Have you seen this meme? It is highly misleading, which is typical of anti-Jewish pro-Islamic propaganda.
Tehran opened a metro station dedicated to Maryam-e Moqaddas. It’s located near the Armenian Christian community and Saint Sarkis Cathedral. The station was decorated with Christian-themed artwork, including images of Mary and Jesus, reflecting the presence of Iran’s officially recognized Armenian Christian minority. Cleaning the decoration is an example of routine maintenance of public transportation.
Note that Muslims extend this privilege to Christians. Christians do not have religious liberty in the way it is understood in free societies. The Islamic Republic determines which Christian faiths are protected. Iran reserves parliamentary seats for recognized minorities, including Armenian and Assyrian Christians, as a method of controlling Christian voices.
Iran is an Islamic republic with Twelver Shi’a Islam as the state religion. Christians generally cannot hold certain top state positions. Churches face government oversight and restrictions. Evangelizing Muslims is treated very harshly. Persian-language Christian services are restricted because authorities associate them with conversion efforts.
With respect to Jews, the mass migration of Iranian Jews was fueled by the political and social upheaval that followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Although the new Islamic Republic officially recognized Jews as a protected religious minority, many Jews rightly feared for their safety and future after the execution of prominent Jewish businessman and community leader Habib Elghanian, restrictions on travel, the confiscation of “abandoned property,” and the rise of anti-Israel rhetoric that blurred into suspicion of Jewish loyalty (a problem Jews also face in the West).
Political uncertainty, the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War, and concerns about diminished economic and professional opportunities further encouraged emigration. As a result, tens of thousands of Iranian Jews left for Europe, the United States, and Israel (hence the importance of the Jewish state) over the ensuing decades, transforming one of the Middle East’s oldest Jewish communities into a much smaller minority.
As for the meme’s image from Israel, I am sharing Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” to make a point. Serrano is a practicing Christian and Catholic. Serrano defends his work not as an attack on Jesus, but as a critique of the commercialized “Christ-for-profit” industry and the cheapening of spiritual values.
The exhibit shared by the poster, “McJesus,” a sculpture by Finnish artist Jani Leinonen, is in the same spirit. The work was (note the past tense) displayed at the Haifa Museum of Art as part of an exhibition called “Sacred Goods,” which explored themes of consumerism, branding, and religion. It was not endorsed by the Israeli government. Leinonen is not a Jewish artist. The Arab Christian community in Haifa protested its display (as did Christians with Serrano’s work). Israel is a liberal democracy and upholds freedom of expression, so art is allowed to be expressed.
Something like this would never appear in the Muslim world, where merely depicting Muhammad is a crime. Not just the Muslim world. Muslims killed cartoonists in France for drawings mocking Muhammad. In 2015, men raided the offices of the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed a dozen people for publishing cartoons offensive to Muslims (see Threat Minimization and Ecumenical Demobilization). I noted in a 2023 essay (see The Continuing Problem of Compelled Expression) that this was the only time I ever featured another country’s flag on my social media profiles.
It’s worth remembering that, elsewhere in the Muslims world, religious icons are routinely defaced. Defacing an image of Jesus reflects Islam’s extreme aniconism. They blow up statues of Buddha, etc. While the United States and Israel allow for maximum religious freedom, Muslims impose their religion on others. Don’t let propaganda confuse you.
freedom and reason 