[swat535]

I'm Iranian (albeit Christian) and unfortunately.. Iranians _also_ support this war (specifically the Shia sect supporting the regime). As a matter of fact, they have been _praying_ for this.

Shia Muslims have a strong martyrdom culture in comparison to Sunnis. This is why assassination of Khamenei didn't do anything in terms of disruption. He was martyred during the holy month of Ramadan and they welcomed it. All US did was created another honorable martyr for them.

I know it's difficult for Westerners to grasp how someone could pray for their own death but this is what they do. Decapitating their leadership doesn't do much because the next guy just takes over.

30% of the population in IRAN is composed of these fanatics and they will gladly give up their lives for IRGC. In a country of 90M, that amounts to a lot of people. IRAN has very difficult terrain and IRGC has been preparing for this war for the past 30 years. They don't care about the lives of Iranians, US can bomb Tehran to hell and they will not care. They have nothing to lose and will gladly sacrifice innocent people.

The Shia's motto is: "Every day is Ashura, every land is Karbala" [0], [1]

I think this is going to be a difficult conflict for everyone.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashura [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karbala

[Imustaskforhelp]

> I'm Iranian (albeit Christian) and unfortunately.. Iranians _also_ support this war (specifically the Shia sect supporting the regime). As a matter of fact, they have been _praying_ for this.

I actually agree with you. This is the reason why I am saying that Israel/US shouldn't have given it to the Iranian regime as well.

Because as we both know that Iranian regime and the Iranian people are different will and it seems that this war is gonna impact the Iranian people the people I am worried about from my original comment and it was my attempt to suggest de-escalation of war feels the better route.

> I think this is going to be a difficult conflict for everyone. & > US can bomb Tehran to hell and they will not care. They have nothing to lose and will gladly sacrifice innocent people.

I agree with this too and this is why I am saying that innocent people will lose their lives in this conflict and I am sure that you must've heard of the horrible incidents happening too.

I had a friend who was Iranian and they were Muslim (I never asked their sect) and they were against the regime as well, quite a lot actually.

I am curious to know what your thoughts are on the peace of the situation. I suppose you want peace as well for the people, right?

My point was that the jewish faith within israel/israeli people themselves in general could better rally for peace given that they had a very messy past as well with regards to atrocities which is something that we aren't seeing, with regards to either the palestine or now Iran where in both cases, the innocent normal everyday people lives are getting killed.

I just want peace. That's all.

[TimorousBestie]

> I know it's difficult for Westerners to grasp how someone could pray for their own death but this is what they do.

I think some Americans have familiarity with the concept. There’s a somewhat popular myth within Evangelical Christianity that reasons that the US itself needs to be destroyed before the Rapture can occur, because there is no mention of the US in any prophecy. (I’ve heard Micah 4 cited as one possible reference but it’s a flimsy one, even by apocalypse prophecy standards.)

Here is one variant of this myth in the context of the current conflict: https://baptistnews.com/article/the-end-times-theology-drivi...

[orwin]

Yeah, Shi'a are weird, on one hand it bear the most secular, laical Muslim society during all the middle age until the 20th century, on the other hand it regularly spawn death cults, with the IRGC being it's latest (and arguably strongest) iteration.

[Imustaskforhelp]

I may be wrong but I think that, any theocractic country to retain its power, is very likely to treat any minor differences as something huge to maintain its relevancy.

Even treating the citizens of its own who are unhappy with the govt. can be treated as betrayal or propagandized by the theocracy to retain its power and curb dissentment of which IRGC is part of.

I feel like its worth mentioning that Iran had actual democracy with Mohammad Mosaddegh but the CIA got involved for (oil purposes) and overthrew the democracy to get the Shah and Shah although liberal in say how girls wore, was still a very brutal dictator

It was the students themselves and religious figures and everyday citizens that got united to fight against the shah and they had thought that things would get better but they hadn't decided as to what next and so the religious power seized Iran affecting the very students that helped them get into power.

So I do think that the idea about foreign govt. overthrowing your govt. made the extremist sectors of shia gaining power after the 20'th century.

The story of average iranian is sad because they never got to witness democracy in its full form because as soon as it did, America/British tried to overthrow the democracy in worries about soviet connection/socialism and the religious leaders took that moment and gained power and brutally oppressed their own regime. Both sides are extremely messed up and all of this just mess/conflict could've been prevented which has made 90 million people live in tyranny under the Islamic regime and now also in danger of war :(