A Land With No Jews Names Jewish Affairs Rep

Sherzad Omer Mamsani has always tried to foster Kurdistan’s ties with Jews and Israel, and has paid a heavy price for it. In 1997, a book he wrote about the topic angered local radical Islamist groups, leading to a bombing in which he lost a hand.

Now Mamsani has a chance to pursue his lifelong mission in an official capacity, after being named Jewish affairs representative for the government of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Mariwan Naqshbandi, who leads an office in the Kurdish government’s Ministry of Religious Affairs that promotes religious coexistence, said the decision is part of the government’s efforts to show it is serious in its hospitality to all religions, including Judaism.

In accordance with a law passed by the Kurdish parliament in May, the ministry established seven departments dealing with various religious minorities, including the Baha’i, Zoroastrians and Yazidis, Naqshbandi said. Mamsani’s department will be in charge of relations with Jews of Kurdish origin, a community that numbers between 200,000 and 300,000, most of whom live in Israel, Naqshbandi.

Only a handful of Jews — the last remnants of a large and ancient community — are believed to be still living in Iraq. But Naqshbandi said there are some 200 to 300 families in Iraqi Kurdistan who outwardly converted to Islam over the last decades but who continue to secretly observe certain Jewish traditions.

Mamsani himself claims Jewish ancestry, and has been active in strengthening the region’s ties to Israel by publishing a local magazine called “Israel Kurd” and leading a nongovernmental organization of the same name.

Click to expand...

Timber_MG said:

Well, Jews were purged from Arab countries early last century, don't think they'd want to resettle now as dhimmah.

Click to expand...

Xarog said:

And this was something Israel has cynically exploited by using Mossad et

Click to expand...

Timber_MG said:

Jews faced massive persecution with numerous Progroms documented 18th and 19th century. With the rise of Arab nationalism the movement were to expell them from "Arab Land" (conquored lands from other tribes that, history for another day perhaps) just as what you'll read in the Hamas charter or in the Sunnah.

Click to expand...

The Assyrians, Armenians, Greek Christians, Alevis, Kurds and numerous other groupings weren't so lucky and were decimated and/or repressed under Islamic law. The Jews offered effective resistance and it was only natural that many Jews driven from their homes in North Africa and the peninsula would move to the Levant to join their brethren. So when the Arabs decided to step up their actions with an offensive war in 1948 they further strengthened the resolve and the moral cause for the Zionists.

To now talk of integration is 1400 years late.

Click to expand...

Only a handful of Jews — the last remnants of a large and ancient community — are believed to be still living in Iraq. But Naqshbandi said there are some 200 to 300 families in Iraqi Kurdistan who outwardly converted to Islam over the last decades but who continue to secretly observe certain Jewish traditions.

Click to expand...

Timber_MG said:

I assumed that Kurdistan was a region in Iraq, seems like the article covers a semi-autonomous rebel administration. Reading the linked article gives the impression of new nationhood being re-formed. I read the Jewish relations department in your snippet like a department of Native Affairs in its day.

Click to expand...

I assume that in Iraq as in Egypt, Jordan or any other Sunni/Shia dominant country where Sharia is enforced public life for non adherents is not subject to the typical freedoms you and I enjoy.

Click to expand...

My wife had family in Sudan. Believe you me, when the paw paw came along and Sharia became law friendly relations with neighbours turned into anything but once their non-adherence became known to the administration. History has a way of repeating itself and if its one's life at play with a common trend going back 1400 years a healthy dose of skepticism is called for, esp with ISIS on ones doorstep.

Click to expand...