A religious minority in Iraq A secret sect (the Kakai - islamo-pagan)

The Economist ^ | 17 Feb 2015 | Economist

[Cronos]

IN A village called Shalyar, near the oil city of Kirkuk, an officer tries to explain where his tiny community fits in Iraq’s religious mosaic. Imam Ali, the martyred hero of Shia Islam, adorns his wall. But Major Farhad Nazar is not Shia; nor, unlike most fellow Kurds, is he Sunni. He speaks for the Kakai, a small, secretive group which is monotheistic and reveres Imam Ali but (unlike most Muslims) accepts reincarnation. That mix makes them a big target for Islamic State (IS) which proclaims a violently puritanical Sunni line.

Major Nazar, who was jailed in 1993 as a dissident against the late dictator, Saddam Hussein, laments that “IS has two reasons to kill us, we are Kurdish and Kakai.” But his community, numbering about 75,000, has been toughened by a decade of persecution. At least 218 civilian members have been slain in Iraq’s turmoil since the American invasion of 2003, but none has been killed since IS overran the once-diverse city of Mosul last August. That is partly because the Kakai had already been displaced from traditional homes before last year’s flare-up; and some Kakai villages are in land still held by their Kurdish kin. But they did see three shrines destroyed in last year’s advance.

The Kakai formed a militia after another religious group, the Yazidis, was slaughtered by IS. As of November, they became a regular component of the larger Kurdish force

[Cronos]

This is another one of the fascinating religions that are in this region. I didn't know about this one, but it seems we have the:

• Alawites/Alevis - belief in a Trinity, otherwise a mix of Christianity and Islam
• Druze - mix of Platonist and Islamic thoughts
• Mandaens: belief that the only prophets were Adam, Enoch and John the Baptist and that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were false prophets (thereby pizzing off all the three major faiths!)
• Yazidis: ancient pre-Zoroatrian religion
• Zoroastrians

[T-Bone Texan]

Fascinating stuff. My main metric with any of these smaller groups is their desire to kill me and my family.

If these folks are the mythical Muslims that do not want to kill us, then I say yay for them and I accept them into the community of mankind.

[Cronos]

In most Moslems opinion these guys are not Moslem as they either believe in a trinity or reincarnation