The Kakai of Iraq

[Propaganda_of_the_Deed]

The secretive Kaka'I of Iraq are finally speaking out

The Kaka'I are a secretive religious minority in Iraq who usually avoid the cameras.

Their persecution has forced them to keep their beliefs and rituals a secret; once numbering in their millions in Iraq, there are now just 200,000.

They have been persecuted by extremists in the region who consider them to be infidels, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The Kaka'I have also faced discrimination from the Shia Muslim-led paramilitary Popular Mobilisation force since the central government retook control of Kirkuk province from Kurdish forces in 2017.

They are finally revealing their lives to the international community in an attempt to thwart the risk of genocide.

You can hear more about their persecution by listening to the World Service's Heart and soul programme here.

https://www.bbc.co.United Kingdom/news/av/world-middle-east-48301954/the-secretive-kaka-I-of-Iraq-are-finally-speaking-out

[Propaganda_of_the_Deed]

The Kakai religion shares elements with Islam and other Mesopotamian religions.

The followers of the faith hold Imam Ali - a holy figure among Muslims particularly the Shia - in high esteem. That has led some to believe that Kakais give Imam Ali a divine status. 

Kakais believe in reincarnation, a notion that is also shared in certain ways by the followers of the Yazidi faith.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/Iraq-kakais-protect-culture-150209064856695.html

[OrthodoxTruth]

They are widely and better known as Yarsanis. There isn’t that many of them in Arab part of Iraq (being mainly confined to “Kurdistan” region), Iran has bigger problem with those people because they brainwash mainstream Twelvers into their unorthodox beliefs. Their founder was one Sultan Sahak, a Kurd, whose father was apparently a Shia Sufi. Sahak abandoned Islam and created new religion on his own, that is centred around himself and his family and a synthetic mix of various beliefs and concepts. That’s in short. They are misguided people that the ahadith books warn us about that such groups would be plentiful to mislead Muslims from the proper teachings of Islam. Unfortunately, there’s many such groups; Zaydis, Ismailis, Alawites, Alevis, Druze, Yarsanis, Ali Illahisms etc. Sunnis also have similar ones, just to name the Ahmadiyya (20+ million adherents) alone. As for Iraq and Iran, there’s nothing left for us than to give dawah to the misguided, something that the Iranian ulama actually undertakes in Syria with Alawites, in Turkey with Alevis, and in Iran itself with Yarsanis.  

Edited May 17, 2019 by OrthodoxTruth