the fact is there has been an increasing number of new converts to Christianity in recent years in Iran.

In the other hand…since all house-churches has been under surveillance and investigation by intelligent services and almost all of new converts has been known by government,speaking about Neda’s belief or spreading this news about she being a Christian (whether right or wrong) will put all her Church members in serious danger because the intelligent service will attempt to destroy all evidence and witnesses! about her faith..
for these reason no one would speak out about her faith.

on the contrary ..having a cross necklace does not mean necessarily that she was Christian. Many people uses a cross in their home ,cars,….these days.

Government had not released the body and asked for “bullet-fee” (about 8000$).
“Bullet-fee” = According to islamic republic laws when they kill a person they ask the family for expenses before releasing the body.

Neda was apparently an amazing woman, but one who didn’t really get involved in politics. According to news media who spoke to her friends and family, she didn’t support any candidate strongly and was never the type to go out and protest. The reason she did is that the thrown election made her angry at the injustice. To me, that doesn’t really have to do with the fact that she was (or was raised) Christian, or even the fact that she is a woman. She was angry at injustice and she spoke out about it.

One of the things that bothers me in the uproar over Iran is the way in which the media has just turned it into this thing that almost has nothing to do with the election anymore. I’m not saying that there aren’t many Iranians who probably want to see a lot of change in their country - but the majority of protesters simply voted for a more reformist candidate, and just want their votes to be counted. They want a government that will pay attention to the election process…but that doesn’t automatically mean that they support a complete regime change a la Western enlightenment. It also really doesn’t seem to be about religion - at least from what I have read and the Iranians I’ve spoken to, and I could be completely wrong here. The only reason most protesters are speaking out against government interpretation of Islam is because the government is being unjust. And Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all compelled to speak out against injustice.

Not all of India was ruled by the Muslims. And I think the Parsis came to India quite a while before the Muslims arrived.

Several years ago I met a Zoroastrian - she was a Parsi from India. Her ancestors fled the Muslims in Persia, NKA Iran.

Her ancestors fled the Muslims in Persia, and came to India, which was, then, ruled by Muslims! Interesting, isn’t it?!

As for this, shame on us for hounding the media for more (and truthful!) coverage of this story. Michael Jackson died! Let’s keep our priorities here!

[…] hijab would be sufficient evidence to establish that Neda Soltani was a Christian ”

well if u thnk shes not muslim just coz she doesnt hav hijab, i’ll tell u it doesnt work like that…in iran they MUST hav hijab in public…but a vast majority of the muslims themselves are without hijab in the private of their own home…
trust me i’ve lived there!!i was born therr!!

She said there were not very many of them left, but more than in Iran

I learn something new every day on this blog. Thanks.

There are certain days when the Jews honor the dead, too.
Shiva for 7 days & Kaddish for 30 days except parents say Kaddish for 11 months. Then there are special remembrance prayers during the first year on Yom Kippur, Shimini Atzeretz, Passover and Shvuot.

Catholics often have a Mass said at the 1 year anniversary and then other days, too, but there is no set pattern. We moderns in the West let a lot of ancient practices die out.

Several years ago I met a Zoroastrian - she was a Parsi from India. Her ancestors fled the Muslims in Persia, NKA Iran. She said there were very many of them left, but more than in Iran.

David Hamstra: In this country you will find that most Norwegians are Lutheran, most Irish are Catholic, etc. etc. Just because a faith is also cultural doesn’t mean the individual person doesn’t believe in it. The free-for-all in religion we enjoy in the US and maybe the UK is unusual in the rest of the world.

Additionally, in Muslim countries a leader for non-Muslim religious groups was designated the representative of those
people. They lumped all the Jews together. They lumped all the Christians together, lapsed or not. I’ve never read of a representative for agnostics and atheists.