MORE ON THE MANDAEANS:

Gnostic Sect in Iraq Lobbies to Protect Its Way of Life (Los Angeles Times)
* The Mandaean Sabians are emerging from their closed society to press for recognition and rights in a lawless and largely Muslim land.

By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer

[...]

During Saddam Hussein's regime, years the Mandaean Sabians spent hunkered in their cloistered communities while their country dried up, water came to represent the many things Iraq was losing.

The regime drained the marshes and dammed the rivers. Mandaean temples were seized by Hussein, and the sect was banned from erecting new houses of worship. Some members were killed.

But now the marshes are wet again, and the rivers full. This has been Iraq's rainiest winter in nearly a decade � and the Mandaean Sabians are hoping for a renaissance.

"The dictator did not allow us to express our religion freely," said Toma Zeki Zehrun, the Mandaean secretary of affairs in Baghdad. "Now it is time." A quiet people who preach peace and traditionally shy from authority, the Mandaean Sabians are pushing cannily into politics. They have opened a rudimentary lobbying campaign to protect their rights during Iraq's political formation and have enlisted spokesmen to meet with political and religious figures.

All the while, they are reminding anybody who will listen that they are a test for Iraq's nascent government. The quality of Iraq's democracy will show itself in the protection of its minorities, they argue.

The Mandaean Sabians want permission, never granted under Hussein, to build schools to educate their children in their language. The sect also expects representation in the Iraqi Governing Council and is pushing for a mention in the Iraqi constitution.

"We would like to fix our religion as a religion of Iraq," Zeki Zehrun said. "We demand strongly to prove our existence, and to participate in the political process." But with opportunity comes danger. Mandaean Sabians are vulnerable and isolated in a newly lawless Iraq. Moreover, some Islamists are taking advantage of the demise of the secular regime by leading a sort of vigilante push to impose Islamic code on Iraqi society. Christians and other minorities, including the Mandaean Sabians, have suffered most, especially in the south.

Here in the southern city of Nasiriya, a predominantly Shiite Muslim region, Mandaean Sabians are particularly worried about protecting their weekly baptism rituals. Muslims regard the rites either as charming curiosities or infidel shows of paganism. The sect has been accused of worshipping images, and threats to the Baghdad temple have driven its rituals indoors, away from the river and into the white pools built within the temple walls.

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It has been 50 years since Lady E.S. Drower, a lifelong observer of the Mandaean Sabians, was disturbed by the increasing secularism and dwindling priesthood of the sect. "The writing is on the wall: In 50 years' time this ancient religion will languish into its death," she wrote. But the sect is still here.

Good luck to them!