Kurdish Muslim Treatment of Jews

Depredations based on Sharia.

Fri Oct 18, 2019 Andrew Bostom78

Largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is a Sharia-based society, per its own Constitution, (Articles 6 & 7): 

This Constitution confirms and respects the Islamic identity of the majority of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. It considers the principles of Islamic Sharia as one of the main sources of legislation… It is not allowed to enact a law inconsistent with the provisions of the fundamentals of Islam. (Articles 6 and 7)

Not surprisingly, given historical Sharia mores, the attendant legacy of Islamic attitudes towards non-Muslims, overall, including Jews, and Islam’s own intrinsic theological Jew-hatred, here are the current prevailing conditions for the tiny vestigial remnant population of mixed “Jews” of Kurdistan, forced to “practice” their faith surreptitiously, as reported less than a year ago (11/30/2018), by the Kurdish media outlet, Rudaw::

"They call us ‘Ben Jews’ or ‘Sons of Jews’ because we are mixed Jews, Kurds, or other ethnicities." . . . They keep their Jewish identity hidden for fear of persecution. They meet for Shabbat – the holy day – at a different home every week. Religious celebrations like Hanukkah and Passover are often celebrated privately inside the home of someone within the community. The event on Friday was organized by many people from the community, but “they didn’t want to give their name or picture because of the dangerous situation."

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 2014 polling data from Iraq on the prevalence of extreme Antisemitism, are entirely consistent with the reported self-protective behaviors of Kurdistan’s Jews seeking to avoid persecution from the overwhelmingly Kurdish Muslim population. In brief the ADL surveys the prevalence of those who agree with at least 6 out of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes (for actual questionnaires and embedded pdf files of the surveys, see this blog). In each country, including Iraq, the following survey methods were applied to ensure that all regions are sampled in a representative and balanced manner. This would necessarily include Iraqi Kurdistan........To Read More....