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Posted on 08/27/2019 1:54:56 AM PDT by Cronos
A local organization dedicated to the Zoroastrian religion and philosophy on Thursday held a special ceremony at one of the group's fire temples located in the Kurdistan Region.
Members of the Basna Organization, whose efforts usually focus on preserving local archaeological sites, performed the rite in Sulaimani province’s town of Darbandikhan.
During the event, participants observed a number of the religion's rituals and read some of the faith's texts and core doctrines aloud to attendees. Organizers also offered a special award to the mayor of Darbandikhan for his efforts in protecting such ancient sites as the temple during his tenure.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion with elements of both monotheism and polytheism in which followers worship a benevolent deity named Ahura Mazda. The prophet Zoroaster, also known as Zarathushtra, is said to have introduced the religion approximately 4,000 years ago as part of a belief system based on concepts of good, evil, and retribution.
One of the world's oldest continuously practiced religions, it is known for its triple motto of Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds. One of its primary sacred texts is called the Avesta.
The group's numbers are estimated at close to 190,000 followers, mostly located in Iran, India, the Kurdistan Region, Pakistan, other Central Asian countries, and smaller communities in some Western nations.
In recent years, many Kurds who have become disillusioned by violence committed in the name of other more common religions in the Middle East have opted to convert to Zoroastrianism.
The Kurdistan Region is home to at least nine different religious groups including Muslims, Christians, Jews, Yezidis (Ezidis), Zoroastrians, Kakais (Yarsan), Baha'is, and Sabian Mandaeans. Many of these groups live in diverse communities in social harmony.
In 2015, Zoroastrianism gained official recognition as a protected faith in the Kurdistan Region and the group has a representative in the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs.
Editing by John J. Catherine "https://kurdistan24.blob.core.windows.net/filemanager/resources/files/2019/08/DARBAN%20(5).jpg" alt="IN PHOTOS: Zoroastrians hold ceremony at fire temple in Kurdistan Region" width="100%" />
I caught that too. Couldn’t be talking about Judaism or Christianity as they are all but extinct in the ME outside of Israel.
In recent years, many Kurds who have become disillusioned by violence committed in the name of other more common religions in the Middle East have opted to convert to Zoroastrianism.
Overstates the tilt towward Zotoastrianism, but there’s omething rhere.
My rose-tinted (dp- :)) wish is that Trump’s smart financial crushing of the Ayatollahs will push more and more Muslims in Iran to throw out Islam
Already the mosques in Iran are empty on Fridays, the young have deep disbelief in Islam, more so in Tehran than in the south-east countryside but still.
Iranis increasingly see that the Arabs, Turks and Pakis don’t accept them as Muslims, so they are looking back to their past, to the glories before Islam.
They aren’t forced to go to the mosques in Iran?
I always figured it was mandatory.
I must have been in a quite pessimistic mood at the time of that post :)
I fall somewhere in between that fatalism and your hopes.
Wiki-islam
. no more than 1-1½% attend Friday prayers, and lots of those who do are dragooned into being there. Three years ago one cleric said that 73% of Iranians did not even say their daily prayers.[8]Iran’s ‘city of mullahs’ has a surprising side
According to Zohreh Soleimani of the BBC, Iran has the lowest mosque attendance of any Muslim country; only 2% of adults attend Friday services.[9]
Mousavi said it was little surprise that clerics had slipped in popularity and attendance at mosques across the Islamic Republic seems to dip lower and lower.there is hope
“Clergymen have no role in the hearts and minds of people as they did 38 years ago,” he said. “The leaders of the revolution overpromised and under-delivered.”
A coffee shop is one of the only functioning businesses in the building. A mural of a European sidewalk cafe filled one wall and a new, Italian-made espresso machine sat on a counter.
The owner, Ebrahim Mahmoudi, poured espressos, barely flinching when the call to afternoon prayer blared over the mall’s loudspeaker. He had named his shop the Free Speech Cafe, but its decidedly secular vibe did not deter customers in the “city of mullahs.”
On a recent day, a middle-aged mullah in a robe and turban came into the cafe and struck up such an intimate conversation that he left behind a pipe and tobacco flakes as gifts, Mahmoudi said. The man was considering sending his 21-year-old daughter to study in Germany, but had to grapple with leaving her on her own in the dissolute West.
“He knew she would be exposed to things,” Mahmoudi said. “He told her: ‘If you have sex, it does not mean you are a sinner.’ I was surprised. It was a very progressive way for a mullah to talk.”
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