Sheikh Sattar Jabbar al-Hilu, the leader of the "Sabean-Mandaean" sect in Iraq and the world, said that they faced discrimination practices based on sect and ethnicity in all Iraqi government institutions.
Al-Helou added - in an interview with Anatolia - that the number of the sect's followers in Iraq "was about 75,000 people before 2003, but the number fell to about 20,000 due to displacement."
The "Sabean-Mandaeans" are one of the religious minorities that complain of marginalization in Iraq, especially since the harassment and acts of violence they were exposed to doubled after the US invasion of the country in 2003.
In addition to the capital, Baghdad, the followers of the aforementioned sect are spread in other cities as well, most notably Maysan, Nasiriyah, Basra and Diwaniyah.
Sabean-Mandaean sect
This sect, most of whose members work as goldsmiths, has faced in recent years threats of kidnapping for ransom, in addition to racist policies and poor security conditions.
This prompted some of the followers of the "Sabean-Mandaeans" to migrate to areas such as Kirkuk, Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, while the other part sought refuge outside Iraq.
In addition to Iraq, the "Sabean-Mandaean" sect is also spread in Palestine and the Ahvas region in Iran.
The sect based on the principle of "the religion of monotheism" believes that the Prophet Yahya, peace be upon him, is the last of the prophets sent to them, while their holy book and its main language is Aramaic, and it was also translated into Arabic.
According to the beliefs of the "Sabean-Mandaeans", violence in all its forms, especially armed violence, is forbidden.
in running water
The sect practices its religious rituals in running water, due to the importance it attaches to it.
While the places of residence of the followers of the sect are concentrated on the edges of the rivers, they perform their religious rituals in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq.
The followers of the "Sabean-Mandaean" are keen to eat and drink what they have prepared themselves, even in the places to which they are called, and they only marry members of the same sect.
In addition to their mother tongue, Mandaean, they are fluent in Arabic, but they currently only use their mother tongue in religious rituals.
Despite their involvement in organizations to demand their social, cultural and political rights during the eighties of the last century, the number of the sect's members is currently in a continuous decline, to the extent that it is facing the threat of extinction in Iraq.
The 2015 constitution in Iraq classified the Sabean-Mandaeans among the "minorities".
The roots of religion
Al-Hilu said that the Sabean-Mandaeans are an "ancient religion that traces its roots back to Mesopotamia".
He added that Iraq "was one of the first places that the followers of this sect trampled, specifically the cities of Ur (south) and Maysan (east)."
Al-Hilu described the Mandaeans as "the oldest religions on the face of the earth", indicating that they "believe in God as one God, the One and Only."
He stressed that the Sabean-Mandaeans are a religion "independent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam", but "we are all descendants of Adam."
He stressed that "monotheism is an essential pillar of the Sabean Mandaeans, as well as the prayer that they perform 3 times a day, and they adopt ablution as it is in the Islamic religion."
He added that although they are "one of the oldest settlers in Iraq, we have faced discrimination based on sect and race in all government institutions."
"We were subjected to discrimination in all the different stages (in Iraq), especially in the nineties of the last century," he said.
He added, "They forged and slandered us, until that decreased somewhat after the translation of our book into Arabic."
Closed society
Al-Hilu pointed out that the sect is "a closed society and is not open to the outside, and a Sabean-Mandaean person can only be born through parents who embrace the same religion," noting that it "is not a missionary religion."
In another context, Al-Helou said that members of the sect "were subjected to killing and kidnapping practices after 2003, which forced the followers of the religion to migrate to Jordan, Syria and northern Iraq."
The Sabean-Mandaeans believe that they are the second largest basic elements of society in Maysan Governorate (south) after its indigenous Muslims. They work in blacksmithing, carpentry, making boats, coating them with bitumen, and farming tools such as sickles, drilling machines and plowing tools, in addition to goldsmithing.
The Sabean Mandaeans have their own market in the city of Al-Amarah known as the goldsmiths market, where they and their children and grandchildren work and are distinguished by their kindness and credibility.
And the historian of the Sabean Mandaean sect Badr Jassim Hammadi says - in a previous interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that the Mandaeans inhabited the Al-Tayyib area near the Iraqi-Iranian border (50 km) east of the city of Al-Amarah in the year 70 AD, where the rivers are because their religious rituals require housing near them.
Hammadi confirms that their religion shares with other monotheistic religions in monotheism and prohibition of the taboos represented in blasphemy in the name of the Creator (disbelief), murder, adultery, theft, lying, perjury, breach of trust and covenant, worshiping lusts, sorcery, witchcraft, drinking wine, usury, crying over the dead, eating the dead, suicide, abortion, self-torture and bodily harm.