Yezidism is syncretistic: it combines elements of many faiths. Like Hindus, they believe in reincarnation. Like ancient Mithraists, they sacrifice bulls. They practise baptism, like Christians. When they pray they face the sun, like Zoroastrians. They profess to revile Islam, but there are strong links with Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.
Angry members of a minority sect in Iraq said on Thursday they feared annihilation after scores were killed in possibly the worst suicide bomb attack of the four-year conflict.
Mysterious group that have 2,500-year old traditions were the subject of devastating suicide bombings in Iraq that killed more than 200 people.
The death toll from coordinated suicide bombings in northern Iraq rose to more than 200, the deadliest in the country since November and the worst attack on a Kurdish sect that has been targeted in the sectarian conflict.
A young girl is stoned to death at the hands of a mob. Her crime? She loved a boy of the wrong religion.
Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an “honour killing” by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.
The mass murder was the latest attack on religious minorities in Iraq, where human rights groups say Christians, Jews and members of other smaller sects are often killed, persecuted or forced to convert by Muslim extremists.
Gunmen shot and killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq yesterday after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths. At least 20 people were killed in car bombings in the capital.
Iraq’s Yazidis, a minority religious sect who have been branded devil worshippers by suspicious neighbours, cancelled an annual pilgrimage yesterday over fears for devotees’ safety.
BAGHDAD, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Fresh accusations that an ancient Iraqi sect worships the devil raises concerns about the future of religious minorities in the new Islamist-dominated Iraq, a presidential adviser said on Thursday. Mirza Dinnayi, President Jalal Talabani’s adviser for Yazidi affairs, said that despite efforts to ensure that minorities are protected in a new constitution being drafted in Baghdad, whisperings about the nature of the Yazidi faith had raised fears of violence against the community. “As a liberal I find the future of Iraq miserable and for minorities like the Yazidis it will be even more difficult,” said