Re: Iran,Islam & Those Bashing Islam.
Have to agree that living in the west it certainly seems that way, some reasons contribute to this
1)most Iranians living here(US,UK) are people who fled the country after the revolution or their children,naturally these people have no religious inclination whatsoever and equate Islam with the Mullahs.
2)Many young iranians who do not remember the tyrannical period of the shah but
only the whips of the mullah have been desensitized towards religion.they openly violate islamic injunctions,e.g last year there were pictures of youth in some areas of Tehran celebrating on the holy day of Ashura.
3)Some Iranians feel that following the ways of the arabs(i.e Islam) is not right since they have a far older civilization they call all religious iranians as “arab parast” or arab worshippers it should be noted they represent only a fringe of Iranian society but have become increasingly vocal in the last several years.
e.g the imperial iranian flag contained the pic of a lion holding the “Zulfiqar” the sword of Ali(A.S)now many of these secular iranians are saying that this should be removed from the Pahlavi Flag since it shows an Arabic Influence.
Now tell me this which muslim in his right mind(much less a shia) will do such a thing? so equating such people with shiaism is baseless
One only needs to go to Iran to witness the reverence general population have for the Prophet(PBUH) the shia Imams and the rightly guided Sahaba.
4)However having said all this it would be wrong to assume that all Iranians are like this many even here in the West have taken steps to propogate their faith to the best of their abilities here is one such man
http://www.rezaaslan.com
I hope this settles this issue!