As global conflicts intensify, Easter offers a counterpoint – a call to reject violence and embrace light, mercy and transformation.

Iran and the war, (not forgetting Lebanon Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan) are the unwelcome global backdrops to this year’s celebration of Easter. The suffering unleashed and gloated over by the Israeli Prime minister, the US President and his ‘Christian’ Minister for War is immense. What do they know about Iran?

The name is derived from ‘Aryan’ meaning noble. Its ancient religion, Zoroastrianism, reframed our understating of linear time. Every age was considered a continuation of battle between good and evil in which humans must choose which side they are on. Ancient Iranians/Aryans/Nobles considered themselves noble warriors on the side of light. We might strongly disagree, but today, Iran’s expression of Shia Islam, shaped by this philosophy, considers America and Israel the domains of darkness and themselves the warriors of light. These views are clearly reciprocated and reinforced, the longer violence continues.

Locking each other into these views provides no space for transformation and makes more violence inevitable. Violence does not dispel darkness, it deepens it.

As Easter approaches, most of the globe’s citizens have very good........

© Pearls and Irritations