Earthtimes (press release), UK

Ahmadinejad: Religious minorities all part of ‘Iranian family’

Posted : Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:03:51 GMT
Author : DPA

Middle East World News

Tehran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday dismissed
Western allegations of discriminating religious minorities and said
that all minorities were part of the "grand Iranian family," the news
network Khabar reported. "The enemies (of Iran) play some games by
claiming discord between Iran and religious minorities but these games
will have no impacts as we are all part of the grand Iranian family,"
Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with the parliament deputies
representing the religious minorities in Iran.

The religious minorities include Christian Armenians, Zoroasters,
Assyrians and Jews and are acknowledged by Iran whose majority follow
the Shiite sect of Islam.

The Bahai religious sect however does not belong to the acknowledged
categories.

There have several times been charges by the West of discriminatory
policies by Iran towards religious minorities which Ahmadinejad
categorically denied.

"The religious minorities in Iran enjoy the same rights because
eventually all of us are Iranians," the president said.

The minorities also have five seats in the parliament, two for
Armenians and the remaining three for Zoroasters, Assyrians and Jews.

The Jews have the biggest challenge in Iran due to Iran’s anti-Israeli
stance and the president’s tirades in the last three years against the
Jewish state and his denial of the historic dimensions of the
Holocaust during the Second World War.

Tehran even hosted a Holocaust conference in December 2006 which was
attended by renowned neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic personalities.

While terming the conference as an insult, the Jewish society in Iran
said that it was well known in Iran that Jews were quite sensitive as
far as the Holocaust was concerned and that questioning this
historically proven fact by the system made them quite upset.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress