THE HEAD PRIEST OF THE IRAQI SABEAN MANDEANS is interviewed about his religion:

Iraq: Old Sabaean-Mandean Community Is Proud of Its Ancient Faith

By Valentinas Mite, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iraq's Sabaean-Mandean religious community is one of the smallest and most peaceful in Iraq. Sabaeans insist their religion is one of the oldest in the world and consider themselves to be the followers of the message given to Adam, whom the Bible says is the first man created on Earth.

Baghdad, 14 July 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Many in Iraq know Sabaean-Mandeans as a peaceful though strange religious community, more known for silver and gold craftsmanship than their religious beliefs.

Satar Jabar Helo is the head priest and spiritual leader of the Sabaeans in Iraq, a small community of some 75,000 believers.

Sabaeans also live in neighboring Iran. There are a total of 150,000 members worldwide.

Sabaeans are a lonely and reclusive community. Helo says they have not proselytized since 70 years after the death of Jesus Christ, when 365 Sabaean priest were killed in a single day in Babylon.

There is only one way to become a Sabaean, according to Helo: to be born to parents who both belong to the faith.

Helo, dressed in a white robe, with a long beard and flowing hair, speaks about darkness and light, good and evil, life and death, and the role of human beings in these unfolding cosmic events.

He says Sabaeans pray three times a day to God in Aramaic, a language close to the one spoken by Jesus Christ: "In the name of the living Great, in the name of the One and the Only One who is the world of pure light who gives a soul, gives health, peace and peace of heart and forgiveness of sins with the force of the explosions of light."

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"We suffered from [the Saddam Hussein] regime but our main grievance is that we suffer as a nation which is [always] treated as third-rate,� says Helo. �Not only Sabaeans [suffer] but also our Christian brothers [in Iraq]. This is a complex [of this society]. They consider those of us who are not Muslims to be atheists. And it is permissible to kill or rob an atheist.

Helo says that some radical Shi'a Muslim clerics have delivered fatwas, or religious orders, condemning Sabaeans.

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