Yezidis

[HeathenPride]

Well, it's a bit offtopic with the Orphaned Land but i just wanted to share about a religion which still exists in middle east:

http://www.freewebs.com/see_the_truth/Yezidis.html

These people are known as devil-worshippers but they are more into "Malak Ta'us", the angel-peacock, which was the former of shaytan in Quran.

In south-eastern Turkey, there are only a few Yezidi villiages, and they really faced many massacrates during Ottoman times. They are still not free, they even cannot write their religion to their identify cards yet in Turkey. Today, there are many more of them in miscelious countries of western Europe and Armenia.

They are so weird, they never tell about their religion to foreigners. It's forbidden to lie for them, so when you ask something, they are just telling you diffrent stuff but not the answers to your questions. They don't accept people who want to convert into their religion. They don't let their children to marry with a non-yezidi etc.

And most interesting one is that, they never let you to say anything bad about Satan

 

[UnConscious]

their religion seems pretty interesting from what i've read at least. since they don't talk about their religion to outsiders it's probably not 100% true but they are believed to have a different monotheistic belief. they believe that god created melek tavus, who is as you said simply the "sheitan" (satan) in islam. melek tavus says to god and every creature "you are me and i am you, you are my creator, and i am your creator" which is similar to panteistic belief.
after he was created by god, and after humans were created (some say they were created by god and some say by melek tavus himself) melek tavus refused to obey god's command to bow to adam and god punished him. then he cried for 7000 years and his tears extinguished the fire of hell. so they respect melek tavus. also melek tavus helped sons of adam in their daily life. (taught them how to eat etc.) since god has created satan (melek tavus) and that god is good, melek tavus cannot be evil. they don't believe in evilness and respect satan. besides that some people say that they don't worship god since he is good and doesn't need to be worshipped, but melek tavus is evil and thus feared and worshipped. god is not active, he's in a, well how to say, "stand by" position right now and melek tavus rules the world today.
since hell is extinguished they don't believe anybody will go to hell, they don't have the belief of the afterlife. human soul is incomplete and human beings must try to become perfect creatures in this world. if they can, life becomes heaven. if they can't, it's hell.
so they have pretty interesting views about the evil and the good, the light and the dark. since orphaned land's music is also about this difference and similarity, this diversity and uniqueness of light and dark (especially in el norra alila) it's not very off-topic i guess

 

[paradoxile]

just so you know Mal'akh Tavas means angel peacock in hebrew...

this is very interesting...
and it's funny how Judaism, Christianity and Islam preach against killing(unless it's self defence) and all committed genocide in the name of god.

 

[UnConscious]

same in turkish, melek tavus means angel peacock "imported" from arabic as you might guess. it seems hebrew and arabic have a lot in common, one day i'd like to learn both of them.

 

[paradoxile]

melekh means king and malakh means angel in hebrew
but angels are used in the hebrew bible as another word for messangers...as gods are another word for judges.

 

[Messiakh]

I didn't expect to see such a thread in OL Forums, but heck, Yezidism always won my interest in religions.

Anyone knows where the name "Yezidi" is derived from? some say it stands for "Yazd" which is a place in Iran, and ofcourse Yezidism somehow is related to Zoroastrism the ancient religion of Persia, or some say that the Sheikh Udai bin Musafer, one of the oldest scholars or priests known to Yezidis who is told to be a descent of Yezid bin Ma'awya, an Islamic character who was once cursed for causing the Islamic prophet's grandson's death.

Or some say Yazid means God in Kurdish? I don't know, Kurd has also won my interest in ethnicty and races, I'll surely study that too someday.

So far Yezidism is very disrespected here in Bahrain and other Islamic countries (Like most non-Islamic religions), whenever I try reading a book about them, I recieve none but badnames and shit, I even once read in a book that Yeizidism is the Satanism that modern world speaks of, the book they have known as "Meshaf Al-Rash" (The Black Book?) is said to be the orignal book on which influenced Anton Szandor Lavey (who is as they said, of a Jewish descent). So they're trying to relate Yezidism to Judaism, like they always relate what's bad to Judaism, sorry Jews

 

[Blacken the angel]

So far Yezidism is very disrespected here in Bahrain and other Islamic countries (Like most non-Islamic religions)

Don't generlize we all live here with Christians ,Drooz, with no probloms, only peace and love between us.. I wonder why do you think this way?

 

[Folklore]

This is pretty odd because I also always thought Yezidism is somehow related, in some way to Zoroastrism!!
I think that the common ground between both faiths is that they are old (I dont know exactly about Yezidism, but it is known that Zoroastrism is older then islam) and they still survived inside the islamic world, very quietly and fearfully.
I know Jews and christiana are also minorities in the islamic world, but they have much less fear declaring their religion in public, and I think that the difference here is that these two are monotheist religions which precedes Islam and even formed a large part of Islam, while Zoroastrism and Yezidism's main component is paganism.

 

[UnConscious]

This is pretty odd because I also always thought Yezidism is somehow related, in some way to Zoroastrism!!
I think that the common ground between both faiths is that they are old (I dont know exactly about Yezidism, but it is known that Zoroastrism is older then islam) and they still survived inside the islamic world, very quietly and fearfully.
I know Jews and christiana are also minorities in the islamic world, but they have much less fear declaring their religion in public, and I think that the difference here is that these two are monotheist religions which precedes Islam and even formed a large part of Islam, while Zoroastrism and Yezidism's main component is paganism.

i think it's because Quran calls Jews and Christians as "People of the Book" and advises to treat them respectfully.
Some believers also include Zoroastrians to this group and therefore respect them, especially in Iran. Zoroastrianism has affected Islam in many ways, too. This is also mostly in Iran and sometimes in Turkey. For example in Alevi rituals and songs (Alevi is a Turkish sect which is like a rationalized and open-minded version of the Shia) sometimtes they call Allah as "Yezdan", which is a name of God in Zoroastrianism (also known as "Izid")
But Yezidis are always misunderstood and disliked by Muslims since they respect Satan even more than God. And when you add ignorance and years of prejudice to that, they are thought to be more "Satanic" than even most Norwegian Black Metal bands Because of the pressure on them Yezidis closed themselves to the societies they live in and some of them developed some kind of hatred against Arabs for example. And of course this made them look even more suspicious and resulted in a more severe way of "dislike".

 

[Morticia NL.]

Unconcious. Pretty interesting thing you say there. do you know why it is they respect Satan?

 

[Messiakh]

Don't generlize we all live here with Christians ,Drooz, with no probloms, only peace and love between us.. I wonder why do you think this way?

Well maybe I might want to replace the terms "Muslims" with Arabs.
I don't know my friend, it's pretty different down here.

The Swedish Opera Metal band, Therion playd two songs about Yezidism, one is "Ritualdance of The Yezidis" which is kinda weird, and the other which is "Melek Taus" which has weird lyrics but nice background.

EDIT for the third time
Morticia NL, I think Unconcious explained why they respect Satan in an earlier post.

 

[Blacken the angel]

Well maybe I might want to replace the terms "Muslims" with Arabs.
I don't know my friend, it's pretty different down here.

I even know some Bahran-ian metal bands?,so there is gotta be some freedom Right?.

 

[Messiakh]

I even know some Bahran-ian metal bands?,so there is gotta be some freedom Right?.

How about it if I tell you they don't even play live? and if they do, the next day you're gonna read about them in the newspapers as "Satanists" and stuff?

I remember hearing that the last local concert held here didn't even finish, the bands were called by the police and it got cancled.

 

[Blacken the angel]

How about it if I tell you they don't even play live? and if they do, the next day you're gonna read about them in the newspapers as "Satanists" and stuff?

I remember hearing that the last local concert held here didn't even finish, the bands were called by the police and it got cancled.

So sad, at least here(syria) we could see our bands live .. it's sad how people can be very stupid sometimes .
it seem that the situation in Bahrin is very extreme .

 

[Messiakh]

Well, its not as extreme as in countries like Saudia, I mean the law down here isn't too strict, but it's those strict religious people who try to control the law, so when there's a muscial rock concert being held (which isn't a crime due to Bahrain's law) these religious "Sheikhs" write what's bad about rock music and metalheads, making the bands and fans look like a bunch of satanists who gather up in a pile and do blood orgies and shit, when they're actually nothing but kids in the age between 12-18, who drink coca-cola and listen to music like korn, slipknot...etc. how more ironic could this get?