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| 5/25 |
| 2005/7/27-29 [Reference/Religion, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:38843 Activity:nil |
7/27 I think this is the most interesting blog I've ever read. It's
written by a journalist about his tooling around Iraq. He spends
a lot of time with a unit in Mosul, but the section on the
Yezidis is also really interesting.
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com
Yezidis:
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/2005/06/lost-in-translation.html |
| 5/25 |
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| michaelyon.blogspot.com com: "There is actually good reporting coming from Iraq -- che ck out Michael Yon's blog, for example. And it's possible to get a clear er picture of the strategic picture than most big media accounts provide ." Tuesday, July 26, 2005 Empty Jars Kashmir: then Extensive travels across central Asia have taken me up the plateaus of Ti bet, across the meandering middle of China, around the mountains of Nepa l, and along India's littered river banks. Although each has had the pow er to captivate, India, without a doubt, is the most beguiling land I ha ve ever seen. From India I journeyed North, into Kashmir-- a land of wea lth and beauty, shredded by the claws of covetous neighbors. A Kashmiri Mohammedan said to me, "God keeps men in three jars. "Yes," I answered, "you say God keeps men in three jars." "In the first jar," the man looked at me, "God keeps the Americans. God k eeps that lid very, very tight, for the Americans try their level-best ( he used Indian phrases) to escape and rule the world." The Mohammedan smiled back, holding up a hand to quiet me, and continued, "In the second jar, God keeps the Europeans. But God does not keep that lid so tight," still holding up his hand, as if expecting interruption, "You see, God knows the Europeans also want to rule the world, but Euro peans do not try hard." But, like a preacher, the man held his hand even higher, and continued on with a louder voice, "God keeps Kashmiris in the third jar, but God doe s not keep a lid on our jar. We also want to rule the world but every ti me one of us tries to escape, the rest pull him back down!" "Sir," my smiled faded, "It would be difficult to convey more truth with fewer words." But with so many people grabbing at the ankles of who ever makes a leap for the top, freedom to communic ate has not changed the situation dramatically. On mobile phones, in int ernet cafes, in marketplaces and mosques, journalists and citizens alike know that what they say can kill them. if anything, they are becoming smarter, more complicated and deadlier. to imply that getting smarter and deadlier equates to winning, is fallacious. Most accounts of the situation in Iraq focus on enemy "successes" (if success is re-defined as annihiliation of civility ), while redacting the increasing viability and strength of the Iraqi go vernment, which clearly is outpacing the insurgency. The Mosul police are now strong enough to launch successful undercover op erations, and have been fanning out across Mosul and surrounding village s, snooping and listening for snippets. On July 15th, police working und ercover in a village Northwest of Mosul heard a group of villagers talki ng about a weapons cache, but the location was not mentioned. Iraqi forc es locked down the village, searched and found a weapons depot from Syri a into Mosul. Iraqi police also found and rescued the 28 year-old woman I mentioned briefly in the last dispatch. She was the wife of a Mosul jo urnalist, and had been kidnapped and held for ransom by members of a beh eading cell. After the village search, police hauled four men to a Mosul station for interrogation, and alerted the Americans. Soldiers from A Company, 1-24th Infantry Regiment, headed to the police s tation to find out what the cops were learning, and I asked LT David Bea udoin, who was leading the patrol, if I could tag along. I had first met Beaudoin some months ago after a car bombing that claimed some of our p eople. Since that time, I had come to know Beaudoin as quiet, always pol ite, and well-liked by the soldiers. It was Beaudoin's mannered countena nce that everyone saw as we arrived and sat down in a police colonel's o ffice. The colonel was engaged in conversation with the Iraqi journalist , the husband of the 28 year-old woman who had been released. As details of the kidnapping emerged, the surface of the big picture ripp led with a winding current of revision. The kidnappers had threatened to cut off his wife's head, the journalist explained, kill him, and the re st of his family. " Evidently, the journalist had not been targeted for exercizing the power of the press; it was the promise of precedent that attended this abducti on. Only months earlier, four men kidnapped the journalist's brother-in- law and demanded ransom of $50,000. A deal was struck, the money paid, and the "civility" delivere d Now, apparently, the same four kidnappers were back for the balance: $45,000. But the Iraqi undercover police, listening to people talking in a marketplace, picked up the trail that led to the rescue, and their ea vesdropping also unleashed a cascade of avalanching proportions. While the four kidnappers were being interrogated somewhere on the ground s, the bespectacled journalist--genuinely thankful for the release of hi s wife--was appealing to the colonel to hold the men. He said that other terrorists were still threatening to kill both he and his wife, and tha t if the men were released, his family would be killed. Without saying a s much, the journalist indicated that he wanted bad things to happen to bad men. I had seen recent information about plans to assassinate a journalist--De uce Four leaders thought I might be the target. But now, hearing this jo urnalist talk, I thought he must have been the target. LT Beaudoin's fac e yielded no hint of his reaction to the news from the journalist. I pul led a notepad from my pocket, scratched a note and handed it to Lt Beaud oin. He read the scribble-- There was a SIGACT that AIF plans to assassi nate a journalist with an IED-- glanced at me with affirmation, then con tinued asking questions of the journalist through the Army interpreter. But hell, I thought, looking at the journalist, You paid five-thousand bu cks for your brother-in-law. Next to his name on their list, some one must have written "Has money, will pay." Perhaps fueling his distress was the well-known but little mentioned tend ency--some might say emerging trend--for some Iraqi police to release pr isoners for bribes. This catch and release program has the same negative consequences as the Coalition tendency of detaining and then releasing suspected insurgents following a brief incarceration at Abu Ghraib. I ha ve heard American military officers and senior enlisted men around Iraq complaining that terrorists are being released back on the streets, wher e their own soldiers and Marines must face them yet again in combat. Every combat soldier knows the risks of capturing dangerous men far excee d those associated with just killing them. Capturing a terrorist is no l onger a signal of the end of his ability to disrupt forward progress. Among people weary of watching frien ds and comrades fall and bleed to death, any adjustments in the goal pos ts give rise to discussions of more expedient and durable ways of dealin g with infestations of combatants who scurry in and out of hiding places . Not tightening the lids on these insect jars does more than just lead some cantankerous officers and police to consider more definitive measur es of dealing with combatants. It also places our young soldiers and Mar ines in precarious waters, where one can only hope they are physically a nd morally conditioned to resist the current. Some of those same currents had started swirling around the colonel's off ice, as LT Beaudoin asked increasingly specific questions that were defl ected and re-directed if not evaded outright. Young LT Beaudoin dove for the diplomatic throat, raised his voice a notch and said firmly to the police colonel, "Listen! Before the interpreter could translate Beaudoin's words, it was clear the ir meaning had been communicated. The Iraqi journalist and the police co lonel both were in my field of view. They sat upright and paid full atte ntion to Beaudoin, promising to provide the information requested. But L T Beaudoin was not satisfied, and said, "I want to interview the police lieutenant who captured these guys," which everyone knew translated to, "Get the lieutenant who captured them in here, now." The colonel spoke and waved his hand, and soon a policeman came into the room. He flattened a laminated map on a tea table, and the jou... |
| michaelyon.blogspot.com/2005/06/lost-in-translation.html com: "There is actually good reporting coming from Iraq -- checkout Michael Yon's blog, for example. And it's possible to get a clearer picture of the strategic picture than most big media accounts provide." Monday, June 06, 2005 Lost in Translation Yezdinar Village, Iraq Dohuk is a welcoming place. After walking or taking taxis inside and arou nd the city for two days, I covered enough ground and talked with enough people to see that while the welcome is clear for American, British, an d other visitors, troublemakers can expect an entirely different greetin g People in Dohuk say they have no intentions of going back, or of carr ying useless boulders from the past as they move forward. After being in a war zone for nearly half a year, a few days in Dohuk bec omes a chance to reconnect with civilized society, bustling with a peopl e in hurried pursuit of progress. Seeing a little girl tucked away in a corner of her family's stall in the marketplace, absorbed in a book she s reading about the solar system, it's easy to peek over her shoulder an d peer into her imagination, and see it take her into space as Iraq's fi rst astronaut. In her young life, never having known the fiery cage of w ar, the possibilities are still limitless. Two Kids: One Bright Future I had been hearing about the Yezidi people who live in villages near Dohu k Followers of an ancient religion, whose proponents claim it is the ol dest in the world, there are thought to be about a half million Yezidis, living mostly in the area of Mosul, with smaller bands in forgotten vil lages scattered across Northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and other lands. Sad dam had labeled the Yezidis "Devil Worshippers," a claim I'd heard other Iraqis make, but no source offered substantiation. I wanted to know mor e Nearly everything I heard pronounced as fact about Yezidis was certain in only one narrow sense: before long, someone equally confident of their information would provide a different set of facts. The only way to find the truth would be to talk with Yezidis in situ, so I asked an interpre ter in Dohuk to take me to a Yezidi village. I'd learned some t hings from when I tracked down cannibals in the jungles of northern Indi a A current anthropological rap sheet is of paramount necessity before venturing alone into the wild. The road from Dohuk The village of Yezdinar is about twenty miles outside of Dohuk, and on th e way I reflected on what I knew of the religion. Some believe Yezidism is over 5,000 years old, while others claim thousan ds of years older. The Yezidis have their own fuzz iness on dates, and for the Yezidis it seems enough to say that theirs i s the oldest religion in the world. The Hindus of India make the same cl aim about their religion, while others in Nepal and Tibet make calendar claims of their own. One might intuit such proclamations as offering evi dence of the essential truth of a religionhaving withstood the test of time, it must be the order of things. Some see age as the proof of the r ightness of one path over others, implying that precedence is precedence , like when a Muslim man in Kashmir once said to me, as if it would expl ain everything, "Ahhhh, the Sikhs, they are just a young religion." Some tenets of Yezidism are readily understandable to westerners: Yezidis worship one God but no prophets. They recognize and respect both Jesus and Mohammed, but as men of faith, not prophets. Where the doctrine star ts to become hazy is when the angels appear. An older Yezidi man with whom I speak on occasion says there are seven an gels: Izrafael, Jibrael, Michael, Nordael, Dardael, Shamnael, and Azazae l All were gathered at a heavenly meeting when God told them they shoul d bow to none other than Him. This arrangement worked for a span of fort y thousand years, until God created Adam by mixing the "elements": earth , air, water and fire. When God told the seven angels to bow before Adam , six complied. A seventh angel, citing God's order that the angels bow only to God, refused. Although this angel was God's favorite, his disobe dience cast him from grace. There is some dispute among Yezidis about the identity of the seventh ang el; some believe it was Jibrael, while others believe it was Izrafael. But whatever his former name, when this seventh Angel, most beloved of God, fell from grace, he was the most powerful an gel in Heaven and on Earth. Most Yezidis equate Malak Ta'us with Satan, a mainstay in many religions but otherwise not mentioned in Yezidism. Some Yezidis claim that Malak T a'us is like a god himself, at least in terms of his power--particularly over the fortunes of the descendents of Adam. In this religion, God cre ated Adam, but no Eve, and therefore all men came from Adam alone. The Y ezidis were first born among all men, and consider themselves to be "the chosen people." Malak Ta'us descended from Heaven to Earth on a Wednesday to tell man tha t he is the Archangel, making this a day for religious observation. The Yezidis mark the day by not bathing on Wednesday evenings. They believe their dead must wash, and for this they need water; Never on Wednesday: Laundry Day in Yezdinar Not only do shards of Judeo-Christianity glint in this amalgam, but a clo se look also reveals pieces of Hinduism, especially in the prominence of castes. There are five Yezidi castes--depending on who one asks--the "m ost important" being the Pir, then Shaikh, Kawal, Murabby, and finally t he Mureed (the follower). Descriptions of the Mureed are similar to the Dalits of Hinduism. The Yezidis are strictly forbidden to marry outside the Yezidi, and must marry within their caste. Yezidis have two holy books: the Book of Revelation and the Black Book. T he old Yezidi man informed me that although the Black Book is kept secre t so it cannot be defamed, he would like to translate it into English. While Kurds say the Yezidis are Kurds, the Yezidis claim to be neither Ar ab nor Kurd, simply Yezidis or, perhaps, Yezidi first and Kurd second. I n a fashion similar to how the word "Jewish" is used, the designation "Y ezidi" applies to both a set of religious beliefs and a genetic or triba l identity. Because Yezidis keep to themselves, it is easy for others to misunderstand, or deliberately mis-project, the Yezidi religion. The most recent example was when Saddam Hussein labeled the Yezidis "Devi l Worshippers," which he justified by equating Malak Ta'us with Satan. T his was no minor misunderstanding, nor was it just a rhetorical flourish , but a deliberate attempt to exploit the reservoir of suspicion that en circles enclaves of people who keep to themselves, and in this case to c leave the Yezidis from the Kurds. Exacerbating matters was that the Yezidi religion is such an amalgam of b eliefs and practices. History, more so than theology, provides a key to this code. When a Yezidi holy man asserted that Yezidis all love Jesus, too, it lent credence to other reports I'd heard that Yezidism conflated with religions such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and even Zoroastri anism over the centuries, as the Yezidi came into contact with the follo wers of these religions. Even without an authoritative timeline showing when these mergers occurre d, the mixing of diverse dogma and symbolism in Yezidism does not flow l ogically or track a linear course of thinking. It goes far beyond the bo unds of any off-the-shelf syncretism, and stands as testament for the ab ility of the Yezidis to dissimulate in the face of destruction to preser ve the body. Rather than cast off their beliefs in subjugation to conque rors, they instead incorporated elements of the dominant belief system i nto their amalgam, using their cultural and racial identity as Yezidi fo r the mortar. They built their faith, and their villages, with this conc rete; its ability to withstand the destructive forces of outside element s would have a severe test in recent times. Saddam Hussein's hatred for Yezidis and Kurds was matched only by his des ire to eradicate every last one of them from Iraq. Even though most Kurd s are actually Sunni Muslims, as is the now imprisoned dictator, his hat red for them remained unabated, ... |