Cyrus II of Persia, better known as Cyrus the Great (600–530 BCE), founder of one of the largest empires in the world at that time, was particularly renowned for his policy of tolerance for people’s customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. This, importantly, was not the custom among other nations during that time in history.
He is admired and remembered by the Jewish people for his role in freeing them from Babylonian captivity and allowing them to return to their historic homeland, Zion, or the Land of Israel. Moreover, he allowed for and assisted in the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. In the Book of Isaiah, Cyrus was the only non-Jewish figure to receive the special status of “God’s anointed,” specifically because of this act.
Fighting indoctrination
Many of the Iranian people, who for the past few weeks have been courageously marching in the streets of modern-day Iran against a repressive, inhumane, and evil regime, are descendants of Cyrus the Great.
Modern-day Iran is indeed a culmination of many peoples, such as Balochis, Azeris, and Sunni Arabs, following later conquests. The Islamic conquests were less tolerant; they demanded that non-Muslims either convert to Islam or remain second-class citizens and pay the jizya tax, historically levied on non-Muslim subjects (often called dhimmis) in Islamic states.
Women who did not convert to Islam were often taken as sex slaves, and their children were then forcefully converted – a mechanism by which to swallow existing cultures, customs, and religions and expand Islamic influence.
However, despite the conversion of the Iranian people to Shia Islam, viewed by the Sunnis as a desecration of Islamic doctrine, they maintained their unique customs, traditions, and mannerisms, which differentiate a vast majority of today’s Iranian people from their counterparts in the wider Islamic world.
The 47-year rule of the current regime, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has created a widespread fear and even aversion among many Iranians toward religious indoctrination in general and Islam in particular.
The pent-up anger that recently erupted in the streets of Iran was the product of years of indoctrination, coercion, massive-scale corruption on the part of the ruling mullahs, and extreme violence and injustice toward the population.
Dreams of freedom
Freedom had become a distant dream. Public hangings, officials raping female prisoners, and many more horrors were everyday occurrences.
Following the ongoing economic crisis, which the average Iranian experiences via unemployment, a severe lack of water, and a rate of inflation that literally stripped families of the ability to feed themselves, the people of Iran had had enough. These feelings were heightened amid the understanding that their leadership continues to fund terror proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis in Yemen, while their own citizens are left untended.
Despite the indoctrination, the endless incitement, and the strict control of media and all means of communication over the years, the Iranian people did not fully succumb to the coerced messaging of the regime.
Why is this important to note? In Gaza, Jordan, Egypt, and many other places in which the populations are predominantly Muslim and where the people are exposed to carefully censored information, the sentiment toward the West and Israel has been shaped into something extremely harsh and hateful.
Many in Iran, though massively indoctrinated and controlled during the past few decades, managed to see through the indoctrination and insist on reaching out and finding – albeit at great risk – alternative sources of information.
Following Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel, and the well-orchestrated worldwide media and messaging campaign against Israel and the Jews – which was planned, funded, and executed by Iranian and Qatari petrodollars, directly supported logistically and ideologically by Turkey, and indirectly by the Russian Federation and China – a shifting paradigm has emerged following the current events unfolding in Iran.
After the fall of the Islamic regime, which will lead to the downfall of the Shiite Axis of extreme Islam, the Iranian people will transition to a new reality, creating a strong strategic alliance with the State of Israel and the United States. The addition of the subcontinent of India and other like-minded partners will allow us to form a formidable coalition of innovation, economic prosperity, and military might – creating a brighter future for all those who are part of it.■
Ruth Wasserman Lande is an expert on Arab affairs. She previously served as a member of the Knesset and Israel’s deputy ambassador in Egypt. She is currently a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security.