Monday, April 23, 2007
23 Yazidis kidnapped and executed
Security
(AINA) - AP) -- Gunmen in northern Iraq stopped a bus filled with Christians and Yezidis, separating out the groups and taking 23 of the passengers away to be shot. Armed men in several cars stopped the bus Sunday afternoon as it was carrying workers from the Mosul Textile Factory to their hometown of Bashika, which has a mixed population of Christians and Yazidis -- a primarily Kurdish sect that worships an angel considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians.
The gunmen checked passengers' identification cards, then asked all Christians to get off the bus, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga. With the Yazidis still inside, the gunmen drove them to eastern Mosul, where they were lined up along a wall and shot to death, al-Wagga said. Yazidis are concentrated mostly around the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
After the killings, hundreds of Yazidis took to the streets of Bashika. Shops were shuttered and many Muslim residents closed themselves in their homes, fearing reprisal attacks. Police set up additional checkpoints across the city.
The gunmen checked passengers' identification cards, then asked all Christians to get off the bus, said police Brig. Mohammed al-Wagga. With the Yazidis still inside, the gunmen drove them to eastern Mosul, where they were lined up along a wall and shot to death, al-Wagga said. Yazidis are concentrated mostly around the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
After the killings, hundreds of Yazidis took to the streets of Bashika. Shops were shuttered and many Muslim residents closed themselves in their homes, fearing reprisal attacks. Police set up additional checkpoints across the city.
COMMENT: Police and residents of Bashiqa, where most of the victims lived, linked the attack to the stoning death there this month of a Yazidi woman. She was slain by fellow Yazidis angry over her conversion to Islam and love affair with a Sunni man. In February, Yazidis in Bashiqa went into hiding after mobs of Sunni Kurds attacked businesses and homes there in anger over a Muslim woman's association with two Yazidi men.
The Yezidi Faith: Yezidis worship one God but no prophets. They recognize and respect both Jesus and Mohammed, but as men of faith, not prophets. Yezidi beliefs are a complicated mixture of Islamic and Zoroastrian beliefs, with Gnostic, Jewish, and Shamanistic elements. Worship centers around seven Angels (Malek is from the Arabic word for 'angel'), the most important of which is named Melek Taus, or the "Peacock Angel," also known as Lucifer.
Lucifer plays a different role in Yezidism, where he is considered the chief Archangel, and the creator of the material world. In Yezidi belief, Lucifer is not a fallen angel, or the enemy of God. They are forbidden from referring to him as Satan. The Yezidi have long been accused of "Devil worship" due to misunderstandings of their religious doctrine. In the Yezidi religion, Lucifer is a beneficient deity, long since reconciled with the Creator.
In this religion, God created Adam, but no Eve, and therefore all men came from Adam alone. The Yezidis were first born among all men, and consider themselves to be “the chosen people.” The Yezidis are strictly forbidden to marry outside the Yezidi, and must marry within their caste. While Kurds say the Yezidis are Kurds, the Yezidis claim to be neither Arab nor Kurd, simply Yezidis or, perhaps, Yezidi first and Kurd second.
The designation “Yezidi” applies to both a set of religious beliefs and a genetic or tribal identity. Because Yezidis keep to themselves, it is easy for others to misunderstand, or deliberately mis-project, the Yezidi religion. This can have dire consequences.
One must now be born Yezidi, and converts are not accepted. There is no specific Yezidi Holy text, but important information about Yezidi practices is contained in the Mes'haf i Resh, or "black book", and the Jilwa, or "book of revelation." The Yezidi religion places taboos on the eating of fish or the meat of gazelles; the wearing of blue clothing is forbidden.
COMMENT ENDS.
One must now be born Yezidi, and converts are not accepted. There is no specific Yezidi Holy text, but important information about Yezidi practices is contained in the Mes'haf i Resh, or "black book", and the Jilwa, or "book of revelation." The Yezidi religion places taboos on the eating of fish or the meat of gazelles; the wearing of blue clothing is forbidden.
COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: abduction, Bashika, Christians, execution, gunmen, Iraq, Mosul, Yezidis
