#iranian atheists

[atheostic]

Famous Atheists

Ervand Abrahamian

Iranian-Armenian historian of Iran.

He wrote in the preface of one of his books that, "as far as religious conviction is concerned, [I am] an agnostic on most days - on other days, an atheist."

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini under the custody of the Iranian morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly, massive waves of demonstrations, primarily led by Iranian women, have challenged not just the country’s mandatory hijab law but also the regime that strictly enforces it.

I call on international pharmacists to support their Iranian colleagues. Many women lost their job for the crime of resisting compulsory hijab laws. Forcing women to wear hijab is an insult to all women and men across the globe. Human rights is a global matter. Show your…

— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) March 7, 2023

But while the protests that have started since September 2022 brought the issue to the international stage, the Islamic Republic only intensified its crackdowns further against any dissident, man or woman. The Iranian government detained thousands of protesters, tortured several dissidents, and even sentenced them to death.

In its latest attempt to suppress dissent, the Iranian Food and Drug Administration released a new order that required female pharmacy workers to wear a black hijab while at work.

A few weeks ago, officials from the agency sent letters to trade unions urging them to strictly implement the new mandatory law in stores and businesses across Iran’s capital, Tehran.

The new directive also requires pharmacy managers to monitor how their female employees wear the hijab. Online news site Iran International also reported that anyone wishing to open a new pharmacy should submit a written commitment to authorities promising to follow this new rule.

However, Iranian male pharmacy workers showed their support and solidarity for their female co-workers and mocked the law by wearing black hijabs themselves while at work.

A new law in Iran has been issued by regime which forces female pharmacists to only wear black veil (any other type of hijab or color is prohibited) in workplace, as a response male pharmacists are wearing it as well to mock this law pic.twitter.com/vo2sp7CvdH

— ZenArchie (@zenarchy2) March 7, 2023

The hilarious photos of male pharmacy workers wearing black hijabs became viral on social media, especially on popular social news and forum site Reddit. Many netizens were happy with their defiance against the regime and praised the men for their bravery.

Male Pharmacists in Iran wearing Hijabs in response to women being forced to wear them pic.twitter.com/ikxU6KNXe8

— Anna Quintana Pablo (@AnnaQuin07) March 12, 2023

"Wondering if this will backfire on the men or not? But good for them for standing in unity." Reddit user u/GregoryGregory666666 commented on the photo posted in the subreddit r/interestingasf**k.

"Those men are incredibly brave! I hope they and their families stay safe!” Another Redditor u/ZoopZeZoop said.

One of the most upvoted comments in the post even asked why the law only required black hijabs to be worn and not other colors, which garnered many replies mocking the mandatory rule of hijab in many Islamic countries.

Although Iranian male pharmacy workers and netizens worldwide made fun of the new mandatory hijab law, the government seems bent on imposing the rule harshly and seriously.

A few weeks ago, two pharmacies in Tehran and Amol were shut down by authorities because their female employees allegedly wore their hijabs incorrectly. But the head of the Mizan news agency, a media outlet connected to the Iranian judiciary, claimed that the pharmacy in Tehran was closed because "its owner disrespected the person who warned her to observe the hijab.”

[thoughtssecretsbeliefs]

whats going on in iran is tragic and it can’t be one of those things that we forget about a month from now. keep fighting. we can make real change.

[neil-gaiman]

Dear Neil.

There's a tragedy happening in Iran, we're being shot in the streets, my brothers and sisters are dying, my government is committing war crimes and as a fellow human being I'm desperately asking for your help to raise awareness.

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old woman who was brutally murdered by the Islamic Republic of Iran's so-called "morality police." Her crime? Showing hair in public and "dressing inappropriately." Any human being with a pair of working eyes who has seen pictures of her prior to her murder can see that not only was her dress not inappropriate, but also that she (and a lot of women in Iran) had covered herself more than any other woman in any other part of world is obligated to.This sparked fury among the people of Iran and a wave of nation-wide protests broke out as the result. But don't get it wrong. This was only the straw that broke the camel's back and was the result of 43 years of unmitigated oppression and cruelty that the people of Iran have been subjected to. Every Iranian is branded a Muslim from birth and they're not given a choice. You cannot identify as an atheist and other religious minorities are treated horribly with a lot of their rights stripped from them. There's been a long history of cruelty against Bahai people in Iran, for example. We're not forced to be muslims in name only. We're also forced to act like muslims and learn all the muslim teachings, hijab being one of the many ideals shoved down our throat. And of course, converting from Islam to other religions or no religion is punishable by death. This savagery is not part of our culture or law; it is not part of any humanitarian law to kill women for showing hair and exercising their right to bodily autonomy for that matter.Up until now, the government forces have been violent and ruthless in their attempts to stump out our protests. They've shot people from a 63 year old woman to a 10 year old girl, killing them all without mercy. The Internet has been cut out in several places and reportedly, they've brought out tanks and used military-grade bullets in the city of Sanandaj, where the Internet has been shut down for two days as of September 21. Meanwhile, president Ibrahim Raisi is giving a lecture in the UN, babbling about saving the people of Palestine and justice in the world while his own forces are brutally murdering ordinary people and protesters in Iran.At this point, we're in danger of being cut off from the world when the whole internet finally shuts down. This is not a speculation. The same thing happened in the nation-wide protests of 2019 and the government proceeded to kill all the protesters in absolute radio silence. A lot of protesters were found with cement blocks tied to their ankles and thrown in the river after the successfully stumped the protests out. We don't want the same thing to happen to our children and people again. If you hear no more news from Iran, things haven't settled down. We are being silently killed off and executed.You might think you don't have anything to do with this, but think again about why you all involved yourselves in the war between Ukraine and Russia. This is not any different. Our people have waged a war against their government and none of them are people who willingly chose violence. They are normal people who want nothing more than a normal life, which is what the Islamic regime has taken from them. If you have an ounce of humanity and empathy within yourself, you'll spread the word around and not let this injustice go unanswered and unpunished.There's nothing more to be said.

As an Iranian woman who always read your books and who always raised up her voice, I need help now. We can Breathe anymore! I fought for poc, I raised my voice for ukraine. Now I need yours. I'm a young author. I can have a future... a free one! but my government took it from me. Please be my voice ... our voice!!

I'm happy to let people know, yes. And it's heartbreaking.

Here's the BBC on what's happening:

[humanplaypretend]

Gotham characters in my style ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧

「Close ups + my hcs below the cut ↓」

Fish Mooney

African American. Haitian descent. Can speak Haitian, but mainly uses it with her mum only

Bisexual (canon), preference for girls. Aromantic spectrum

AsPD, NPD

Grew up Christian, and although she no longer believes in god, she wouldn’t necessarily call herself agnostic nor atheist. Religion played a big part in her childhood and she holds those memories near and dear to her heart

She’s pretty good at chess, although she doesn’t play much if any

Ed Nygma

Iranian descent (Iranian mum, white American dad). Learnt Irani later on his adult life as a way to reconnect with his roots

Bisexual (+ comphet) pref for girls

Autistic (canon), OCD, OSDD, C-PTSD, NPD

Atheist, doesn’t understand the concept of religion as something other than a cool thing to psychoanalyse

He developed his own language as a kid and still to this day writes his diary and most personal stuff in it

Oswald Cobblepot

Jewish-Hungarian American. Speaks Hebrew, as a kid his accent was much more noticeable

Gay (canon) & transman. His mother was his first supporter

Autistic, NPD, HPD, C-PTSD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Used to struggle with social anxiety as a kid/teen

Jewish

Dogs are his favourite animal because of their unconditional loyalty

Is actually very good at cooking

Johnathan Crane

White American

Aromantic asexual, transmasc

Autistic, OCD, C-PTSD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, dermatographic urticaria. Born with schizophrenia (inherited from his mum) which was worsened by his father’s experiments

Vehemently atheist. In his thoughts, even if there was a god, he wouldn’t worship anyone that sat and watched people like him go through such hells without helping

Whenever he’s stressed, he picks, nicks and scratches his skin, sometimes until blood. His body is filled with tiny scars and scabs all over

[isitandwonder]

Please, it doesn't matter if you're Iranian or American, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, black, brown or white, man, woman or whatever gender, if you usually blog about kpop, Supernatural or ABO fanfic.

Spread the word! Pay attention! Raise your voice!

The world needs to know what's going on in Iran!

Be the voice of people who don't have a voice. That's all that matters!

[beardedmrbean]

Iran's Supreme Leader released a message of support for American college students who have participated in pro-Palestine protests.

"Dear university students in the United States of America, you are standing on the right side of history," Ali Khamenei wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

His comments sparked fury on social media, with several people suggesting that having support from the authoritarian leader was not a good thing.

House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X: "When you've won the Ayatollah, you've lost America."

A popular right-wing X account, End Wokeness, wrote: "Imagine telling someone 10 years ago that the Iranian Supreme Leader would be thanking a bunch of blue-haired atheists at Columbia."

Several other X accounts, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Orthodox rabbi and adjunct professor David Bashevkin, suggested that having Khamenei's support might suggest the protesters are actually on the wrong side of history.

Iranian American activist, Elica Le Bon, who often criticizes the Iranian regime as well as pro-Palestine protesters, wrote on X: "From the regime's Supreme Leader to students in the U.S. How can it be right in front of them and they still can't see it?"

In response to Hamas' October 7 attack which killed 1,200 and took 250 hostage, Israel began an aerial bombardment and ground offensive into Gaza. Nearly eight months later, Israel's campaign has flattened much of Gaza, displaced millions and killed more than 35,000 people, many of them civilians, per the health ministry.

In response to Israel's offensive, pro-Palestine protests have erupted in college campuses across the U.S., leading to thousands of students being arrested.

Iran's Supreme Leader also shared a piece of advice with American students, writing on X: "Dear university students in the US, my advice to you is to become familiar with the Quran."

Khamenei also released a longer open letter, in which he wrote that he wanted to express "empathy and solidarity" with student protesters.

"You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honorable struggle in the face of your government's ruthless pressure—a government which openly supports the usurper and brutal Zionist regime," he wrote.

Khamenei also invoked antisemitic tropes about Jewish people controlling the media.

"The global Zionist elite—who owns most US and European media corporations or influences them through funding and bribery—has labeled this courageous, humane resistance movement as "terrorism," " Khamenei wrote.

Iran has long been one of Israel's greatest regional foes, and tensions have reached new highs in recent months, escalating to the point of Iran launching hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel.

The Islamic nation has also been known to support Hamas through providing training and funding.

Khamenei has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas, describing them as "defending" their home. He also met with the militant group's leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this month during the latter's visit to Tehran.

[psychologeek]

I love your work and fics but because of your support of the genocide in Gaza Strip I am unable to truly continue supporting you.

I know that you believe that supporting the Palestinians is anti-semitic but if you learned about these topics you would know. Zionism is inherently anti-semitic itself, Zionism is a political philosophy that was first created in the 1600s by anti-Semitic Christians who believed Jews from all over the world should be expelled and gathered in one place. And then Theodor Herzl, an atheist, adopted Zionism to find a "suitable country" to colonize, and several countries were suggested: Uganda, Argentina, Cyprus, and Madagascar. But with Jews' rejection and with the support of Western politicians, Zionism secured their interests in the resources of the Middle East, thus Palestine.

Maybe if you learned what it was like to see through the eyes of people like Bisan Owda, Wael Al-Dahdouh, Motaz Azaiza, Hind Khoudary, or maybe even the six year old Hind Rajab who died after traveling through a "Safe Zone" with her family and being stuck in a car with their bodies for 12 days.

This is not a war. This is a genocide. I'm not asking you to change overnight, but knowing the full truth of what Israel is doing under the same excuses that you're telling yourself will help you understand what's really going on.

Thanks for the compliment? I think? 

Uh, ok, this isn't about my writing - this is about you complaining about my thoughts and experiences. Cool.

Edit: I have to admit that I'm curious what brought this up. Was it the A/N in "Some of Them (want you)" (a Damian-centric fic), and the mention of the bombed hospital in Israel? Raising awareness to the facts refugees need to bribe their way into Egypt to save their lives? (From Sudan and Gaza)? Was it the mention of the war in Kurdistan? Or maybe it was the way I talked about the Iranian regime, and how Baluchistan and Akhwaz are a flame?

Or perhaps it was the PSA in "Who am I? (to disappear)", in which I tried to remind ppl that watching and passing forward videos of ppl being tortured/killed/sexually assaulted is a bad thing. Do you not agree with the sentiment?

Or maybe you just don't like Cass. That's probably another option

Anyway -

Support genocide etc.

A. I do not support genocide.

B. What's happening in Gaza rn isn't genocide. It's war. And the use of that term is very disrespectful and dismissive to other places, in which there IS, actually, a genocide.

C. That being said, I don't support war. I don't support death. And I really wish this wouldn't happen.

I Don't??? Think?? Supporting Palestine is antisemic??? 

I do think that pro-palestine rallies with chants like "Gas the Jews" and harrasing jews and Jewish place ARE antisemic, yes.

If you need that difference explicitly said, I guess you should look at the rallies and pro-p things you're talking about.

"But if you learned about these topics"

EXCUSE ME????

If I LEARNT ABOUT IT?

Because of course - my knowledge, as part of a minority group, of a subject that is INHERENTLY related to in-group topics, and the what I learnt from people in-group are obviously less relevant than what you, oh great saviour, has learnt through Tik-Tok.

"Zionism is inherently anti-semitic itself"

Do you even understand how ignorant saying that is??

Do you understand how much this is propaganda?

"I believe that (Jewish people right to self-determination and live peacefully) is a bad thing" - do you even hear yourself?? 

"Zionism.... was first created in the 1600s by anti-Semitic Christians who believed Jews from all over the world should be expelled and gathered in one place. "

No. Just don't.

Idk - maybe this is what they teach in America or idk where, right next to "jews, Muslims and Christians lived peacefully before the evil Zionists colonisers " (look up the massacres in Zfad, the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Habron, Gush Etzion, Gaza-several cleansing btw).

Anyway, Zionism in the older form (yearning to go back Home, Eretz Israel as the Jewish homeland, and a connection between God-People-Land) is one of the first things in the Jewish narrative.

Practically, the Jewish calander is SoLunal calander that based on the seasons, weather, and agriculture in the levant.

Religiously - jews prayed to go back to "build Jerusalem" every year since the 2nd temple was destroyed. We kept practicing traditions and Mitzvahs that are related to the connection to the spesific area.

(And there always, always been jews going to Israel.)

Herzel's thoughts and actions to create the Zionist movement came after he watched the Dreyfus trial and realised that jews will always be haunted and discriminated BECAUSE of their Jewishness. So if you want a place without this, you gotta make a Jewish state.   (There are many kinds of Zionism,  I go with this as a general and simple explanation.)

(more about why this is problematic undercut)

"You don't know what it's like" -

What. The. Fuck.

You said you came here via my fics. 

I'm sorry.

Did you miss the whole long AF a/n I wrote in the last months??

About my personal experiences with war?? 

Both current (the whole saga with physical/mental safety, the evacuation, losing my glasses, etc. ??)

And previous (being bombed and evacuation 1 as a kid. My first PTSD. Terror attack and PTSD number 2 (ft. dead babies. Fun times). Rockets, more rockets, war, friends hurt in terror attack, friends-of-friends DIE in terror attack, more wars, etc.

(And that's not even the reason I was suicidal since young teen).

"This isn't war, it's genocide"

I'm sorry, do you remember how it fucking started?? How it continues?? How there are still FUCKING ROCKETS AIMED AT Israel??

Yes. This is sad. People shouldn't die in war. 

In fact, I truly believe that death-machines and people should not be near each other.

**Which is why I'm so mad at the fact non one's talking or doing anything to make Egypt open the fucking borders and let ppl through without having to bribe their life out**

" the full truth of what Israel is doing"

Right.

You, who's purely immune to Propaganda, of course.

You sure knows much more then me - who, you know, the one who ACTUALLY LIVE THROUGH this, and actually familiar with the history of the country and conflict (no, it didn't start in 1948. Not even in 1918. It was way earlier.)

(And just as you mention - have you heard about Ellin (9) and  Eithan (5) Kapshiter? They were shoot in the car with their entire family.

Ellin was considered missing for 2 weeks, before her body was identified. That was a couple of hours after her family's funeral.

For some reason, I didn't see any "where's Ellin?" On Tumblr.

Oh, and do you remember Kfir and Ariel Bibas? Kfir just had his first birthday.

They are still held captive, btw. For some reason, I don't see anyone in the "ceasefire now" crowd talking about how CRUCIAL it is that Hamas bring back the people they, you know, kidnapped. That they should get medical attention and visits from the RC. 

In fact, in the last hostage deal, this was something Hamas refused to include.)

Calling it genocide is problematic in many ways. Including for the people who suffer from this war.

Calling it genocide allows the the activism to be mostly anti-Israel, instead of pro-palestine.

For example, focusing the efforts on "stopping Israel" and "Israel is bad" and "boycott Israel", instead of "how do we save lives" and "why Egypt not opening the borders".

Less "ceasefire now!" (Though a good target) And "defund Israel!"

More "release the hostages and let humanitarian aid in".

(not to mention that all those efforts, for some reason, never go to other places and other people who suffer. Never even go to Palestinian in refugees camps - in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria.)

Pro-tip:

If someone tells you "a (very important thing in a minority's group culture) was actually created by (A majority group) as a (bad thing)", then you have one of those options: It's a lie, reclaiming, and "yes but no" .

1. It's a lie - aka: Just bc you didn't know about it, doesn't mean it's not real. (Sort of like the term of "dark ages" - that come to portray the intellectual darkness in Europe between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. Though it wasn't the same if you look at non-european history.)

And in a simpler example-  Pasta! Usually considered "Italian", but only got there at 4th century BC. Evidences in China during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC). There was also African form of pasta, made of kamut crop. 

2. Reclaiming (see "queer" - was used as a general term, then a slur, going back to an Identity.)

3. Yes, but actually no (take for example sign language (s) - languages, as community languages, started to form when schools-for-deaf became a thing. Residential schools, where the students lived together and worked together ehad to learn to communicate.

Then they learn sign language - of the area/country/etc.

It doesn't mean that "Hearing created SL". The languages were built from home-signs (look at the difference between simple words, like "eat" in different SLs - like brit vs. Japanese) , and gained depth through the creation of Deaf communities. 

[lesbians4thegentlemanpirate]

if you don’t want to see my posts about what’s happening in iran, block or unfollow me. i will continue to do what i can to get information about the protests in iran to as many people as i can. as a white atheist living in the united states, i have no danger of my internet being shut off or being murdered for telling people what’s happening to iranians because of the oppresive regimen that is cutting their access to the internet, shooting children and torturing afab people to death, and because of that i will continue to talk about this

[nation-of-bros]

They both have sexy circumcised cocks and speak languages that sound like Klingon. Israel is the only reason why hatred grew between them despite this relationship.

Is religion enough to justify a state?

Another problem I have with Zionism is the claim that Jews are a self-contained ethnic group justifying its own nation state. In fact, Judaism is just a closed religion whose followers come from many countries, especially Central and Eastern Europe, therefore cannot possibly be viewed as ethnically uniform. Moreover, none of them spoke Hebrew, but either the local language or Yiddish, a Middle High German dialect. In addition, as I have already explained, these Jews, referred to as "Ashkenazis", are not original Jews in the Bible's sense, but merely converts from the Central Asian people of the Khazars. The real Jews are black Africans or have long since mixed with the Arabs and adopted Islam.

There are countless different religions on earth and absolutely none of them is the only religion of a country or unique to a particular country. The most I can think of is Japan's Shintoism, but even this religion is strongly interwoven with Buddhism, a belief that is also shared by many nations and different people. For example, Buddhist groups have demonstrably existed in Germany for over a hundred years; and at least since the Christian schism caused by Martin Luther, there has been no uniformly Christian faith either. In addition, there have always been atheist people too, although not as much in the past as there are today.

Furthermore, different religious groups can be found even in countries like Iran. Ultimately, the Iranians define themselves through their common language, common history, common traditions, which, although influenced by Islam, still contain a large, originally purely Iranian core. Likewise, neither Afghans nor Pakistanis define themselves exclusively by their religion. So why should Jews have the right to their own state if they do not form a unified ethnic group; and especially build their own state at the expense of others? There are thousands of religious communities on this planet that do not enjoy the same privilege as the Jews. So why this exception for “Khazar converts”?

In addition, Jews with Western citizenship can now move absolutely freely throughout the world (apart from Muslim countries because of their hatred of Israel). Especially in the USA, Jews enjoy all freedoms; and even in the country of the former Nazis, Jewish citizens are given special protection. So, apart from purely ideological reasons, there is no justification for the state of Israel.

Zionism is the greatest threat to Jews

Ironically, Israel itself is the reason why anti-Semitism is growing; In fact, anti-Semitism is the ultimate tool that Zionism has always used to separate Jews from society so that they do not assimilate in the long term. It is therefore not surprising that Zionism itself fomented hatred of Jews. I even believe that such nonsense like the Nuremberg racial laws reflected the wishes of the Zionists rather than that of the vast majority of Germans, since there were only 500,000 Jews in Germany at the time anyway; only half a million, facing 80 million non-Jews. Therefore, it seems absurd to speak of a "genetic threat" to the German "Volkskörper"; especially since the many Jewish academics were not among the population with the largest number of children. So was Hitler secretly just serving the Zionist cause?!

Israel is an exception, and a pretty stupid one at that

Israel is the only modern state on earth that explicitly uses religion and an artificial language called "New Hebrew" as justification for its existence, because they simply cannot claim a common ethnic origin. In the early years of Israel, newspapers regularly printed lists of new Hebrew words so that the former liturgical language, which was as dead as Latin, would become useful for today. And they are so bold that they seriously claim: "If Moses were to return, Israelis would be able to communicate with him without any problems." Zionists really believe that they have "reconstructed" a language that was supposedly spoken by "their ancestors" thousands of years ago. You definitely can't talk rationally with people like that…

Instead of such a questionable Semitic Klingon, Theodor Herzl, the protagonist of political Zionism, suggested in his book "Der Judenstaat" [translated "The Jewish State"] that German should become the official language, since most Ashkenazis had access to the German language through Yiddish. Herzl even considered purchasing land in South America as an alternative, but this sensible idea never continued in the ideological blindness that only saw occupation of the "holy land" as an option. The Zionists could have created their own paradise in peace in the sparsely populated areas of South America instead of fighting with Palestinians over a dusty desert. Since reading “Der Judenstaat,” Israel appears to me not just as a crime, but as something fundamentally stupid.

For the sake of their own state, they make others stateless.

In order to support their claim and maintain the absolute Jewish majority, Israel refuses to naturalize the Palestinians, who represent the original population of the land occupied by the Ashkenazis. Imagine if the USA or Brazil treated their indigenous population as non-citizens and refused any naturalization. It would be a scandal sparking protests and civil movements! But as far as the Palestinians are concerned, this stateless condition is still tolerated by the UN today, even though belonging to a state, or rather citizenship, is considered an important human right to gain legal status and things like the right to vote.

You can't really call Palestine a state, since it is just a patchwork of small areas around Israel where the remaining Palestinians are kept like in Indian reservations. Accordingly, the Gaza Strip is nothing more than an open-air prison into which Israel pushed most of the remaining Palestinians. The current escalation is the result of these years of politics. One cannot expect that young Palestinians in this huge refugee camp will not become radicalized, but will watch with love in their hearts as Israel advances further and further with its settlement policy. And in contrast to the Jews, the Palestinians, as an Arab nation, represent a closed ethnic unit who, even in worldwide exile, feel Palestinian and will never accept the state of Israel in its current form. For them there is only one option: Israel must burn and the Ashkenazis be driven out. And I don't blame them, because as a Palestinian I would feel the same way in the face of Israel's aggression. Therefore, Hamas's atrocities are a merely logical consequence of the pent-up loathing generated by Israel itself.

Go under the madness or change!

I see only two ways in which the conflict can be resolved: Either the Ashkenazi leave the Middle East, or they completely change their policy towards the Palestinians, gradually naturalize them and establish places of residence for them where they can be considered normal Citizens can live and work. Then there will no longer be any reasons for Palestinians to develop hatred of Israel. But I doubt that Israel will ever take this path in order not to lose its own Jewish majority or to shed its own delusion of being chosen. Just as Israel incapacitated its own citizens during the Corona years and punished them draconianly, one can assume that the Zionist leadership will act even more mercilessly against others. So there is no hope for a future for them! And just like in other conflicts, it would be best for us to stay out of it as a neutral party and instead of pumping Israel full of weapons, provide humanitarian aid FOR EVERYONE!

[hero-israel]

Hi there! Could you please expand on the Qatari funds at US banks? I saw someone claim US had indirectly funded the terrorist regime that sponsored the 10/7 program — supposedly, the 6B that the US authorized into Iran because of the ransom transfer deal had not been reimbursed by that time and were strictly for humanitarian purposes, coincidentally said to “frozen at Qatar’s central bank” (I don’t know if this claim is legitimate, but that was reported by US officials), yet there’s also the claim that the fungibility of the money (knowing they had money coming) could have emboldened Iran into funding Hamas? How does this relate to the Qatari funds at US banks, and is there other ways the US (even if not Biden specifically*) has indirectly funded Hamas/Iran (aside from UNRWA, for instance, or US aid to Palestine —which I’m not sure if it belongs to a separate category)?

They don't relate, they are entirely separate issues. My suggestion was to freeze all Qatari assets currently involved with the U.S. banking system - no liquidity, no withdrawals - as we did with Japan in 1941. It would have gashed their economy, shocked and humiliated them, and almost certainly would have helped us get Ismail Haniyeh on a rope by Thanksgiving. (And no, Qatar is not 1940s Imperial Japan, it does not project military power - but if they felt like fucking around, sure, we'd let them find out.)

The Iranian funds released to Qatar were supposedly "frozen," I'd like to believe that is the case, but a lot of - I'm sorry to say this - Democrat State Department types are just hell-bent on rehabilitating and normalizing Iran. We saw this with Obama's deal mechanism, with Ben Rhodes hologramming newly-invented foreign policy groups into public discussions to sway opinion, with the overbearing notion that as long as you give Iran lots of money and good seats at the Davos Forum they won't be imperialist fundie assholes anymore. The same people who were sure they'd be able to control Iran were totally blindsided by Brexit and by Trump winning. Their words on paper were totally going to constrain the IRGC, but then Pennsylvania Republicans did something shocking and unfair that they couldn't deal with.

Highly educated Western atheists just do not comprehend violent religious fundamentalism and how it can give its practitioners wholly different priorities. To borrow a phrase, Iran really DOESN'T want to cure cancer, they want to turn people into dinosaurs.

[ladyhindsight]

Hi, I saw that previous ask that was sent by someone else about the parallels between the Shadowhunter society and Israel and it reminded me about the way that Cordelia is portrayed in TLH. When CC initially said that there would be Iranian characters (Cordelia and Alastair) in TLH (before the series was released), she was asked on her tumblr blog if these characters would be Muslim. She said that they cannot be Muslim because Shadowhunters do not follow any religion therefore they are all atheist. But this was really strange to me because in all of her books, the characters reference God a lot, their swords are named after angels in the bible, they are always quoting bible verses, and they also reference events that happened in the bible. So it always seemed like to me that the entire shadowhunter society was based off of religion. If Shadowhunters are all atheist then why are they always talking about God and the bible? In TMI, it’s stated that the two first Shadowhunter parabatai were Jonathan and David who were close as brothers; this is referencing Jonathan and David from the bible. It’s stated that the entire Shadowhunter race was founded when the angel Raziel mixed his angel blood with human blood which means that in this universe angels are REAL. I also think it was stated that Raziel was sent down by God or something but I can’t remember. the demons of hell (Asmodeus, Belial, etc) are also real. Hell is real as well apparently.

So basically the implications of this are that Cordelia assimilated into the Shadowhunter religion rather than her own. Since she’s a Shadowhunter that means she’s half angel.. so of course she can’t be Muslim because her entire existence disproves that in CC’s view. So since CC chose to make angels and God real in her universe, and also saying that Cordelia and Alastair cannot be Muslim, what is she even trying to say?? That God and angels and the bible are real but other religions aren’t??

Not to mention that Cordelia and Alastair are half white by father and have English first and last names (just like all of CC’s characters of colour..)

The faith of Raziel has been a previous discussion point on the blog years past, so I'll reiterate some points here. The topic has rared its head every now and then again, mostly because it is inconsistent and senseless and pretty insensitive to the whole concept of religion.

Clare created a religion for the Shadowhunters to follow, to believe in Raziel as their angelic creator, and formed some base rules for it, which essentially are that Shadowhunters have their own religion and thus don't practice others, and the Ascendants have to convert from the any previous religion to the one of the Nephilim. When discussing Sona, it is stated that "some Islam and Qur’an stories have been blended into Sona’s beliefs, though she is not exactly Muslim as Shadowhunters do not conform to any mundane religion and have their own where they worship Raziel." Which is still yeah, alright, but the whole faith in Raziel is still contradictory at best.

How can you draw so much religious inspiration while at the same time divorce yourself from it completely? The Nephilim religion is based on their creation, mundane religions also based on creation myths, so how is the Nephilim one the one everyone has to adhere to when all the stories are true? It's ludicrous that the Shadowhunters are brought up with such doctrines as "all the stories are true", basically act atheistic, but also at the same time demand other people from other religion to join their faith instead and adhere to their doctrines in which you wouldn’t necessarily believe in.

It seems "all the stories are true" don't apply to religion but fantasy elements such as witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and faeries. With religion (Abrahamic ones to be exact), Clare is being picky.

The Shadowhunters aren't even particularly religious themselves, they have no culture or customs surrounding the faith of Raziel, no rites or holidays or sacred traditions or anything. They might as well be atheistic in the sense that none of the characters, sans Cristina (and her family?), practice the Nephilim religion. But even with Cristina, how does her faith show other than her belief in angels and her religious medallion she wears? Clare not being particularly religious is really reflected on the fact that not much though went into this. Previously when discussing Jonathan Shadowhunter, I said that:

Jonathan’s country of origin is never told, but of course from when the map was what it was during the Crusades. Not that it really matters because we can pretty much deduce they were Europeans since the First Crusade was initiated by the Latin Church and was partaken by the contemporary European kingdoms and empires. There’s also the fact that the roots of the birth of the Nephilim are in religious wars, and trying to remove Jonathan Shadowhunter and the origin of the Nephilim from that is evasive. Okay, let’s leave this thing here and go do this completely other stuff, totally didn’t just try to invade another land and get distracted. It’s interesting to note some liberties authors and filmmakers take when it comes to representing a part of some culture, religion, or myths. What makes inspiration differ from misrepresentation and all that. The wiki states that: “Jonathan then transformed his sister, Abigail, and his friend, David, into Shadowhunters. Inspired by the tale of their coincidental biblical namesakes, Jonathan and David took that story and became the first parabatai, performing a ritual where they took each other’s blood, spoke the oath, and inscribed the runes upon each other.” In Books of Samuel, Jonathan and David, bonded by a strong friendship, form a covenant by taking a mutual oath. “Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.” It’s funny that an author writes their coincidental biblical namesakes when there is absolutely nothing coincidental about it. It isn’t just that Clare was inspired by the writings in the Old Testament, she outright writes that her characters took that story, being coincidentally named the same, and created the parabatai bond based on it. They acted on religious texts. And of course, Jonathan’s sister just happened to be named after the second wife of King David. [...] Why is their faith so centered on Raziel alone when their universe is obviously filled with other god-like beings and entities? I guess it’d be fine if Raziel was worshiped as a patron but didn’t exclude other faiths and the Nephilim didn’t outright demand you to just drop the religion you practice. Why is it suddenly the Shadowhunters’ business what you can worship and what not? There plenty of polytheistic religions so why can’t the Shadowhunters be polytheistic too? It’s nothing away from worshiping Raziel.

Clare made ground rules for the Nephilim religion but failed to ask the follow up question that essentially makes the basis crumble. Let's even consider Jace Herondale who first said that he does not believe in angels or a god. As the series progress, it becomes all the more evident and rather glaringly so that angels (Ithuriel) and Raziel himself/themselves(?) are very real. Jace experiences no growth or acknowledgment as to this. When Jace is faced with Lilith, he throws her and Sammael's love and Sammael's earlier demise at hands of the archangel Michael at her face, names his angel blade Michael when fighting Lilith, but at no point do we really see how did we get from point A to point C where any of this contradictory behavior is realized or discussed between the characters. Or even acknowledged that holy shit, these biblical beings actually exist.

Hell, even The Last Hours has God (or a god?) himself smiting down Belial, a fallen angel, and NO ONE EVEN BATS AN EYE. Most Shadowhunters are really apathetic towards heaven-level stuff happening right in front of them. In some other older post I said:

The thing that strikes me as particularly odd is that they constantly cite the Bible, and their oaths—the parabatai one, for instance, from the Old Testament—are of biblical origin, and Jonathan Shadowhunter himself was told to be a crusader, yet none of it is considered Jewish or Christian. Angels are inherently religious beings, and Abrahamic religions and whatnot where they appear are far older institutions than Shadowhunters are as a race. I just don’t see it as a good idea to draw so much from their religious mythology but completely cut ties with their spirituality and meaning.

[Here's a link to a post compiling some of the earlier pondering on this mess.] If you want, you can also check my Jonathan Shadowhunter tag, I've been sent some great thoughts about him and the Nephilim creation.

Part of the problem also lies, once again, within the worldbuilding, the major lack thereof, because I don't think materializing the Princes of Hell was in the early plans for Clare, at least considering books 1-3 of The Mortal Instrument. None of it was essential to her nor a primary objective in the development of the Shadowhunting world.

[memecucker]

“Uhhh you can’t say China and Vietnam counter the narrative that atheism is a white person thing because uh state atheism” is honestly such an insane argument and it shows how hard people are willing reach when it comes to anti-atheist weirdness. Like it’s hard to imagine anyone that says that stopping for a second to look at their logic and if it makes any sense as a generalizable thing because then I guess you can’t say Islam is part of Iranian culture or Christianity part of Greek culture since those are the respective official religions of those countries?

Like my best guess is the logic comes from a conservative notion that irreligion is not the default state of humanity but something that must’ve been “imposed” from above and that organized religion isn’t a phenomenon which is the product of historical developments but an innate part of homo sapien essence (even if these same people are willing to critique other things normally viewed as “natural and fixed” aspects of human essence, with religion they suddenly go all trad which frankly is a good example of why critique of religion is important). So since the predominance of irreligion in places China and Vietnam goes against their ingrained stereotypes that non-Western countries are more “rooted” in some timeless homogenous past of rich spiritual traditions of the mystical orient they have to see it some kind of new (China has a long history of literature with atheist and antisupernatural viewpoints fyi) sudden and abrupt mutation and not a natural progression of history. Because what’s the alternative haha rebellion against religion or decline in religiosity don’t you know historical progression is only a white person thing and that everyone else in the world across time has just been doing the same things over and over and Europeans are the protagonists and everyone else are NPCs that just don’t break routine until the protagonist comes in oh does this sound Eurocentric trust me it’s not because I’m saying the Europeans are villain protagonists see that fixes everything right no other issues with this bias

[ghelgheli]

like, not only did the secular/atheist iranian people's fadāyān name themselves after sacrifice and uphold their martyrs, but it was also a matter of some embarrassment to the islamist people's mojāhedin that until the final years of the revolution, the fadāyān were significantly more active and had a wider presence in the people's consciousness because more of them were getting martyred.

[luminalunii97]

Iran's protests is not a one dimensional fight against compulsory hijab. Rather It's a large mess. Most of us are fighting multiple wars now. Years and years of neglect from government led us all to a point where our subjects of objections are limitless. Imagine what this protests means to a kurd atheist queer woman trapped in iran! This protests has given people the opportunity to acknowledge and speak up about every single wrongdoing they endured by the government in their lifetime.

I was going to explain Iranian demands on the streets to a foreigner friend and I realized I can't cover everything in just a couple of texts. It takes days to address everything and even then it would feel like only scratching the surface. My resentment for IR grows everyday.

[female-malice]

It’s very strange to me just how strongly the people in my internet sphere (ie those here on tumblr and also people I know irl on Instagram) have latched onto the I/P conflict. Not to say I agree with or condone either of those entities (I don’t) but this ask isn’t about them, and is more about people’s response to it here, hundreds or thousands of miles away… it just feels off that this gets so much more emotional and loud than other conflicts or human rights violations taking place around the world. I see so much more about it than I ever saw about the Uyghurs, Afghanistan when the US withdrew, the Iranian protests, or even Ukraine or Uvalde. The only thing that I can recall it to in recent memory is BLM in 2020, but that response made more sense to me given that it was largely an American issue so of course other Americans would be talking about it. The social media response has been weirdly fascinating from an internet behavior point of view

Well. "Holy Land"

Check this out

It really doesn't matter how new-age, neopagan, or atheist the average internet user is. If your grandparents are Christian, you're culturally Christian. If your grandparents are Muslim, you're culturally Muslim. Yes, we are adults with our own spiritual beliefs. But the social influence of Abrahamic religion is not all about individual spirituality. It's mostly about social structures, ancient cultural attitudes, relationships to land, righteousness, and tribalism. We are each socialized with characteristics and tendencies that reflect the socio-cultural influence of our family's dominant religion. And the political discourse in a region is defined by that region's dominant religion.

That's why activists fixated on this conflict constantly echo the socio-cultural influence of their Abrahamic faction. Even if they think they are neopagan atheist fluid, they still end up rehashing ancient blood libel and Abrahamic tribalism.

I'm an atheist but my grandparents are all Christian and I live in a Christian society. I think we always need to be aware of stuff like that or else we'll develop a cultural blindspot.