There were Eighteen Synagogues in Tehran Once...

Oh my. I had thought there was only one, but there were until recently eighteen synagogues in Tehran and thirty-five in Iran in total.

Until recently. This week there's only eleven.

In a story that has not been picked up by midstream media, AKI News service says 7 ancient synagogues were recently burnt to the ground in what officials describe as an "attempt to renew" an ancient quarter of the city. According to the news story

"The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live... A group of residents of Oudjalan have also sent a letter to the mayor of Tehran asking him to suspend the renovation work being carried out in the suburb."

As I said today in an earlier comment on this blog, I am astounded that Tehran had more than one Jewish Synagogue. This bit of news along with the AKI story also have made me wonder at a few things:

• At my readiness to believe there was only 1 Synagogue in Iran. This blog is primarily my thoughts and attitudes towards what I see in the world around me. I think I'll be checking my assumptions more carefully in the future.
• Much of the conservative blogosphere have already picked up this story and run with it. Dhimmi Watch, Gateway Pundit, small dead animals, to name a few. Why have the news services of the midstream media not carried this story? Are western news services so thin on the ground in Tehran that they couldn't confirm the story? A quick check of google shows the BBC ran a brief story today at 9:28 am this morning that life in Iran for Jews isn't so bad. I've gone 6 pages into the google search but...
• Will Tehran allow it's Jewish inhabitants to rebuild? I'm still doubtful. After two hours of internet searches I'm still faced with a lack of further information. But...
  

I get 216 news links from google searching for "christian persecution muslim". Most are stories either about Muslim Persecution of Christians or calls by religous and civil leaders for an end to persecution. I saw a couple of stories about Hindu destruction of Mosques and Christian churches. But most are about Muslim persecution of Christians or Jews in Dar Islam. Like this one: "Although Christian persecution of Muslims belongs to history, "Muslim persecution of Christians and other religious minorities remains a present evil..."