Petition to help the Mandaeans: A letter from Dr. Wisam Breegi

Dear Friends,

We are pressing the United States government to take the Mandaean plight seriously and bare the historic, moral and legal responsibility to save the Mandaeans from total annihilation by scattering them around the world. We are seeking your support to write your local congressman and your organizations to resettle the 5000+ Mandaeans from Syria, Jordan and Iraq in the United States of America.

Please sign and circulate the online petition HERE. For more information, please contact Wisam Breegi (781) 258-5297 or at breegi@gmail.com

Thank you, Dr. Wisam Breegi, Mandaean Association of Massachusetts

For full article about the current plight of the Mandaeans, see the AP release HERE.

Mandaeans in Massachusetts

Associated Press just published an important article about the Mandaean diaspora community in Massachusetts. There is real concern that the diaspora will be swallowed into the wider community. So to help preserve their ancient religion, they are trying to fund the building of a community center. Read more HERE.

Update on the Mandaeans, February 2009

There is some success to report in terms of Mandaean refugees. There have been quite a few more Mandaeans sponsored by the community around Boston moved to the US, and the Boston community expects several more families to arrive each month for a while. NPR aired a program a couple of days ago about this Mandaean community in Worcester.

Mandaean Iraqis Try Revive Faith in Worcester, MA
Tina Antolini
WORCESTER, MA (2009-02-03) If you've never heard of Mandaeans before, you're not alone... They're a tiny religious minority--- fewer than 60-thousand people worldwide-- who follow an ancient form of Gnosticism with ties to early Judaism and Christianity. Mandaeans practice multiple baptisms -- as often as every week. And they've lived in what are now Iraq and Iran, for more than two thousand years. But since 2003, it's estimated that 90 percent of the Mandaean population in Iraq has either fled or been killed. Among other places in the world, they've ended up in Worcester, Massachusetts. WFCR's Tina Antolini reports.

To listen to the full program go HERE.

For photo, go HERE.

Mandaeans in Detroit

In order to manage the fact that there are so few priests in the States to baptize Mandaeans, the community has been holding baptism camps and conventions in cities with large Mandaean populations.

What a great solution. The next convention will be held in Detroit, Michigan (where I was born) in the first week of July. For more information, go to the Mandaean Union website HERE <<<

What can we do to help the Mandaeans?

Mr. Suhaib Nashi, the president of the Mandaean Associations Union, recommends:

1. The international community and especially the USA, the UK, Australia, the EU countries, UNHCR and all other NGO’s should act to prevent this humanitarian disaster from continuing. One of the oldest and most peaceful communities in the Middle East is being annihilated under the eyes of the international community.

2. The U.N declaration for the protection of indigenous, ethnic and religious minorities is compatible with the situation of the Mandaeans and should be applied. Furthermore, the International law for the prevention of genocide should be considered.

3. Because of the role and responsibility of the United States in Iraq, and the commitments that the Coalition governments have made before and after the invasion of Iraq, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have special obligations least of which is morally to step up and save the Mandaeans and other religious minorities in Iraq. These governments should acknowledge that Mandaeans will not be safe from persecution in Iraq in any eventuality and should therefore provide Mandaeans with permanent protection by accepting them for resettlement.

4. The United States of America especially has obligations to save the Mandaeans and other religious minorities in Iraq. The United States Government should give the Mandaeans a P2 visa without delay as an extremely endangered religious minority that is at the verge of extinction due to religious persecution.

5. The USA government should start speeding up its processing of the current referred cases from UNHCR and stand up for its obligations to admit 12000 refugees this year. These obligations were not met last year.

6. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has already urged Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Mrs. Dobriansky to create new or expand existing options for allowing members of Iraq's Chaldea-Assyrian and Sabean Mandaean religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program, and to urge UNHCR to resume full refugee status determinations for all Iraqi asylum seekers and assess all claims without delay.

7. The international community should look seriously in helping the Mandaean refugees to resettle in one country which permits religious freedom and practices and where a community of Mandaeans can preserve their existence for the future. UNISCO has already declared the Mandaean language a threatened language.

8. The UNHCR has an immediate and urgent obligation to start processing more cases for resettlement. We suggest the Organization should take active steps to provide protection for the refugees in Jordan and Syria and give them a proper legal status to prevent abuses.

9. The UNHCR should consider granting all Mandaeans a full refugee status as a group and not on an individual basis, and give them complete protection from forcible returns to Iraq.

10. Proper Medical, and humanitarian assistance should be offered and financial support to any agency that can provide that help to the refugees. Active steps from the European Union and USA should be taken to secure the funds allocated to the refugee Mandaeans.

11. Changes should be made to the Iraqi constitution to guarantee the rights of Mandaeans and other minorities and the Iraqi government and the legal system should implement these changes to gain the trust of minorities in a safe and secure future.

12. The Iraqi Government should be held responsible for providing financial help for the refugees through independent agencies to provide them with the necessary humanitarian support.

13. The Iraqi Government should be responsible on recording and saving the properties of the Mandaean community in Iraq including their archives, documents and history until such time that their return is safe.

14. Militia leaders should be held accountable for crimes against humanity when they or their followers are caught by police in the future.

Contact in the USA (snashi@optonline.net); in UK (alroomi@alroomi.freeserve.co.uk); in Sweden (kasemharbi@gmail.com); in Canada (majidmandoie@yahoo.com).

Mandaean Human Rights Report March 2008

The Mandaean Human Rights Report is available now. It is a pdf file on the Mandaean Associations Union website. To read it in its entirety, you will need to go to THIS LINK, scroll down until you see the Mandaean Human Rights Annual Report March 2008, and click the report. The report is gruesome. It is forty-one pages of terror. Here is an executive summary that has been circulated on the Mandaean list-serve, but it does not even begin to cover the genocide outlined in the annual report as you will see even if you skim the full report and its appendix.

The Sabian-Mandaean religion is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the Middle East lived mainly in Southern Iraq and few in Iran. It is independent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It follows the teachings of John the Baptist; baptism being its central ritual. The Mandaeans are around sixty thousand at the present time. During the past decade, and especially the past three years, thousands have escaped Iraq and Iran, choosing self-exile and escape rather than death and persecution. There is now a large refugee population in Syria (2100 families), Jordan, (500 families), Yemen (46 individuals) and smaller numbers in Lebanon, Egypt, Mali, and Thailand.

Major changes have happened in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Husain. The situation has deteriorated especially recently. Chaos and civil war are in the horizon. The sectarian identity among Iraqis has preceded the national identity and the violence is increasing in scope and lethality. Sunni and Shia death squads are roaming the streets of Baghdad and other cities of Iraq. These death squads are killing based on the last names and religious affiliation. Mandaeans are targeted by both sides. Hundreds have been killed and numbers are increasing rapidly.

Forceful conversion is happening to an alarming degree. Boys are being kidnapped, forcefully circumcised (a major sin in Mandaean religion) and forcefully converted to Islam. Young girls have been kidnapped, raped, or forced to marry Muslims. Families receive threats demanding that they either convert or pay “Jizia,” a ransom paid allowing others to live among Muslims. Confiscation of property is becoming a common, unpunished practice. Mandaean houses are being taken in different areas. Often, police and neighbours are unwilling to provide assistance. Employment in Iraq is now related to political, sectarian and ethnic affiliation rather than qualifications. The Government is the major employer in Iraq. The ministries are divided among the Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish factions and they deny others, namely Mandaeans and Christians, any chances of employment.

More than 80% of the Mandaean community has been displaced to outside Iraq. The Mandaean community in Iraq has dwindled from more than 60 thousand in the early 1990s to 5-7 thousand today. Those Mandaeans who are unable to leave Iraq are currently moving to different cities inside the country. Mandaeans have tried to express their concerns through the political process in Iraq, however, contacts with officials, religious leaders, and political party leaders usually end in empty promises. The police force is corrupt, often helps attackers, and has little to no role in protecting minorities. Mandaeans situation is different from other minorities in Iraq as they do not have any identified geographical area as their save haven, they have no choice but to leave Iraq seeking for refuge. The Situation in Syria and Jordan is dire for refugees. These countries are neither ready nor willing to help thousands of refugees and a humanitarian disaster is eminent. Refuge seekers are denied work, education, health care and most of all protection from abuses. Children are pushed into illegal child labor. Some girls are being lured into the sex trade and some are kidnapped and married by sex traders to be sold in other countries.

Mandaean baptism objected to by local residents in Australia

I find it so disheartening that we cannot find a solution to support the Mandaean community more than we have. This is a minority religion, the only living Gnostic religion left. Because these people are not Jews or Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or something we commonly recognize, they remain unknown and their practices suspect to many of people.

The Mandaeans are Gnostics whose movement was connected with John the Baptist. They use multiple baptisms in flowing rivers as part of their ritual life. These rituals are not what Protestants think - only symbols. These rituals must be performed exactly as they always have been, because, as in the Catholic tradition, they actually affect the soul. So it saddens me to read in an Australian newspaper that a local community is hindering the Mandaeans who live there from baptizing in the Nepean River because 50 residents have complained about the color of a cloth they use.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

A RARE and ancient religious culture is battling for survival because residents in Sydney's west do not fancy the group's chosen shade of white.

The followers of John the Baptist were all but wiped out after 2000 years of oppression that reached a genocidal crescendo during the Iraq war.

But it could be Wallacia locals who inadvertently finish what fanatics started, by objecting to a Mandaean baptismal pool for reasons such as the colour of shade cloths.

For more of the news story click here.

26th International ARAM Conference: The Mandaeans

This just in my mailbox, on the upcoming Mandaean Conference: Last Call for Papers

From: Aram Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies [aram@aramsociety.org]
Subject: Mandaean Conference: Last Call for Papers

ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organizing its Twenty Sixth International Conference on the theme of The Mandaeans, to held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 08-10September 2008.

The conference aims to study Mandaeism and its relationship to Near Eastern religions and Gnostic movements, and it will start on Monday 08 September at9am, finishing on Wednesday 10 September at 6pm. Each speaker’s paper is limited to 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please send your answer to the above ARAM e-mail address before March 2008. If you know of colleagues who might like to contribute to the conference, please forward this message to them or send us their names and email addresses. Yet, we would like to remind our colleagues that only academics are allowed to present a paper atan ARAM conference.

All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review. If you wish to know more about our ARAM Society and its academic activities,please open our website: www.aramsociety.org

If you have any questions or comments at any time, I am always happy to receive them.

Yours sincerely, Shafiq Abouzayd (Dr.) Aram Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Society The Oriental Institute University of Oxford Pusey Lane Oxford OX1 2LE shafiq.abouzayd@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Disappearing Mandaeans

The personal story of the Mandaean Wini family can be heard by clicking the icon in the upper right corner of the screen. It is a radio interview. From America Public Media:

Reports of sectarian strife in Iraq automatically connote the factions of Sunni and Shia. They don't usually mention people like Walaa Wini. Walaa practices an ancient faith that now faces both persecution and extinction within Iraq. Walaa is Mandaean....

Walaa himself was threatened by masked gunmen who came to the store he operated with his brother. They later killed his brother, and in another incident, shot and wounded another brother. Walaa talks to Dick Gordon about being Mandaean in Iraq and the uncertainty he and his family now face since their recent arrival in the US.

Please remember to pass on the petition for the Mandaeans. We have gathered now 544 supporters. We need 1000, so we are a little over half way there.

Iraq's pacifist sect stuck in refugee limbo

Reported in The Australian:

THE Aedan family is stuck. Nine months ago they fled violence and persecution in Iraq to join an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria. But life over the border is bleak; they are unable to work, unable to pay for basic supplies, and unable to imagine an end to their ordeal.

Last month, the family was one of a lucky few. They were advised by the International Organisation for Migration they had a place in the US.

But for the Aedans, it was the beginning of a new nightmare. After losing their father to a brutal attack and their eldest son to a kidnapping in Baghdad, the family had dreamed of nothing but coming to Australia.

In Sydney, members of their family live in a thriving community of their little-known sect, Sabian Mandaean. They practise a pacifist religion thought to pre-date Christianity, with prophets including Adam and John the Baptist. Until 2003, most of the estimated 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide lived in Iraq. But many have since fled to Syria and Jordan, hoping for resettlement in a third country. Only about 5000 remain in Iraq.

Eschewing violence, even in self-defence, Mandaeans have been easy targets of the sectarian violence that erupted after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

For complete article go here.

Forbidden Gospels 2007 Retrospect

This was the first year for the Forbidden Gospels Blog (=FGB). I didn't know what to expect when I started this at the end of January 2007. In fact, I didn't bother putting a counter on the site until April 2007. I was so new to blogging, I didn't even know what I would write about or who would be interested in reading what I would write.

But here I am at the end of the 2007 year looking back at my 340 posts and considering what good has come of all of the chatter. Has the FGB made any difference to the biblioblog world, to the academic conversation, to the larger things of life? I guess my readers must be the judges of this when all is said and done. But here are a few areas that I think this blog has made some difference this year.

1. Gospel of Judas.
This blog raised awareness of the problems with its initial National Geographic translation and interpretation, and the fact that full-size facsimiles were not released to the scholarly community as they should have been according to the 1991 resolution passed by the Society of Biblical Literature. This resulted in the writing and publication of my book The Thirteenth Apostle, the publication of the Op. Ed. "Gospel Truth" in the New York Times, and the publication of "More on the Gospel Truth" in the Society of Biblical Literature Forum. All of these items were featured on the FGB, along with many more posts that can be read in chronological order of posting here: FGB on the Gospel of Judas.

The end of it is not in sight. National Geographic Society just uploaded zip files of all the texts in the Tchacos Codex (Dec. 23rd), so we finally have the full-size facsimiles although I think their resolution is only web quality. Nonetheless, we can now begin to critically work these texts. Thankfully they were made available prior to the Codex Judas Congress, which will take place at Rice University in March 2008 (13-16th). So the scholars coming to the conference will have the photos to work from. In the coming year, I will keep you updated about this Congress, which has been made possible by generous funding through the Faculty Initiative Grant at Rice University.

2. Mandaean Emergency Campaign.
This blog has supported the campaign to help relocate the Iraqi refugees in the US as soon as possible. This blog has promoted a letter writing campaign and has circulated a petition. To read all the Mandaean postings, go to FGB on the Mandaeans.

I was hoping that by Christmas we would have the 1000 signatures needed to complete the petition, but we seem to have stalled at 524. Please, continue to circulate this petition. Tell your students about it in the new year, pass the information on to your family and friends, send out the link in mass e-mails if you can. Let's get this petition finished and sent through the proper channels so that the last living Gnostics may find a place of refuge away from persecution. Here I invoke the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas 68: "Jesus said, 'Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted. A place will be found, where you will not be persecuted.'" Let us create that safe place in the US for the Mandaeans to survive.

3. A voice for historical hermeneutics.
It is my ardent opinion that when the recovery of history is our goal, theology and apology must not be mixed into our investigation. It matters not the outcome of our historical quest - whether it ends up pleasing the so-called religious conservatives, liberals, or no one at all. What matters is that the quest is as honest to the historical evidence as possible. This is a hermeneutic that I try to uphold at all costs. Historical inquiry must be preserved and distinguished from the faith quest and its issues.

The FGB has many features on the hermeneutics of history, and I have experienced something of its effects with the publication of my analysis of the Gospel of Judas which has been lauded by some of faith as a condemnation of "liberal" scholarship. This is an outcome I find at once fascinating and disheartening, since my work on Judas has absolutely nothing to do with supporting people of faith or undermining "liberal" scholarship. If Judas had been a hero, believe me, I would have been one of the first to jump on that bandwagon. But my historical investigation led me to a very different conclusion, which I'm sure you all know too well by now.

With this, I want to send out my thanks to all my readers - those who agree and who disagree with me. I have learned an enormous amount from you this year, and I look forward to continuing our conversation in the year to come. Happy New Year!

Odds and Ends

I apologize for not posting regularly the past week or so. We are bogged down in exams here at Rice, and my in-laws are here for the holidays. And we celebrate more than Christmas in December in my family since my son's birthday is mid-month. So we just finished a pizza party here at the house for Alexander. He's four this year. So I'm bushed. I promise that I will post occasionally over the rest of the month, and get back to every day posts once the new year starts and I'm back to my office regularly.

For now I want to say, Yeah! You all came up with exactly the parody texts I think about when I'm explaining the Gospel of Judas. There is quite a fair amount of Gnostic parody, with Jesus laughing at the ignorance of the non-Gnostic Christians. So I have no idea how Marvin Meyer can say that the Gospel of Judas cannot contain parody or satire and that there are no examples of this in ancient literature. I can point to a number of substantive examples as you have all outlined in your comments.

The more I study the Gospel of Judas, I also have come to realize that the subversive message of the text (non-Gnostic Christians have been tricked into worshiping the wrong god, the Demiurge) is satire at this fullest. The author I think was sincerely worried about the salvation of the non-Gnostic Christians, whose leaders were leading them astray. He was using satire to criticize and correct them.

If you get a chance, check out the National Review this week. There is a full story about the Gospel of Judas, my involvement, and other scholars who are also questioning NGS's work and interpretation. When I get a copy of the magazine, I will post the text here.

As for the Mandaean petition, we are almost half way there: 449. So keep passing it around and encouraging those you know to sign it. Let's help get the Mandaeans a safe haven in the US.

Mandaean Petition Update

As of today, we are one-third of the way. We have 333 petitioners. We need 1000. Please post this petition to your blog if you can, and try to send it around to your e-mail address book entries and other lists that you might be part of. I would like to see us be able to reach our goal this holiday season. It would be the best gift I can think of! Here is the link to the petition.

Please circulate this petition on your blog

Since many of my readers have their own blogs, and we all have somewhat different audiences, please if you can copy the Mandaean petition link from my previous post, and put it up on your blog. We need 1000 signatures.

Petition to Sign to help the Mandaeans attain refugee status

Please help the Mandaeans gain refugee status as a community. Click this petition. It only takes a few seconds to sign.

From John Bolender:

Dear all:

At this site, you will find a petition addressed to US Sec. of State Rice concerning granting asylum to Mandaeans as a community. In order to see the petition, you will have to click the link marked "letter," which I admit is rather small and easy to miss. I urge you to sign the petition and to spread the word to others to do likewise. Thank you very much.

John

Mandaeans Risk Extinction

This news report was released on Nov. 2, but didn't come to my attention through Mandaean Crisis International until today. It is found on BeliefNet news.

News Article on Mandaeans and their need for help NOW

Here is the latest news feed on the Mandaeans. It is written by Y. Berman and was released yesterday. He predicts that the Mandaeans will not survive the next two decades without immediate help. It is a lengthy piece with lots of information and stories. Berman begins:

With between 50,000-70,000 believers worldwide, Mandaeism is one of the tiniest religions in the world; and if nothing dramatic changes soon, it is probably a matter of a few decades before it will vanish from the world.

In the past two millennia, the Mandaeans have resided along the banks of the Lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers (in southern Iraq) and along the nearby Karun River (Iran). The rise of Saddam Hussein to power and more so the civil war which followed his demise in 2003 have caused this tiny community to spread around the world and face one of the greatest threats to its existence.

Nathaniel Deutsch speaks out about Mandaeans

Wade brought to my attention an op.ed. piece in the NY Times this morning. Professor Deutsch, a Gnostic expert from Swathmore, has made a plea to us in the Times to help resettle the Mandaean community in the States. As a religious minority, they are unable to survive any longer in Iraq. For more information about the Mandaeans, I have a webpage and a series of previous posts that include details on how to write letters to Congress. It is vital that as many of us as possible write to Congress again, since they are considering legislation for Iraqi refugees that has already been passed by the Senate.

Help for Mandaean refugees on the way

I am excited to report that the Senate has passed a bill to help resettle vulnerable populations in the US. Now is the moment to encourage your House Representative in Washington D.C. to support and pass this legislation. It feels like it has been a long campaign to help the Mandaeans, but it looks like some good may come out of it.

This excerpt is quoted from Refugee's International E-Update which was sent to me today:

Victory! Senate Passes Bill to Help Iraqi Refugees

Late last night, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed an amendment, the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2007, to assist Iraqi translators and others who have been targeted for working with the United States. The bill would increase the number of vulnerable Iraqis who can be resettled in the U.S. by improving the process for Iraqis to apply for resettlement. Refugees International thanks Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) for introducing this bill, as well as the numerous Senators, including Senators Gordon Smith (R-Ore), Sam Brownback (R-Kan), and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn), who supported the bill. Refugees International urges the House of Representatives to follow the Senate's lead and pass this legislation. In addition, the Bush Administration should increase regional security by providing humanitarian relief funding to the countries hosting the millions of Iraqi refugees who have been forced to flee the violence in Iraq, as well as the NGOs and UN agencies providing relief services for displaced Iraqis.

• Read Refugees International's press release supporting the Refugees Crisis in Iraq Act
• Read Senator Kennedy's Statement on the Passage of the Amendment

ARAM Conference on Mandaeans

I just received this information about a conference in September 2008 focused on the Mandaeans at the University of London.

September 2007

Dear Colleague,

ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies is organising its Twenty Sixth International Conference on the theme of The Mandaeans, to be held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 08-10 September 2008.

The conference aims to study Mandaeism and its relationship to Near Eastern religions and gnostic movements, and it will start on Monday 08 September at 9am, finishing on Wednesday 10 September at 6pm. Each speaker's paper is limited to 30 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please send your proposal to alroomi@alroomi.freeserve.co.uk before December 2007. We would like to remind our colleagues that only academics are allowed to present a paper at an ARAM conference.

The conference will start on Monday 8 September at 9am, finishing on Wednesday 10 September at 6pm. All papers given at the conference will be considered for publication in a future edition of the ARAM Periodical, subject to editorial review.

If you wish to know more about our ARAM Society and its academic activities, please open our website: www.aramsociety.org

If you have any questions or comments at any time, I am always happy to receive them.
Yours sincerely,

Shafiq Abouzayd (Dr.)
Aram Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Society
The Oriental Institute
University of Oxford
Pusey Lane
Oxford OX1 2LE ˆ UK
Tel: +1865-514041
Fax: +1865-516824
mailto:shafiq.abouzayd@orinst.ox.ac.uk>shafiq.abouzayd@orinst.ox.ac.uk