Capt. Kelly Calway, 25th Infantry Division analysis control element battle captain, takes part in the Yezidi culture during her visit to the Yezidi temple in Lalish, Iraq, Aug. 2. It's customary to make a wish while tying knots in satin fabric inside the temple. Photo by Spc. Daniel Nelson

Members from Command Post-North, Task Force Lightning, made visits to both the Yezidi temple in Lalish, Iraq, and the Hermos Christian Monastery in Al Qosh, Iraq, Aug. 2.

The group, led by Brig. Gen. Robert Brown, deputy commanding general (support), Multi-National Division-North, first went to the temple in Lalish where they met with Prince Tahsin Ali, prince to all Yezidis in the world.

Brown and the CP-North Soldiers gathered together with Prince Tahsin and his fellow Yezidi religious leaders in a meeting room to visit and share stories with one another. The Soldiers were told about Yezidi customs and rituals and shared in a meal of fruits from the area with the religious leaders.

With a calendar that dates back 6,756 years, Yezidism is claimed to be the oldest religion in the world.

“It was incredible to see such an ancient place with amazing rituals,” said Capt. Kelly Calway, 25th Infantry Division analysis control element battle captain. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Following their time spent sharing in their different cultures, the Soldiers were taken into the Yezidi temple with a guide who explained the Yezidi religion and answered questions from the group. Soldiers even took part in some of the customary Yezidi rituals such as making wishes while tying knots in a satin fabric and tossing a scarf onto a smooth-faced rock three times to have wishes granted.

The tour of the temple ended as some of the Soldiers were taken to Zemzem, a cold-water spring on the lowest level of the temple where the Yezidi people go for baptism and prayer.

“It was such an honor to be able to go there and see just a completely different religion, culture and way of living,” added Calway.

Soldiers from Command Post-North, Task Force Lightning, along with members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team for Ninewa province passed out Nainoa dolls and Beanie Babies to the children of Al Sayda Orphanage in Al Qosh, Iraq, Aug. 2. Photo by Spc. Daniel Nelson

The group left Lalish and headed to the Christian village of Al Qosh where they spent time at the Al Sayda Orphanage and toured the monastery.

While at the orphanage, Brown and the other Soldiers took time to play with the children of the orphanage and handed out Beanie Babies and Nainoa dolls. Brown had the story of the Nainoa doll translated to the priests and children of the orphanage, as it carries a sentimental history behind its existence.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Nainoa Hoe, a native of Hawaii, was a platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion of the 21st Infantry Regiment who was shot and killed in January 2005 during his deployment to Mosul, Iraq.

Proud of his Hawaiian ancestry, Nainoa graduated from the University of Hawaii with a master’s degree in business administration.

“Hoe would hand out the dolls on missions, and the kids loved them,” said Brown. “The dolls are hand-made by women and young girls in Nainoa’s honor.”

Nainoa’s father and a civilian aide to the secretary of the Army, Allen Hoe, has continued to send the dolls to Iraq in his son’s honor.

Before sending the dolls to Iraq, they are blessed at St. Andrews Priory School in Honolulu where they are made.

The Beanie Babies that were being handed out were donated by Students from the First Presbyterian Weekday School in Granada Hills, Calif., where Brown’s aide-de-camp, Capt. Melissa Lewis’ mother teaches. Each student brought in one Beanie Baby during their last chapel of the year.

“A lot of the parents felt like it was a good lesson for the kids to share with the Iraqi children,” stated Lewis.

With smiles on their faces, the children at the orphanage gathered around Brown and the Soldiers to get their gifts.

“It was really cool to be able to hand out the beanie babies and dolls and see their faces light up,” said Calway. “It was nice to be able to bring some joy into their lives.”

The Soldiers enjoyed their time at the orphanage as they talked with the children, gave them high-fives, and even played ping-pong with some of them. Before leaving and heading to the monastery, the Soldiers gathered all the children together with their Nainoa dolls and Beanie Babies in hand to take a photo.

It’s an incredible honor to be able to continue the small, symbolic gesture in Nainoa’s honor, stated Brown.

Soldiers from Command Post-North, Task Force Lightning, along with members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team for Ninewa province, Iraq, visited Hermos Christian Monastery near Al Qosh, Iraq, Aug. 2. Crosses can be seen on mountain tops from the steps that lead up to the monastery. Photo by Spc. Daniel Nelson

After loading into vehicles, the group started their steep drive up a winding road that ended at Hermos Christian monastery, which is set near the peak of a close by mountain.

Like the temple in Lalish, Hermos monastery is built into the mountainside and opens up to many ancient underground caverns and tunnels, and the Soldiers spent time exploring and taking photos of the crosses that were etched into the rock.

“To see the cross up in Iraq was really cool because you don’t see that around here,” stated Calway.

Before departing back to Forward Operating Base Marez, in Mosul, Iraq, the mayor of Al Qosh invited the Soldiers to his house for a lunch. The presence of the Soldiers drew a gathering of people from the neighborhood as the people were curious to see what was going on.

The Soldiers met with the people and began handing out what was left of the Beanie Babies they had brought with them on their mission. Some of the Soldiers even took time to play soccer in the streets with the children.

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Daniel Nelson

Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is today arguably one of the most dangerous places in the world.

But while that may be true of regions where the Taliban proliferate, there are still areas of NWFP where life goes on as normal.

The most prominent of these is the Kalash region in the northern-most district of Chitral.

It is named after the Kalash tribe which has been settled here since time immemorial. snip

Hundreds of years ago about 3,000 Kalash people made their home in the Birir, Rumbur and Bumburet valleys among the Hindu Kush mountains of Chitral.

Generally speaking, the people of Chitral, Muslim or Kalash, are liberal when it comes to religion.

But the Taliban threat has now jeopardised all that, with the neighbouring district of Upper Dir firmly under their control.

“Chitral is one of the most peaceful regions in Pakistan,” Abdul Wali, a local lawyer says.

“All communities here have brotherly relations with each other.

“People here believe culture has precedence over religion.”

BBC

Wazir Ali Shah goes on to state that the Kalasha believe that God had kept the three Kalash valleys as his own preserve and then gave it to their ancestors when they were unwilling to marry. He also refers to the popular belief among foreign historians, that the Kalasha are descended from the soldiers of Alexander. He mentions that, in records to Alexander’s campaign in the Hindu Kush, there are accounts of skirmishes with pagan tribes with a culture similar to the Kalasha. Other scholar, including G.A. Grierson and Ghulam Murtaza, think that possibly the Kalasha inhabited the area between lower Bashgul Valley and Ghaga Serai (in Afghanistan) for approximately three centuries. Then, around the tenth and eleventh century A.D, they were driven north towards Chitral by the Bashali Kafirs.

In his book ‘Bolor and Dardistan’, Jettmar puts forward a number of parallels between the Kalasha and other remote tribes. He mentions that there is a possible relationship between the wooden images of the Kafirs and those made on western Nepal. Jettmar also draws a link between goat worship among the mountain tribes of Iran and the region of the Karakorams in the east where there is intense goat breeding, and the Kalasha who are famous for their peculiar rites and beliefs connected with wild and domestic goat.

Hindu Kush Conservation Association, UK (HKCA)

Marriage by elopement is rather frequent, also involving women who are already married to another man. Indeed, wife-elopement is counted as one of the “great customs” (ghōna dastÅ«r) together with the main festivals.

Girls are usually married at an early age. If a woman wants to change husbands, she will write a letter to her prospective husband offering herself in marriage and informing the would-be groom how much her current husband paid for her. This is because the new husband must pay double if he wants her. For example, if the current husband paid one cow for her, then the new husband must pay two cows to the original husband if he wants her.

>Wikipedia

As near as I can figure, the Indians want to make the strait between them and Sri Lanka a little better for navigation. I did not know that it was so shallow. Fundie Hindus are protesting because their God, Ram, built a bridge there, with an army of monkeys. The Tamils, who are not Hindus, pointed out that Ram never went to engineering school. Hilarity ensued.

BBC

The chief minister of India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu is sticking to his controversial statement questioning the existence of Hindu God Ram.

M Karunanidhi also said there was no proof that Lord Ram had constructed a bridge where a new shipping canal is planned between India and Sri Lanka.

Hard-line Hindu groups say the chief minister’s statement is blasphemous.

On Tuesday Hindu activists angered by the comments set fire to a Tamil Nadu bus, killing two people, police said.

Enraged Hindu hardliners in the city of Bangalore, in neighbouring Karnataka state, also attacked the home of Mr Karunanidhi’s daughter, Selvi.

Hindu scripture says the area between India and Sri Lanka – now known as Adam’s Bridge – was built millions of years ago by Lord Ram, supported by an army of monkeys.

But scientists and archaeologists say Adam’s Bridge, or Ram Setu, is a natural formation of sand and limestone. Hard-line Hindu groups say a proposed canal project between India and Sri Lanka will destroy the bridge.

They say Mr Karunanidhi’s statement is blasphemous and have demanded an apology from him.

“You tell me whether Ram lived. I had only stated that there was no person in the name of Lord Ram. What is wrong in that?” Mr Karunanidhi is reported to have told a TV channel.

On Saturday, addressing a public rally, Mr Karunanidhi had asked: “Who is this Ram? From which engineering college did he graduate?”

The former governor of Massachusetts is a Mormon. Should it matter?

If the criteria for acceptance as a viable candidate is a logical belief system, than anyone who believes in a religion is disqualified. Faith, of any sort, does not enter that equation.

Romney has been compared to JFK. I do not agree with the comparison in the way that it is meant, but I do agree. Both men in their public lives do / did not actively promote the morality of their religion. Few politicians do, and neither JFK nor Mitt Romney break that stereotype.

The beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints are silly to me. If they are to be considered a “Christian” religion, they are on the very boundary of that definition. They surely believe that my Catholic beliefs are equally silly.

The question really is, though, how silly must a religion be to disqualify its believer for political office on that basis alone? Can a Scientologist run as a major party candidate for President? How about a Sufi Muslim? Or a Yezedi?

A candidate’s beliefs matter. People like to vote for candidates that they can identify with and fringe beliefs beget fringe candidates. The Mormon Church has spent a huge amount of time and effort to move the public’s perception of them from the fringe to the mainstream. Scientology is doing the same.

It’s not just religious beliefs. Rudy is struggling with his previous positions on abortion and his inability to articulate a current belief because he will offend someone no matter what he says. Slavery was another set of beliefs. It was de jura recognized in the original Constitution in order to provide for representation in Congress. The Bible recognizes slavery. The earth was once flat. There were once only four elements, earth, air, fire and water.

How do we measure a man’s beliefs [or a woman's]? Do we as individuals measure them against ourselves and find the candidate that most resembles us? Can we forgive a silly belief and elect a candidate that in all other respects is superior? Or, is a candidate’s belief in something that seems silly to us regardless of its bearing on his candidacy a disqualification?

Would you vote for Fred Thompson if you learned he belonged to a church that practiced snake handling? If Mitt Romney believed in polygamy, could you still vote for him?

The saga of the Indian Jews seems to be drawing to an end.

I last reported on the Jews of India, supposed remainders of the Lost Tribes August 18, 2004. At that time they were arm wrestling with the Jewish religious authorities in Israel for recognition. They seem to have won.

Houston Chronicle

When Tzvi Khaute came six years ago from a remote corner of India, claiming to be of the lost Jewish tribe of Menashe, Israeli authorities didn’t buy it.

Things may be starting to change. About 1,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community are now Israeli citizens, and 218 others, the largest single group so far, began arriving recently.

Fifty-one landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, waving banners inscribed with the biblical passage “The sons shall return to their borders” and were greeted by Bnei Menashe members. There were tearful reunions of families.

But the community’s immigration ordeal is not over. About 7,000 Bnei Menashe in India are waiting to come to Israel, and officials in both countries have created obstacles.

The Bnei Menashe’s story touches core issues of Israel’s existence and its conflict with the Palestinians. They are bound up in an age-old debate over who is a Jew, and many have settled in the West Bank, which Palestinians claim.

The latest arrivals’ flights and initial expenses are being funded by American Christians through a group called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which channels millions of dollars a year in donations from evangelicals to Israel. The evangelicals believe they are helping to fulfill the biblical prophecy of returning Jewish exiles to their homeland.

Not all Israelis think the Bnei Menashe qualify as Jews. Some suspect they are economic migrants fleeing poverty in India, and those stuck in the pipeline can’t get tourist visas, let alone citizenship. Israeli rabbinical authorities accept their claim of descent from the tribe of Menashe, but demand they convert to Judaism — a condition for becoming Israeli citizens.

The odd communities of Jews in exotic lands are dwindling, with most of those in Molsem countries already gone. In the late twentieth century a large group was repatriated from Ethiopia.