Refugees in Our Midst: Mandaeans from Iraq
Mandaean house of worship in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq in 2016
The Boston Globe reports on a refugee settlement in Worcester, Massachusetts, where 2,500 refugees now make up what is believed to be the largest Mandaean community in the United States and second-largest in the world outside the Middle East. “They were kidnapped and murdered in Iraq, persecuted because of their ancient Mandaean religion and pacifist beliefs that made them easy targets amid chaotic, sectarian violence. They fled in droves and found an unlikely home in Worcester.”
The Mandaeans have began arriving there in 2008, freely practicing a monotheistic religion that predates Christianity and Islam.
KJ
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