Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-islamic-state-christians/christianity-grows-in-syrian-town-once-besieged-by-islamic-state-idUSKCN1RS19N

KOBANI, Syria (Reuters) - A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago.

The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them toward their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town’s first evangelical church opened last year.

Fantastic!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Apparently Zoroastrianism is also making a comeback among Kurds disillusioned with Islam due to the events of the past five years.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Apparently Zoroastrianism is also making a comeback among Kurds disillusioned with Islam due to the events of the past five years.

Yes I heard that which is pretty odd since Zoroastrianism doesn't accept converts.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Apparently Zoroastrianism is also making a comeback among Kurds disillusioned with Islam due to the events of the past five years.

Yes I heard that which is pretty odd since Zoroastrianism doesn't accept converts.

Apparently the Kurds have DIY'd a new form of Zoroastrianism that does accept converts but that doesn't have a direct line of descent from the older communities in places like India. I guess time will tell whether or not the two forms of Zoroastrianism come to accept each other as being the same religion.

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

Apparently Zoroastrianism is also making a comeback among Kurds disillusioned with Islam due to the events of the past five years.

I've always been fascinated by Zoroastrianism, largely because I associate it with Freddie Mercury.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Zoroastrians are fun to play as in Crusader Kings 2, though it's very very difficult, you need a very steady stream of commerce so you can constantly hire mercenaries to keep kicking the Muslims' asses whenever they decide to holy war on you, which hopefully increases the decadence enough to cause a revolt and crack those awful giant sultantes. It's sooooo satisying once the Abassids or Saffarids crack and go away though.

The last time I tried that I gave up because I learned that just to my east the coolest character ever had been spawned, a Greek noblewoman who had become an adventurer, left the Byzantine Empire for the Middle East, converted from Orthodoxy to Nestorianism, and then toppled an Islamic Sultanate and took established Transoxiana as a Nestorian kingdom with her as Queen...oh come on there's no way in hell I can't play as that character that awesome. I beat up all the Muslims in the area and then expanded east into the Tibet area even and started taking over the lands of the Buddhists and Bon.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Apparently Zoroastrianism is also making a comeback among Kurds disillusioned with Islam due to the events of the past five years.

Yes I heard that which is pretty odd since Zoroastrianism doesn't accept converts.

Apparently the Kurds have DIY'd a new form of Zoroastrianism that does accept converts but that doesn't have a direct line of descent from the older communities in places like India. I guess time will tell whether or not the two forms of Zoroastrianism come to accept each other as being the same religion.

So sort of like Neo-Paganism or does this Neo-Zoroastrianism bear a closer relationship to the original?

That said, I imagine one reason modern Zoroastrianism doesn't generally seek converts is that for a long time, they were in areas where it wasn't safe to seek converts.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The last time I tried that I gave up because I learned that just to my east the coolest character ever had been spawned, a Greek noblewoman who had become an adventurer, left the Byzantine Empire for the Middle East, converted from Orthodoxy to Nestorianism, and then toppled an Islamic Sultanate and took established Transoxiana as a Nestorian kingdom with her as Queen...oh come on there's no way in hell I can't play as that character that awesome. I beat up all the Muslims in the area and then expanded east into the Tibet area even and started taking over the lands of the Buddhists and Bon.

I don't know much about Crusader Kings (video games aren't really a big hobby of mine) but she sounds fantastic, you're right.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The last time I tried that I gave up because I learned that just to my east the coolest character ever had been spawned, a Greek noblewoman who had become an adventurer, left the Byzantine Empire for the Middle East, converted from Orthodoxy to Nestorianism, and then toppled an Islamic Sultanate and took established Transoxiana as a Nestorian kingdom with her as Queen...oh come on there's no way in hell I can't play as that character that awesome. I beat up all the Muslims in the area and then expanded east into the Tibet area even and started taking over the lands of the Buddhists and Bon.

I don't know much about Crusader Kings (video games aren't really a big hobby of mine) but she sounds fantastic, you're right.

The part that makes me sad is that the game would've ended once she died because her heir was her son from her first marriage and not part of her dynasty. Plus he was still living in the Byzantine Empire. So I had to basically trick him to come to the kingdom, imprison him, and them force him to take the vows and go to a monastery to disinherit him. Lousy thing to do but the only other way I could've continued the game after she died is if he died before her. :/ Her first husband died soon though so I married one of her military commanders matrilineally and had twins that I named Beto O'Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Beto of course became king after her life.

Since you're not familiar with the game you might be interested to know that Zoroastrianism is mostly known in game for the fact that it actually allows and encourages incestuous marriages. Yes, seriously. (Apparently historically this was more of a "Persian nobility thing" than a "Zoroastrian thing" but the developers obviously wanted to add some flavor...)

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Interesting, unforunate, but interesting, none of my business though, that's between them and God, still unfortunate.