alkemical
05-02-2007, 12:39 AM
23 Members of ‘Angel’ Worshipping Sect Gunned Down in Mosul (http://www.raidersnewsnetwork.com/full.php?news=4889)
By Ray Perdue
RaidersNewsNetwork.com
April 24, 2007
While heading home from work on Sunday, twenty-three members of the Yazidi religious sect were gunned down by Iraqi Muslims in Mosul.
The Factory workers had left their jobs at the Mosul Textile Factory and were traveling home on bus with Christian and Muslim workers. According to reports, armed men in at least two cars stopped the bus by blocking the road. The gunmen boarded the bus, and checked the ID cards for the occupants’ religious affiliations.
Passengers stated that the gunmen ordered the Christians and Muslims to get off the bus. The bus was then driven to the al-Nour section of eastern Mosul, where gunmen are believed to have lined twenty-six Yazidis against a wall, and then proceeded to shoot them down. Twenty-three were killed, and three others remain in serious condition.
The victims were all Yazidis from Bashika, a northern Iraqi city in the Nineveh Province. Bashika is 80% Yazidi, 15% Christian and 5% Muslim. Yazidis are members of an ancient Kurdish sect that dates to pre-Islamic times, and live mainly in northern Iraq and Syria.
According to Iraqi police the murders were in retaliation for an incident that occurred several weeks ago. A Yazidi woman reportedly was having an affair with a Muslim man, and ran away with him. Her family had reported her missing, and when police tracked the pair down, they detained them. The man remained in jail, but the woman was freed after her family promised police that she would not be harmed in any way. Iraqi police state that the woman was then taken back to her village where she was stoned to death for converting to Islam.
A grainy cell phone video had been circulated on Iraqi websites in recent weeks, which supposedly showed the Yazidi woman being stoned to death with pieces of concrete blocks. However, the video has never been confirmed by independent sources as being authentic.
Currently no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack against the Yazidis, but officials indicate that Sunni Arab extremists may be the perpetrators. The Yazidi community has received numerous threats recently from Sunni Arabs in the Mosul area.
Yadizis have a history of persecution from a long line of rulers of what is now Iraq. They were singled out during the days of the Ottoman Empire for refusing to convert to Islam. Saddam Hussein persecuted them, along with other non-Sunnis. Yazidis claim that Saddam massacred many of their group.
Yazidis say the reason why they have been persecuted and discriminated over the centuries is because of religion. The Yazidi religion is built around an angel that they believe is the manifestation of God. Muslims and many Christians do not view the Yazidi object of worship as just any angel, but rather as actually being Satan.
The angel that the Yazidis worship is a being they refer to as Melek Taus. The Yazidis believe that God created Melek Taus from his own illumination, and that he was created to never bow down to other beings.
According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, "The Yazidis consider Melek Taus to be a benevolent angel that has redeemed himself from his fall, and has become a demiurge (Craftsman or Creator) who created the cosmos from the Cosmic Egg. After he repented, he cried for 7,000 years, his tears filling seven jars, which then quenched the fires of hell."
Sometimes the name Melek Taus is transliterated in various forms; however, "melek" is normally considered to mean "angel" or "king", and "taus" is translated as "peacock". The physical manifestation of Melek Taus is that of a blue peacock, and is depicted as such throughout Yazidi art and sculpture. It is interesting that no peacocks are ever known to have been in the lands where Melek Taus is currently worshipped.
Yazidis are known to refer to Melek Taus as the "evil one", and it is considered blasphemy to utter the name of God. Muslims and Christians have persecuted the Yazidis over the centuries for being devil worshippers.
Iraqi officials are concerned that this latest attack on the Yazidis could place a further strain on the already tense situation between the Kurds and the Arabs. Yahya Mahmood, a Sunni Arab politician in Mosul said that he thinks the murders were carried out by insurgents who are trying to start a religious civil war. He told Iraqi reporters that, "This incident is a conspiracy against Mosul to incite civil war."
Kharso Goran, the Deputy Governor of Nineveh Province said last month that former Baathists who had been loyal to Saddam Hussein were targeting the Kurdish population in Mosul. He said this also included trying to split the Kurds themselves into opposing factions by accusing the Yazidis of not being ethnic Kurds.
That plan may have partially succeeded earlier this year when in February Yazidis in Bashika were forced into hiding after mobs of Sunni Kurds began attacking homes and businesses due to a Muslim woman’s association with two Yazidi men.
Religious violence has caused man Yazidis to leave the violence of Iraq behind. The Minority Rights Group based in London reports that about 550,000 Yazidis lived in Iraq before the American-led invasion, but that thousands had fled to escape further reprisals by their neighbors.
Notes:
"21 Iraqis killed in religious violence", by Tina Susman, 4/23/2007, Los Angeles Times
"23 members of a minority sect are gunned down in Iraq", 4/22/2007, International Herald Tribune
"23 Taken From Bus, Gunned Down In Iraq", by Lauren Frayer, 4/22/2007, Associated Press
"Iraq gunmen target minority group", 4/22/2007, BBC News
"Iraqi gunmen slay sect members in revenge killings", 4/22/2007, Reuters UK
"Members of Ancient Sect Killed in Iraq", by Thomas Wagner, 4/22/2007, Associated Press
"Melek Taus", Wikipedia
"Yazidi", Wikipedia
By Ray Perdue
RaidersNewsNetwork.com
April 24, 2007
While heading home from work on Sunday, twenty-three members of the Yazidi religious sect were gunned down by Iraqi Muslims in Mosul.
The Factory workers had left their jobs at the Mosul Textile Factory and were traveling home on bus with Christian and Muslim workers. According to reports, armed men in at least two cars stopped the bus by blocking the road. The gunmen boarded the bus, and checked the ID cards for the occupants’ religious affiliations.
Passengers stated that the gunmen ordered the Christians and Muslims to get off the bus. The bus was then driven to the al-Nour section of eastern Mosul, where gunmen are believed to have lined twenty-six Yazidis against a wall, and then proceeded to shoot them down. Twenty-three were killed, and three others remain in serious condition.
The victims were all Yazidis from Bashika, a northern Iraqi city in the Nineveh Province. Bashika is 80% Yazidi, 15% Christian and 5% Muslim. Yazidis are members of an ancient Kurdish sect that dates to pre-Islamic times, and live mainly in northern Iraq and Syria.
According to Iraqi police the murders were in retaliation for an incident that occurred several weeks ago. A Yazidi woman reportedly was having an affair with a Muslim man, and ran away with him. Her family had reported her missing, and when police tracked the pair down, they detained them. The man remained in jail, but the woman was freed after her family promised police that she would not be harmed in any way. Iraqi police state that the woman was then taken back to her village where she was stoned to death for converting to Islam.
A grainy cell phone video had been circulated on Iraqi websites in recent weeks, which supposedly showed the Yazidi woman being stoned to death with pieces of concrete blocks. However, the video has never been confirmed by independent sources as being authentic.
Currently no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack against the Yazidis, but officials indicate that Sunni Arab extremists may be the perpetrators. The Yazidi community has received numerous threats recently from Sunni Arabs in the Mosul area.
Yadizis have a history of persecution from a long line of rulers of what is now Iraq. They were singled out during the days of the Ottoman Empire for refusing to convert to Islam. Saddam Hussein persecuted them, along with other non-Sunnis. Yazidis claim that Saddam massacred many of their group.
Yazidis say the reason why they have been persecuted and discriminated over the centuries is because of religion. The Yazidi religion is built around an angel that they believe is the manifestation of God. Muslims and many Christians do not view the Yazidi object of worship as just any angel, but rather as actually being Satan.
The angel that the Yazidis worship is a being they refer to as Melek Taus. The Yazidis believe that God created Melek Taus from his own illumination, and that he was created to never bow down to other beings.
According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, "The Yazidis consider Melek Taus to be a benevolent angel that has redeemed himself from his fall, and has become a demiurge (Craftsman or Creator) who created the cosmos from the Cosmic Egg. After he repented, he cried for 7,000 years, his tears filling seven jars, which then quenched the fires of hell."
Sometimes the name Melek Taus is transliterated in various forms; however, "melek" is normally considered to mean "angel" or "king", and "taus" is translated as "peacock". The physical manifestation of Melek Taus is that of a blue peacock, and is depicted as such throughout Yazidi art and sculpture. It is interesting that no peacocks are ever known to have been in the lands where Melek Taus is currently worshipped.
Yazidis are known to refer to Melek Taus as the "evil one", and it is considered blasphemy to utter the name of God. Muslims and Christians have persecuted the Yazidis over the centuries for being devil worshippers.
Iraqi officials are concerned that this latest attack on the Yazidis could place a further strain on the already tense situation between the Kurds and the Arabs. Yahya Mahmood, a Sunni Arab politician in Mosul said that he thinks the murders were carried out by insurgents who are trying to start a religious civil war. He told Iraqi reporters that, "This incident is a conspiracy against Mosul to incite civil war."
Kharso Goran, the Deputy Governor of Nineveh Province said last month that former Baathists who had been loyal to Saddam Hussein were targeting the Kurdish population in Mosul. He said this also included trying to split the Kurds themselves into opposing factions by accusing the Yazidis of not being ethnic Kurds.
That plan may have partially succeeded earlier this year when in February Yazidis in Bashika were forced into hiding after mobs of Sunni Kurds began attacking homes and businesses due to a Muslim woman’s association with two Yazidi men.
Religious violence has caused man Yazidis to leave the violence of Iraq behind. The Minority Rights Group based in London reports that about 550,000 Yazidis lived in Iraq before the American-led invasion, but that thousands had fled to escape further reprisals by their neighbors.
Notes:
"21 Iraqis killed in religious violence", by Tina Susman, 4/23/2007, Los Angeles Times
"23 members of a minority sect are gunned down in Iraq", 4/22/2007, International Herald Tribune
"23 Taken From Bus, Gunned Down In Iraq", by Lauren Frayer, 4/22/2007, Associated Press
"Iraq gunmen target minority group", 4/22/2007, BBC News
"Iraqi gunmen slay sect members in revenge killings", 4/22/2007, Reuters UK
"Members of Ancient Sect Killed in Iraq", by Thomas Wagner, 4/22/2007, Associated Press
"Melek Taus", Wikipedia
"Yazidi", Wikipedia