Interesting.
The Iranians are not Arabic and Islam was imposed o Iran by Arabic conquerors years ago. I also suspect there is an undercurrent of support in Iran for their great monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism, which has been marginalized by Islam.
If a genuine moderate Islamic movement arises anywhere, it will probably in Iran, and should of course, be supported.
But in dealing with Islam, one must be VERY careful with the term “moderate” which may simply relate to the method of choice in overturning the west.
>>>”But in dealing with Islam, one must be VERY careful with the term “moderate” which may simply relate to the method of choice in overturning the west.”
Too right.
Just to correct some false info on some threads on FR & elsewhere, I’ve to say:
There is a Zoroastrian community, mainly that of Parsi community in India, who initially fled to India soon after 7th century muslim-arab invasion of Iran. Then again, many “Zs” fled to India, from Iran, between 17th thru to late 19th century because of heightened persecution in Shia Muslim Iran, by Iranian muslim converts. Many “Zs” later, returned to Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty starting mid 20th century until the last Pahlavi King was ousted in January 1979. Although, many other Zoroastrians had remained in Iran since the 7th century (mostly are outwardly subdued by Muslim teachings over the centuries).
There are Zoroastrians (Parsi community in particular) who can be called “orthodox” Zoroastrians, predominantly because they do not believe in conversion to Zoroastrianism. Well, there is a very good historical reason for that stance. That stance has been changed (with significant Caution) in recent decades by most Zoroastrian communities around the world. IRI & other muslim groups often try to inflitrated these communities & cause havoc, for example.
Conversion by muslim born Iranians, specifically, is not a good subject to publicly discuss, as converts from Islam to another religion are seen as apostates & are subject to persecution if found out.
However, there are no moderate or radical Zoroastrians, never was. Obviously, this isn’t about Zoroastrians of Iran.
Actually in Isam in the ME and traditionally, there is also, only Islam & followers of Islam, that is Muslims. Not moderate or radical, etc.. Islam or muslims.