Dear Editor,

I refer to James Frank's letter captioned "Should religion be taught in schools" (16.6.2001): There are only four major religions in Guyana, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and the Baha'i Faith. The latter, which Mr Frank omitted, is an independent religion with a revealed Holy Book.

The Baha'i Faith is not a sect or a cult and its founder, Baha'u llah, was a Persian nobleman. I had the special bounty to visit and pray at His Holy Shrine situated at Bahji in Northern Israel in May of last month. I was attending, as a representative, with over 2500 other representatives from 185 countries, the inaugural events that publicly opened to the world the religious, spiritual and administrative centre of the Baha'i Faith on Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel.

The Baha'i Faith was recognised in Guyana by Act of Parliament in 1976, as a major independent religion and today, Guyanese of all races, classes and creeds make up its myriad adherents. At one time over 5% of Guyanese had embraced the teachings of this major world religion.