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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

As the Islamic Republic Fails, Renewed Interest in Zoroastrianism, Iran’s Ancient Faith

Apr 17, 2020 8:00 am By Andrew Harrod

“Over the past few decades, Iran has seen a revival in the native religion that predates Islam—something that the ayatollahs desperately want to suppress,” the Israel Project’s Zenobia Ravji stated in 2016. Iran’s modern Islamic Republic has continued the historic antagonism of Iran’s various Islamic rulers towards Zoroastrianism, whose often illustrious past began some 3,500 years ago in ancient Iran.

Indiana University Professor of Iranian studies Jamsheed K. Choksy has explained how Zoroastrianism took its name from the faith’s founding prophet Zarathustra. Known as Zoroaster in the West, he preached sometime between 1800 and 1000 BCE about concepts including god and the devil, good and evil, and a final judgment for all humanity. Because such theologies later appeared in Judaism, Christian, and Islam, the Iranian-American expatriate Amil Imani has noted that Zoroastrianism has been “often called the mother of all revealed religions.”

Imani has called Zoroastrianism “one of the most benevolent and beautiful religions of all humanity,” given the “great Zoroaster’s triad of Goodly Thoughts, Goodly Speech, and Goodly Deeds.” Choksy likewise has seen this goodness in the ancient Persian emperors Cyrus the Great (reigned 559-529 BCE) and Darius the Great (reigned 522-486 BCE). These monarchs, who ruled during the millennium in which Zoroastrianism was the official religion of Persian imperial rulers, freed Jews from their sixth-century BCE Babylonian exile and helped rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Zoroastrianism prominently marked biblical history again as Zoroastrian clergymen, magi, became famous as the wise men who visited Jesus’ nativity.

Observers of Zoroastrianism such as Choksy have starkly contrasted its benign characteristics with the Islamic repression that has marked Iranian history since Arab Muslim invaders overthrew Iran’s Sassanid Empire in 641. “Until Arabs conquered Iran during the seventh century, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians there could practice their own devotions unhindered,” he wrote.” Subsequently these faith communities “became minorities who were persecuted and largely converted to Islam.”

Imani has angrily condemned that the “upstanding Iranian people who lived by” Zoroastrianism “stood no chance against Muslim beasts” who fanatically and brutally imposed Islamic theocracy. Examining numerous oppressive sharia measures throughout Iranian history, Choksy noted in 2015 in the online Encyclopædia Iranica humiliating requirements for Zoroastrians and others, including the wearing of distinctive clothing. He described how even as late as 1865, travelers to Iran observed that “Zoroastrians were required to follow essentially demeaning medieval rules for non-Muslim protected minorities.”

The Indian-American Ravji has accordingly noted that after the Arab conquest of Persia, “Zoroastrians fled Iran for lands as varied as China, India, and the Balkans.” In particular, the Indian-American Zoroastrians Dinshaw and Hutoxy Contractor have discussed how in 936 a group of Zoroastrians began a decades-long migration that ultimately ended in India’s west coast territory of Gujarat. In India, these Zoroastrians became known as Parsis, derived from the Persian province of Pars.

As the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) documented in the most recent global survey of Zoroastrians in 2012, India now has 61,000 of the world’s 111,200 Zoroastrians. The next largest national Zoroastrian communities count 15,000 in Iran and 14,306 in the United States. Despite their small numbers, media reports have noted that the “Parsi community is one of the most successful minority and migrant groups in the world,” with reputations for business acumen and social engagement.

Particularly under British rule, “Parsis became a highly urbanized middle to upper class in the societies of the Indian subcontinent,” Choksy has noted. In modern India, Parsi families including the Tata, Godrey, and Wadia families have formed top tycoon dynasties. In particular, Jamshedji N. Tata (1839-1904) pioneered iron, steel, and hydroelectric production in what became India’s largest business conglomerate, the Tata Group.

Tata also founded the Indian Institute of Science, establishing a pattern of Parsi intellectual and cultural achievement in India and beyond. Physicist Homi J. Bhabha (1909-1966) became the father of India’s nuclear program, while Harvard English professor Homi K. Bhabha (no relation) is a leading scholar of literature under colonialism. The late lead singer for the rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury and the world famous classical music conductor Zubin Mehta also had Parsi backgrounds.

Parsis have also been prominent in public life, including Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), who became the Indian National Congress’ first president in 1885 and joined other Parsis in leading India’s independence movement. The Parsi Sam H. F. J. Manekshaw (1914-2008) became independent India’s first field marshal. Naoroji also became the first Indian member of Britain’s Parliament, followed by Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree (1851-1933) and Shapurji Saklatvala (1874-1936). In 2006, the Parsi Karan Billimoria became a life peer as Baron of Chelsea in the British House of Lords.

While Zoroastrians have achieved fame and fortune outside of their ancestral Iran, Choksy has noted their brief interlude there with anything approaching freedom. “Zoroastrians in Iran experienced social, legal, and economic parity with Muslims during the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-79), owing to that regime’s secularist policies and its hearkening back to Iran’s pre-Islamic past.” The Pahlavis officially recognized Zoroastrianism and some of its traditions, such as the Nowruz Iranian New Year, while Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi encouraged Parsi investment and immigration from India in the early 1970s.

Yet the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution that overthrew the shah “witnessed a return to de facto ḏemmi [dhimmi] status for Zoroastrians,” Choksy observed, while Rajvi has written of Zoroastrians “subjected to apartheid-like legislation.” Islamic revolutionaries stormed Tehran’s Zoroastrian fire temple and tore down its Zoroaster portrait, to be replaced by a portrait of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Pictures of Islamic Republic leaders likewise appeared in Zoroastrian schools, whose principals must now be Muslim.

Zoroastrian high school graduates additionally face discrimination in admission to state universities. Meanwhile, laws exclude Zoroastrians from senior government or military positions. The Islamic Republic has also revived the Shiite doctrine that non-Muslims including Zoroastrians are najes, “unclean,” bigotry which has resulted in chronic Zoroastrian unemployment.

Chosky has noted other indignities imposed by the Islamic Republic on Zoroastrians. Its law regards any Zoroastrian who converts to Islam as the sole inheritor of an unconverted family’s assets, an unjust financial inducement to diminishing Zoroastrianism’s existence. Still more dangerous, the Islamic Republic conscripted Zoroastrians, upon pain of execution, for suicide missions during the bloody 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Given the contrast between Islamic Republic tyranny and Zoroastrianism’s positive image, the appeal of Iran’s Zoroastrian heritage to modern Iranians is understandable. As Choksy noted in 2011, “many Muslim Iranians have begun publicly rejecting the Shiite theocracy’s intolerant ways by adopting symbols and festivals from Zoroastrianism.” Similarly, an Iranian-American told Rajvi in 2016 that particularly younger and educated Iranians considered Islam “more of a regressive factor in Iranian culture.”

Zoroastrianism has therefore contributed to growing Iranian evaluation of Islam’s foreign origins in the context of indigenous Iranian culture, an “identity crisis” described to Rajvi by one Iranian-American. Iranians are “conflicted between these two identities,” as “being Zoroastrian is like being Iranian….Being Muslim is not really being Iranian,” he said. “‘Converting back’ to Zoroastrianism, as many refer to the process of rediscovering their roots, has encouraged a view of Islam as an alien Arab faith that was imposed on unwilling Persians,” Rajvi summarized.

Zoroastrianism indicates once more that the Islamic Republic’s many failures have jeopardized the regime goal of global Islamic revolution in Iran and beyond. Many Iranians disillusioned by the Islamic Republic have instead have abandoned Islam in favor of belief alternatives, such as Iran’s growing underground Christian communities. As with Cyrus and his historic cylinder, Zoroastrianism shows that nothing threatens the Islamic Republic in the present like the Iranian popular imagination of a national past. As a future article will examine, some Kurds find the Zoroastrian past equally compelling.

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Filed Under: Iran, Islamic supremacism Tagged With: Zoroastrianism


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Comments

  1. Jayell says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 8:24 am

    The beginning of the end of islam?

    • Vijay Choudhary says

      Apr 17, 2020 at 8:41 am

      Beginning of end of Islam in Iran!

      • Ranjan Kumar says

        Apr 20, 2020 at 2:46 pm

        Not only in Iran only..all over world Islam will vanish soon.

      • gravenimage says

        Apr 20, 2020 at 4:17 pm

        Islam has been around for 1400 years now and, sadly, appears to be growing. I *wish* it were disappearing–but this does not seem to be the case.

    • Hindu American says

      Apr 17, 2020 at 8:59 am

      Zoroastrianism does not actually permit conversion into its faith (or the “return to original faith” concept). As far as I know. Zoroastrians are also reducing in actual numbers because of low fertility. Many Zoroastrians that I know in the US have a difficult time finding Zoroastrian spouses for their marriage-age sons and daughters.

      Sad situation!

      • Facts says

        May 13, 2020 at 10:46 am

        Wrong, it depends on which denomination you are with. Universal Zoroastrians or pro-conversion ones do, and some of them are run with the help of Parsi people who are.

        The scripture that can be found on avesta.org of Zoroastrianism permits conversion and return alike.

    • FYI says

      Apr 17, 2020 at 9:57 am

      What kills me about the Iranians is that they subscribe to an ARAB god allah who,inconveniently,doesn’t actually speak their language Farsi.

      allah can only be understood in Arabic{funny how the Torah was written down in HEBREW isn’t it when allah insists he can ONLY be understood through written Arabic?Perhaps it is because he is an ARAB god…allah the Great Sultan in the Sky,the islamic version of what some atheists would call the Sky Fairy}

      He also has one shin and Two Right hands gets Science and Theology completely wrong in his “perfect” book:surely the Iranian people deserve much better than a misogynistic,linguistically,scientifically,logically and theologically challenged idiot of an ARAB god,allah.

    • Victoria says

      Apr 18, 2020 at 9:54 am

      From your mouth to God’s ears.

  2. JMB says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 9:02 am

    The Zoroastrians were effectively driven from Iran (to India) after the conquest by and establishment of Islam. Zoroastrianism is a relatively minor religion in India but does have a small number of followers throughout much of the world. I did have family connections (Indian) who had historic connections to this faith, something which as a practising Christian I thoroughly renounce. While there is a slight possibility that the Iranians may have a renewed interest in their ancient faith I do not see it as a real game changer in that
    nation. The real game changer, hopefully will be young people and the internet, young women in particular who will see that there is a life outside the medieval robes that they are required to wear. Also Intelligent and educated young men who will see see how the present theocracy has destroyed their ancient and beautiful land. My own wish is that Christian missionaries may once again be able to enter that land, often doing practical things like helping young women find peace and freedom and respect.

    • Mural says

      Apr 17, 2020 at 2:28 pm

      My own wish is for both Islam and Christianity to stay away from other religions and not foist their opinions on other religions. Islam through jihad and Christianity through conversions.

      • JMB says

        Apr 17, 2020 at 6:21 pm

        It is unlikely that Zoroastrianism would ever be able to re-establish itself in Iran due to the low number of followers worldwide. 2, Pre 1979 Iranian women who even experienced brief contact with Christianity, usually by way of medical missionaries were so appreciative of the help, love and freedom that the experience, even though they knew they could be beaten or murdered by their husbands. 3, I would kike to see complete freedom of religion and conscience in Iran, bring this amazing country back into the 21st century.

      • gravenimage says

        Apr 17, 2020 at 10:25 pm

        Wait–you believe that peaceful conversion as a matter of conscience is the same as violent coercion?

        • Sharon says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 4:22 am

          I wondered that as well. Sharing faith and letting a person freely choose is NOT “foisting” or forcing

        • mural says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 10:58 am

          @ gravenImage, Did I say that? I never said they are same. But both religions want to dominate the world by spreading their pet ideas of god. Well, other religions like Hinduism have their own pet ideas about god and we want this to be respected. We are not interested in the “good news” , and really do not care about Allah or Jehovah or Jesus. I do not want to be saved by Christians or to submit to Islam. Can both religions not respect this?

          As far as peaceful conversion is concerned, You mean as peaceful as this?
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Inquisition

          Glad that Christians have moved on from such savagery. Now they entice people through money.

        • mural says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 11:33 am

          @ Sharaon,

          I really wish things were as clear cut as you post. How conversions work in “reality’ are not the same. To just quote an example, There is a lot of missionary work in remote jungles of Amazon by American missionaries? Do you really think travelling so far to convince them of Christian beliefs is not “foisting” christian opinions on them?

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 3:11 am

          mural, this is fine. If you are not interested in any peaceful ideas, religious or otherwise, you can just ignore them.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 3:12 am

          How does travelling a distance mean that sharing ideas is coercion?

      • the least of terry's says

        Apr 18, 2020 at 5:25 am

        Why would you even place Christianity aside such a vile ‘thing’ as islam? My wish is for people with “opinions” such as yourself would realize that conversion to the Way of Christ is voluntary, whilst murders in the ways of jihad do not give those they kill a choice- great big difference. I respect your choices of opinion concerning NOT converting to the Gospel of Christ, why would you not respect my choice to cherish Jesus Christ as my God, my Lord, my Saviour, and my King?

        • mural says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 11:19 am

          @ least of terry : Should i be happy that missionaries actually give me a choice , a choice I never wanted in the first place? Don’t you think it is a bit presumptuous to even think that Christianity has the keys to eternal salvation and other religions do not. Is this not similar to Islam, where Muslims think they have the keys to salvation too ?

          I never said I did not respect your choice to cherish. Please read my comment again. You are free to choose whoever you want as your savior. Even Hulk Hogan. It is your choice. What I do not respect is Christian Missionaries trying to convert others in nefarious ways.

          My wish for people with such simplistic “opinions’ such as yourself is to read a bit more about other spiritual traditions and not spread your pet theory about a redeemer dying for your sins.

        • don vito says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 1:04 pm

          mural, two points you have made in your posts caught my attention, (1)”foisting” of missionaries in the amazon. I don’t see the connection between missionaries and foisting, because by definition “to foist” includes “to impose”. Assuming you are talking of present day amazon where do missionaries “impose” their religion? Unless you mean to say, by merely sharing faith by talking with people, is foisting?

        • don vito says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 1:13 pm

          mural point # (2), “Christian Missionaries trying to convert others in nefarious ways”. If missionaries didn’t use nefarious ways would you withdraw your objection to missionary work?

      • Hoppla poppla says

        Apr 18, 2020 at 2:37 pm

        Islam is conversion by force (fire and sword). Christianity is conversion by persuasion.

        • Mural says

          Apr 18, 2020 at 4:10 pm

          The end goal is the same. Conversion. Only the means differ. Btw, persuasion here is not some job-hunt salary negotiation sort of persuasion. This persuasion is covered under the cloak of hospitals and Schools for the needy.

          Also Christian missionaries are notorious for cultural appropriation of Hindu symbols and Hindu traditions. A peaceful way of stripping the local culture of their essense.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 3:14 am

          Wait–providing hospitals and schools and making them available to everyone is “nefarious”? You have an odd idea of what this means.

  3. Anjuli Pandavar says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 10:56 am

    I am convinced that had Iran still been Zoroastrian, the country would not have succumbed to the coronavirus as it had. The near-obsession with avoiding passing on infection of the dakhme (funerary tower, “Tower of Silence”) system for disposing of the dead: extreme care with handling corpses, disposal by vulture feeding (the vulture is one of nature’s best destroyers of deadly microbes available to ancient peoples, not that they knew about microbes), bleaching of the bones in the sun and treatment with lime (?) in the central pit, etc. All of this in ancient times. Had the practices continued, I have no doubt that they would have adopted whatever the latest scientific scientific knowledge had to offer to their endeavors of avoiding spread of infections.

    Unfortunately, they got lumped with the most retrograde of religions, Islam, and in a 21st century pandemic found themselves doing things that the ancient Zoroastrians would have known to be catastrophic. How much more will they pay for this spectacularly costly religion before they say, “Enough is enough!!”

    • Kerry Wade says

      Apr 17, 2020 at 4:27 pm

      Very true. I know an Iranian whose family are Zoroastrians. He says Islam has slowly murdered Zoroastrians so that now there are much smaller than they were. Let’s hope the Persians will take back there country from the present psychopaths that are miss ruling a great land, once called The Land of Roses.

  4. mortimer says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 12:01 pm

    Persians are natural rebels. Tell them to do something, they will ask for a good reason. The TAQIYYA MEISTER MULLAHS of Iran have alienated and sickened the country with their unending streams of lies.

    (Now they have a magical virus-detecto-machine that works not only up close, but they had say it works at 100 m. Such insulting balderdash.)

    No wonder the Iranians are looking for religious answers anywhere but in Islam. Mosque attendance in Iran is apparently abysmally low.

    When the counter-revolution comes, the mullahs will swing from the lamp posts.

  5. Jim Allison says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    Considering the conditions under the Cyrus-like Shah, I wonder what influences lead the uber-Christian Carter to support displacing him in favor of the despot Khomeini?

    • the least of terry's says

      Apr 18, 2020 at 5:28 am

      Replacement Theology.

  6. Ashavan Magavan says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 9:17 pm

    As a Zoroastrian living in the United States, I pray everyday for Iran to return to the Good Religion. It would completely change the reputation of the Iranian people to something good.

    The Zoroastrian priests in India stopped accepting converts centuries ago, but that was not by choice – when the Parsis fleeing from Islamic oppression first landed in India, they made a deal with the Hindu king that they would not spread their religion. They have kept their promise. Parsis did not invade India, they asked for permission to live there.

    Just because the Zoroastrians in India stopped taking converts does not mean that the religion is closed off. The religion accepts converts. According to Ha 31.3 of the Gathas, Zoroastrianism is a religion that seeks to spread its doctrine, but not by the sword like other religions. There are people of all races and nationalities who convert to Zoroastrianism. The prophet Zarathustra preached a universal faith based on the principal of ‘Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds’. Zarathustra called his fellowship the ‘Magavan’, which is where the word Magi comes from. He promised one day a Saoshyant would be born and a star would announce his birth (astrology). He made sure his priests were there at the birth of Jesus.

    • JMB says

      Apr 18, 2020 at 5:05 am

      It is almost certain that the Magi were Zoroastrian scholars who were familiar with Jewish prophesy dating back to the time of the Babylonian Captivity. (Of the Jews c. 597 BC)

    • faraway says

      Apr 18, 2020 at 9:56 am

      You might like “The Imam of Time” by F.W.Burleigh,a fantasy novel about Iranians reconnecting with their past.

      • Lilith Wept says

        Apr 19, 2020 at 6:24 am

        Have you read Burleigh’s other book, It’s All About Muhammed” ? It’s a book I recommend to people as an easy to read and understand biography of Mohammed. It uses the islamic sources and it’s an easy and entertaining ( if horrifying) read.

        It’s still available on Amazon , even with all the negative reviews by Islam supporters and moslems …but who knows how long it will be available.

        • faraway says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 5:17 pm

          Thanks Lilith,yes I have read that book too and found it very instructive.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 20, 2020 at 3:17 am

      +1

      • Mural says

        Apr 20, 2020 at 12:45 pm

        You are not reading my posts and are quoting me out of context for the second time in this thread. That is ok..

        I never said building schools and churches is a nefarious activity. Just that the underlying motive is conversion and not due to doing good for it’s own sake. . The motive here is indeed nefarious/ wicked.I think my usage is correct, even though this is not my first language.

        I am all for peace in this world. I never said otherwise. Else, why would anyone bother being on this site reading the nefarious activities of the followers of the mad one. Third time you mistook my comment. This is fine too.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 4:22 pm

          I don’t see how I am taking your words out of context–your points are clear, I just think they are mistaken.

          Christian schools and hospitals are available to anyone, regardless of faith. Why would this be the case if they were made available only intended to convert people? Clearly this is not the case.

  7. chuck Moody says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    Could the mad mullahs be so against the followers and returning followers of Zoroaster lest they suddenly realize what allah’s real name is?

  8. gravenimage says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 11:11 pm

    As the Islamic Republic Fails, Renewed Interest in Zoroastrianism, Iran’s Ancient Faith
    …………………

    This is great.

    Unfortunately, 99.4% of all Iranians are Muslim. The Mullahs claim that the entire Zoroastrian population is 20,000; Zoroastrian groups there say their number is approximately 60,000.

    Even this latter figure would mean that Zoroastrians make up just about 0.0007% of the population there.

  9. marc says

    Apr 17, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    You’ll notice that Israelis are very careful to aim their anger at the iranian regime, not the people, they have a good history going back thousands of years till fairly recently. The ayatollahs won’t spoil that.

  10. Denny Penticoff says

    Apr 18, 2020 at 6:55 am

    One, not three of the Wise Men, was likely from Persia and may have been Zoroastrian. He more likely could have practiced Judaism since he searched for a messianic King. Not all Jews left Persia when Cyrus the Great authorized the return to Jerusalem and rebuilding the Temple. Moreover, it’s pure speculation that Zoroastrianism was the first revealed religion unless you believe (a small minority view) that the Torah was written after 1000 B.C. Adam and Abram both predate Zoroaster by any credible timeline.

  11. John says

    Apr 18, 2020 at 10:23 am

    Bring Back Persia and throw this Satanic Ideology of Savages called islam back into the Filth where it originated from

  12. UNCLE VLADDI says

    Apr 19, 2020 at 6:22 am

    Maybe they finally figured out that Ar-Ramman (aka “Allah”) is really Ahriman (aka “Angra Maiunyu!”)?

  13. murali says

    Apr 19, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    @ Don Vito,

    Not sure if you are still following this thread, I will post my replies, all the same.

    Many moons ago I read an interesting book called “Don’t sleep there are snakes’, where a family from America travel to the Amazon, spends years learning the language, befriend the tribes, take the risk of eradicating the tribe due to germs, in order to convert them to their beliefs. If this does not constitute imposition of Christian beliefs, I do not know what is.

    To serve these means, we have “friendship Evangelism”. Imagine someone being nice and friendly to you, in order to convert them to their beliefs? Would you not find this creepy?

    To quote Simran Jeet Singh,”The logic of evangelism requires one person to perceive the other — and that person’s faith — as misguided, inferior and in need of saving.” . Is this not supremacist thinking. Is this following , “thy will be done”?

    # 2 point. The problem with both Islam and Christianity or any group that thinks they have the keys and everyone else is wrong is indulging in belittling the beliefs of other religions. Take Idol worship as an example. Missionaries want to rescue people from Idol worship. #1 Converting based on targets and incentives. lol. Is this the way of the christ? 🙂

    Missionaries will never change. They are just as mad as Isis, only that they are less violent in enforcing their beleifs on the unbelievers. The concept of surrender to god is the one key takeaway from Christianity that I can see. But this has existed in Hindu thought long before the existence of Christianity. There is nothing to learn here.

    #1 . https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/conversion-a-new-breed-of-evangelical-groups-that-are-like-hyper-growth-startups/

    • Dan Holsopple says

      Apr 19, 2020 at 8:44 pm

      Sorry to disappoint you. Jesus said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” No imposition. It is an invitation. Take it or leave it. If someone doesn’t have ears to hear they can walk away… it is on them. Jesus was however a grand teacher and drew crowds to hear Him speak. He communicated a way of life to any who would listen. That is what missionaries strive to do, as well. It is the best world-view on the planet. It is worthy to be understood and considered by everyone on the planet. You would with hold this understanding as a virtuous thing? The fuller we understand how others think, and what world-view choices there are the better choices we can make, and the better we understand one another. So no, I don’t think developing ways to share one’s faith is somehow creepy or sinister. lol

      • Mural says

        Apr 20, 2020 at 12:34 pm

        Befriending people for the sole reason of sharing their faith is creepy. Having profiles of groups of people like these idiots here is creepy.https://joshuaproject.net

        It reeks of supremacism.

        And I do not even want to start on the mischief created by the missionaries in India.

        Yes, I have ears. I heard him. Not impressed. Invitation declined. Lol..-)

        • wpm says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 12:55 pm

          Not one of any one of the major Christian faiths is forcing Christianity on anyone in India or Africa or anywhere in Asia in the 21 century.Anyone in those countries is free to walk anyway from these missionaries and not listen to them.”And I do not even want to start on the mischief created by the missionaries in India:”The Christians are not starting rioting,doing Christian jihad attacks,kidnapping non-Christian women,or raping or murdering non-Christian in the name of Christ.Christianity at its core believes in the golden rule ,believes in respecting local customs and laws ,

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 4:24 pm

          Yes. I have the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons come to my door or speak to me on the bus or outside supermarkets all the time. I thank them for their concern and wish them well, and then go about my own business, because I am not interested.

        • gravenimage says

          Apr 20, 2020 at 4:25 pm

          And I have never had any of these people get aggressive or nasty when I turn them down.

    • don vito says

      Apr 20, 2020 at 4:07 pm

      Thank you for your courteous reply, still mulling over what you posted. I shall respond on this thread, to you. Thanks again.

      • Mural says

        Apr 21, 2020 at 12:26 am

        Thanks, Don Vito. To answer your second question, if missionaries have a healthy debate against any religion and win over the converts based on the tenets of Christianity and why it is better than Hinduism or Taoism, I will not have any problem with that. We live for some 70 score years, with no one knowing for sure on what lies after we are gone. If Christianity gives more power than the law of Karma ( concept not alien to the bible you reap what you sow) that is ok.

        But using money, belittling other beliefs and underhanded tactics is not right. What happened to doing good that first its own sake, where even the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing? Another Christian thought find in the bible, btw.

        • don vito says

          Apr 22, 2020 at 2:27 pm

          Hello Mural, I’ve been doing a little research about your complaints against the tactics of missionaries in India. I must say that I was unaware that such complaints existed, since my own experience with missionaries has for the very most part been a free exchange of disagreements. Some missionaries, I have met, seem to have a belief system they call Christianity (doctrine), that is not my understanding. Your first paragraph in your most recent post is most agreeable with me, I had always assumed, because of personal experience, this took place every where, every time. You are not alone in your critical belief of missionaries’ tactics in India. Are you familiar with Madhu Purnima Kishwar? Seems to be from the same stream of consciousness about missionary tactics in India as you have made public here. As you have pointed out some tactics do seem underhanded. Ambassadors ( for Messiah) include people from all walks of life, and some can misinterpret their commission. Surly you are aware of missionaries whose tactics are acceptable in India? Could you share?

  14. Fur Queue says

    Apr 19, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    Islam has this “one funny trick” that doctors don’t want you to know about… it’s called rape-kill-play-the-victim-bribe-massacre – it is described in their ‘holy texts’ and it is never gong to change because it is the heart of their vile ‘religion’ that has bought nothing but grief and backwardness to humanity.

    Zoroastrians have ben brutalized by the religion of evil for millenia and it will happen all over again until the plague religion of dancing-boys has been eradicated.

  15. Mural says

    Apr 20, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    @ Wpm, you said Christianity respects local customs : like how? Through cultural appropriation? I grant you that. Missionaries excel at this. And like this :

    https://swarajyamag.com/insta/i-kicked-the-gods-and-was-so-happy-pastor-praveen-who-has-created-hundreds-of-christ-villages-in-india

    Agree with not rioting And pursuing Jihad. They were doing that too as late as the 17th century. Do the words “Holy Inquisition“!ring any bells?

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 20, 2020 at 4:29 pm

      The usual–yes, Islam might be bad, but…but…the Inquisition! or the Crusades! Note that they have to go back centuries to find any moral equivalence with Islam, and even then it is usually pretty spurious.

      • Mural says

        Apr 21, 2020 at 12:17 am

        I have already said that Christians do not do this anymore. The OP had said that the golden rule was the chief tenet and respecting local customs was the rule. I just pointed out that it was not the case all the time. And it is not the case now thanks to zealous missionaries. I have pointed an article from last year to supplement my arguments. It seems you have not read it.

        • gravenimage says

          May 8, 2020 at 11:35 pm

          No, Christians are not rioting or pursuing Jihad now, either.

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