Source: The Baltimore Sun
On April 20, 2004 The Baltimore Sun reported, "For centuries this city has been the citadel where Zoroastrianism, the world's oldest prophetic religion, has preserved itself and prospered in the face of overwhelming odds. Now, demographers say, Zoroastrians in Bombay and elsewhere face extinction, with a falling birthrate magnified by a tradition of not accepting converts. The threat has locked the tiny community into an emotional debate over how to maintain its faith and identity, while also moving with the times. 'We must become more broadminded,' says Khushroo Madon, a self-described reformist priest in Bombay where the Zoroastrian population is expected to slide from 60,000 to 25,000 by 2020. 'We must welcome children of mixed parents [and] maybe even some new converts into our community.' To Zoroastrian conservatives this is heresy. 'Purity is more important than numbers,' says Khojeste Mistri, a Zoroastrian scholar in Bombay. 'Our religion is interwoven with our ethnicity [and] can only be passed on through a Zoroastrian father.'"