On Saturday I shall be speaking at a conference in Edinburgh on the changing face of racism, and how Islamophobia is now not only mainstream but actively promoted by government.
Donald Trump’s remarks have brought appropriate condemnation, but the Henry Jackson Society got there first. In February 2006 Douglas Murray, Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society, stated :
“It is late in the day, but Europe still has time to turn around the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities. It has to. All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop. In the case of a further genocide such as that in the Balkans, sanctuary would be given on a strictly temporary basis. This should also be enacted retrospectively… Conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition.”
Douglas Murray also came out with a straight defence of the use of torture by Western intelligence agencies.
Yet the politicians who pretend to be outraged by Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from the US, line up to support the man who declares “All immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop.” Not only Jim Murphy, but a role call of top Blairites sits on the Political Council of the Henry Jackson Society – Margaret Beckett, Hazel Blears, Ben Bradshaw, Chris Bryant, Gisela Stuart etc. All of course enthusiasts for bombing Syria. It astonishes me that the Labour Party is now complaining about “infiltration” by groups on the left when a large number of very senior figures can belong to an organisation which is avowedly neo-conservative, is linked to the US and European far right and is funded by the CIA.
The Henry Jackson Society is the go-to organisation for broadcasters looking for comment on Islamic affairs. I was both pleased and surprised to see the Henry Jackson Society named two days ago in a Guardian article on the mainstreaming of Islamophobia. Pleased because the maximum exposure is necessary to make people understand what people are getting when they see “independent” HJS staff interviewed on the BBC and Sky, and surprised because the Blairite controlled and US marketed Guardian doesn’t usually run this kind of stuff anymore.
I tucked it in to the back of my mind until I came to write this article. Guess what? The Guardian Editors have now excised all mention of the Henry Jackson Society from the article on the mainstreaming of Islamophobia. Interesting that, isn’t it?
The Henry Jackson Society seconds staff to the Quilliam Foundation. This extraordinary organisation is a career vehicle for “reformed jihadists” to milk huge salaries and luxury lifestyles from government money, in return for fronting an organisation run by the security services. Quilliam specialises in denouncement of Muslim organisations and talking up the Jihadi threat, offering “expert advice” on the government’s anti-free speech strategy. At the same time, it seeks to maximise the income of its directors. One interesting collaboration to make money was its collaboration with the current head of Pergida UK, and former head of the English Defence League, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Alias Tommy Robinson).
Quilliam have received millions from the taxpayer for their dubious “work”. But their application for Home Office funding to split with Yaxley-Lennon remains an episode beyond belief. Several of Quilliam’s staff are “lent” by the CIA-funded Henry Jackson Society.
Do come along to the meeting on Saturday. Methodist Church, 25 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9BX.
“Macky certainly has a priblem there, doesn’t he. And of course, being “Macky”, reacts by insulting you rather than essaying rational discussion.
The bottom line is that the Muslims do a good job of killing each other all by themselves without Western help. Just like – I’ll say it before some What-Abouter does – the Christians in the Middle Ages.”
___________________
Indeed Habb, I’m rather astonished just how naive Macky is when it comes to Middle Eastern affairs.
In show business “all attention is good attention” and Trump certainly has a way of getting it.
Caution ranting idiot ahead..
Trump calls for ‘complete shutdown’ on Muslims entering US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv1YgVKoqLw
“in the vertical world of other religions. Islam does not have single or sole authoritative source that ought to be followed by all Muslims! There are lots of choices for each Muslim to choose from dependent on their individual imperatives.”
_____________________
Thank you Fedup for your thoughts on a Islam, as the above comment states, Islam is in essence divided, and there’s no bigger example of this than Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Both would gladly wipe the other from the face of the planet, (I’d better be careful or politically correct Macky will scream bigot or racist), yet Saudi Arabia is the heart of Islam.
Don’t you find it rather disconcerting Fedup, that the very essence of Islam Saudi Arabia, which holds the chair of UNHRC, also has one of the worst human rights records in the world, something conveniently overlooked by Macky in his outbursts.
If only, fingers x’d..
Head of the European Parliament Warns – EU at Risk of Falling Apart
Michael Krieger | Posted Tuesday Dec 8, 2015 at 4:05 pm
Martin Schulz is the head of the European Parliament, and he’s very worried about the future of the EU. Indeed, he’s so concerned he told a German magazine that the project was at risk of falling apart. But don’t take my word for it.
From Reuters:
The European Union is at risk of falling apart and supporters must fight to keep it, the head of the European Parliament said in a German newspaper interview.
Martin Schulz told Die Welt’s Tuesday edition that the EU was in danger and that there were forces trying to pull it apart.
He was responding to a recent warning from Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign affairs and migration minister, that the EU might break apart,
“No one can say whether the EU will still exist in this form in 10 years’ time. If we want that then we need to fight very hard for it,” Schulz said.
Emigrate While You Still Can! Finca Bayano In Panama…
He was not specific about what was threatening the EU, but much of the interview was focused on the migrant crisis, which has stretched Europe’s unity and tolerance during the year.
Schulz said that the EU was not without alternatives and “could of course be reversed”, adding that other options including a Europe in which nationalism, borders and walls were prevalent.
Of course, he’s absolutely right. As I wrote recently in the post, A Message to Europe – Prepare for Nationalism:
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/12/08/head-of-the-european-parliament-warns-eu-at-risk-of-falling-apart/
Fred
Re Trump and The Golf course –
In this exclusive clip from the film, Baxter questions Trump about his “bullying” of Scottish locals, including the aforementioned 90-year-old and Michael Forbes, a farmer who refused to sell his land to Trump. The billionaire later called Forbes “an embarrassment to Scotland” who “lives like a pig.”
In addition to the sit-down with Trump, Baxter was also given access to Donald Trump, Jr., who describes himself as “environmentally conscious” but quickly pivots when asked about photographs of him holding the tail of a dead elephant and standing next to his brother, Eric, cradling the carcass of a leopard during a big game hunt in Africa.
Like his father, Donald Trump Jr. appears defensive, telling a Trump staffer not to worry about his answers to Baxter’s questions. “He’ll edit all that stuff out,” says the younger Trump.
The interview took place at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, which, as Baxter noted in a 2014 blog post for The Guardian, has been accused of “using up hundreds of millions of gallons of much-needed water” in a drought-prone area.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bullied-a-90-year-old-woman-over-scottish-golf-course-2015-6?r=US&IR=T
Lovely one Brian.
I followed the golf course saga and its effect on the local people and the environment in a beautiful part of the Aberdeenshire coast.
Do you know how the honorary degree arose. Did he buy it like everything else he does.
The Sky News reporter was in Washington today. Unbelievably she found a black American worker who thought Trump was just what the country needed!
The backdrop was a former Federal post office building which Trump is renting and converting into a hotel. The frontage is plastered with his name in the same style as his election material. It is an offence in America to use a federal building for electioneering.
@RoS
Thank you for your reply.
I am glad that you think “Sayed Ali Khamenei’s Letter To the Youth in Western Countries” is “beautifully worded” (so do I) but when you say it’s a “propaganda stunt from Khamenei” and “that’s all it is”, I must disagree with you. (I will explain why, below).
I did read the Wikipedia entry on Khamenei that you linked to. (I’m kind of surprised at myself that I never got round to doing that before, to be honest. On the other hand, it’s not as if much of what is written there was news to me (although some of it was)).
So he’s no angel. Granted! (Which world leader is?). And I find many of the views he purportedly holds, extremely distasteful and unwise.
BUT, here is why I think his open “Letter To the Youth in Western Countries” is MUCH MORE than a simple propaganda stunt…
It is a POSITIVE message!
It is NOT inciting violence or hatred! (Quite the opposite).
He is CORRECT in directing his message to the YOUNG – THEY are the ones inheriting the appalling mess the OLD have made of the world, and THEY are the ones (assuming any of them actually survive into the second half of the 21st century) who will have to learn to LIVE AND LET LIVE (if they ARE to survive). One and a half billion muslims are NOT GOING AWAY! (And why on Earth should they?).
Consider the following lines from the letter:
“The pain of any human being anywhere in the world causes sorrow for a fellow human being.”
“Anyone who has benefited from affection and humanity is affected and disturbed by witnessing these scenes [of horror]- whether it occurs in France or in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon or Syria.”
“Therefore I want you the youth to lay the foundations for a correct and honorable interaction with the Islamic world based on correct understanding, deep insight and lessons learned from horrible experiences.”
Can you honestly imagine in your wildest dreams, such words of humanity emanating from the mouths of the warmongers WE are ruled by?
The SENTIMENTS are GOOD!
You, RoS, are effectively saying “But he doesn’t MEAN it, so it doesn’t COUNT for anything!”
I am saying, EVEN SUPPOSING you are right, and he DOESN’T mean it, he is still SAYING IT, and that DOES count for something, in my view, especially when you consider how many will HEAR what he is saying, and THINK about it.
(In my limited, but far from non-existent experience, I have found muslims in general to be rather more given to inward mental reflection than we permanently-distracted and increasingly rabidly anti-spiritual westerners.)
Well, I guess I’ve made my point – at least I hope I have. I also hope I will not be perceived as some kind of supporter of ‘radical Islam’ or ‘Ayatollah worshipper’, as NOTHING could be further from the truth!
I am a man of PEACE.
I would just add this:
I believe that those who WANT to find GOOD in religion, and use it as a guide to help them lead a more virtuous life, will FIND it.
Equally, I believe those who are truly determined to ‘hijack’ religion and take advantage of it for their own nefarious purposes, and find EVIL in it, will also achieve their aims.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Joint-List-MK-Trump-visit-to-Temple-Mount-will-set-whole-region-on-fire-436794
What could possibly go wrong…………..
Thank you Pan for your honesty, it is indeed refreshing, I’m afraid Fedup, in my comment (top paragraph @6.58) doesn’t quite agree with you. Indeed the claim is that there’s no one authorative voice in Islam, but many voices, I myself tend to agree with that synopsis.
Khamenei of course would touch the hearts of many Shia Muslims, but Sunni Muslims I’m not so sure, still if you truly believe Khamenei has a goal for peace then who am I to spoil your wishes.
FWIW, RoS, I find it a LOT more than ‘disconcerting’ that Saudi Arabia, with its continuous unspeakable acts AGAINST human rights should hold the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council!
It is an absolute OUTRAGE.
Palestinian flag not forbidden.
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/gw-palestinian-flag/
Sorry that should have been Palestinian flag forbidden.
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/gw-palestinian-flag/
Just one more thing, RoS, then I’m going to bugger off and have my dinner…
I will admit I was not even thinking of the Shia/Sunni divide when I wrote the above, so no, of course the Iranian Grand Ayatollah does NOT speak for all muslims.
But it sometimes happens that the Pope (for instance) makes a very fine, wise and admirable speech/appeal to the people of the Earth.
Should one deny the quality of the content, shut one’s ears to the message, simply because one is not a Roman Catholic?
Mary
another one i Read… very good interview here with Anthony Baxter –
“The planet cannot afford all those golf courses in California. It’s absolutely nuts to have all these golf courses in a part of the world where the sun beats down every day, and there’s no water. Ordinary people are told they have to have restrictions on the amount of water they can use, but then we find that Donald Trump gets his water at a fraction of the price that local residents pay for theirs. As we document in “A Dangerous Game,” Trump National club in Bedminster, New Jersey, sucks up 50 million gallons of public drinking water a year, in a drought-prone and densely populated watershed. Yet the course pays only a fraction of the cost per gallon that homeowners pay. All so a couple of hundred fabulously rich members (the joining fee is $150,000) have intensely lush and manicured fairways year round. It’s one rule for the super-rich, and it’s one rule for everybody else.
In the case of the Las Vegas resort, they have a lake there that’s filled twice a year with 2 billion gallons of drinking water, just as a water feature for the golf course. I think there should be a ban on golf courses on that part of the world. Unless there’s a way of using artificial turf to create them, I think they are no longer sustainable and they should be shut down.
Is there any kind of effort being made by the golf industry to create more environmentally sound policies?
There is, but there’s not enough. The Royal and Ancient, which sees itself as the governing body of golf, doesn’t really do anything to promote the fact that these golf courses are unsustainable. There are examples like the organic golf course in Scotland, which is fairly new. It was built maybe in the last 10 years. The sad thing is that an individual like Donald Trump had the opportunity, when he came to Scotland, to do something like that, because he was building a golf course in a part of the world where there is enough water: It rains a lot in Scotland, and there’s no need to worry about the conservation of water. “So why not take a different approach to the building of that golf course, Mr. Trump?” he was asked by all of the environmental organizations in the country. And take it away from the site of special scientific interest — you’ll still have a golf course right on the the seafront, and on the dunes, but you’ll save the site of special scientific interest. And why not refrain from using chemicals?
He completely refused to do that. He pours huge amounts of chemicals onto those greens, and now we have a situation where that land has been lost forever due to the pig-headedness of somebody who is so used to getting his own way. I think the governing body of golf also doesn’t do anything like it should be doing, in terms of promoting this, and promoting the more sustainable approach to golf courses that has to take place. The bottom line is that these golf courses in the desert, that even Barack Obama was playing in Palm Springs over the weekend, just shouldn’t be built in the first place. They are completely unsustainable, they soak up billions of gallons of water, and the planet can’t afford them.”
Yip Again Ra Link –
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/27/donald_trump_is_even_more_of_a_monster_than_you_think_why_his_golf_courses_are_environmental_disasters/
Pan, you have a very quaint, and dangerous view of organised Religion. See all that mischief and conflict that has been going on for millenia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5Ohhbhkn4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaiDcHPlJg
Cheers Brian.
@ROS, judging by your responses so far, I’m probably wasting my time, but here goes anyway;
“Islam can and is intolerant, in many aspects, and in my opinion it needs to evolve to become more tolerant.”
All religions are inherently intolerant in the sense that they insist that they are the “true” religion, but your focused inability to seperate just one particular religion, namely Islam, from its diverse interpretations of some of its followers, is really rather strange. This is almost certainly due to not just an ignorance of Islam, but to a more total ignorance of what a religion actually is. A religion is more then a belief system, it is a way of life that followers aspire to lead. The central tenant of many religions, including Islam, is that earthly existence is just a temporary purification process, in which followers believe that they must lead a good, kind & virtuous life. There is no requirement for intolerance, quite the opposite, and so for you to offer your “White Man’s Burden” opinion that Islam needs reform to fit into the ignorant fostering & conditioning anti-religious system that is modern Western capitalist socitey, is simply pure racism.
“who can’t seem to understand that Muslims can and do commit crimes against other faiths and indeed against their own whether it be Sunni or Shia.”
I am very much aware, but selectively just highlighting conflict amongst Muslims is perjudice.
“The bottom line is that the Muslims do a good job of killing each other all by themselves without Western help”
Yes, the classic “Savage barbarians always killing each other” racist trope.
Whetever delibrate or inadvertent, your comments on Islam are a promotion of hatred based on total ignorance.
Re the comments about Trump’s golf course brings to mind this; 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSPZ0fCEetg
RoS this is the kind of conclusion that really makes you sound a bigot! Do you know that Iran has Sunni as well as Shia populations? That is in addition to Jewish and Christian as well as Zoroastrian populations?
Why should Iranians wish to wipe out the Saudi Arabia? What is to be gained from such an enterprise? How come this meme has come to exist?
As I have already pointed out, it is best for you to stop imposing value judgments when you have access to a scant data set with a built in bias. Fact is Iranians have not declared war on any of their neighbors or for that matter on any other country for the last four hundred and fifty years! it should be noted that they have held their ground and repelled any offensive against their country, but they have never initiated any aggression of any sorts during this time.
Islam is unlike Catholicism that follows a single pontiff, also unlike Christianity it has not fragmented into numerous disparate churches. Judaism is a closed shop so best keep that out of this debate and leave the mods to get on with their lives.
Bertrand Russell used to say Islam is the best religion in the world unfortunately Muslims at times are the worst followers of Islam!
Read Jeremy Stocks valuable inputs, he has an in depth knowledge of Saudi Arabia and see which part of Islam is in coincidence with that place. A land in which citizens are whipped and incarcerated upon their failure to attend worship, a land in which the worst kind of cultural revolution is under way against any cultural heritage and any historic artifacts or constructs are interpreted as signs of idolatry and in need of destruction!
You have seen the tsunami of the destruction Taliban wreaked upon Afghanistan (Bamiyan Buddhas) and the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh are wreaking upon Syria (various historical sites as in churches shrines, included grave yards) and as the destruction of Iraq (total destruction of the historical parts of Iraq that has been subject to reconstruction of some of these from the ruins left by the Saudi backed militias and mercenaries) all in the way of promotion of Islam (which brand of Islam?). Most of the Madrassas in Pakistan are funded by the Saudi, the same goes for the mosques in UK and elsewhere, that are built by Saudi money and then pushed in the direction of the Saudi preferences.
If you wish to hate by all means go ahead and hate, frankly one more hater is not going to achieve more than what already has been “achieved”. However if you wish to think for yourself then it is best to stop looking through a jaundiced eye and instead adopt a scientific and open mind to find out for yourself.
Why should he lie?
Life can only progress in peace and tranquillity, life becomes stagnant and stifled in war and destruction, human progress is only possible though cooperation and coexistence without which there is war and destruction. Why should anyone wish to engage in war?
Those profiteers and privateers would have you believe war is a pastime and way of keeping fit and entertained!
RoS believe me other than the crazed lunatic neocon no one wants war!!!! It is a filthy smelly and destructive the odour of rotting flesh mingled with smell of urine, burnt flesh, blood and faeces to the accompaniment of the cries of the wounded and the shrieks of women bemoaning the loss of their children, husbands, menfolk and bereft toddlers!
War is not everyone’s way of life, only those psychopaths whom have no empathy and secure in the knowledge that they will live through it unscathed from the hell on Earth they have unleashed!
ROS; “still if you truly believe Khamenei has a goal for peace then who am I to spoil your wishes”
Yes of course, those damn Iranians, always bent on war, must be that strange religion of theirs;
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVzzfCxW4AAhL6E.png:large
‘Martin Schulz told Die Welt’s Tuesday edition that the EU was in danger and that there were forces trying to pull it apart.’
No wonder the (German) president of the European Parliament is so gloomy; the Eurosceptic and anti immigration AfD is now the third largest party in Germany, eclipsing both die Linke and the Greens-
http://uk.businessinsider.com/germanys-right-wing-eurosceptic-afd-just-hit-a-new-record-in-polls-as-angela-merkel-struggles-with-the-refugee-crisis-2015-11
Merkel’s rash promises on Syrian refugees (which in practice also means anyone who can afford good quality fake Syrian passports)have been the main factor in untethering the ‘forces’ to which Schultz alludes, in Germany and elsewhere in the EU.
France’s Former Foreign Minister: UK Government Prepared War in Syria Two Years Before 2011 Protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz-s2AAh06I
France’s Former Foreign Minister: UK Government Prepared War in Syria Two Years Before 2011 Protests
It goes back a lot further than that:
http://www.dougfeith.com/docs/Clean_Break.pdf
Isrxxl can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by
weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions. Jordan has challenged Syria’s regional ambitions recently by suggesting the restoration of the Hashemites in Iraq. This has triggered a Jordanian-Syrian rivalry to which Asad has responded by stepping up efforts to destabilize the Hashemite Kingdom, including using infiltrations. Syria recently signaled that it and Iran might prefer a weak, but barely surviving Saddam, if only to undermine and humiliate Jordan in its efforts to remove Saddam.
This may be read in conjunction with this (admittedly florid but largely factual) synopsis from 2011. Note Wesley Clarke’s revelation.
http://www.infowars.com/libya-and-syria-the-neocon-plan-to-attack-seven-countries-in-five-years/
The UK just went along for the ride.
The government of the USSR regarded its Muslim comrades as a developing problem away back in the 70s and 80s. It was estimated by demographers that around nowish (2015) the Muslim share of the population in the Soviet Union would overtake the nominally Orthodox segment in society. Of course the fragmentation of the USSR, as you are so personally familiar with, saw the bulk of that Muslim population domiciled outside Russia which was some consolation to Moscow.
However the Kremlin has always regarded Islam as a “clear and present danger” and this was not helped in any way by the Chechen Wars plus other various levels of insurrection across the Northern Caucasus and assorted acts of terror being visited on Moscow and other Russian cities.
That Putin has been willing to enter the Syrian conflict has been as much a function of refocussing emphasis on perceived Islamic problems at home as it has been about combatting IS or shoring up the Assad regime. Daesh declared a Wilayat al-Qawqaz this summer and the Kremlin knows that the battle is coming closer and closer.
I see a lot of Putin in Trump. Umberto Eco would be able to characterise them both very easily, as would Robert Paxton.
“But it sometimes happens that the Pope (for instance) makes a very fine, wise and admirable speech/appeal to the people of the Earth.
Should one deny the quality of the content, shut one’s ears to the message, simply because one is not a Roman Catholic?”
__________________
Excellent point Pan, For me I don’t put much faith in religious figure heads rapping lyrically over the ails of humanity. Oh don’t get me wrong their often touching speeches, reach the cockles of ones heart, and on rare occasions can inspire a individual to become a better person.
Alas the clergy in all its forms, like humanity itself is flawed, and in my opinion that’s where it fails to change human nature, away from violence and sectarianism.
Even in Britain in 2015 there’s no Catholic clergy allowed in the House of Lords.
“Yes of course, those damn Iranians, always bent on war, must be that strange religion of theirs;”
__________________
Again (a recurring theme) Macky fails miserably to grasp the point. Macky prattles on about Iran not causing wars around the globe, an admirable trait, but what Macky fails to see, is that at home Iran is persecuting its own.
https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/iran/
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are also persecuting their own citizens, and in certain cases foreigners for trivial act, such as speaking freely, or opposing government doctrines.
Macky can’t even bring himself to acknowledge those acts, never mind comment on them, I can only assume he suffers from selective amnesia.
RoS is getting more and more like Charlie Chan with his simplistic gotchas !!!
This time he has gone and dug up “opendroousa.org” a company that is registered in Dubai Free Zone (this is a no man’s land and a Wild West so far as company laws or accountability are concerned!) that is claiming “persecution of evangelists” Now this brand of Christianity is the right wing zionist supporting bunch of zealots and haters whom are out to evangelise the whole world into Christianity !!!! They are supporting the zionist just so that the Armageddon is to be brought on by them and Jesus to return post haste and now!!!!
Anyone stopping or not wishing for this arm of the CIA to operate then is classed as a “persecutor of Christians”!
RoS if you put one percent of your effort into thinking for yourself as opposed to searching the net for rubbish site after rubbish sites to prove your point that “Iran is nasty and destructive and Muslims are bad and …. ” You may even discover that it is not the Islam or Muslims, but it is the age old banksters who are bent on spreading their pernicious influences to the last remaining independent corners of the Earth!
But hey hatred is easy and thinking for yourself can be bit of headache, so best get on with finding some more sites that convey; “Iranians eat baby’s rumps for breakfast and are going to take over the planet making everyone speak Danish and drink Mineral water”!!!!
Are you incapable of logic or reason to transcend the inculcated two minutes hate rituals you are so reliant on and start thinking for yourself man?
@Ba’al Zevul
Ha,Ha read that pdf. Bit of joke really “The pot calling the kettle black”
ROS; “Macky fails miserably to grasp the point”
Ironically hilarious in a sad way really, as you are all over the place ! Are you now criticising religious freedom in Iran, or have you still not grasped the basic fundemental error in your problem with Islam, which is your inability to seperate a religon from how certain of its followers choose to practise it ? Should we condemn Christianity & all Christians because of the actions of some Spanish Christians during the Inquisition ?
As regards religious freedom in Iran, stay away from all those US funded NGOs, and try sources a little less biased, and you might discover that minority religons such as Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are officially recognized and protected, and even have reserved seats in the Iranian Parliament. Iran (after Turkey) even has the second largest Jewish Community in the Islamic World, and despite large financial bribes, and even false flag terrorism by the Israel State, much prefer to remain where they & their ancestors have peacefully co-existed with their Muslim neignbours for centuries, safe & in complete freedom to practise their religion.