Hello everyone, For the 66K users on this subreddit that do not know me, I am a Kurdish revert to the Zoroastrian faith which was the religion practiced by Iranian empires as well the Iranian peoples (i.e. all Iranian ethnicities from Kurds in the West to Tajiks in the East), for the few that do know me, I am usually active on the r/Zoroastrianism subreddit to which I cordially invite you all, alongside the subreddit r/avesta This post of mine on this subreddit has been a long time coming; I do believe it is time to discuss the role of islam within Iranian history as well as within the context of the islamic re gime and the current Revolution. Islam entered Iran in a very violent fashion where the first step taken by islamic invaders to create a a taxable population that could revolt was to kill the Zoroastrian priesthood, literate people and people around whom r evolts could gather. This often resulted in entire cities being massacred and the women and children being sold off into slavery; both sexual as well as chattel. As a matter of fact, one can say the that Zorostrians were the first victims of the islamic slave trade ... One can read of the massacres and horrors endured by Iran at the hands of islam here This was a 200 year long reign of terror called "two centuries of silence" of which the famous work in Persian can be read here or the english version can be read here . All in all, it was quite literally darke st of the dark times where Iran's population plummeted and Iranian cultures and languages nearly became extinct in favour of arabized cultures and languages... This erosion of Iranian identity, culture and languages and be seen in two instances of this era ; "An Iranian premier (Sahib ibn - e Obbad) did not look in the mirror lest would see a Persian." "Another ruler of Khorasan (Abdollah ibn - e Tahir of the Tahirid dynasty) would not acknowledge any language but the Arabic. He banned publications in Persian an d by his order all the Zoroastrians were forced to bring their religious books to be thrown in the fire. Those who refused were slain." It seems that the Iranian identity in this era, especially in the territories controlled by pious muslims (even of Irani an stock) was eponymous with the Zoroastrian identity and thus seen as lower to the arab, muslim or mawali identity. After the overthrowing of the arab yoke, the short lived Iranian Intermezzo saw a revival of Persian culture and language (thank you Daqiqi , Ferdowsi, and others) but always with an islamic background (for all the post - islamic invasion Iranian dynasties were muslim, with few exceptions i.e. Zoroastrian principalities who held on for a while but were pressurized by various means into islam). i slam thus overrode the pre - islamic culture, ethics and religion except for the few who recognized how islam came to Iran and the greatness of the pre - islamic Iran. ...Iranians to this date do not forget the great heroes who revolted many times against isla m and the arabic yoke, be it Mazyar or Babak Khorramdin nor the many namely martyrs...in Mazyar's own words; " Afshin, the son of Kavus , Babak Khorramdin, and I had made an oath and allegiance that we take the country back from the Arabs and transfer the government and the country back to the family of Kasraviyan "... ...Centuries pass and all successive islamic dynasties are regarded as virtually the same as each other when it came their heavy handedness (i.e. vio lence) to religious minorities (even the Safavids for whom practicing shia venerate were violent foreigners who terrorized Iran and force converted many, a repeat of the islamic invasion of 7th century) with the exception of Karim Khan Zand who is looked upon favourably by even Zoroastrians; "he seems not to have courted the support of the ulema and is said to have refused pensions to religious students, sayyeds, and dervishes, r egarding them as parasites." As a matter of fact, while not Zoroastrian, Karim Khan Zand was the closest ruler of Iran so far to Zoroastrianism declaring ; “I have come to know a Zoroastrian astrologer. He read to me the Jamasp - Namah to the end. I recollec t it. It recounts the events of more than five thousand years It is sound and veritable.” Jamasp - Namah can be read here ... in the Gujarati to English translation of Jamasp - Namah it is written; "...And the whole country of Iran will pass into the hands of the enemies, and non - Iranians will mix themselves among the Iranians in such a way, that Iranian cannot be distinguished from a non - Iranian. That which is Iranian will become again non - Iranian" .... in a manner of speaking the Jamap - Namah foresaw the rise of the ulema and the 6 million people in Iran claiming sayyed descend who make up a privileged class in Iranian society with their black headscarves. ...reign of Karim Khan Zand was short lived and gave way to the Qajar dynasty which is collectively remembered as the worst dynasty and the most incompetent to rule Iran...who once again started terrorizing Zoroastrians; " When the murderous Qajars (1794 - 1925) assumed power, they bann ed Zoroastrians from travelling - a form of local imprisonment. Zoroastrian women began to be abducted and forcibly married as sex slaves to Muslim men. " ... the Qajar terror on Zoroastrians would be lessened by the hard work of a certain Maneckji Limji H ataria whose story can be read here . Eventually the mismanagement of Iran would led to the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty with the seizure of power by Reza Shah who is regarded as the greatest modernizer of Iran (but remains a controversial figure among some minorities due to Persianization efforts which I will not get into here). ... the Pahlavi themselves would not last long (slightly longer than the Zand Dynasty) and were overthrown, due to various reasons, in the 1979 "revolution" which saw islam once against starting a reign of terror, this time in a level unprecedented since the o riginal islamic invasion and massacre of Iran... the causes of the "revolution" and it's aftermath cannot be summarized here and wiki does an ok job in summarizing it. The period before the islamic "revolution" is also critical for Zoroastrianism as well, because we see that the seeds of a mass revival were always killed at the bud by islamists; ..."The rebel cleric, Ruhollah Khomeini, wrote to Prime Minister Asad - All ā h ʿ Alam warning him not to abrogate the Islamic law that being Muslim was a precondition for electing or being elected to office. He wrote, “... If you think you can replace the Qur ʾā n with the Zoroastrian Avesta ... then you are mistaken” ..."When, in 1971, the shah used the Cyrus cylinder as its symbol of his extravagant celebration of 2500 years of kingship at Persepolis, some Muslims protested that it would provoke a revitalization of Zoroastrianism and further debilitation of the true religion of Islam" ..."Even milder public displays of Zoroastrianism were deemed potentially dangerous. There was considerable fear of a Muslim backlash when a television station broadcasted Zoroastrian Nowruz prayers in 1978 . " ..."A baker in Ahvaz who had converted to Zoroastriani sm as an act of nationalism found his shop boycotted by Muslim customers, who labeled him najes" All of the above happened, this grassroots interest in Zoroastrianism, despite widespread knowledge of the details of the Zoroastrian faith (even today most Ir anians are comparatively lacking knowledge on the Zoroastrian faith and of the history of Iran, as the islamic regime neither teaches pre - islamic Iran, nor the Zoroastrian faith) More can be read here What is important for this post on this subreddit is that the current state of iran as essentially a failed isolationist rump state is due to islam as imposed on society for the past 1400 years which has only reached it's ap ogee in the form of the islamic regime. Thus with the above, which admittedly does not even begin to scratch the history o the socio - religious landscape of Iran, I hereby make the claim that the current Revolution, and all the uprisings that happened previ ously against islamic rule, and all the uprisings that will yet come, are a continuation of the Zoroastrian faith of Iran which is imbibed with in the identity of Iran and of her citizenry and of her culture. To sum it up, and as a sentence against islamic apologists; One can say Iran continued to exist in spite of islam not due to it (as some will claim). The future of Iran post - islamic rule will be very interesting. The islamic beast that has ruled Iran for 1400 years will finally be chained and Iran can finally emerge from it's cocoon; but Iran must be very careful in dealing with islam and not repeat the mistakes her neighbours have done; for example Turkey fought it's indepen dence not against only western powers but also against the stanglehold of islam in society, won this war, but allowed islam to creep back into power with political ploys. No, rather in a future Iran, islam must be banished from all corners of politics, nev er allowed to return. The wealth stolen by sayyeds, clergy and islamic institutions must be nationalized for the use of Iran for Iran, not for sponsoring islam or islamic terrorism. Zoroastrianism must once again be allowed to prosper with government backi ng; this religion that saved Iran from essentially becoming an arab state, despite all the horrors Iranian dynasties committed upon it, must become a national religion of Iran. The virtues of this faith be thought to Iranians as must the pre - islamic past o f Iran. No longer should Iranian be ashamed of being Iranian, no longer should the mental shackles of islam hold Iran back from her place among the world's greatest nations!