Op-Ed: Iranian Infidels — An Iranian Atheist speaks
By Joseph Power
Sep 27, 2012 - 17 hours ago
If one was to describe today’s Iran as being schizophrenic, they might be onto something. On one hand, huge billboards and murals proudly proclaim its status as an Islamic Republic.
Ayatollah Khomeini, who took power after the 1979 Iranian Revolution (overthrowing the shah and humiliating the United States in the process), remains Iran’s eternal guardian. A huge force of Revolutionary Guards and riff-raff moral police stand ready to defend this grim status quo, to the death if necessary.
On the other hand, we have the citizens of Iran themselves. In a city such as Tehran, a sprawling metropolis of the kind that could only be compared to Mexico City, Rio De Janerio or Calcutta: Iranians are buying and selling videos; producing films, plays and books; tuning into satellite television; making and consuming alcohol; and making the best of a strict dress code.
Hidden among the general populace is perhaps the most important minority in the entire Middle East - a region often drowning in hellish sectarian warfare between different religious sects - Atheists and Agnostics. Those that do not or cannot believe. Apostasy is not codified in the Iranian penal code, but as always, exceptions can be made. As my anonymous correspondent informed me, “Some of us are based in Iran, obviously due to this life threat, we are afraid.”
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/333744
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iranian-Atheists-and-Humanists/212399365125
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