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Topic: Yezidis

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	Celebrating Feast, Iraq's Yezidis Fear for Future
		Yezidis are one of Iraq's oldest and most unusual religious sects and this festival -- the biggest of their year -- usually attracts around 15,000 people in August, with some families traveling from abroad to make the pilgrimage.
		Yezidis have no religious marriage ceremony -- the tradition is to kidnap one's intended bride from her family's house and hold her for a year before making a dowry arrangement.
		Hundreds of Yezidi villages were destroyed during former president Saddam Hussein's campaigns against Iraqi Kurds, and although Yezidis now count one of their number as a minister of state in Baghdad, there is concern among the community that they are being marginalized in postwar Iraq.
	www.ekurd.net /mismas/articles/misc/celebratingfeastyezidis.htm (780 words)

	YEZIDIS \| People \| Armenia Travel \| TourArmenia \| Travel Guide to Armenia
		In Armenia, Yezidis are predominantly a pastoral community, with villages concentrated in the central highlands and along alpine meadows in the upper elevations of the country.
		Yezidis adhere to a distinct religion that is influenced by Zoroastrian beliefs, Christianity and Islam.
		Yezidi shepherds make annual migrations in the spring to the upper elevations of mountains, camping in caravan-style tents and tending their sheep and goat flocks until the first snows of the autumn, when they return to their villages.
	www.tacentral.com /people.asp?story_no=8 (803 words)

	SignOnSanDiego.com > In Iraq -- Iraq's Yezidis praise peacock angel, Saddam's fall
		Yezidi leader Prince Tahsin Sayid Beg believes the fall of Saddam will bring his people greater freedom to practice their esoteric faith in peace, joining bearded monks in paying homage to their "peacock angel" in the tranquil Lalish valley.
		The Yezidi religion, seen by its followers as the original Kurdish faith, is believed to date back several thousand years and blends ideas from sources as diverse as Zoroastrianism, Islam and Christianity.
		Yezidis believe he was not cast from heaven but rewarded by God for refusing to worship Adam and made leader of seven angels who rule the world.
	www.uniontribune.org /news/world/iraq/20030520-0500-iraq-yezidis.html (826 words)

	The Yezidi Kurds' tribes & clans of south Caucasus International Journal of Kurdish Studies - Find Articles
		The Yezidi Zuquris are also known as the tribe of "Cangir-axaye Mendiki." The Zuquri tribe lived on the land surrounding Lake Van and eastward to the Iranian frontier (the town of Sera).
		Yezidis are a part of 40-million-strong nation, which has endured many, many years of persecution and massacres and yet has managed to keep our own religious beliefs, Yezidism, to this day.
		Yezidi Kurds are not of the same race as the Turks, Persians and Arabs even though they have lived among them for hundreds of years.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m0SBL/is_1-2_19/ai_n15954364 (975 words)

	Worldandnation: In Iraq, ancient sect quietly lives on faith
		Yezidis wait in line to pay tribute at the mountain tomb of Karajal, a holy site near Dohuk in northern Iraq, on Wednesday, which was one of the most important days in their religious calendar.
		Yezidis have no devil in their religion, and the reason they are called devil worshipers has long since been lost in the mists of time.
		Nor do Yezidis have the concept of hell, instead believing that the souls of the dead repeatedly return to earth until they are purified.
	www.sptimes.com /2004/04/26/Worldandnation/In_Iraq__ancient_sect.shtml (1518 words)

	Yezidism at Mountain Center (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-04)
		The Yezidis (sometimes spelled Yazidi or Yazdani) are a specific subset of the Kurdish people, about 3 to 5 percent in terms of population, and live in parts of traditionally Kurdish areas currently located in northern Iraq, northeast Syria, and southeast Turkey.
		The Yezidi depiction of their God as a bird is unique to their culture (at least in the Middle East), and it is somewhat interesting to realize that the peacock is an Indian bird, not known in the Middle East in historical times.
		This effort to erase Yezidi identity has effected the Yezidi culture considerably, and it is common for higher-class Yezidi to take on Arab dress and language in an effort to conform and protect their property, while lower-class Yezidis continue to hold on to their Kurdish traditions.
	home.earthlink.net /~xristos/GoldenDawn/yezidi01.htm (899 words)

	yezidi (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-04)
		Before focusing on the survival of Yezidis and the aspects of Yezidi Religion and Philosophy, some general characters which are essential to determine in the beginning of such study should be introduced.
		Yezidis consider four elements as the main elements of the universe; the sky, originally thought to be made of stone, later of crystal, and enclosing the world like an egg; Water; the Earth, a flat disc floating on the water which filled the lower half of the egg; and Fire (Kreyenbroek 97).
		Yezidis have raised a way of reaction to this regard; “terms which mean ‘devil’, words which sounds like these, terms referring to concepts remotely connected with Satan, such as cursing or stoning, and words sounding more or less alike are all forbidden”(Kreyenbroek 151).
	www.geocities.com /Athens/Thebes/2153/yezidi.html (3287 words)

	Faith that preceded Abraham goes its own way in Kurdistan - smh.com.au
		Scholars believe that the Yezidis' strange and ancient religion is one of the last surviving offshoots of a faith even older then Judaism or Zoroastrianism, which it heavily influenced.
		Many Yezidis were swept up in Saddam Hussein's anti-Kurdish crackdown of the 1980s, including the notorious Anfal massacres in which 180,000 people are believed to have died.
		The Yezidis reject the widespread Iraqi belief that their faith lacks organisation, theology and scripture - that it is not a proper religion at all.
	www.smh.com.au /articles/2003/07/25/1059084215461.html (913 words)

	Iraq’s Yezidis seek constitutional rights (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-04)
		As Iraq moves toward a new post-Saddam Hussein political order, the Yezidis, long regarded by Muslims as "devil-worshippers", are seizing on this key moment in history to enshrine their community’s rights in a new constitution.
		Yezidis follow a pre-Islamic religion, which some believe was founded in the 12th century by Sheikh Uday bin Masafel al-Amawi, although many scholars trace its origins to the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia.
		Now, Yezidis count three members of the Iraqi parliament, all of them elected as part of the Kurdish alliance which came second in landmark elections in January, as well as two members of the Kurdish regional parliament in Arbil.
	www.kurdmedia.com /news.asp?id=6929 (791 words)

	The Arcane Archive - WWW: Yezidis
		The Yezidis hold that Ta4usi-Melek is as fire with two dualistic elementary abilities: Fire as light, but also fire to burn: The good and the evil are one and the same Person.
		By the Yezidis is Mahmad Rashan" as Protector of the harvest and especially of Rain.; his feast is celebrated in spring.
		The Yezidi have two Saints for the cattle: Memyshivan, the holy protector of sheep and Gawanezersan as the holy Protector of the cow.
	www.arcane-archive.org /religion/satanism/www-yezidis-1.php (1798 words)

	[ Religion and Tolerance ]
		Yezidis have been careful to shield their religion due to criticism over being wrongly viewed as "devil worshippers," but their secrecy has also helped to fuel speculation about their religious practices.
		The Yezidi religion is practiced almost exclusively by Kurds living in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia, with the majority in Iraq.
		The Yezidi religion is centered in the village of Lalish in northern Iraq's Ninawah Province.
	www.rferl.org /specials/religion/minorities/yezidis.asp (195 words)

	hybridmagazine.com :: indie counter-culture daily, no secret handshakes.
		Christians have long believed that the Yezidi were devil worshippers; the Shi'ites have linked them to the Caliph Yazid, murderer of Husayn and one of the most hated figures in the Shi'ite pantheon.
		The Yezidi are ethnic Kurds, but that has not endeared them to their Kurdish neighbors.
		Yezidi leaders are hoping for a democratic, multiparty society which will allow them full participation - or at least leave them in peace.
	www.hybridmagazine.com /culture/0603/yezidis.shtml (714 words)

	Iraq’s Yezidis Face Repression and Assimilation - Assyrian News Agency
		After the 2003 invasion, the Yezidis placed high hopes in the creation of the new Iraq, and fought successfully for their inclusion among the cultural and religious groups protected by section 1, article #2 of the new constitution.
		Yezidis are mentioned as one of the minority religious groups protected by section 1, article #2 of the new constitution.
		The Yezidi representatives feel that this is a deliberate attempt, by political leaders, to blur the ethnic and religious lines between Arab and Yezidi and Islamic and Yezidi.
	assyriatimes.com /engine/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3094 (877 words)

	Discoveries At Nineveh - Austen Henry Layard - Devil and Fire Worship
		Such is the attachment shown by the Yezidis to their chief, that the deceit was not revealed, and the substitute bore with resignation the tortures and imprisonment inflicted upon him.
		His office is hereditary; but the Yezidis frequently chose, without reference to priority of claim, the one among the descendants of the last sheikh most qualified, by his knowledge and character, to succeed him.
		Mirkan is one of the principal Yezidi settlements in the Sinjar.
	www.piney.com /LayNinev08.html (11764 words)

	The Gurdjieff Journal Articles
		The story of the Yezidis can be traced back more than four thousand years—before they came to be called Yezidis—until the trail disappears into an unrecorded 'prehistory.' Based on few accounts, and those often contradictory, it is complex and difficult to follow.
		Because of the belief in the Yezidis connection with Yazid (who was hated by the Shi'ites, the "partisans of Ali," and not well thought of by Sunnis either), Yezidis were hated and persecuted.
		When persecuted, the Yezidis traditionally sought refuge in remote, hard-to-access regions such as the Jebel Sinjar, a range of mountains in the middle of the desert, one hundred miles west of Mosul.
	www.gurdjieff-legacy.org /40articles/yezidism.htm (1558 words)

	FrontPage magazine.com :: Iraq's 'Devil Worshippers' by Patrick Graham
		One of them, a Shia, explained to us earlier that the Yezidis are descendants of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Muawiyya, who killed Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and his followers on "the Plain of Sorrow and Misfortune" in southern Iraq.
		Apart from a few sacred texts, Yezidi theology is transmitted orally and the Yezidis are wary of outsiders who try to interpret it.
		Yezidis are divided into three castes, each marrying within its own level.
	www.frontpagemag.com /articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5128 (1599 words)

	[No title]
		The Yezidis have often been described as a secretive people who are not permitted to reveal their religion to outsiders, they keep their real beliefs hidden.
		Most Yezidis are illiterate and the few doctrines they have are passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.
		The Yezidi people are forbidden to say the name “Shaitan.” They refer to Satan as “Melek Ta’us.” Melek means “King.” He is known as the Peacock Angel because of his beauty and pride.
	www.angelfire.com /empire/serpentis666/Yezidis.html (1068 words)

	The situation of the Yezidis in Armenia Kurdish Life - Find Articles
		There are very few Yezidis left in Armenia and they are very old and very poor who are unable to move away.
		Yezidis were a people onto themselves and had no relations with the Kurds." During the census in Armenia, they undercounted the Yezidis.
		They claimed that Yezidi writers and intellectuals were to be blamed for this lack of delineation because they failed to separate the Yezidis from the Kurds.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m0SBM/is_44/ai_n13810090 (1075 words)

	Oneworld Multimedia :: Yezidis in Georgia :: September :: 2006 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-04)
		An ethno-musicologist visiting Armenia to research the musical traditions of the Republic’s Yezidi minority, when Nahro mentioned he was going to travel north with the President of the Union of Yezidis in Georgia and there was space in the car to tag along, I jumped at the chance.
		Another main difference appears to be that most Yezidis in Georgia are politically orientated towards Iraqi Kurdistan whereas in Armenia, many are aligned to the Kurdish National Liberation Movement in the form of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
		Yezidis are Kurds, and we all believe that we are both Yezidis and Kurds.
	oneworld.blogsome.com /2006/09/23/yezidis-community-in-georgia (4058 words)

	KEO - RELIGION
		This comical confusion, which permeates the Yezidi leadership to the extent that they doubt their own ethnic identity, is not unexpected, given the intensity of their persecution in the past, and the destruction of whatever religious and historical literature Yezidism may have had in the past, in addition to the little that remains today.
		At the time of Saladin's conquest of Antioch, the Yezidis were dominant in the neighboring valleys in the Amanus coastal mountains, and by the 13th and 14th centuries Yezidis had expanded their domains by converting many Muslims and Christians to their faith, from Antioch to Urmiâ, and from Sivâs to Kirkuk.
		Hence, the Yezidis are now called "Umayyad Arabs" by the governments of Iraq and Syria, capitalizing on the aforementioned confusion that exists among the Yezidis with respect to the irrelevant Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiyya.
	www.kurdistanica.com /english/religion/yazdani/yezidi/yezidi.html (3297 words)

	Middle East Online
		Yezidis follow pre-Islamic religion many scholars trace origins to the Zoroastrian of ancient Persia.
		At a mountainside temple in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan, pilgrims from the minority Yezidi community come to worship the peacock angel, also known as Lucifer.
		Asked about the Yezidis, several Sunni Kurds said they would not share a meal with a Yezidi because they considered the community "unclean".
	www.middle-east-online.com /english/?id=13567 (746 words)

	The Yezidis - Faces (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-04)
		The village of the sacred Yezidi musicians and singers (qewels).
		The holiest object of the Yezidis, the Standard of the Peacock Angel in the sanctuary of Sheiuk Adi.
		One of the collective villages that Saddam moved the inhabitants of seven Yezidi mountain villages into in order to keep them under controll in the 1970s.
	www.osa.ceu.hu /2004/highlights/04/TheYezidis-Faces.html (78 words)

	Middle East Online
		This is an almost perfect example of the general prejudice against the Yezidi faith by the Muslims and the Christians, or those are influenced by these cultures.
		The Yezidis are among very few groups in the world in that their religious language and ethnic language are the same, and this should be a very clear evidence for any one with common sense about the authenticity of the Yezidi faith, ethnicity, and culture.
		Yezidis are not a devil worshipper, they are people of Xoda (God) and their Angel “Tavus –e Melek” is angle of goodness and purity.
	www.middle-east-online.com /english/?id=13580 (643 words)

	The Yezidis (Ezidis) and Yezidism - humanrights.de
		The Yezidis were constantly surrounded by other religious communities but did not adjust their dogmatic beliefs to the viewpoints of the outsiders.
		The centre of the Yezidi religion lies in the mountainous region of Shengal (Sincar), north of Mosul.
		Turkish policy against the Yezidis led to the consequence that today tens of their villages are taken over by the Muslims.
	www.humanrights.de /doc_en/archiv/k/kurdistan/yezid.html (9924 words)

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