If you’ve read New Persia: Before the Storm, you may be wondering about the religion of the main characters.
The flag of New Persia is a blue field with a nine-pointed star in the center. There’s symbolism there.
Part of the backstory of New Persia is why the New Persians are on the planet at all. Different parts of the planet were settled by religious minorities looking for a fresh start. Once they arrived some settlements prospered while others were wiped out by the native life or by conflict with other groups.
The tradition of religious minorities to seek out new places to live far away from the society of their birth is an old one. I live in the United States, which has a long history of settlement by people looking for a fresh start in their quest to worship God.
Since I believed religious minorities would be the most likely interstellar colonists of the future, I researched as many as I could. I found one faith to be especially compelling.
I’m not explicit about it in the book, but it’s the Baha’i faith. I want to make clear one thing: New Persia is a fictional story set in the year 3300 AD (Azanian Date) and the beliefs of the characters in the book reflect my own incomplete understanding of the Baha’i faith and my own guess of where the faith would go after becoming the dominant religion for a thousand years on another planet. In short, don’t take my word for it. I mean no disrespect to any adherents.
One thing I found particularly compelling was the Baha’i prayer for the United States of America, in the photo below. Having served in the US Armed Forces, I found it moving.
To its credit, the Baha’i faith calls for an end to nationalism and conflict. My novel reflects my view of the fallen nature of humanity and not that of the faith, which believes history is progressing toward a better future.
I would hope they are right and I am wrong. May the real history of space colonization be more peaceful than my portrayal.
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