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Iraqi President congratulates Kurdish
Yazidis on Jama Eid
7.10.2008
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October
7, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday
congratulated the Kurdish Yazidis sect in Iraq on
the occasion of Jama Eid, according to a release
issued by the presidency.
"President Talabani sent a message of congratulation
to Yazidis on the occasion of Jama Eid," said the
release received by VOI.
Yazidis make up an important Iraqi minority
community. Estimates of the size of the Iraqi
communities vary significantly, between 70,000 and
500,000.
Yazidis celebrate Jama Eid every year on October
6-13.
Mosul, capital city of Ninewa province in Iraq, near
the border with Kurdistan region, lies 405 km north
of Baghdad.
A Kurdish Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds located
near Mosul. Some 350,000 Yazidis live in villages
around Mosul near Kurdistan autonomous region
border. |
Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
Kurdish Yazidis look to
Kurdistan region, the Kurdish Yazidis
are concentrated in key areas for the referendum,
including lands coveted by the Kurds north of Mosul
and around Sinjar on the Syrian border. The Kurds
see the referendum as a chance to right Saddam
Hussein's historic wrongs of forced population
transfer and Arabization. The Arabs see it as a
Kurdish land grab.
"We hope that the land now lived on by the Yazidis
will join the Kurdish area," the community's leader,www.ekurd.net
Amir Tahseen Beg,
told the Associated Press from his residence in
Sheikhan. "This will depend on the referendum, but
our areas must return to the original motherland."
Religious significance
The Yazidis are a dominant group in the northwest
region, a historically oppressed people who speak
Kurdish and are ethnically Kurd but follow their own
religion. In fact,www.ekurd.net
they are reputed
to be devil worshippers, not just by Iraqi Muslims
but they’ve been characterized that way by Western
scholars over the years.
The Kurdish Yazidis consider Melek Taus to be a
benevolent angel that has redeemed himself from his
fall, and has become a demiurge who created the
cosmos from the Cosmic Egg. After he repented, he
cried for 7000 years, his tears filling 7 jars,
which then quenched the fires of hell.
Melek Taus is sometimes transliterated Malak Ta'us
or Malik Taws. In Semitic languages, malik variably
means "king" or "angel". Taus is uncontroversially
translated "peacock"; however, it is important to
note that peacocks are not, at least currently,
native to the lands where Melek Taus is worshipped.
This has lead some to speculate that the worship of
Melek Taus was imported from India, though it is
more likely the peacock iconography is a development
from earlier representations depicting the god as a
native fowl, such as a bustard.
The Yazidi believe that the founder of their
religion, Sheikh Adi Ibn Mustafa, was an avatar of
Melek Taus. In art and sculpture Melek Taus is
depicted as peacock. The Yazidi are thought to be
unique in their depiction of their primary god as a
bird.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI |
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