11. Kurds, a nation different

Kurds are a 30 million strong stateless ethnic group, residing in mountainous region in the confluence of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Kurds are fighting for autonomy to independence from the beginning of twentieth century. But they are up against formidable powers of four states. Each state considers Kurds as anti-national and had tried to exterminate them. Iraq under Saddam Hussain bombed, carried out chemical attack, burned villages and killed several hundred thousand Kurds and also resettled Arabs in their place. Syria tried to Arabize Kurds and disenfranchised a large number of Kurds. Persecution of Kurds is very common in Iran, and Turkey as well. Sometime or other each of these four states tried to relocate or exterminate Kurds. Despite all difficulties the Kurds remain defiant and carry on independence struggle. They have achieved some success in recent years in the midst of turmoil in Levant. In fact Kurds are the only sane force who could bring order in the mayhem in some part of the region.

When Arabs spread out and defeated Sassanid Empire, Kurds were also brought under Umayyad rule. Kurds were nomadic tribes of the mountains who depended on animal rearing and cultivation. They accepted Arab rule but dissented heavy taxation. Instead of opposing high taxes Kurds accepted Islam. There is no known rebellion of Kurd tribes against Arabs or Islam. Kurds not only accepted Islam and Arabs, they joined them. They joined Jihad for profit. Kurds supplied fighting men to Umayyad and later to all  forces: Persians, Arabs and Turks. Kurds turned from nomad farmers to mercenaries. Kurd excelled in new situation. They were good cavalry, good archers and generally good fighters. They did also establish Kurdish principalities, the greatest of which was of King Saladin. But Kurds never forgot their own life and strong ethnic ties. They did not become devout Muslim. They continued their happy go like life as earlier. They always came back to mountains to their old ways of life. Even today, ancient Kurdish traditions such as the hundreds of types of dances and styles of music, the colourful dresses, love between boys and girls, equality of man and woman continues. Kurds are generally tolerant people and are secular in thought. The Kurdish people stand out among Muslims.

Kurdish people were much more progressive and rational before the occupation of Kurdistan by Islam. Kurdish women had greater freedom and equal rights. But with the coming of Islam they lost  most of their traditions. They became mercenaries. They fought for everybody. But they somehow maintained their old ways in the mountains. Kurdish people fared better compared to others. They did not forget their mother tongue which most people in and around Middle East did. They continued dance and music which are looked down in Islam. They continued with their carefree life. A Kurdish man is rarely Islamist. 

At the same time Islam became a dominant force in Kurdish life. They took Arabs  as brothers. They even accepted Arab Islamist occupiers. Kurds only objected heavy taxation and sometimes subjugation of  their cultural, social and individual freedoms. That is why when Saladin, a Kurd defeated Crusaders and re-established Sunni Muslim rule in Persia and Arab, he did not thought about Kurdistan. Thereafter, Kurds always fought for personal gains or Islamic cause but never for Kurdistan. Kurds could not establish  the concept of nation for themselves till the end of nineteenth century. There were several opportunities in the turmoil of nineteenth century, collapse of Ottoman empire as well as two world wars for Kurds to secure a nation. Kurds failed to establish Kurdish identity because of their Islamic identity. Kurds were confused people. They wanted to be devout Muslim and loved Islamic brotherhood and at the same time wanted to establish Kurdish identity. They participated in the massacre of unarmed Armenian Christians, encouraged by Turks and later sought independence from the same Turks. In the end Kurdish area was distributed among four nations after second world war. 

But Kurds did not become Muslim by choice. Kurdistan was one of those places that the Muslim Arabs occupied with the help of some traitors whose legacy still continues. They attacked Kurdistan. They looted the country and carried the treasures back to their barren desert of Arabia. They killed Kurdish men and took women and girls as hostages. They charged jijiya, a heavy taxation to the surviving population. Some Kurdish people converted to Islam to avoid Jijiya and to join the loot going on in non-Muslim lands. With the help of these traitors and with lies and fables Arabs made a portion of Kurdish people into Muslims. Now for their own self interest these d.newly converted Muslims were even more merciless and cruel in their quest to Islamize the Kurdish populations. Most historians, even Muslim ones, admit that Islam was spread by the sword and imposed upon the nations and peoples of the Middle East by force. The fact that Kurds have kept their pre-Islamic traditions is evidence that Kurds did not willingly become Muslim and even today are really not true Muslims.

It is also true that Kurds did not become Muslims by the guidance of a supernatural being or their own choice. Kurds did not become Muslims because the laws of Islam were fair or just. They became Muslims due to the sword-carrying Arabs and Kurdish speaking traitors such as Saladin forced them to. With 1400 years of killing and occupation, they still have not been able to wipe out the happy aspects of the Kurdish people, such as the folk dances, the many types of music and singing styles, and love between the opposite sexes. Those aspects are contrary to Islam. So for that reason it can be said that a Kurd cannot be a true Muslim.

The Kurds are in love with life and cherish freedom and happiness. . They love to dance and sing; to laugh and smile. Islam is against laughter and freedom. Kurds live for the love of life, but the Muslim is a slave of Allah and lives to die for the sake of Allah and Mohammad. Kurds want happiness for both men and women, young and old in this life, and they believe in equality. A Muslim rejects this life and willingly kills in the hope of making it to his imaginary paradise, which is reserved exclusively for men and where 72 virgin young Huries are waiting for every man. He does not recognize a woman to be a human being. He looks upon a woman as nothing more than a pet. Islam  in 1400 years could not make Kurds neither true Islamists nor Arab. 

The Kurds were Islamized but not arabized, because they could not accept Islam by heart. Islam was meant for Arab. The Qur’an itself is the best evidence that Islam is only for the Arabs. The Quran that is written in Arabic is for Arabs and it is not for Kurds. Kurds generally have no God. Even if they do, it is not the savage God of Islam that was created by the Arabs. The God of the Arabs was the creation of Muhammad www.ekurd.netand even says in the Quran that his aim is to put some sense into the minds of the Arabs. It does not say that is for Kurds or anybody else.

The fourteenth chapter of the Quran, which is called Abraham, the fourth verse says the following.

We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now Allah leaves stray those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is exalted in power, full of Wisdom.”’

The twelfth chapter of the Quran, verse 2, says:

“We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an, in order that ye may learn wisdom.”

How can a free thinking people accept Islam. Islam is fully invasive. It tells you everything; religious, social, political and even personal. It is complete way of life. It even tells you when to pray, where to pray, how to pray and how long. It tells you what to eat and what to wear. It tells you whom you can take as friend and whom not. Free people cannot digest these much. But worst is dominion of Arab Muslims. Muhammed was an Arab. God was also an Arab. Quran is written in Arabic. If you are a Muslim then you should learn Arabic lest you may fail to understand your religion. How can a Kurd. accept servitude of his mother tongue? Kurds have self respect. They did not give up their mother tongue in 1400 years, they will keep it higher and strive for independence. But Kurds have to decide whether they are Kurd or they are Muslim for two identities contradict. Confused people cannot do great things.




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