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Ammon News - By Taylor Luck

AMMAN - No matter how hard he tries, Baha Abu Kareem can’t get priests off his mind.

The Iraqi east Amman resident has not been able to pray for over two years, and his community seems to be “lost” without spiritual guidance, he said.

If he cannot secure a priest within the next two months, his son’s upcoming wedding to an Iraqi woman in Finland, which would also allow him citizenship in the European Union, is in danger.

Abu Kareem is one of the Sabian Mandaeans, followers of a Gnostic religion that began in the Levant before migrating to southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Basra, in the first century AD.

After 2,000 years in neighbouring Iraq, thousands of Mandaeans have returned to Jordan, this time as refugees fleeing from violence, kidnappings and forced conversions.

Left with no priest, no livelihoods and little hope, the followers of this ancient faith said their community is facing extinction on the very banks of the Jordan River where it was born.

Violence back home

According to Mandaeans residing in Jordan, life in Iraq was difficult for them during the Saddam Hussein regime, under which the minority was forced to pay bribes, forcibly conscripted into the army and forbidden from teaching Mandaic, an ancient language related to Aramaic.

Many within the community were hopeful of their future following the US-led invasion in 2003, and many took jobs with the American military and contractors.

“We thought things were going to improve,” said Abu Kareem, who serves as the representative of Mandaeans in Jordan.

“We were wrong.”

As Iraqis saw their country fall along sectarian lines, minorities such as the Mandaeans became the frequent prey of militias.

Fatwas were issued declaring Mandaeans kuffar, or infidels. Mandaeans, known for their gold and jewellery craftsmanship, became frequent targets of kidnappings, with ransoms set as high as $100,000.

Since the US-led invasion, the Mandaean Human Rights Group has recorded around 180 killings, 275 kidnappings and 298 assaults and forced conversions within Iraq.

“Since 2003, the Mandaeans have been persecuted and specifically targeted by various components of religious fundamentalists and insurgents who have targeted the minorities of Iraq in general,” Laila Alroomi, of the Mandaean Human Rights Group, told The Jordan Times.

After his youngest son was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2004 due to his connections to the US army and held for a $30,000 ransom, Abu Kareem, one of thousands of Mandaeans facing the threat of violence, knew it was time to leave.

Return to the river

When the security situation in Iraq deteriorated, Jordan became a natural destination for Mandaeans, community leaders said.

The Jordanian government’s respect for minority rights and its proximity to the Jordan River, where the religion was founded, attracted many Mandaeans, according to Alroomi.

Some 5,959 Sabian Mandaeans have come through the Kingdom on to third party nations, according to UNHCR, while around 10,000 are estimated to remain in Syria and Jordan.

Upon their arrival in Jordan, the Mandaean community began holding ritual baptisms in Wadi Seer, they said. After a physical altercation between local residents and Mandaean worshippers, however, authorities encouraged the community to choose another place to worship, Abu Kareem said.

Now Mandaeans baptise in Wadi Shuaib, a site further from Amman and with poorer water quality, and must inform authorities one month in advance of any ceremony in order for protection to be provided.

The last Mandaean priest left Jordan for resettlement in early 2007, leaving followers unable to complete basic ritual ceremonies, or mark the five major holidays of the religion, they said.

Since then, resettlement has slowed, and some 1,139 UNHCR-registered Mandaeans in Jordan struggle to maintain their identity while keeping contact with the new diaspora.

Due to distrust and rising violence back home, the Mandaean community in Jordan avoids neighbourhoods in Amman known to house a significant Iraqi Shiite population, several Mandaeans told The Jordan Times.

Greater awareness of their religion is needed, they added.

“Although Mandaeanism was born in Jordan, people here have no idea what it is. Some think we are fire worshippers,” Abu Kareem noted.

“Once they realise we follow Adam, the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), Zacharia and Yahya (John the Baptist), then they are accepting. We are people of the book too,” he stressed.

For many, return to Iraq means near-certain death.

In September, two Mandaeans, who were forced to return to Iraq in 2006 after two years in Jordan when their finances ran out, were killed in their hometown of Basra on the first day of Eid Al Fitr, leaving their widows and families unprotected and fearing for their lives, according Sheikh Salam, a senior Mandaean priest in Sweden.

“For us it is either death or a hard life. We chose a hard life,” Abu Kareem said.

Community ‘facing extinction’

Displacement has become a greater threat than violence to the ancient community.

With only 35 priests worldwide, the Mandaean diaspora is finding it harder to practise their faith.

The religion imposes stringent requirements for priests, such as knowledge of Mandaic, and access to natural bodies of water is a prerequisite for carrying out religious rites.

Another danger posed by the global diaspora has been an increase in intermarriage, seen as an irreversible conversion from the Mandaic faith.

Mandaeism requires a Mandaean name for baptism, a prerequisite for worship and becoming part of the community, Sheikh Salam explained.

This name has to come from the mother’s side, while marriage of Mandaean women to men of other faiths is not permitted, he noted.

With members of the community stretched across the world, linking young Mandaeans for marriage is becoming more and more difficult.

“Resettlement is the greatest threat we are facing. It will kill the Mandaeans,” Sheikh Salam said.

There are few speakers left of the Mandaic language, an offshoot of Aramaic, which is listed as extinct in Iraq and critically endangered worldwide - limited to 300 speakers, according to UNESCO. Without knowledge of Mandaic, worshippers and priests cannot follow the Ginze, the central Mandaean text.

NGOs such as Minority Rights Group International have stressed that haphazard resettlement to Europe, the US and elsewhere has divided members of the community, once 60,000 strong in Iraq, and now estimated at 5,000.

UNHCR says it is unable to cater to specific communities as they are inundated with Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria and hindered by budget deficits for the foreseeable future.

UNHCR Representative in Jordan Imran Riza stressed that managing cases on an individual basis, or assisting and resettling communities as a whole, are “outside the UNHCR mandate” and impossible due to a lack of resources and manpower.

“This is one of the tragic consequences of what is occurring in Iraq: Is it going to lose the richness of its heritage which it built upon a lot of diversity?” he asked.

Abu Kareem, meanwhile, is concerned for the thousand or so Mandaeans who remain in Jordan.

“We have to find a better future for our children,” he said, sitting in his apartment preparing date-and-sesame sweets to be distributed to neighbours to mark a Mandaean holiday.

Although he won’t reveal his religion to the neighbours to mark the occasion, he said he was encouraged by Jordanian hospitality.

“When you have nothing left, tolerance is all you can ask for,” he said. (The Jordan Times)