Zorotrianism, Christianity pretty rapidly spreading in Iran

[Toramana]

A strange news.

http://islamizationwatch.blogspot.co...ch-facing.html

Funny how all of the Muslim world believes in death for apostasy, except of course those spokespeople in the West, who want us to see Islam's lighter side!

Church sources say the number of Christians in Iran has grown from 500 known believers in 1979 to at least 100,000 today.

[AmitRazdan]

To me Iranians seem to be the least religious 'muslim' people I have met. Here in the west where I live, I spken to some and they said they are not religious. I have also been out with an iranian and she seemed really up for it.

[Catya Sher]

For shame!

This site after just a cursory glance, must be run by American "Christians" ie vague Protestant demoninations/denominations to demonize Islam.

From the name and format, islamizationwatch appears to be a narrower version of the odious "jihadwatch". I only saw that once: it was nausating. Wild horses couldn't drag me back there.

First of all, I traveled very widely in the Islamic Republic during the most tense time of Iranian-American relations. Now there is MUCH more tolerance for Christians. It was the worst at the moment I was there in the 80s.

What did I find? I chanced to meet a few Iranian Christians: Armenians, Assyrians and one Anglican so-called priest.

By the way, I did write about this in The Christian Science Monitor in a series on what Iran was really like, in order to combat all the very dark stereotypes that Americans still to this day harbor. This, naturally, is not by accident, but due to a deliberate manipulation such as is described in today's Religion section post by Maiwand.

In my long series of articles, I gave the truth, that the Armenians were not angry about the Islamic strictures under which they were placed. They did not particularly mind hijab, agreeing that the Virgin Mary wore it. So why not Armenian girls.
They only cared about the fact that the regime had closed their Armenian-language schools for a time. But the schools were due to reopen and hence the problem did evaporate.
This shows there was little or no oppression by the Islamic Republic officials for the Armenian - and Assyrian - Christian communities.

The Anglican 'priest' explained that he had not been harassed by revolutionaries, but that he prudently kept rather a low profile just to prevent any problem. He had a Christian bookstore adjacent to his church where he was permitted to sell Christian literature and had had few negative occurrences. Especially considering what Americans would imagine under the circumstances, with all the pictures of screaming crowds in the streets and how Christians have been viewed as possible pro-Western influences or even as Western spies, he was quite safe and sound.

This impartial reportage would never have seen the light of day on such blogs as "Islamization watch", had they been around at that time. Instead, these are devoted to stirring up hatred for Islam.
And, perhaps, securing American Protestant money for impoverished Christians in Iran and other countries. Their articles are aimed at gaining money and support, never at the truth, as was The Monitor. In those days. No longer is it different than any other major American publication, sadly.

Now, let's look at Zoroastrians. I quoted one Kurdish woman as saying that she was tired of Islam this, Islam that, everywhere she looked under the Islamic Republic regime.
So as more of a social rebellion against the Islamic system instated by the Ayatollahs and their supporters, she laughed and said with irony that she was about ready to convert to Zoroastrianism.

The reason she said this with a chuckle is the simple fact that conversion to Zoroastrianism is....
NOT ALLOWED!

So, so much for 50,000 Iranians or whatever percentage from the highly suspect figure given of 100,000 converts switching to Iran's pre-Islamic state religion!

My story here is meant to give the deep dimension of WHY Iranians WOULD consider changing. It's just a way to get back at the authorities!

By the way, today happens to be the birthday of the last Shah. They complained bitterly about him. Then came Islamic Republic, and they complain bitterly about that!
Some people are like this: never happy without something to look at the negatives about!

If anyone wants to read about an American woman's experiences in Iran in the Islamic Republic era, let me know; I have the URLs for the series. It was all completely opposite to whatever anyone usually would assume. Even Iranians living in America expected all sorts of dire fates for me, showing how out of touch many are with life in Iran in post-Revolution days.

[unknownprince]

I have seen many Iranians here who follow either a very loose version of Islam, or have adopted Christianity. These are children of people that left Iran, and you can safely assume these people were from the elites (having money in Iran). Many Iranian girls have married Christians, and there is no objection by their community. One Iranian guy I know has told me that he suspects Iranians will eventually die out in America through intermarriage.

Its a shame, they used to have a culture, and have jumped head over heals into the culture of kafr, more so than the kafrs indulge in destruction. But then again there are more problems that are rooted in Iranian culture (lax rules on certain issues that most of us here find appalling)

[unknownprince]

I don't know the exact numbers, but I am well aware of many Iranians who have left Islam, many of them.

I know for a fact that some of them here even observe holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, but not Eid despite being born Muslim. Also, fasting ramadan is unusual. This is the result of the Shah's modernization programs.

[Abdul Haq]

in iran these people are gradually indoctrinated by western media but they can not challenge to do it there what is overstated to them, but when just they get rid of iran, they all rapidly revert to the so called free sociaty.