My friend, the exiled Iranian Babak, gets today's second brilliant post.
Read it. Judge for yourself.
My assumption is that the vast majority of you will instinctively say -
We would never accept such a system here.
Good. Then the test is simple.
If, on the other hand, one thinks that Mamadina sounds like a festive, exotic and equal addition that will enrich everyone's life - then the recipe is straightforward -
Invite more people from Elpashtein into one's society. Then remove any blockage preventing the religion from growing large and strong through its own faith, cultural and ideological power centres. Let it build parallel societies with its own law and its own religious courts. And call anyone who warns along the way intolerant.
It's quite simple.
Babak has lived under the system. He recognises it without observer reports. What's thought-provoking is that people with years of university education cannot - or will not.
The question to them is therefore not whether they have read the text.
The question is - what exactly in the description of Elpashtein is it you believe does not apply here - and how long do you think that will remain the case?
I ask because every society throughout the last 1,400 years, where Mamadina has reached critical mass, has ended up as Elpashtein.
Without exception. Not one.
History has run the experiment for us - again and again - and the result is the same every time. The well-educated simply believe, for some incomprehensible reason, that they are the first in world history to get a different outcome.
Some of them even live in a fantasy scenario where they imagine that they - from the outside - can be allowed to rewrite Mamadina's most sacred texts, if only they are kind, inclusive and self-effacing enough.
That is not called tolerance.
That is called hubris.
