Cyrus motivation was to expand the Achaemenid Empire. It was all about power and conquest. Cyrus was a thug. In empire building, first you conquer, then you pacify. Cyrus, and any emperor for that matter, cannot afford unrest in already conquered lands while still expanding the empire. Cyrus could have cared less about the religion of anyone in Babylon, other than from the point that religious appeasement pacifies the conquered.
However, what this history is not relevant. The current problems between Muslims and Jews, and Christians for that matter, go back to the time of Muhammad. The problems will persist as long as there is Islam. In Islam, deception (changing history) is encouraged. The Bible only provides a brief glimpse into history. History needs to be looked at in its totality.
>>>”Cyrus was a thug.”<<<
That’s illuminating. The only other people who have called Cyrus a “thug” are members of the Mullahs’ regime in Iran.
>>>”Cyrus could have cared less about the religion of anyone in Babylon,”<<<
Correct. He didn’t care much about the religion of others. He didn’t like slavery; Babylonians were keeping the Jews captive as Slaves.
Sorry, but your opinions of Cyrus are not based on fact.
Sure, you can make an argument that empires have an incentive to avoid uprisings by not being overly oppressive. This was certainly the approach taken, most of the time, by the Achaemenids.
But they were unusually mild by imperial standards of the time. The Assyrians felt an incentive to discourage rebellion by terrorizing possible rebels, which they went about with great enthusiasm.
The Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires both deported Jews to distant lands. The Persians, OTOH, not only didn’t deport more Jews, they allowed the exiles to return home. They had no need to do that. The displaced Jews were not likely to rebel.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion, IMO, that Persian policies were at least in part based on altruism or humanitarianism. To a degree unusual in history. Certainly this is the point of view of the Bible writers, who speak much more highly of the Persians than of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks or Romans.
As far as all these faiths living in perfect peace until Islam came along, that’s a myth.
The persecution of Zoroastrians, Jews and heretic Christians by the Romans and Byzantines is pretty well known. Less familiar is the fact that the Sassanid Persians probably equally persecuted Christians, Jews, Manichaens, Buddhists and others. This intermittent persecution ended only when they were overthrown by Islam.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/rel-zoro3.htm