Race and religion

Zarathushtra preached good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Does the racist straitjacket into which Zoroastrianism has been placed in India imply that only 70,000 people living in this country have the sole right to good thoughts, good words and good deeds, and the remaining six billion on this planet must necessarily think evil, speak evil and do evil because, according to some Zoroastrians in India, the others are not entitled to practice the teachings of Zarathushtra?

If religion was linked to ethnicity, the present Dalai Lama would have no moral or ethical ground to be the Dalai Lama. Since the Buddha was born in the Indian state of Bihar, only a Bihari could claim the highest seat of Buddhism, and not a Tibetan.

Zarathushtra was believed to have been born into the Airya tribe and belonged to the Bhrigu clan. Since neither the tribe nor the clan exist today, none of us can be counted as Zoroastrian.

Prophet Mohammed was an Arab. Those from Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia would not be able to practice Islam if religion and ethnicity were entwined.

Jesus was born in Palestine. The present Pope, a German, would not be entitled to the position. In fact in a ludicrous twist only a Jew would be allowed to be the Christian Pope, since Christ was born a Jew.

There are only three races on the planet: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. Race is determined by stature, the cephalic index, the nasal index, prognathism, skull capacity, texture of the hair, degree of pilosity, color of the skin, hair and eyes.

Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe.

Would the proponents of the "ethno-fused” (Parsi Irani Zoroastrian) tripe kindly demonstrate to us how beliefs are "fused” to the size of the nose, width of the head, extension of the jaw, hirsuteness, size of the skull, eyes, and hair color? It would be path-breaking indeed.

BARAK AGA

barak.aga@hotmail.com