Honestly it does not matter!!

Submitted by Prashant (India), Jan 7, 2018 at 05:13

Dear Dr Pipes,

It truly does not matter what percent of Iranian population is Persian. Iran has been at the meeting point of many different civilizations for centuries and a 10% swing in Persian vs. Non-persian population can be a result of different reporting paradigms or to reporting mistakes. It also does not matter if there still are small pockets of Jews/Christians and whatever in Iran.

What matters is that Iran is still a religious theocracy. As long as Iran is an Islamic theocracy, free thinking for the Muslim citizens of Iran is impossible. And for the same reason, survival of non-Muslims in Iran is difficult.

Our goal should not be to think how small pockets of minorities in Islamic countries can survive. Our goal should be to figure out how the conditions in Islamic theocracies can be changed so normal people of the world would some time like to make these theocracies their homes (that implies citizenship and democratic rights) just like they make their homes in the USA/India/Srilanka/UK/Norway etc. If we just seek survival or minorities in Islamic regimes, we are demanding too little.

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