Date: Friday 30 January 2004
Subj: Iraq: Islamisation, 'Jihad Rock' and death
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
-------------------------------------------------------------
IRAQ: ISLAMISATION, "JIHAD ROCK" AND DEATH
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Iraqi Governing Council has voted to replace the country's civil family laws with Islamic Sharia Law.
Pamela Constable writes from Baghdad for the Washington Post (17 Jan), "For four decades, Iraqi women have enjoyed some of the most modern legal protections in the Muslim world, under a civil code that prohibits marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce or male favouritism in child custody and property disputes. Saddam Hussein did not touch those rights. But the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council has voted to wipe them out, ordering that family laws shall be 'cancelled' and such issues placed under the jurisdiction of strict Islamic legal law or sharia.
"The order, narrowly approved by the 25-member council in a closed-door session on December 29, was reportedly sponsored by conservative Shiites. The order is being opposed by several liberal members and senior women in the Government." (Link 1)
LA Times staff reporter Alissa J. Rubin, comments that "the measure would shift women's fates from the hands of judges to those of clerics, most likely chosen by their husbands, who may have little commitment to protecting their rights.
"The law under Hussein was a progressive amalgam of the most generous Sharia rules toward women - drawn from each sect - on marriage, divorce, custody of children and inheritance, according to lawyers and judges. Although women were never treated better than their male counterparts, under Iraq's civil law at least a judge rather than a cleric heard their cases in matters of divorce and child custody, ensuring a measure of equity regardless of the woman's sect or ethnic background."
Rubin reports that "every judge and lawyer interviewed insisted that Sharia law was superior to civil law. 'Sharia is from God, the law is man-made, and Sharia is better because what comes from Allah is fixed,' said Kadhim Jubori, 55, who has practised family law for 33 years in Baghdad. A similar attitude was evident in the comments of Governing Council members who supported the measure. Ibrahim Jafari, a member from the Shiite Dawa Party, said Islamic law was more progressive than U.S. law..." ("Fighting for Their Future", by Alissa J. Rubin, LA Times 25 Jan 2004)
Pamela Constable's Washington Post article reports, "The chief US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, must approve the council's decisions and aides said unofficially that his imprimatur for this change was unlikely. But experts said that once US officials turned over political power to Iraqis at the end of June, conservative forces could press ahead with their agenda to make sharia the supreme law."
As was pointed out in a WEA RLC News & Analysis posting entitled "Iraq: The IGC and the Battle for Iraq" (Monday 28 July 2003) the US desperately needed Shi'a support for the IGC in order for it to be credible and have authority. In order to win Shi'a support, particularly from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI - the largest and most organised political organisation in Iraq) the US acquiesced to SCIRI's demands and permitted the IGC to be stacked with a majority of Shi'a, most of whom are staunch Islamists.
Under the 15 November 2003 "Agreement on Political Process", a transitional assembly selected through regional caucuses would form a fully sovereign Iraqi government on 1 July 2004, based on a "Fundamental Law". This Fundamental law, or interim constitution, would include a "Bill of rights, to include freedom of speech, legislature, religion; statement of equal rights of all Iraqis, regardless of gender, sect, and ethnicity; and guarantees of due process".
However, Iraq's powerful Shi'a leader Ayatollah Sistani has since insisted on direct elections for the transitional assembly, as well as assurances that the interim constitution will defer to Islam. Analysts argue that the motive behind Al-Sistani's consistent demand for elections is to secure a Shi'a-dominated government.
Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi, a key U.S. ally before the Iraq war, is saying that he supports al-Sistani's call for direct elections. Chalabi is no doubt considering the possibility of standing as a presidential candidate, and is thus keen to align himself more with popular Iraqi sentiment than with U.S. policy.
"JIHAD ROCK"
On 17 January the South China Morning Post published an article on the escalating popularity of "jihad rock" by local singer Sabah al-Jenabi. "The rhythm, you can almost dance to. The lyrics call for guerilla war. Though the lyrics are contemporary, the music is based on a form of religious music, centuries-old, called praising.
"Coalition spokesman Dan Señor recently said 'any sort of public expression used in an institutionalised sense that would incite violence against the coalition or Iraqis' is banned under Iraq's current rules. Yet, CD shops and cassette stalls continue to sell Jenabi's albums and those of other musicians calling for jihad, or holy war, against the Americans. They sell for 2,000 Iraqi dinars, less than US$1.25.
"At Sabah Recordings, a popular cassette shop in a Fallujah alleyway, owner Maher al-Ajrari at first denies he even sells Jenabi's music. But after an hour of hemming and hawing, he admits the 'jihad tapes' are bestsellers. He even carries 'video' versions: as musicians sing the anti-American songs, news footage of American troops killing and maiming Iraqis rolls by."
It is not surprising then, that that those considered to be American allies, even Iraqi Assyrian Christian women doing laundry for an American base near Baghdad, would be gunned down in cold blood by fellow Iraqis. (See BBC, "Iraq women gunned down", 22 Jan 2004.)
- Elizabeth Kendal
Link
1) Ruling council tries to ditch women's rights
By Pamela Constable in Baghdad, 17 January 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/16/1073878025455.html
Friday, January 30, 2004
Iraq: The Assyrians and a federation for Iraq
Date: Friday 30 January 2004
Subj: Iraq: The Assyrians and a federation for Iraq
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
------------------------------------------------------------------
IRAQ: THE ASSYRIANS AND A FEDERATION FOR IRAQ
------------------------------------------------------------------
Fikret Bila reports for the Turkish Press (12 Jan), "Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, said that a federation would be the best regime for the country. The Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq are pushing for an ethnic-based federation. They are planning a dual federation based on the Kurds and the Arabs. The ethnic Turkmen and others would not be taken into consideration. Bremer's approach shows that the US is leaning in the
same direction." (Link 1)
The civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, announced however that the U.S. would agree on establishing federalism in Iraq, but based on geographic and not demographic, ethnic partition, although he would be happy for the Kurds to control the northern regions with the exception of Kirkuk. ("Washington And The Kurds." By Abdullah Al Ashaal. Al-Hayat. 19 Jan 2004)
Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party regime exercised a policy of Arabisation, whereby Arabs were moved in to regions formally dominated by ethnic minorities, in order to change the demographics. The Kurdish claim is for an ethnic federation and a reversal of Arabisation. One thing that is not being talked about is the effect such a situation would have on the other inhabitants and ethnic minorities of northern Iraq, such as the Assyrians, who are the indigenous inhabitants of northern Iraq and are Christian.
THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIAN REMNANT
According to Nineveh.com, "The Assyrians of today are the indigenous Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, one of the earliest civilizations emerging in the Middle East, and have a history spanning over 6750 years. Assyrians are not Arabian, we are not Kurdish, our religion is not Islam. The Assyrians are Christian, with our own unique language, culture and heritage. Although the Assyrian empire ended in 612 B.C., history is replete with recorded details of the continuous presence of the Assyrian people till the present time." (Link 2)
Peter BetBasoo has produced an excellent summary history of Assyria and the Assyrian people on the website of the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). He describes Assyrians as "a Semitic people indigenous to Mesopotamia". With a map he shows the historic Assyria as located in north Mesopotamia, spanning four countries - from the Euphrates River in north-eastern Syria, through the eastern corner of Turkey, western edge of Iran, and northern Iraq to about 100 miles south of Kirkuk. The plains of Arbil and Nineveh (Mosul) were the breadbaskets of the Assyrian people.
The Assyrians converted from Ashurism to Eastern Christianity in the three centuries after Christ. The Assyrian Church of the East was founded in 33 A.D. Once Assyria had been major military Empire, but after 33 A.D. it was to become a great religious empire with a large active missionary movement that took the gospel into China and beyond. Arab Islamic invaders captured Mesopotamia in 630 A.D. and subjugated the Assyrians under Muslim domination.
Kurds swept into Assyria in 1261 A.D. after King Salih Isma'il ordered them to emigrate from the mountains of Turkey to the Nineveh plains. Assyrians left their homes and fled to Arbil. Many lost their lives. When Timurlane the Mongol arrived in 1300 A.D he found the Assyrian people already traumatised and decimated. He massacred the Assyrians and drove them out until only a remnant remained.
Only a decade after the genocide of the Armenians (1915-23), the Assyrians suffered a major massacre in Iraq during the post-WW1 mandate period (1933). Actually the history of the Assyrian people, particularly since the arrival of Islam in the region, has been one of frequent massacres and almost continual oppression and persecution. (Link 3)
PRESENT THREAT
The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reports that the present Kurdish proposal "to establish an ethnically based autonomous area even beyond the current occupied northern provinces has alarmed various Iraqi communities including Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs), Arabs, Turkman, and Yezidis within Iraq and abroad. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's (PUK) Barham Salih recently declared that the Kurdish autonomous area ought to be extended beyond the three occupied and already diversely populated and contentious provinces of Dohuk (Nohadra), Arbil, and Sulaimaniya to include large portions of Diyala, Nineveh, and Karkuk.
"According to a December 25, 2003 Jordan Times article, Mr. Barham Salih asserted that, 'Karkuk is an integral part of Kurdistan, administratively, geographically, and historically.' In addition, Mr. Salih affirmed that the Kurdish map includes the historically Assyrian provinces of Arbil and Dohuk and now unabashedly extends the proposed area to occupy the remaining Assyrian towns and villages in the plains of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital, which up until the war of liberation were under government control." (Link 4)
The escalation of fighting along ethnic lines in northern Iraq is cause for great concern. AINA quotes Mr. Abgar Maloul of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) as saying that "ethnic federalism built on the premise of the subjugation by one ethnic group of other minorities is not what we envisioned a liberated Iraq would resemble. We have long stood for a free, sovereign, secular, and democratic Iraq for all Iraqis." (Link 4)
Ashor Giwargis, born in Beirut in 1970, is a researcher and writer concerning the Assyrian cause. He writes out of great concern for the future of Iraq's Assyrian Christians. "Before the coming of the Ba'ath regime to Iraq in 1968, Assyrians constituted 65% of the population of the northern region, and the Kurds were about 15% and Arabs about 20%. During the 1st Gulf War, Kurdish tribes came in from Iran, supported by the Iranians, to fight against Iraq. They destroyed our villages. As a result, the majority of the Assyrians fled their towns and migrated to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, seeking refugee visas to U.S.A, Europe, and Australia. That's why today we have some 3.2 million Assyrians in the Diaspora. The Assyrians make up 30% of Iraqi immigrants.
"In Iran the Assyrians were more than 150,000 before the coming of Khomeni in 1979, but now they are only about 30,000. We have churches that date back to the 1st century, built by St. Thomas and other churches from 2nd, 3rd, 4rth century. The indigenous people of Assyria are today scattered around the world. We are watching the news and hearing how the descendents of Tamorlane the Mongolian are announcing their 'Kurdistan' in Assyria, but we are unable to say a word for the great powers are busy with more important issues."
This is a situation to watch very closely. Christians worldwide must make it known that we regard the future and fate of our Assyrian Christian brothers and sisters as a very important issue.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Iraq Federation?
By Fikret Bila, Turkish Press, 12 Jan 2004
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=16667
2) http://www.nineveh.com/whoarewe.htm
3) http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm
& http://aina.org/releases/2004/karkukaut.htm
4) Kurdish Autonomy Proposal Threatens Iraqi Territorial Integrity
Assyrian International News Agency. 8 Jan 2004
http://aina.org/releases/2004/karkukaut.htm
Recommended further reading:
Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2003)
Iraqi Assyrians: Barometer of Pluralism.
By Jonathan Eric Lewis.
http://www.meforum.org/article/558/
Subj: Iraq: The Assyrians and a federation for Iraq
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
------------------------------------------------------------------
IRAQ: THE ASSYRIANS AND A FEDERATION FOR IRAQ
------------------------------------------------------------------
Fikret Bila reports for the Turkish Press (12 Jan), "Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, said that a federation would be the best regime for the country. The Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq are pushing for an ethnic-based federation. They are planning a dual federation based on the Kurds and the Arabs. The ethnic Turkmen and others would not be taken into consideration. Bremer's approach shows that the US is leaning in the
same direction." (Link 1)
The civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, announced however that the U.S. would agree on establishing federalism in Iraq, but based on geographic and not demographic, ethnic partition, although he would be happy for the Kurds to control the northern regions with the exception of Kirkuk. ("Washington And The Kurds." By Abdullah Al Ashaal. Al-Hayat. 19 Jan 2004)
Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party regime exercised a policy of Arabisation, whereby Arabs were moved in to regions formally dominated by ethnic minorities, in order to change the demographics. The Kurdish claim is for an ethnic federation and a reversal of Arabisation. One thing that is not being talked about is the effect such a situation would have on the other inhabitants and ethnic minorities of northern Iraq, such as the Assyrians, who are the indigenous inhabitants of northern Iraq and are Christian.
THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIAN REMNANT
According to Nineveh.com, "The Assyrians of today are the indigenous Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, one of the earliest civilizations emerging in the Middle East, and have a history spanning over 6750 years. Assyrians are not Arabian, we are not Kurdish, our religion is not Islam. The Assyrians are Christian, with our own unique language, culture and heritage. Although the Assyrian empire ended in 612 B.C., history is replete with recorded details of the continuous presence of the Assyrian people till the present time." (Link 2)
Peter BetBasoo has produced an excellent summary history of Assyria and the Assyrian people on the website of the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). He describes Assyrians as "a Semitic people indigenous to Mesopotamia". With a map he shows the historic Assyria as located in north Mesopotamia, spanning four countries - from the Euphrates River in north-eastern Syria, through the eastern corner of Turkey, western edge of Iran, and northern Iraq to about 100 miles south of Kirkuk. The plains of Arbil and Nineveh (Mosul) were the breadbaskets of the Assyrian people.
The Assyrians converted from Ashurism to Eastern Christianity in the three centuries after Christ. The Assyrian Church of the East was founded in 33 A.D. Once Assyria had been major military Empire, but after 33 A.D. it was to become a great religious empire with a large active missionary movement that took the gospel into China and beyond. Arab Islamic invaders captured Mesopotamia in 630 A.D. and subjugated the Assyrians under Muslim domination.
Kurds swept into Assyria in 1261 A.D. after King Salih Isma'il ordered them to emigrate from the mountains of Turkey to the Nineveh plains. Assyrians left their homes and fled to Arbil. Many lost their lives. When Timurlane the Mongol arrived in 1300 A.D he found the Assyrian people already traumatised and decimated. He massacred the Assyrians and drove them out until only a remnant remained.
Only a decade after the genocide of the Armenians (1915-23), the Assyrians suffered a major massacre in Iraq during the post-WW1 mandate period (1933). Actually the history of the Assyrian people, particularly since the arrival of Islam in the region, has been one of frequent massacres and almost continual oppression and persecution. (Link 3)
PRESENT THREAT
The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reports that the present Kurdish proposal "to establish an ethnically based autonomous area even beyond the current occupied northern provinces has alarmed various Iraqi communities including Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs), Arabs, Turkman, and Yezidis within Iraq and abroad. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's (PUK) Barham Salih recently declared that the Kurdish autonomous area ought to be extended beyond the three occupied and already diversely populated and contentious provinces of Dohuk (Nohadra), Arbil, and Sulaimaniya to include large portions of Diyala, Nineveh, and Karkuk.
"According to a December 25, 2003 Jordan Times article, Mr. Barham Salih asserted that, 'Karkuk is an integral part of Kurdistan, administratively, geographically, and historically.' In addition, Mr. Salih affirmed that the Kurdish map includes the historically Assyrian provinces of Arbil and Dohuk and now unabashedly extends the proposed area to occupy the remaining Assyrian towns and villages in the plains of Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital, which up until the war of liberation were under government control." (Link 4)
The escalation of fighting along ethnic lines in northern Iraq is cause for great concern. AINA quotes Mr. Abgar Maloul of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) as saying that "ethnic federalism built on the premise of the subjugation by one ethnic group of other minorities is not what we envisioned a liberated Iraq would resemble. We have long stood for a free, sovereign, secular, and democratic Iraq for all Iraqis." (Link 4)
Ashor Giwargis, born in Beirut in 1970, is a researcher and writer concerning the Assyrian cause. He writes out of great concern for the future of Iraq's Assyrian Christians. "Before the coming of the Ba'ath regime to Iraq in 1968, Assyrians constituted 65% of the population of the northern region, and the Kurds were about 15% and Arabs about 20%. During the 1st Gulf War, Kurdish tribes came in from Iran, supported by the Iranians, to fight against Iraq. They destroyed our villages. As a result, the majority of the Assyrians fled their towns and migrated to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, seeking refugee visas to U.S.A, Europe, and Australia. That's why today we have some 3.2 million Assyrians in the Diaspora. The Assyrians make up 30% of Iraqi immigrants.
"In Iran the Assyrians were more than 150,000 before the coming of Khomeni in 1979, but now they are only about 30,000. We have churches that date back to the 1st century, built by St. Thomas and other churches from 2nd, 3rd, 4rth century. The indigenous people of Assyria are today scattered around the world. We are watching the news and hearing how the descendents of Tamorlane the Mongolian are announcing their 'Kurdistan' in Assyria, but we are unable to say a word for the great powers are busy with more important issues."
This is a situation to watch very closely. Christians worldwide must make it known that we regard the future and fate of our Assyrian Christian brothers and sisters as a very important issue.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Iraq Federation?
By Fikret Bila, Turkish Press, 12 Jan 2004
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=16667
2) http://www.nineveh.com/whoarewe.htm
3) http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm
& http://aina.org/releases/2004/karkukaut.htm
4) Kurdish Autonomy Proposal Threatens Iraqi Territorial Integrity
Assyrian International News Agency. 8 Jan 2004
http://aina.org/releases/2004/karkukaut.htm
Recommended further reading:
Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2003)
Iraqi Assyrians: Barometer of Pluralism.
By Jonathan Eric Lewis.
http://www.meforum.org/article/558/
Iraq: the persecution of Mandaeans
Date: Friday 30 January 2004
Subj: Iraq: the persecution of Mandaeans
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
----------------------------------------------------
IRAQ: THE PERSECUTION OF MANDAEANS
----------------------------------------------------
Mandaeans follow the teachings and practice of John the Baptist. Since Ayatollah Al-Hakeem declared Iraq's Mandaeans to be "unclean" and not "People of the Book", the situation for Mandaeans in post war Iraq has become critical. It is not an exaggeration to say that their survival as a people is seriously at risk.
"UNCLEAN"
Before his assassination at the Tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf in August 2003, prominent Shiite leader and jurist Ayatollah Al-Hakeem decreed that Mandaeans do not have the status of People of the Book (Ahl-i-Kitab). This declaration remains on his Arabic website. This means Mandaeans are "unclean" (najes) and not to be "protected" as People of the Book. They may be killed or forcibly converted to Islam. This indeed appears to be what is happening on the ground.
EXPLANATION
The Qur'an mandates a system of Islamic apartheid. In the Islamic State, those regarded as "unclean" (pagans, idolaters) are to be killed or converted to Islam, while those regarded as "People of the Book" are afforded "protection". Protection enables the People of the Book, primarily Jews and Christians, to purchase their right to life and right to keep their own religion through payment of jizya (special tax) and submission to a life of utter subjugation. (See
Qur'an Sura 9:29.) Non-payment of jizya or any sign of rebellion against their subjugated status (i.e. criticism of the Qur'an, or reaction against abuse) results in protection being withdrawn and a state of war (jihad) resuming.
Sabaeans (Mandaeans) are mentioned three times in the Qur'an. Sura 2:62 states that Jews, Christians and Sabaeans - those who believe in God, the Last Day and do what is right - will have nothing to fear in judgement. Sura 5:69 says the same but also includes believers (Muslims). Sura 22:17 says that believers (Muslims), Jews, Sabaeans, Christians, magicians and pagans will all be judged by God on the Day of Resurrection.
The status of Sabaean Mandaeans has varied throughout Islamic history. In early days Sabaeans were regarded as People of the Book and protected. However, by the tenth century the Sabaeans, who were by then living in al-Wasit (Iraq), were officially declared to be "unclean" and not dhimmis (protected people). (Footnote 1)
PRESENT CRITICAL SITUATION
The Sabaean Mandaean Association of Australia (SMAA) reports that on or about 20 December 2003, Rafid Al-Khamisy, a Mandaean, was confronted by Muslims in front of a number of people in Hay Al-Shurtha suburb in Baghdad. The Muslims demanded that Rafid Al-Khamisy convert to Islam. Rafid Al-Khamisy refused to convert to Islam and the Muslims then killed him in front of the others who were present.
On 20 January the SMAA reported, "The Sabian Mandaean Association in Australia has now been advised that in Falluja alone thirty-five (35) Mandaean families have been forcibly converted to Islam. This also involves forced circumcision. The Mandaean women and girls of these families have been forcibly married to Muslim men chosen by the Muslims. The suffering that has been inflicted is incalculable.
"It has also been reported to us (SMAA) that a group of Muslim men seized a seven (7) year old Mandaean boy, doused him in petrol and set him alight. As the child was being burnt to death the Muslims were running around shouting, 'Burn the dirty infidel!'
"It has also been reported to us that a young Mandaean man went into a restaurant and drank a glass of water. Some Muslims realised that he was Mandaean so they beat him severely, breaking many of his bones so that he needed to be hospitalised. The Muslims then broke the glass he had drunk from because, according to Islam, it had been rendered ritually 'unclean'. We have been informed that there have been many incidents of this kind.
"Recently a Muslim magazine published a picture of Christ and His Mother Mary next to an article claiming that all Christian homes were brothels making money from the American troops. On this occasion the American authorities intervened to stop the circulation of the magazine."
SMAA has many such cases of documented persecution. "Raeed Hwaiel was in his house in Basra when Muslims threw two grenades into his house in October 2003. Ms Abrar Saaeed was kidnapped by Muslims and forcibly converted to Islam together with her family in Basra in November 2003. Jinan Bassim Tabit was kidnapped by Muslims in Baghdad in September 2003. Seaa Mehsen was killed by Muslims in Baghdad in October 2003." The SMAA sent me (E.Kendal) an email on 12 January with 30 such cases listed in detail. They acknowledge with much grief that this is only the tip of the iceberg, as the reports they receive are primarily from those Mandaeans with relatives in Australia.
The persecution is not localised. Mandaeans are being persecuted wherever they are found - Baghdad, Falluja, Basra. The persecution is also frequent and committed with impunity.
The Sabaean Mandaean Association of Australia believes all governments with troops in Iraq should be required to rescue from Iraq all the Mandaeans and Christians who have been forcibly
converted to Islam.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Footnote
1) Bat Ye'or. The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: from
Jihad to Dhimmitude. 1996.
Subj: Iraq: the persecution of Mandaeans
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
----------------------------------------------------
IRAQ: THE PERSECUTION OF MANDAEANS
----------------------------------------------------
Mandaeans follow the teachings and practice of John the Baptist. Since Ayatollah Al-Hakeem declared Iraq's Mandaeans to be "unclean" and not "People of the Book", the situation for Mandaeans in post war Iraq has become critical. It is not an exaggeration to say that their survival as a people is seriously at risk.
"UNCLEAN"
Before his assassination at the Tomb of Imam Ali in Najaf in August 2003, prominent Shiite leader and jurist Ayatollah Al-Hakeem decreed that Mandaeans do not have the status of People of the Book (Ahl-i-Kitab). This declaration remains on his Arabic website. This means Mandaeans are "unclean" (najes) and not to be "protected" as People of the Book. They may be killed or forcibly converted to Islam. This indeed appears to be what is happening on the ground.
EXPLANATION
The Qur'an mandates a system of Islamic apartheid. In the Islamic State, those regarded as "unclean" (pagans, idolaters) are to be killed or converted to Islam, while those regarded as "People of the Book" are afforded "protection". Protection enables the People of the Book, primarily Jews and Christians, to purchase their right to life and right to keep their own religion through payment of jizya (special tax) and submission to a life of utter subjugation. (See
Qur'an Sura 9:29.) Non-payment of jizya or any sign of rebellion against their subjugated status (i.e. criticism of the Qur'an, or reaction against abuse) results in protection being withdrawn and a state of war (jihad) resuming.
Sabaeans (Mandaeans) are mentioned three times in the Qur'an. Sura 2:62 states that Jews, Christians and Sabaeans - those who believe in God, the Last Day and do what is right - will have nothing to fear in judgement. Sura 5:69 says the same but also includes believers (Muslims). Sura 22:17 says that believers (Muslims), Jews, Sabaeans, Christians, magicians and pagans will all be judged by God on the Day of Resurrection.
The status of Sabaean Mandaeans has varied throughout Islamic history. In early days Sabaeans were regarded as People of the Book and protected. However, by the tenth century the Sabaeans, who were by then living in al-Wasit (Iraq), were officially declared to be "unclean" and not dhimmis (protected people). (Footnote 1)
PRESENT CRITICAL SITUATION
The Sabaean Mandaean Association of Australia (SMAA) reports that on or about 20 December 2003, Rafid Al-Khamisy, a Mandaean, was confronted by Muslims in front of a number of people in Hay Al-Shurtha suburb in Baghdad. The Muslims demanded that Rafid Al-Khamisy convert to Islam. Rafid Al-Khamisy refused to convert to Islam and the Muslims then killed him in front of the others who were present.
On 20 January the SMAA reported, "The Sabian Mandaean Association in Australia has now been advised that in Falluja alone thirty-five (35) Mandaean families have been forcibly converted to Islam. This also involves forced circumcision. The Mandaean women and girls of these families have been forcibly married to Muslim men chosen by the Muslims. The suffering that has been inflicted is incalculable.
"It has also been reported to us (SMAA) that a group of Muslim men seized a seven (7) year old Mandaean boy, doused him in petrol and set him alight. As the child was being burnt to death the Muslims were running around shouting, 'Burn the dirty infidel!'
"It has also been reported to us that a young Mandaean man went into a restaurant and drank a glass of water. Some Muslims realised that he was Mandaean so they beat him severely, breaking many of his bones so that he needed to be hospitalised. The Muslims then broke the glass he had drunk from because, according to Islam, it had been rendered ritually 'unclean'. We have been informed that there have been many incidents of this kind.
"Recently a Muslim magazine published a picture of Christ and His Mother Mary next to an article claiming that all Christian homes were brothels making money from the American troops. On this occasion the American authorities intervened to stop the circulation of the magazine."
SMAA has many such cases of documented persecution. "Raeed Hwaiel was in his house in Basra when Muslims threw two grenades into his house in October 2003. Ms Abrar Saaeed was kidnapped by Muslims and forcibly converted to Islam together with her family in Basra in November 2003. Jinan Bassim Tabit was kidnapped by Muslims in Baghdad in September 2003. Seaa Mehsen was killed by Muslims in Baghdad in October 2003." The SMAA sent me (E.Kendal) an email on 12 January with 30 such cases listed in detail. They acknowledge with much grief that this is only the tip of the iceberg, as the reports they receive are primarily from those Mandaeans with relatives in Australia.
The persecution is not localised. Mandaeans are being persecuted wherever they are found - Baghdad, Falluja, Basra. The persecution is also frequent and committed with impunity.
The Sabaean Mandaean Association of Australia believes all governments with troops in Iraq should be required to rescue from Iraq all the Mandaeans and Christians who have been forcibly
converted to Islam.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Footnote
1) Bat Ye'or. The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: from
Jihad to Dhimmitude. 1996.