Forced Conversions to Islam in Iraq
Charles Johnson
Sun Mar 4, 2007 at 9:56 am PST • Views: 217
How did this one ever get past the Islamist sympathizers at the BBC? For once, they’ve published an honest look at the Religion of Peace and Tolerance™, and the jihad against non-Muslims in Iraq: Iraq’s Mandaeans ‘face extinction’. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)
The Sabian Mandaeans - one of the oldest religious groups in the world - are facing extinction, according to its leaders. They claim that Islamic extremists in Iraq are trying to wipe them out through forced conversions, rape and murder.
The Mandaeans are pacifists, followers of Adam, Noah and John the Baptist. They have lived in what is now Iraq since before Islam and Christianity. More than 80% have been forced to flee the country and now live as refugees in Syria and Jordan. Even there they do not feel safe - but they say western governments are unwilling to take them in. …
Nine-year-old Selwan likes watching cartoons and playing football. But he is too scared to leave his flat. The other children tease him. He has burns all down the side of his face and on 20% of his body.
He was kidnapped by Islamic militants who forced him to jump into a bonfire - because he is Mandaean. Now his family lives in a tiny flat in a slum in Damascus.
I meet Luay. He is too scared to be identified and does not want to use his full name. He was dragged off the street by armed men and forcibly circumcised - a practice not allowed in the Mandaean religion.
He is 19 and is now unlikely ever to find a bride from his own faith. Worse, he was forcibly converted. That means in the eyes of those same extremists if he now declares himself Mandaean he is apostate.
That makes him a traitor to Islam, who may be murdered. He says he will not be safe in any Muslim country.
Frank says: