There is a small but growing group of very brave men and women who are returning to their indigenous Gods, and slowly but surely restoring the pre-Islamic polytheisms of the Middle East. They call their movement ‘Wathan’ and right now, I’m sure you’ve never heard of them. (1) They’re doing good and potent work, and they’re doing it under pressures that we here in the West simply don’t have to face. For those in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, they face a literal – not metaphorical but quite literal—death sentence if they are discovered. The penalty for blasphemy or apostasy in Islam is, after all, death, especially in areas where Sharia law holds sway.

Yes, Virginia, there was religion in the Middle East before Islam. There were many complex and thriving theologies. They even worshipped Dionysos in Arabia. (2) Islam wiped most of that away…