As Persecution Of Iran's Christians Intensifies, Tehran Opens 'Holy Mary' Metro Station

Inside Tehran’s newest metro station, Iranians who can be imprisoned for owning bibles will soon walk past a plaque that declares,

Elsewhere in the Maryam-e Moqaddas station, or Holy Mary station, a relief of Christ walking on water decorates a vestibule, and his mother Mary is depicted, larger than life, praying among flowers.

Estimates of Iran’s Christian population varies widely but a 2020 survey from the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) reported 1.5 percent of respondents identified as Christian. That figure would extrapolate to hundreds of thousands across the country.

Most Christian converts practice their faith in secret among small groups of friends and in high-risk “house churches"...

Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab of GAMAAN told RFE/RL that an increasing number of younger Iranians are turning away from Islam amid waves of recent anti-government protests.

Ethnic Armenians are permitted to practice Christianity in Iran within strict limits, including a ban on services held in Persian, and potential execution for attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. Congregations are monitored closely by the authorities and service times must be agreed on with the authorities in advance.

Several representatives of the Armenian church previewed the metro station on October 22 ahead of its official opening.

During that tour, the head of Tehran’s metro system called the facility “one of the most beautiful stops in [a wider infrastructure] project, where human faith and the special respect Iranians have for their Armenian and Christian compatriots merge.”

On the same day the Armenian clergy toured the metro station, 61-year-old Christian Mina Khajavi was released after serving nearly two years in the notorious Evin prison for hosting a home church...

https://islamonline.net/en/jesus-and-the-virgin-mary-in-islam/

...Many people may be surprised that Muslims love Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the Quran, no woman is given more attention than Mary.

Mary receives the most attention of any woman mentioned in the Quran even though all the Prophets with the exception of Adam had mothers. Of the Quran’s 114 chapters, she is among the eight people who have a chapter named after them...

ssfromla --> perhaps you don't know the history of Christianity in Iran?

The Apostle Bartholomew brought Christianity to Iran (which was under the Parthian empire and quite religiously tolerant).

The Ancient Church of the east was based in Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian dynasty and later, from 240 AD, the Sassanid dynasty. The Sassanid's were very vigorous Zoroastrians, of a sect of Zoroastrianism called Zurvanism. They initially persecuted Christianity, then SPLIT CHRISTIANITY in 240 AD so that the Persians had "their Christians" - the Ancient Church of the east that was separated from the Catholic-Orthodox-OrientalOrthodox church in the Roman empire. they were initially associated with Nestorius, but then their theology is from Mar Babbai.

The "Church of the East" (often referred to as Nestorian by its opponents) was the officially recognized Persian Christian church, distinct from the Roman state church, which helped the Sassanid monarchy manage the Christian population within its borders.

by the 6th century, Christians were probably in the majority, at least in the region of Iraq (Mesopotamia), which was a major part of the Sassanid Empire. Across the entire empire, they were a very large and widespread minority.

There were Christian bishops in all major cities of the Sassanid Empire, from the northern to the southern regions, even from the early Sassanid period.

In the 8th and 9th century, fully ONE-THIRD of all Christians in the world were under the Catholicos (the "Pope") of the Ancient Church of the east, living in Ctesiphon -- they sent missionaries to India, to Mongolia (Mongol tribes were Christianized - Genghis Khan's wife was a Christian belonging to this church)

Iran today has a significant Christian minority that are treated far better than Christians in any Middle Eastern country (or Pakistan)

This is NOT "merged religion"

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