Ethnic pride, road to ruin

I write to lodge my protest against the clergy in Zoroastrianism for not ensuring that the spouses of Zoroastrians and their children adopt the Zoroastrian faith. Don’t they realize that they will become extinct one day if they don’t? That, to me, would be a sad loss.

It is with the Parsis that the great culture of old Persia lives. Once gone, it can never be retrieved. It is with you that this great religion survives. Why should it die out just because of ethnicity?

In the Persian empire many people of non-Persian blood accepted Zoroastrianism. Being racially Persian did not mean that only they were Zoroastrians. I really do not wish to see this great religion die out just because of ethnic pride. It would be a sad day if it did. It would also mean that the Arab conquerors succeeded in their mission, the elimination of Persia, its wealth and religion.

I hope that you are able to lobby and change the minds of your religious leaders to note that in their racial pride (or so the articles on the Internet prescribe), they are going to kill themselves and their religion off!

AARON ADHIKARY

Victoria, Australia