Religion in Iran

Religion in Iran has been shaped by multiple religions and sects over the course of the country's history. Zoroastrianism was the main followed religion during the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), the Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD), and the Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD). In 651 AD, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Persia and spread Islam as the main religion. Sunnism was the predominant form of Islam before the devastating Mongol conquest, but subsequently, Shi'ism became eventually utterly dominant in all of Iran with the advent of the Safavids.

Quotes

• Journalist Ramita Navai has observed: Despite the revolution, Iranians are inordinately proud of the great Persian empire, and it’s still part of the culture. The biggest festival in Iran is Persenia, which is Zoroastrian. It’s the first day of spring and has nothing to do with religion. Although it’s interesting, because the state has got involved with these pagan, Zoroastrian traditions and has tried to hijack them and claim them for their own. Like the early Christians did with pagan, Celtic mythology.
  So, for example, at Persian New Year, you set a table called haftsin. People lay out seven objects all starting with the letter sin. . . . Most secular Iranians will also put out a book of Hafiz’s poetry. But the state encourages Iranians to put the Koran on the table.
  There is also chaharshanbeh souri, a fire festival celebrated on the last Tuesday night of the year. Bonfires are lit in the hope that fire and light will bring health and happiness. Young Iranians go crazy, setting off fireworks and jumping over the fires while reciting an old Zoroastrian saying. It’s a bit like Guy Fawkes night, in England. The state always gets nervous about this fire festival. But try as they might, they haven’t been able to stamp it out. It’s an ancient Zoroastrian tradition.
  • Simon Worrall, “‘To Live in Tehran You Have to Lie’: Revealing Hidden Lives in Iran,” National Geographic, September 7, 2014. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Bojnourdi, has declared, “Only Baha’is ‘who cooperate with Israel’ or ‘advocate against Islam’ are not entitled to citizenship rights, and . . . they still have human rights even though they cannot take advantage of ‘privileges,’ such as going to university in Iran.”
  • .Benjamin Weinthal, “Are Iran’s Broken Human Rights Promises a Sign of Failure for Nuclear Deal?,” Jerusalem Post, March 15, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• “It’s really one of the most obvious cases of state persecution,” Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, said about the treatment of Baha’is in Iran at a United Nations conference in Geneva this year. “It’s basically state persecution, systematic and covering all areas of state activities, the various systems from family law provisions to schooling, education, security.”
  • Reuters Minority report: Why Baha’is face persecution in Iran quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• In November 2005, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution denounced Zoroastrians as “sinful animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption”; t
  • .Jamsheed K. Choksy, “How Iran Persecutes Its Oldest Religion,” CNN, November 14, 2011. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• Kourash Niknam, the Zoroastrian member of the Majlis, said in 2006 that being a Zoroastrian in Iran was like being a foreigner in one’s native land: “We don’t have the right to make programmes about our religion. I have no platform on radio or television to go and speak about Zoroastrianism. We cannot get any budget for building a new fire temple when mosques are being built one after another.”
  • .Robert Tait, “Ancient Religions Clash in Modern Iran,” Guardian, October 4, 2006. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)7

• When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, he vowed, “I will stop Christianity in this country.”7
  • .“Iran: Convert Stabbed to Death,” Compass Direct, November 28, 2005. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)7

• The Christian organization Open Doors notes that Christian proselytizing is strictly forbidden in Iran, “especially when it occurs in Persian languages—from evangelism to Bible training, to publishing Scripture and Christian books or preaching in Farsi. In 2014, at least 75 Christians were arrested. More Christians were sentenced to prison and pressure on those detained increased, including physical and mental abuse.”73
  • .Stoyan Zaimov, “Iran Sentences 18 Christians to Prison for Their Faith in New Crackdown on Christianity,” Christian Post, June 3, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• The UN’s Ahmed Shaheed has noted, “As of 1 January 2015, at least 92 Christians remain in detention in the country allegedly due to their Christian faith and activities. In 2014 alone, 69 Christian converts were reportedly arrested and detained for at least 24 hours across Iran. Authorities reportedly continued to target the leaders of house churches, generally from Muslim backgrounds. Christian converts also allegedly continue to face restrictions in observing their religious holidays.”74
  • .Weinthal, “Are Iran’s Broken Human Rights Promises a Sign?” Jerusalem Post, March 15, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• Christian activist Marlene Mathew has stated that “the Iranian government actively pursues Christian ministers and believers, placing them in prison under trumped up political charges, or simply killing them in accordance with their law. These people are innocent and need to be set free. . . . In recent weeks the Iranian government has openly declared that ‘Christians are enemies’ who are a major threat to the state.”75 She adds, “Iran has one of the highest number of spies per capita in the world, believers are often in fear of speaking openly lest they awaken the wrath of the religious police.”76
  • .Hermoine Macura, “Iran’s President Rouhani Is Under Fire for Cracking Down on Christian Churches,” Christian Post, August 11, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• Sometimes Christians can awaken the wrath of the government simply by being Christians. As Easter 2015 approached, according to the NCRI, “the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (police) sent threatening letters to churches in the city of Urumiyeh warning them against holding gatherings for Easter celebrations. According to the directive sent by the force’s Office of Public Building, Christians have only been allowed to hold Easter celebrations in their homes.”
  • .“IRAN: Christians Barred from Holding Easter Celebration in Churches in Northwestern city,” National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), April 7, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• In June 2015 an Iranian court sentenced eighteen converts from Islam to Christianity to prison on charges that included evangelism. Morad Mokhtari, a convert who left Iran in 2006, said of converts to Christianity that “Iranian religious authorities prefer that they leave Iran because the authorities can’t control them. Just their name is evangelism. Imagine someone says he’s a Christian and has a Muslim name.”
  • .Stoyan Zaimov, “Iran Sentences 18 Christians to Prison for Their Faith in New Crackdown on Christianity,” Christian Post, June 3, 2015. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)

• A leading Shi’ite authority in Iran, Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, actually defended the idea that a non-Muslim’s life was worth less than that of a Muslim in his 1970 critique of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution. . . . Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash. . . . Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. . . . Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them.83
  • .Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, trans. F. J. Goulding (London: F. T. Goulding and Co., 1970), 18. as quoted in Robert Spencer - The Complete Infidel's Guide to Iran-Regnery Publishing (2016)