|date=2015-09-17|publisher=Brill {{!}} Rodopi|isbn=978-90-04-30107-8|pages=94–95|doi=10.1163/9789004301078}}</ref> ''[[Covenant-breaker]]'' is a term used by Bahá'ís to refer to a person who has been excommunicated from the Bahá'í community for breaking the '[[Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh|Covenant]]': actively promoting schism in the religion or otherwise opposing the legitimacy of the chain of succession of leadership.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hartz|first=Paula|url=https://bahai-library.com/hartz_bahai_faith|title=World Religions: Baha'i Faith|date=2009|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|isbn=978-1-60413-104-8|edition=3rd|location=New York|pages=138}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web|last=Winters|first=Jonah|year=2010|title=Glossary of Bahá'í terms|url=https://bahai-library.com/winters_bahai_glossary|website=Baha'i Library Online}}</ref>

Currently, the [[Universal House of Justice]] has the sole authority to declare a person a Covenant-breaker,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=McMullen|first=Michael|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922640375|title=The Bahá'ís of America: the growth of a religious movement|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4798-0971-4|location=New York|pages=21|oclc=922640375}}</ref> and once identified, all Bahá'ís are expected to shun them, even if they are family members.<ref name=":1" /> According to 'Abdu'l Baha Covenant-breaking is a contagious disease.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Baha'ism: History, transfiguration, doxa|url=https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/61990|date=2010|degree=Thesis|first=Hutan|last=Hejazi Martinez|hdl=1911/61990}}</ref> The Bahá'í writings forbid association with Covenant-breakers and Bahá'ís are urged to avoid their literature, thus providing an exception to the Bahá'í principle of ''independent investigation of truth''. Most Bahá'ís are unaware of the small [[Bahá'í divisions]] that exist.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ph.D|first=Vernon Elvin Johnson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKTTDwAAQBAJ|title=Baha'is in Exile: An Account of Followers of Baha' U' llah Outside the Mainstream Baha'I Religion|year=2020|publisher=Dorrance Publishing|isbn=978-1-64530-574-3|pages=xxxi–xxxv|language=en}}</ref>