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[from http://www.calebproject.org/nance/n519.htm ]

Subject: YEZEDIS

IRAQ
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MARC ID:                          79.
ALTERNATE NAMES:                  Kirmanji.
SIZE OF GROUP:                    70,000.
LOCATION:                         nr.
DISTINCTIVES:                     nr.
SOCIAL CHANGE:                    nr.
LANGUAGES:                        Kirmanji.
SCRIPTURE:                        New Testament 1872.
                                  Portions 1856-1953. Work in progress.
RECORDINGS:                       None.
RELIGION:                         Satan Worshipers.
CHURCHES & MISSIONS:              nr.
OPENNESS TO RELIGIOUS CHANGE:     nr.
RECEPTIVITY TO CHRISTIANITY:      nr.
GROWTH OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY:    nr.
EVANGELISM PROFILE:               nr.

      The following is taken from the 8/30/93 issue of GLOBAL PRAYER DIGES
T
          Frontier Fellowship, Inc., P.O. Box 90970, Pasadena, CA 91104

                      PLEAD WITH GOD FOR THE HIDDEN PEOPLES
      PRAY FOR A STRONG CHURCH AMONG THE SATAN-WORSHIPPING YEZEDIS OF IRAQ
                                BY THE YEAR 2000.

"The devil is so cruel that anyone who seeks happiness must concentrate on
appeasing him," the teacher told his pupils.  "You can safely ignore the 
worship of God because he is too compassionate to take revenge."  The 
teacher then led the class in passionate prayer to a peacock statue, the 
symbol of Satan.

 The secretive Yezedi sect of Iraq believes the peacock was created at
the time of the prophet Abraham, long before the dawn of Islam 1,400 
years ago.  Adi Musafer, a Muslim mystic, began this sect in the 11th 
century by opposing the Sunnis and Shi'ites who accused a man named 
Yezid of killing Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed.  years 
after Adi and his followers had settled in the ancient Iraqi province 
of Ninevah, the people distorted Adi's teachings by adding a number 
of superstitions and by declaring Yezid a prophet sent by Satan
to keep their religion on course.

 The Yezidis live by strictly enforced rules of behavior.  For example, 
men must grow thick mustaches, spitting is forbidden as an insult to 
Satan, and female adulterers are killed.  After 1000 years of self-
imposed isolation in the mountains of Northern Iraq, contact with the 
world is eroding their seclusion.  Many of the 70,000 Yezidis are 
becoming doctors, professors and engineers.

 They speak a Kurdish dialect called Kirmanji, and use Arabic as a 
trade language.  Nearly all Yezidis worship the devil, and there are 
no known Yezidis Christians.

 Dear Lord, we pray the Yezidis will know the truth of Your love for 
them.  Send workers to contact them as they rejoin society.


      GPD 3/2/94 PRAY FOR A STRONG CHURCH AMONG THE 70,000 YEZIDIS IN IRAQ
                                BY THE YEAR 2000.

 When Khader awoke, he could still remember his dream.  In it, he was 
a boy again.  Mr. De Kakatia, the Assyrian man who conducted Khader's 
small school for Yezidi boys in northern Iraq was telling the boys 
stories about Jesus.  Khader had always looked forward to those 
times.  He wished now he could remember more of the stories.

 There are possibly 70,000 Yezidis living in northern Iraq.  Others 
live in Syria, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia, but most of them have 
migrated to Germany.  Unlike other Kurds, the Yezidis' religion is 
a strange mixture of Islam and Zoroastrianism.  They believe Satan 
is the active, malevolent element of the Creator.  The Yezidis 
worship Satan in order to appease him, since he would otherwise 
harm them.  In Yezidi belief, God is kind but does not involve 
Himself with mankind; so He can be ignored.  The Yezidis remain 
aloof from their neighbors and seek no new converts.  Because of 
persecution by the Iraqi government and invasion by the modern 
world, the Yezidi sect is shrinking away.

 There are almost no Christians among the Yezidis.  However, from 
the late 1920s to the 1940s, an Assyrian evangelist had worked among 
the Yezidis through a small boys' school.  At that time, five 
Yezidis believed in Jesus and were baptized.  All were active 
Christians, and they had to leave the area.  But there may be many 
more secret believers still living in the northern mountains
of Iraq.  When the missionaries were forced out of Iraq in 1958, 
the Yezidis seemed to be on the verge of a people movement 
toward Christ.

 God, may the work that was done half a century ago bear fruit today.
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EOF