| Koroush rest cause I'm alive. |
| Saturday, May 13, 2006 |
The first recorded version of a human rights declaration dates back to 570 BCE and Cyrus the Great of Persia. His Charter of Freedom of Human kind recognised the right to liberty, security, freedom of movement and residence, right of property, freedom of religion, right to work and the prohibition of slavery.
Some hundred years later, an Arab called Mohammed delivered an ultimatum to the Sassanid Emperor of Persia - to convert to Islam or face death. Persia did not give in. The Arabs from the deserts of Arabia, invaded, killed, distroyed persia’s rich culture, and riped the benefit of it’s prosperity.
13-14 hundred years after that, the children of Persia, learn in their classrooms that their ancestors were barbarians with no culture, who came to enlightenment with the help of Muslims. They do not learn about their customs and traditions, but that of their invaders. A man who if he lived today would have been called a pedophile, for marring a nine year old girl, is now the prophet of 1 billion people, including my homeland.
I feel like crying. |
posted by Roya @ 1:58 AM   |
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| 7 Comments: |
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It sounds like those of us in the United States are not the only ones who have been taught nationalistic propaganda in place of history. You are right that this sort of thing is quite sad. It seems to be clear that education is more about socialization than it is about learning to think critically.
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What did the Persians believe prior to Mohammed as far as religious ideology is concerned?
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Zoroastrian. It is similar to Abrahamic religions for worshiping one god. In Fact it is believed to be the first monotheistic religion in the world and the others copied many of it's believes.
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Interesting. Btw, check out Beep Beep's blog. She comments on at blog often, and is on my blogroll. She lives in Australia, and has a very interesting blog.
I'm going to look up Zoroatrian now:)
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Really interesting stuff. As far as being the first to believe in monotheism, could be....the Jews claim this, but it is difficult to figure out who did it first.
Basically from what I've read, it looks like the Christians bastardized the Zoroastrian religion and borrowed many of its concepts and kind of combined it with Judaism.
The parallels are amazing.
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When Shah was in power, there was a day (public holiday) dedicated to Koroush (Cyrus). The headline of my post is actually the words that Shah used when he visited his grave.
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One minor correction Roya (btw, did not realize you had your own blog, having read some of your comments on Evangelical Atheist site), the span of time between Cyrus the Great and Mohammed was about a thousand years, not a hundred.
I agree with you though that ancient Persia had a vibrant culture and civilization. Unfortunately, the Sassanid Emperor Khosroes II is to blame partly by launching a war against the Byzantines around 600 A.D. that lasted decades with each side taking turns getting the upper hand. By war's end, the Sassanids and the Byzantines were like two punch drunk heavyweight boxers at the end of the 15th round having to accept that their bloody match end in a draw. Consequently, when the Muslim Arabs burst out of the Arabian peninsula, neither the Byzantines nor the Persians had the strength to stop them, and the people who lived in the Middle East actually looked upon the Muslims as liberators who guarantee peace and security in a region that had been ravaged by war.
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It sounds like those of us in the United States are not the only ones who have been taught nationalistic propaganda in place of history. You are right that this sort of thing is quite sad. It seems to be clear that education is more about socialization than it is about learning to think critically.