Jealousy over "Arab" Islam

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Jealousy over "Arab" Islam
by dariushabadi
05-Nov-2010
 

On Iranian.com I constantly see posts and news headlines such as "Promoting Arab Islam" and "Horror of Arab Islam."

 

Maybe this stems from these Iranians racism and inferiority complexes. No one calls Christianity the "Jewish Christianity" or "Greek/Roman Christianity". Christianities roots are both in Judaic and Roman/Greek roots. 

 

And everyone here knows that when posts are made with titles like "Arab Islam" that it has racist and xenophobic underlying.  It is to imply that Islam is an Arab religion that was forced upon the world, particularly on Iran.

 

First of all, this is easily disproven:

 

1) The majority of Muslims in the world are non-Arab. As a matter of fact, only 18% of Muslims are Arab while 82% are NON-ARAB 

 

2) The world's largest Muslim countries (Indonesia, India, China) never had Arab armies conquer them. As a matter of fact, Arab or Muslim forces never stepped foot in those countries. So if these people think that Islam was spread by the sword -- how do they explain the fact that the worlds most populous Muslim populations are countries that never saw Arab/Muslim armies?

 

3) A common myth is that Iranians were forced to convert to Islam by the sword. History testifies otherwise. The Ummayads who ruled over Iran preferred that the indigenous populations remain non-Muslim for two reasons:

A) Racism -- Ummayads didn't really believe in Islam and believed Arabs were superior to other races and didn't want the bond of brotherhood to extend outside Arab tribes

 

B) TAXATION -- The Jiziyya for non-Muslims was 20% while Zakat from Muslims was only 2.5%. So the Ummayads preferred people to remain non-Muslim as to collect more taxes from them.

 

Throughout Ummayad history we see constant harassment of non-Quraysh converts to Islam. They would sometimes torture or kill them to prevent other people from converting to Islam as well.

 

This is further proven by the fact that Persia didn't become a majority Muslim country until 230 YEARS after the conquest of the Arabs. It was only after the rise of the Abbasids (who came to power with the help of Persian converts) that people began to freely convert to Islam and support the Muslim empires.

 

Iranians had ample chance to escape the yolk of Islam during the Shah's time when Iran was under secular influence. But they chose not to. Only those who hated Islam the most left the country.

 

Even the green movement had slogans of "Allahu Akbar" and "Ya Hussein, Mir Hussein".  

 

 Here is further proof:

 

The Shah and his Son (Reza Pahlavi) both ascribe to Islam, and have named their children with MUSLIM NAMES.

 

Reza Pahlavi is named after Imam Reza (the 9th Imam of Shi'ism). His father was "MOHAMMAD-REZA".

 

Both of them have sworn on the Qur'an and done ziyarat in Mahshad.

 

So if Islam is so foreign and so Arab, then why has the Pahlavi dynasty that these anti-Muslims here so admire not abandoned it. Especially Reza Pahlavi that lives in the West and named his daughters "NOOR" and "IMAAN" (both Arab names, Muslim names).

 

 

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marhoum Kharmagas

Iranestaan (to SP)

by marhoum Kharmagas on

Sargard-aan, your arrogance reminds of the Shahis during the end of Shah. I hope the similarity between now and then ends right there. Despite all my disagreements with IRI, I hope hot air loaded guys like you, are not the majority, otherwise US/AIPAC might just succeed in turning Iran into Iranestaan.

BTW, are you familiar with the term Iranestan? If not, ask VPK, he knows, he is a Prophet!


Sargord Pirouz

Marhoum

by Sargord Pirouz on

I have lived in Iran for a while. So what? I accept it for what it is, politically and socially. It's the Iranian way over there. That's reality. Wishing otherwise is like wishing the sky was colored purple instead of blue. You could wish for such a thing, but you'd be completely unrealistic to do so. Consider that analogous to your situation. Then consider your fate as semi-accepted foreigners in a foreign land, the consequence of a self-perceived, temporarily opportunistic venture, turned into exile for life. 


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Dose of

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

reality Mark? Yes it hurts me to see Iranians selling their body parts. I am not like you. I do not like watching people suffer for your Islam.

Of course it hurts to see Iranians suffer under this Islamic evil garbage.


marhoum Kharmagas

"Pirouz"-e Sargard-aan!

by marhoum Kharmagas on

"reality accepted my the vast majority back in the Meehan."

Go live in Iran for a while (and learn some Farsi BTW), and then talk to rest of us with your juicy condescending attitude!

Savvy, ey Sargard-aan? (*)

(*) Savvy in Farsi is moltafeti


Sargord Pirouz

Simorgh

by Sargord Pirouz on

I live in California. We Californians rejected the tea party in the recent election. It was a complete sweep for more liberal candidates. (We're quite proud that our state bucked the national trend.)

Me emotional? Hardly. Like I said, I'm on the sideline with the topic of this thread, it being so out of touch with reality. Which is characteristic of the exiled Iranian community.

VPK, all I can make out from your comment is that you don't like the dose of reality I've interjected on previous threads. Well, that's to be expected. The truth hurts, don't it.  


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Mark P

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Just a while ago you were gloating about progress in Islamic Republic. You were supporting Iranians selling body parts. Just so that Iranian wealth may go to Hizbollah terrorists. Now you dare tell us about  dignity when you want people to sell themselves.


Simorgh5555

Sargord

by Simorgh5555 on

Boy, you must be offended with your emotional outburst. Please, remidn me: Which side is calling me anti-Iranian? The paternal side? 

I see that the Amercian people rejected you and your looney socialists and accepted the 'Tea Party' agenda of the rabid right wing American polticial agenda. You know all about being rejected and being semi-accepted in a land whose political make-up and support for supporters of terrorist regimes are less than 1 percent of the American population. 

Poor, Sargord. Still hanging on to your half Azari-Half American side of your maternal lineageto justify that you are a 'native son' of America? Is that why we should listen to you?  Believe me, you are far removed from the American mainstream political thought process that Joe McCarthy would have condemned you and strung you up in a prison for being anti-American. 


Sargord Pirouz

What foolishness.  This

by Sargord Pirouz on

What foolishness. 

This train of anti-Islam, anti-Arab thought is both intellectually bankrupt as well as out of touch with the reality accepted my the vast majority back in the Meehan.

Go ahead and continue spinning your wheels, exiled Iranians. We, on the sidelines, look upon you as irrelevant buffoons and an ongoing embarrassment to yourselves. For there appears to be no dignity left for you emotional train wrecks living out the rest of your lives in the semi-accepted social trappings of a foreign land. 


Simorgh5555

Kharmagas

by Simorgh5555 on

Islam is not a race: It is a religion. However, Arabs have almost inevitably been targeted as a result of Islam because its objective is to spread the Arabic language, Arabic hijab, Arabic/Abrahamic forms of Shariah Law punishment and the assimilation of all cultures to Arabic custom

If Islam revealed itself in China, and the Koran was written in Mandarin and children had to learn Mandarin in school and the leaders of the religion said all men and women were to wear Han Chinese clothing the result would be the same. 

Therefore Iranian resentment to Arabs generally can be explained although not condoned.


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Racism part 2

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Just a bit more on Islamic racism.

Who goes around bragging about their Arab ancestors? Hint: Seyyeds. They chose to make race an issue not the other way.

Who coined the phrase: Ajam. The Tazi Islamic gang. Again the Islamists made race an issue not the other way.

Islamits use race when it fits them. Then whine about it. 


Simorgh5555

Dariush Abadi

by Simorgh5555 on

This video was just put up by Iranian.com:

//iranian.com/main/2010/nov/persian-speak...

ARABIC IS THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN AND THE LANGUAGE OF HELL IS 'AJAM'.

Tell me why the Islamic Republic allows such virulent anti-Iranian opinions to broadcast?

It is the Arabs that are racists and not Iranians. Do not forget that the Arabs called us 'Majoos' meaning 'Ingorant'. 

Shame on you, Dariush Abadi! 

 


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Marhoum Kharmagas

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

I will agree that there is anti-Arab racism amongst Iranians. That does not mean that Islam is a race or being anti-Islam means  racist. It just means that *some* anti-Islam people happen to also be racist. Others are not.

I myself have no problem with race. It is actions that matter to me. An Iranian can be of any race. The problem is that Islamists *chose* to associate Islam with race. This in order that they are able to scream racist later on. They know they cannot win based on logic. After all who wants to stone women and rape 9 year old girls? So they like Q resort to emotion. They know "racist" gets a gut reaction in the West. Specially after the Holocaust (something the Islamists deny). So they resort to that straw.

Now regarding actions mattering: according to Karsavi Safavid were of "pure" Aryan heritage. However they betrayed Iran and forced the Shia sect of Islam on people. Millions of forced conversion. I find the Safavid "Aryans" a really sick bunch. Again it is actions not race that matter.

In addition there is a lot of racism among "darker" people towards "lighter" people. I remember watching blue eye kids getting crap from others in Iran. They were called "Cheshm Zagh" by some.


marhoum Kharmagas

Islam aside, many of you Shahis are racist (to VPK)

by marhoum Kharmagas on

Prophet jaan, Islam aside, many of you Shahis are racist. You can't masmtmali that fact easily. 

 


Simorgh5555

Prophet jan

by Simorgh5555 on

The interstellar afatebeh! - Very good!

A point about the Pahlavis- notice that Mr Abadi does not mention Reza Phaalvi's middle name: Cyrus. 

What was the message his father Mohammed Reza trying to convey by putting this name on his child. 


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Borg

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

At least the Borg managed interstellar flights. I doubt Islam could manage anything. Maybe a new model of aftabeh. 

You do explain why people like Abadi write they way they do. For example trying to tell us: "Shah was Muslim" => "You should be a Muslim". Independent and free thinking are alien to Islam. They get a half a man like Khomeini and all follow him: pathetic.

I will drink to the day Islam is a forgotten historical footnote. 

 


Simorgh5555

Prophet - the mission of political Islam

by Simorgh5555 on

Thank you very much for your kindness as always. To best understand the general Islamic thinking and its objective, this video says it all:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEJ4OJTgg8

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Your culture will adapt and service us"

Compare the Borg in Star Trek  to the hundreds of brain washed men and women with identical chadors and beards following the dictats of the Imam.

This is, of course, the same in a number of religions , i.e. Orthodox Judaism, but it is the ability of the individual to say, "I want to be different.  I want to think for myself". 


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Simorgh Jan

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Thank you for another well written response. 

The problem is that Islamist minds eventually become corrupt beyond repair. The victims of Islamization become incapable of reasoning. Therefore logic like yours or others becomes ineffective. Thankfully most Iranians have not gone so far off.

People like the writer of this article and some hard core Islamist are too far gone. You can give them reason all day long.. Then they run off to do their Tazi gibbering prayer. What gives me hope it watching free Iranians reject Islam. From UK ro US to inside Iran. When given a chance we ditch the barbaric Tazi nonsense.

That is why people like Abadi are getting so desperate. Why else would someone write such a pile of nonsense in order to mislead other Iranians? They know Islam's time is gone. They are scared and feel trapped. I bet you there will be a lot more of these "informative" articles from Islamist "an-tellectuals".


Simorgh5555

Iranians and envy of Islam

by Simorgh5555 on

This article could not be more wrong on every account. 

Parallels between Christianity and Judaism

The difference between Islam and the other organised religion is the way that it commands all aspects of society, culture, norms of behaviour and human conduct to conform with Islam. There is an Islamic law or Hadith from hair styles, which foot one should put in first before going to the toilet and what food is permissible to eat. Fundamentally, loyalty is not to the state or the national ruler but to the ulema. This is the same phenomenon in all Arab-non Arab societies. The Koran is the unequivocal work of 'God' and athiests are condemned. In most Christian countries the state and Church are divided. In England it is the Church which serves its subjects and pledges allegiance to the Sovereign. Not the other way round as in Islam. In St Paul's letter to the Corinthians, St Paul stated that the Christian message is one of spiritualism, the Jewish laws under the old Testament do not have to be observed, e.g such as the eating of Pork. Unlike Islam where learning Arabic is compulsory, its followers do not have to read scriputes in Hebrew or Arameic or be forced to learn them in schools; there is no equivalent of a hijab; there is no dress code; hymns are not sung in the old testament language; there is no compulsory fasting; there is no rule about what a church should look like; there is no single unifying law regarding marriage, divoce or death and burrial; there is no application of old testament punishment for adultery, murder and theft;  there is no specific date where evry one celebreates religious ceremonies (e.g Christmas) pastors can be men, gay or even female. Religion is conformed and moulded to the standards of the society in the country which its followers live in. The people in Iran have a right to be resentful towards Islamic because of its intrusive nature. Islam is the anti-thesis of ancient Iranian identity. Celebreations of Nowruz, Chaharshanbe-Souri havebeen discouraged or adapted heavily to fit Islam; the ban on the consuption ofalcohol and even the wearing of black (frowned upon amonst Iranian and Zoroastrians) and the culture of death and martyrdom defies Iranian tradition.  Eben when a Muslim dies, he must be burried facing Mecca. Not Persepolis. Not Pasaargod or Babylon but face Mecca. 

The early muslims used a mixture of force and coercive methods such as Jayiza and inequitable laws such as in inheritance until eventually the majority of Iranians were pushed over to Islam. The Persian language was corrupted and the speaking of Pahlavi was banned. Iran did not become a fullmuslim country until 200 years later because it was a large terrain and many Zoroastrians held steadfast to their beleifs.

The destructive and evil of the Muslim inavders was seen in the sestuction of many of the Zoroastrian fire temples and ancient buildings.  Cyrus's tomb in Paasargad was renamed as the 'tomb of the Soleman' as part of a cleverly contrived ruse to stop it from certain destruction.  This is evidence of Islam's rampant destruction.

The Pahlavis 

Mohammed Reza Pahlav and his father Reza Pahlavi may have been followers of Islam, but it is not clear whether there outward devotion to their faith was pretence to appease the public or a sincere belief. However, in private there is overwhleming evidence of both the Shah's resentment of the clergy and their struggle to destroy their power base. The banning of the Hijab and the fact that both of them had very much liberal western lifestyles is at odds with fundamentalist Islamic beliefs. For supporters of the monachy, such as myself, I am less concerned about Islamc but more about political islam.

The indifference of Khomeini towards Iran inhis infamous 'Hich' interview on board his airplane; those who wanted to raze Persepolis; to rename the Persian Gulf as the Islamic Gulf; those that want to ban Chahar-shanb-Souri are all evidence that Islam and Iran cannot be reconciled. 

Note that I have not mentioned the Iraqi invasion of Iran, the support of Saddam Husseins war of the 'battle of Al-Qaddasiya'. 

Tell me why Iranians should not be hostile to Muslims or Arabs (not the Arabs in Iran, of course)? 

 

The revolution 

The idea that Iranians wanted a revolution on the basis of an Islamic fervour is palpable nonsense. There was large opposition to the Shah's political policies and many of those who rallied around Khomeini were Leftists, anarchists, trade unnionists and confirmed athiests. Each of them had their own agenda but answered Khomeini's carrion call to their stupidity. 

Even if there was a grin of truth in what you say about Iranians devotion to Islam, then why does the current regime not test it? The vast majority of the country are under 30  years of age and were not born at the time of the reovlution and it is only fair that that regime repeats its referendum to a different and new generation and ask the people whether they want to continue with an Islamic form of democracy. You can bet that the overwhelming majority of Iranians would rather see the back of Islam both politcally and as a religion. If you are so certain then put it o the test? 

It is impossible  to walk the streets of Tehran, Los angeles and Europe where Iranians are present and not observe a Farvahar medalion. Iranians are converting to Christianity and zoroastrianism in their droves in order to dis-associate themselves of Islam. 

When you say Iranians are jealous about Islam - nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, heed the words of Umar-Bin-Khatib to Yazdegard III, the follower of Prophet Mohammed and the general which launched an attack on Persia in 64, "Submit to Allah, pay the Jayizah, or in the same way as you enjoy life I shall bring an army of death".

The sentence says it all. Muslim envy of Iranians of joi de vivre in conrast to the Muslims lust for death. Why death? Whta's wrong with life and enjoying it? 

 

 

 


Q

IranFirst, you are delusional

by Q on

IranFirst,

You're right, your attacks and dehumanization of Muslims and the religion of Islam should be called bigotry and Islamophobia, however, your attacks dehumanization of Arabs should be called racist.

I'll let the audience decide which of the three you should be called, depending on the particular hate you are spewing at the moment.

I'm glad to see that just as everyone expects, bigots and racists have plenty of excuses (they started it), bullshit historical "justifications" (like "Jews killed Christ") and  irrelevant sources of "anger" (pretending like they care about wars 1400 years ago) for their racist and biggoted behavior. To this we have to add IranFirst's strategy: if someone questions my islamophobic bigotry, that person must be paid by some evil group.

It's quite pathetic, but what else are they going to do? Be honest with themselves? It's too late in their lives for that kind of change.

They'll just do and say anything to continue making these horrible racist and biggoted statements about other cultures and religions. Most normal people, however, can easily see through these excuses, so I don't mind causing more of them to come out in the open.

Divaneh,

As usual, you had nothing of substance to say, so you pretend to misunderstand what I mean, just to waste everyone's time. That line that White Supremacists use is a popular excuse, you know like "she asked for it". It's not TRUE.


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Iran First

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

Thank you for a very good analysis. The charge of racism is indeed abused by Islamists. The one thing I like to respond to is Abadi's statement:

o if Islam is so foreign and so Arab, then why has the Pahlavi dynasty that these anti-Muslims here so admire not abandoned it. Especially Reza Pahlavi that lives in the West and named his daughters "NOOR" and "IMAAN" (both Arab names, Muslim names).

Mr Abadi: We may admire the Shah at least some of us. Others may not. However we think for ourselves. Unlike you Islamists we do not need a "marja taglid" to follow. The Pahlavis did whatever they did. I may agree with some and disagree with others.

Therefore no matter what they thought we decide for ourselves. You should try it. It is called "free thought"; the antidote to Islam.  You may go and list your big names; it makes no difference to me. I think for myself based on reason not names.


IranFirst

Islam is NOT a Race

by IranFirst on

Muslims and lefty liberal propaganda machine
have developed a clear strategy to get the media to accept the yoke of Islam
and sharia law: Label and smear objectors to Islamic fundamentalism as
“racists.” The very terms “racism” and “racist” are so repugnant
that—even if used utterly improperly and idiotically—they will stick,
and people will recoil in horror at the very idea.

Hence, this “stealth jihad” strategy has been very effective in
rallying opposition to individuals objecting to the Islamization of
their culture. Take for example the protests bursting forth in Great
Britain over the unbelievably hypocritical policy of allowing
hatemongers for Mohammed to spew hatred and violent speech at the native
cultures, threatening them with death and enslavement, while objecting
to such treatment at the hands of foreign interlopers can get you
arrested!

Meanwhile, apparently hired thugs calling themselves “anti-racists”
and repeatedly playing the race card where it is entirely inappropriate
are outnumbering the citizens objecting to the hate speech and threats
against them on their own soil.

The question is, who is paying and organizing these maliciously named
“anti-racists” and “anti-fascists” who are shrieking hate speech, also
calling the native objectors “Nazi scum?”


Not allowed

The ridiculous bigots who are trying to force an alien culture and ideology upon people in their own lands are labeling the victims of this plot “fascists?!” Orwellian, to say the least.

It is these hate-spewing “anti-racists” who are the real fascists.
Their utterly cynical depravity in using the race card needs to be
pointed out loudly and repeatedly so that the media—which favor these
anti-native, anti-infidel hatemongers—will stop reporting their
disgusting calumny as if it has merit. It doesn’t.

Let us repeat it together:

ISLAM IS NOT A RACE.


IranFirst

It IS Arab Islam

by IranFirst on

If not, let people say their prayers in their OWN languages, not force them to repeat verses in Arabic 5 times a day, like parrots

If not, let peopl read Quaran in THEIR languages, not Arabic. 

half the muslims will leave this cult when they hear and understand the non-sense they have been saying for years, the other half will leave after they READ Quran and see all its mistakes and HATE language

Why should Iranians have to follow old Arabic fine traditions (such as cutting hands, stoning women , killing non-beleiver, etc.)?

Islam discourages any form of nationalism, and kills any group identity and culture. Once they kill your culture, it is replaced by the barbaric Arab Islam. Islam was a form of Arab imperialism, made by a deranged child molester Arab for the Arabs, to be imposed on other nations by force. They even included required pilgramage to Saudi Barbaria to ensure continoued money for generations to come (as if the money,loot, slaves, and taxes that they got from conqured nations including Persia was not enough)


divaneh

There are more examples Q

by divaneh on

I have a few more examples of racism for you using your own type of logic.

Other racists:

- Native Americans who fought the invading Europeans and those of their offspring who still practice their own traditions.

- Spanish who kicked out the invading Arab forces and returned back to their own root (and apparently for the right reason).

- Tibetan who oppose integration with Chinese.

There are plenty more.

Struggle against the suffocating Islam is not about supremacy but about a secular and all encompassing society. 

 


Q

Divaneh, who is blinded?

by Q on

 

I asked you to read those quotes below, and replace anything related to Islam with Judaism or Christianity. Do the same for ethnicities like "Arab" and tell me it's not bigoted and racist. Truly one must be blind not to see it.

Not ditching own culture and values in the interest of a foreign culture is not called Racism.

This is the number 1 response of most white supremacists and white nationalists.


Veiled Prophet of Khorasan

Q

by Veiled Prophet of Khorasan on

 

All you do is scream racism whenever someone challenges Islam. If an Iranian  puts Iran ahead you scream racist. You are the biggest racist on this site. You hate anyone who does not put Arabs above all. 

Now go scream some more to yourself. Most of us just laugh at your insults.


Maryam Hojjat

I agree with VPK & PathianShot91

by Maryam Hojjat on

My view is as these two commentators.  They said what I believed.  I hate ISLAM not GOOD for IRAN.


divaneh

Blinded by faith Mr Abadi?

by divaneh on

The problem with Islam is not being Arabic. It is being barbaric.

Thanks dear VPK, no one could say it better.

Mr Abadi, you seem to be very loose with your claims. You for example claim "The Prophet is quoted as saying the children of adam are of one body/soul. If one part gets hurt, the whole body feels it."

Is that why he slaughtered over 700 of the Bani Qurayze? Is that why he attacked the farmers of Khaybar? Was it this equality who led him to kill the captives? Is that why he put fire to Banu Nadir palms? How can you be so self deceiving?

Which Hadith is that one anyway? any reference?

The points in your main blog about Iranian wilful conversion to Islam and Ummayads policies are as simplistic as your comment. In the same line I can also claim that Iranians loved Mongolians and welcomed them. They later showed that love by drawing miniatures. No one ever forced them to do that. They just did it because they loved Mongolians and their revered Yasa.

And Q,

You try hard but in vain. Not ditching own culture and values in the interest of a foreign culture is not called Racism. Those who are blinded by faith of course see it differently.


IranFirst

How Muslims forcibly converted Zoroastrians to Islam

by IranFirst on

One has to honestly look at today's Iran, and THEN claim that Islam is not forced on Iranains by the terrorist IRI.., but that is evident to most, so here is little history (not from thousands of years ago, more about early barbaric Islam later) , just to show HOW the cult of Islam was imposed on Iranains

------------------

Today we do not have an idea of how a merciless jihad transformed
Iranian Zoroastrian society into a Muslim one. We have definitive
assessments of those few Zoroastrian communities which survived the
devastating conquests of the mid 7th through early 8th centuries. All
through the Muslim Arab occupation of Iran, the Zoroastrians experienced
an ongoing, inexorable decline over the next millennium due to constant
sociopolitical and economic pressures exerted by their Muslim rulers,
and neighbors.

This gradual, but continuous process was interspersed with
periods of accelerated decline resulting from paroxysms of Muslim
fanaticism- pogroms, forced conversions, and expropriations – throughout
the millennium beginning from the year 637. Boyce describes these
complementary phenomena based on an historical analysis, and her
personal observations living in the (central Iranian) Yezd area during
the 1960s:

”In the mid nineteenth century disaster overtook Turkabad, in the
shape of what was perhaps the last massed forcible conversion in Iran.
It no longer seems possible to learn anything about the background of
this event; but it happened, so it is said, one autumn day when the
dye-madder - then one of the chief local crops - was being lifted. All
the able-bodied men were at work in teams in the fields when a body of
Moslems swooped on the village and seized them. They were threatened,
not only with death for themselves, but also with the horrors that would
befall their women and children, who were being terrorized at the same
time in their homes; and by the end of the day of violence most of the
village had accepted Islam.

To recant after a verbal acknowledgement of Allah and his prophet
meant death in those days, and so Turkabad was lost to the old
religion. Its fire-temple was razed to the ground, and only a rough,
empty enclosure remained where once it had stood.

A similar fate had overtaken many Iranian villages in the past,
among those which did not willingly embrace Islam; and the question
seems less why it happened to Turkabad than why it did not overwhelm all
other Zoroastrian settlements. The evidence, scanty though it is,
shows, however, that the harassment of the Zoroastrians of Yazd tended
to be erratic and capricious, being at times less harsh, or bridled by
strong governors; and in general the advance of Islam across the plain,
through relentless, seems to have been more by slow erosion than by
furious force. The process was still going on in the 1960s, and one
could see, therefore, how it took effect.

Muslim techniques of forced conversions to Islam

Either a few Muslims settled on the outskirts of a Zoroastrian
village, or one or two Zoroastrian families adopted Islam. Once the
dominant faith had made a breach, it pressed in remorselessly, like a
rising tide. More Muslims came, and soon a small mosque was built, which
attracted yet others. As long as Zoroastrians remained in the majority,
their lives were tolerable; but once the Muslims became the more
numerous, a petty but pervasive harassment was apt to develop.

This was partly verbal, with taunts about fire-worship, and
comments on how few Zoroastrians there were in the world, and how many
Muslims, who must therefore posses the truth; and also on how many
material advantages lay with Islam. The harassment was often also
physical; boys fought, and gangs of youth waylaid and bullied individual
Zoroastrians. They also diverted themselves by climbing into the local
tower of silence and desecrating it, and they might even break into the
fire-temple and seek to pollute or extinguish the sacred flame.

Those Muslims with heightened criminal leanings, found too that a
religious minority provided tempting opportunities for theft, pilfering
from the open fields, and sometimes rape and arson. Those Zoroastrians
who resisted all these pressures often preferred therefore in the end to
sell out and move to some other place where their co-religionists were
still relatively numerous, and they could live at peace; and so another
village was lost to the old faith.

Several of the leading families in Sharifabad and forebears who
were driven away by intense Muslim pressure from Abshahi, once a very
devout and orthodox village on the southern outskirts of Yazd; and a
shorter migration had been made by the family of the centenarian ‘Hajji’
Khodabakhsh, who had himself been born in the 1850s and was still alert
and vigorous in 1964. His family, who were very pious, had left their
home in Ahmedabad (just to the north of Turkabad) when he was a small
boy, and had come to settle in Sharifabad to escape persecution and the
threats to their orthodox way of life. Other Zoroastrians held out there
for a few decades longer, but by the end of the century Ahmedabad was
wholly Moslem, as Abshahi become in 1961. [Boyce's footnote: The last
Zoroastrian family left Abshahi in 1961, after the rape and subsequent
suicide of one of their daughters.]

It was noticeable that the villages which were left to the
Zoroastrians were in the main those with poor supplies of water, where
farming conditions were hard.

....

 

 


Darius Kadivar

FYI/ Pope Slams Spain's Secularism (bbc)

by Darius Kadivar on


Nagoftam ? ... ;0)  NEVER Trust an Akhound !

LOL 

Pope Benedict XVI sees 'aggressive secularism' in Spain

//www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11703708

 

 

 

 


maziar 58

Racism ?

by maziar 58 on

Q khan aside from your well put questions I'm still puzzled by the question of the bloger itself.

Out of that subject; couple of yrs. ago I went to an school parent /teachers meeting about my son who was bullied by ........

I started my statement like: As a minority myself how can we be racist ?

we just don't like black peoples !!

have a nice week end.

 Maziar