Ancient Religion Suffers Persecution
Zoroastrianism, who would of even
thought I would have found an article on one of the most ancient and still
remaining religions in the world. Well
at least remaining for now, recently it has been brought to the media’s
attention of major persecution happening in Iran against Zoroastrianism,
specifically in the city of Tehran. It was the year of 1979,
when the Islamic revolution occurred that the freedom of religion for the
Zoroastrians was taken under them. It
was that year that Islamic soldiers stormed into their temple of worship during
a service and put a picture of the Iran’s new ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini
in place the picture of Zoroaster, the founder of their religion. That was only the beginning, all schools
being forced to have the pictures Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on their walls,
students with high grades not being accepted to State Universities, and
Zoroastrian graveyards being disturbed.
There is much more evidence to obvious persecution but I will let you
read the article for yourself.
My first reaction to this article was pure
sadness and disgust because it does not matter which religion is going through
this kind of persecution, it should not happen.
This specific situation is overall just disrespectful especially since
Zoroastrianism was there before Islam. I
would react the exact way if I heard a story about Christians being persecuted,
these stories overall whether about Zoroastrians, Christians, Buddhists, it
doesn’t matter, that is irrelevant to me.
All religions deserve a respect even if we do not agree with what they
stand for. Of course I want others to
hear what I know about my Lord Jesus Christ but I must earn their trust before
they will hear what I got to say. If the
Muslims in Iran wanted the Zoroastrians to become Muslim then changing their
temple of worship to represent Islam does not bring them closer to conversion
but actually makes them repel away from it.
If this is not the case they just hate what the Zoroastrians stand for
then all they have to do is not associate themselves with them because in my
mind this is equal to racism. The thing that got me was when I heard the part
about the Muslim officials storming in while a fire ceremony was taken place so
they could take the picture down of Zarathustra (the founder). The fires are considered sacred and an
important part of worship. That I would
say would be like someone storming into a Christian church during Lord Supper
and taking down our cross. Although I
believe that each religion will be attacked and we will have to be ready to
answer questions about what they believe, this is only the beginning of the
attacks.
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