Between atheism and religiosity

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The experiences of dozens of countries, especially those which are religious, socialists and Communist, have proven that ideological extremism cannot continue forever through which a good citizen can be created – a citizen who can be relied upon to run a country.

Imposing choice between absolute atheism or absolute religiosity or social ostracism has proven futile and often brings destructive results. We have seen how countries that rejected flexibility have collapsed.

Consequently, it is necessary to leave the issues of religious beliefs to individuals. We have seen the negative repercussions of imposing totalitarianism by regimes in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Chinese camps, and others, and how their conditions changed for the better with their openness to the world and granting the citizens the freedom to live his/her life.

After four decades of totalitarian religious regime in Iran we notice how the situation has become clear.

The results of an opinion survey conducted by the GAMAAN Institute (The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in IRAN) showed that about half of the Iranians have converted from their religion. Only 32% consider themselves ‘Shiite Muslims’. GAMAAN conducted this survey under the title ‘Iranians’ View of Religion’ – through questions that could not be freely posed in the current Iranian environment due to the existing restrictions.

The aforementioned survey was conducted last June with the participation of more than 50,000 people, 90% of whom live in Iran.

The survey results reflect the view of educated people over the age of 19, equivalent to 85% of the country’s adults. GAMAAN considered the level of confidence in the results of this survey is high and can be generalized to all Iranians, as the results show that 78% of Iranians believe in God, and only 26% believe in the appearance of the Mahdi, and this is one of the main beliefs of the Shiites.

The results also indicated 32% of the Iranians consider themselves ‘Shiite’ while 9% believe in atheism, about 22% not affiliated to any religious trend, six percent have changed their religion to another and about 60% have declared that they do not pray at all, which is largely true, according to the testimony of many observers.

The results of the survey showed 68% believe that the religious rulings should not be a criterion for legislation even if religious people make up a majority in Parliament, and that the religious institutions should pay their costs themselves while 42% do not believe in religious propaganda.

A large portion also opposes the teaching of religious teachings and duties in schools to their children. The results of the survey showed that more than 73% oppose the “compulsory” veil, knowing that 58% do not believe in the hijab at all.

Despite the continued ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in Iran for forty years, all surveys indicate about 40% of Iranians consume alcoholic beverages, and another large portion has the same tendencies but are unable to obtain it.

The GAMAAN is run by Ammar Maleki, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab who is assistant professor of Religious Studies at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

e-mail: [email protected]

By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 15885 times!