'This is one of the world's oldest religions, and it is going to die.'

Anmar Awda, who is training to become a Mandaean priest, reads the Ginza Rba, a Mandaean holy book, beside the Tigris River in Baghdad. The Mandaeans worship the same God as the world's three major monotheistic faiths, and are mentioned in the Quran, but they reject the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad, and have been subject to harassment in Iraq. (Tribune photo by Liz Sly / October 26, 2008)

Liz Sly (lsly@tribune.com) describes the flight of Mandeans (John Christians) from Iraq in a Nov. 16 article entitled 'This is one of the world's oldest religions, and it is going to die.' The article's language is apocalyptic and uses words like extinction. Without any source Sly writes:

Though they worship the same God as Muslims, Christians and Jews and are mentioned in the Quran, they reject the teachings of Jesus and Muhammad, and they have been singled out by extremist Islamic clerics for fatwas, or religious edicts, saying it is permissible to kill them as infidels.

Such claims look like

• an attempt by apologists for American foreign policy to exculpate the USA for the consequences of the Zionist Neocon policy that George Bush has followed during his presidency or
• an opportunistic effort by Jewish or Zionist Islamophobes to incite Americans against Islam.

The USA created a situation where Iraqis needed association with some sort of militia to survive.

Relig-USIraq-Mandaeans

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

A member of the Sabi-Mandaean sect in Baghdad, Iraq, undergoes baptism ceremonies in the Tigris River on October 26, 2008.

The Mandaeans had neither resources to create their own militia nor any means to persuade the militia of another religious or ethnic group to protect them and as a result were forced to emigrate.

There is some evidence that most Mandaeans have fled to Iran for safety.

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