By Russell Contreras. Associated Press / July 25, 2009
WORCESTER – Suha Abdula walks through the streets of her new country, acutely aware that no one notices her.
Silent are the voices that called her dirty in her native Iraq. Gone are the fingers that pointed and threatened as she passed. Absent are the bombs that destroyed her husband’s store – all because she and her family practice Mandaeanism, an ancient religion that views John the Baptist as its great teacher.
Here, in the quiet of this Central Massachusetts city, Abdula and 150 others have formed the largest Iraqi Mandaean refugee settlement in the United States. Here, they are not infidels, not subject to forced conversions, rape, or even murder by Islamic extremists.
“Now I can breathe,’’ says Abdula, 36. “It’s so peaceful.’’
Yet in her freedom comes a newfound fear: If no cares we’re here, who will care if we disappear?
That is the struggle across the globe for Mandaeans, whose ranks are fading quickly. Away from the land they had called home for more than two millennia, and without a permanent priest or proper place of worship for the next generation, the refugees worry their tiny, ancient religion is facing extinction.
“We’re saving the people but killing the faith,’’ said Wisam Breegi, a Mandaean doctor and US citizen who has helped bring dozens of Mandaean refugees to Massachusetts. “But right now we’re in survival mode.’’
