Iran: Zoroastrian Lawmaker Faces Slander

Adnkronos International:

Iranian parlamentarian Kurosh Niknam, a member of Iran's Zoroastrian religious minority has been summoned to appear before the country's Revolutionary Tribunal after being accused of spreading false news and showing lack of respect for the authorities.

The charges stem from comments Niknam made to protest against derogatory remarks against non-Muslims uttered by a close aide to Iran's Supreme Leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Non-Muslims "cannot be called human beings but are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati last week at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the 'martyrs' of the Revolutionary Guards and the war against Iraq (1980-88).

Nikam described the remarks as "an unprecedented slur against religious minorities." READ MORE

"Non-Muslims not only are not beasts, but if Iran has a glorious past and civilisation to be proud of it owes this to those who lived in the country before the advent of Islam," he said, adding sarcastically that he wished to ask forgiveness to the "beasts" because "they do not commit sins, while those who sully the earth are those humans who don't show respect for the other creatures of God."

The Zoroastrian community in Iran is estimated to number some 22,000 - half the size of that in existence before the 1979 Islamic revolution. The faith was founded in about 600 BC by the Persian prophet Zarathustra, who believed he had seen visions of a God he called Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrian rule was driven out of modern-day Iran by the Muslim Arab invasion 1,400 years ago.