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SHEIKH
ADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Worshippers sacrifice fowl and
offer dawn prayers to the angel Malak Taus as
hundreds of members Iraq's obscure Yezidi sect
gather at their Lalish temple to celebrate the
summer feast.
Families walk barefoot through the streets of Sheikh
Adi -- a Yezidi religious site about 280 miles north
of Baghdad -- paying their respects at numerous
shrines and tying knots in holy cloth hung in the
temple to ensure male offspring.
Yezidis are one of Iraq's oldest and most unusual
religious sects and this festival -- the biggest of
their year -- usually attracts around 15,000 people
in August, with some families traveling from abroad
to make the pilgrimage.
This year things are different. Even before car
bombs exploded outside five Christian churches in
Iraq this month -- raising fears of attacks on
religious minorities -- the Yezidi political leader,
or "prince," had ordered official celebrations to be
canceled because of security concerns.
This year, the pilgrims numbered in the hundreds,
rather than thousands. "I didn't even expect this
many people to come," said Sheikh Tassim, the
71-year-old prince, as he received well-wishers in
one of the temple's halls.
The Yezidis are a Kurdish religious community who
number around 750,000 in Iraq and about 1.5 million
worldwide, according to Tassim, with members found
in places including Syria, Turkey and Russia.
Tassim, who was forced to flee Iraq after supporting
a Kurdish uprising and spent several years in exile
in London in the 1970s, said Yezidis were potential
targets for militants.
"We have the same problem as everybody else in Iraq
-- terrorism," he said. "It's very upsetting that
any religious place would be exposed to bomb
attacks."
FALLEN ANGEL
Yezidi beliefs are a confusing mix of Islamic and
even Zoroastrian elements, but in Iraq they have
gained a reputation as "devil-worshippers" since
they revere all of God's angels -- including the
"fallen angel" known in some faiths as Satan.
According to Yezidis, "Malak Taus" was God's
favorite angel, brought to Earth as a prophet of
peace -- but this belief and some unusual customs
have provoked mistrust from others.
In fact, many Yezidis believe they are more likely
than most to face persecution in Iraq -- because
they belong to the Kurdish minority and because of
their religion.
"In this country we feel we are always discriminated
against twice ... but our traditions will stay,"
said Sheikh al-Yass Oudi, a distant relative of
Sheikh Adi, the faith's historic founder.
Yezidis have no religious marriage ceremony -- the
tradition is to kidnap one's intended bride from her
family's house and hold her for a year before making
a dowry arrangement.
It is also customary for Yezidis not to cut their
mustaches, and to avoid eating lettuce or wearing
blue.
"We don't like to mix with Arab people -- they
consider us unclean because they are uneducated,"
said Oudi.
Hundreds of Yezidi villages were destroyed during
former president Saddam Hussein's campaigns against
Iraqi Kurds, and although Yezidis now count one of
their number as a minister of state in Baghdad,
there is concern among the community that they are
being marginalized in postwar Iraq.
"Yezidi families are still living in tents in my
district and the government has given us no help,"
said Qasim Shursha, a Yezidi local government
representative in Sinjar, which lies between the
northern city of Mosul and the Syrian border.
Shursha said the area contained many Yezidis before
Saddam forced them out during the late 1980s --
those who have returned are now facing
discrimination by Arabs.
"Nobody is attacking us yet -- but Arabs are trying
to remove Yezidi members from the police force."
SHRINKING POPULATION
Most of the families attending this year's
toned-down summer festival seemed unworried by the
threat of the attacks.
But as they ate picnics in the hills around their
temple -- many wearing colorful traditional robes --
some Yezidis admitted to fears for the community's
survival.
"We don't worry about those terrorists," said
32-year-old English teacher Sabah Haji. "But our
population is getting smaller since we can't marry
outside our religion and we don't accept people to
enter Yezidism."
Haji said there was a debate among Iraqi Yezidis
about whether to relax traditions to stop the
community shrinking and ensure it does not become
isolated from modern society.
For Haji, upholding the traditions of the "most
ancient religion on earth" was paramount, even if
they jeopardize the community's existence.
"If God wants us to disappear we will disappear," he
said.
© Reuters 2004
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