Saudi Arabian Wahhabi Mufti Says Iranians are Zoroastrian

[dani67]

Saudi Arabian Wahhabi Mufti Says Iranians are Zoroastrian
AhulBayt News Agency ^ | 9 May 2011 | (Ahlul Bayt News Agency)
Posted on 5/10/2011, 6:03:04 PM by Cronos

Over a phone conversation with one of the Saudi Arabian newspapers, he said: “there were not many Zoroastrians in history, but they have been well-known (so what! who has assigned you to be historian without documentation and authenticity, let's see what you have to say and what are your proves to the lies this time!!!).

History knows them as a nation full of hate and oppression (lie, if you meant history of Iran, for you ignorant mind, it is good to say and let you know that Iran has been known as cradle of civilization, just check this link, if you meant the country in general, you are diluting the historical fact to manipulate the reality that each and every country have had had good days and bad days and indeed your country and Bahrain are in the age of oppression and you are the puppets in the hands of the colonialism puppet master. If you are truthful tell me who is the puppet master of Iran, who are running the destiny of Iran and Iranian nation? I guarantee your answer would be no one but themselves opposite to you. Good or bad they have their destiny in their own will, and will not receive their orders from Tel Aviv or Washington. DC).

They have always tried to oppress Islam and the Sunnis (lie. If you meant Iranian Muslims or even Zoroastrians, that is a lie. Iranian originally were Sunnis when Islam came to Iran and people of Iran embraced Islam with kindness and love due to oppressions were taking from king of the time. Later in time Iranian educated themselves more and more with Islam and they found the path of Imam Ali (as) preferable to join. So, they dedicated to the Shia school of thoughts which was directly rooted and connected to the last prophet of Allah(swt), Muhammad (saw) via his family (Ahlul-Bayt).”

He added: “we must be wise in front of them (lie. If you are truthful why have you not accepted the public debate with Shia scholars in TV and radio with documentary evidence so people see the truth where are you rooted and where Shia Islam is rooted?!!!). We cannot accept their claims to Islam because they are hypocrites (another lie. This is nothing but a scapegoat and an old style of Wahhabis slander to dodge the truth by labeling opposition).

They are saying things out of hypocrisy while trying to harm the roots of Islam and Sunnis (lie again. Iranian in search of truth changed the school of thought to Shia, if you were honest and truthful you would accept the public debate)”

he continued: “the officials of the Islamic republic of Iran are of this nature (lie. It is you and your coward and mischievous masters are rooted in corruption).

They opposed sending soldiers to Bahrain (lie. Who are you think you are fooling?! Have little respect to public intelligence, Iran was not asked, even if asked, will Iran accept your and approve tyranny and invasion?!!! You are indeed blind to see the truth & light of Allah (swt).

While they claim to be Muslim (indeed Iranians are Muslims and very proud of it and proved in 8 years of imposed was that you and other tyrants of your like were supporting and encouraging Saddam in war against Iran’s fresh and young Islamic revolution, but where is Saddam now, by Allah’s will you will join Saddam soon), they desired to harm Islam and Sunnis in Bahrain. (Biggest of the lies. Iran supported and will continue supporting all oppressed people in the world regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, financial status, language..., but you Wahhabis are so twisted in your hearts with hypocrisy and deceptions that you made it your way of lifestyle and cannot tolerate or handle the truth).”

 

[dani67]

 

[dani67]

How Iran persecutes its oldest religion
By Jamsheed K. Choksy, Special to CNN



Updated 1346 GMT (2146 HKT) November 14, 2011

Zoroastrian worshipers pray near the central Iranian city of Yazd in 2004.
Story highlights

• Zoroastrians are not insulated from Iran's tribulations, Jamsheed K. Choksy says
• Followers of this ancient faith are disparaged as "sinful animals," he says
• Choksy: Many Muslim Iranians are rejecting the Shiite theocracy's intolerant ways
• President Ahmadinejad now uses Zoroastrianism's past for political ends, Choksy says

As Zoroastrian funerary processions enter the graveyard overlooking the Tehran suburb of Ray, their sobriety is often shattered by the sound of explosions and gunfire. Frequently, the way forward is blocked by Islamic Revolutionary Guards conducting a combat exercise among the tombs. According to Zoroastrian custom, burial needs to take place within 24 hours, and the Revolutionary Guards will not halt their training activities there for the funerals.

This is just another sign of religious freedom fading in the Islamic Republic.

Much that is written about the Zoroastrians of Iran portrays them as a venerable and quaint religious community. But these followers of an ancient faith are not insulated from the tribulations of their country.

Zoroastrianism is named after its founder, the prophet Zarathustra -- or Zoroaster, as he came to be known in the West -- who preached sometime between 1800 and 1000 B.C. Zoroaster spoke of humans siding with God (called Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord) against the devil (called Angra Mainyu, or the Angry Spirit) and fighting for all that is right. In time, those concepts became central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So did Zoroastrian beliefs that each soul faces judgment after death before entering heaven, limbo or hell, and that all of humanity will experience resurrection, final judgment and heaven on Earth.

Jamsheed K. Choksy
Ancient Persian kings like Cyrus and Darius followed their faith's basic tenet of doing good by freeing Israelites from the Babylonian Exile and supporting construction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem. Zoroastrianism's clergymen, or magi, are known around the world as the wise men in attendance at the nativity of Jesus. Until Arabs conquered Iran during the seventh century, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians there could practice their own devotions unhindered. Thereafter, they became minorities who were persecuted and largely converted to Islam.

When the Islamic revolution occurred in 1979, fundamentalist Shiites stormed the fire temple at Tehran. There, Zoroastrians worship in front of a blazing fire, as a symbol of God's grace, just like Christians face a cross and Muslims turn to a qibla pointing toward Mecca. The portrait of Zoroaster was tossed down, a photograph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was put up in its place, and the congregation was warned not to remove the image of Iran's new leader. Only months later could the prophet's picture be mounted upon an adjacent wall.

Their schools and classrooms began to be covered with images of Supreme Leaders Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and with verses of the Quran that denounce non-Muslims. Those who do well academically nonetheless find no openings within state-controlled universities.

When the bloody war with Iraq raged from 1980 to 1988, young Zoroastrians were involuntarily drafted for suicide missions in the Iranian army. Rejecting the Shiite mullahs' claim that military martyrdom would lead them to a heaven full of virgins was futile. Failing to offer their lives on the battlefield could result in execution for treason.

Then in November 2005, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, chairman of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, disparaged Zoroastrians and other religious minorities as "sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." When the Zoroastrians' solitary parliamentary representative protested, he was hauled before a revolutionary tribunal. There, mullahs threatened execution before sparing his life with a warning never to challenge their declarations again. A frightened community subsequently declined to re-elect him.

Over the past two years, many Muslim Iranians have begun publicly rejecting the Shiite theocracy's intolerant ways by adopting symbols and festivals from Zoroastrianism. Those actions aredenounced as causing "harm and corruption" by ayatollahs like Khamenei and Jannati.

Sensing that popular sentiment among Iran's Muslim majority is shifting away from the mullahs, even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has begun utilizing Zoroastrianism's past for his own political ends. In September 2010, he arranged for the Cyrus Cylinder, a sixth-century B.C. document that speaks of religious tolerance and Iranian greatness, to be loaned from the British Museum. During a public ceremony in Tehran, Ahmadinejad lauded indigenous traditions as superior to Arab-imposed Islam. Privately, his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, even referred to King Cyrus as "a messenger of God."

Their tottering political base has sharpened the Shiite clerics' ire. Like members of the Christian, Jewish and Baha'i minorities, Zoroastrian activists who protest the theocracy's excesses are sent to Tehran's notorious Evin prison on charges of sedition. At the ayatollahs' instigation, Iranian media characterizes the followers of Iran's ancient faith as polytheists and devil worshipers. Lesser mullahs rant against Zoroastrians not only in Iran, but even at mosques in Toronto.

The Zoroastrian cemetery outside Tehran now faces another challenge: The municipality seeks to lay a highway through it. Some schools and devotional centers in other Zoroastrian strongholds like Yazd and Kerman have also been notified of pending annexation. Communal gatherings are routinely monitored by fundamentalist Muslim authorities who allege that Zoroastrianism "threatens national security and subverts the Islamic revolution."

Protections offered by the Islamic Republic's constitution have been rendered meaningless in practice. Not surprisingly, the daily regimen of discrimination makes Zoroastrians feel wholly unwelcome in their Iranian homeland. Only between 35,000 and 90,000 now remain in a country of approximately 74 million citizens -- and, fearing persecution, many do not readily identify themselves as Zoroastrians.

Yet, Zoroastrians are no mere footnote in human history and religiosity. Their ideas still determine how many of the globe's residents behave. The end of Zoroastrianism in Iran should be prevented. Making religious freedom a priority in U.S. and EU foreign policies will help

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Saudi Arabian Wahhabi Mufti Says Iranians are Zoroastrian
AhulBayt News Agency ^ | 9 May 2011 | (Ahlul Bayt News Agency)
Posted on 5/10/2011, 6:03:04 PM by Cronos

Over a phone conversation with one of the Saudi Arabian newspapers, he said: “there were not many Zoroastrians in history, but they have been well-known (so what! who has assigned you to be historian without documentation and authenticity, let's see what you have to say and what are your proves to the lies this time!!!).

History knows them as a nation full of hate and oppression (lie, if you meant history of Iran, for you ignorant mind, it is good to say and let you know that Iran has been known as cradle of civilization, just check this link, if you meant the country in general, you are diluting the historical fact to manipulate the reality that each and every country have had had good days and bad days and indeed your country and Bahrain are in the age of oppression and you are the puppets in the hands of the colonialism puppet master. If you are truthful tell me who is the puppet master of Iran, who are running the destiny of Iran and Iranian nation? I guarantee your answer would be no one but themselves opposite to you. Good or bad they have their destiny in their own will, and will not receive their orders from Tel Aviv or Washington. DC).

They have always tried to oppress Islam and the Sunnis (lie. If you meant Iranian Muslims or even Zoroastrians, that is a lie. Iranian originally were Sunnis when Islam came to Iran and people of Iran embraced Islam with kindness and love due to oppressions were taking from king of the time. Later in time Iranian educated themselves more and more with Islam and they found the path of Imam Ali (as) preferable to join. So, they dedicated to the Shia school of thoughts which was directly rooted and connected to the last prophet of Allah(swt), Muhammad (saw) via his family (Ahlul-Bayt).”

He added: “we must be wise in front of them (lie. If you are truthful why have you not accepted the public debate with Shia scholars in TV and radio with documentary evidence so people see the truth where are you rooted and where Shia Islam is rooted?!!!). We cannot accept their claims to Islam because they are hypocrites (another lie. This is nothing but a scapegoat and an old style of Wahhabis slander to dodge the truth by labeling opposition).

They are saying things out of hypocrisy while trying to harm the roots of Islam and Sunnis (lie again. Iranian in search of truth changed the school of thought to Shia, if you were honest and truthful you would accept the public debate)”

he continued: “the officials of the Islamic republic of Iran are of this nature (lie. It is you and your coward and mischievous masters are rooted in corruption).

They opposed sending soldiers to Bahrain (lie. Who are you think you are fooling?! Have little respect to public intelligence, Iran was not asked, even if asked, will Iran accept your and approve tyranny and invasion?!!! You are indeed blind to see the truth & light of Allah (swt).

While they claim to be Muslim (indeed Iranians are Muslims and very proud of it and proved in 8 years of imposed was that you and other tyrants of your like were supporting and encouraging Saddam in war against Iran’s fresh and young Islamic revolution, but where is Saddam now, by Allah’s will you will join Saddam soon), they desired to harm Islam and Sunnis in Bahrain. (Biggest of the lies. Iran supported and will continue supporting all oppressed people in the world regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, financial status, language..., but you Wahhabis are so twisted in your hearts with hypocrisy and deceptions that you made it your way of lifestyle and cannot tolerate or handle the truth).”

Saudi Arabian Wahhabi's are crazy people. Period.