The Farhud: The Massacre that Ended Iraq’s 2,600-Year-Old Jewish Community?

BY EMANUEL MILLER

Honest Reporting

Arab nationalists raise knives in the air during the Farhud

The unprovoked massacre of Jewish men, women, and children in Baghdad in 1941 known as “The Farhud” is perhaps the most significant event in the final chapter of the history of Iraqi Jewry. Read on to learn more about the episode, and make sure to check out this article describing how and why the Jewish community in Iraq came to an end.

Up until midway through the 19th century, the Iraqi Jewish community was one of the oldest continuous communities in the world and the oldest such community outside of Israel, with a proud history spanning over 2,600 years. Today, fewer than ten Jews remain in the country. 

While there are many reasons for the decimation of this community, one event in particular stands out: The Farhud, the unprovoked massacre of Jewish Iraqis by their fellow compatriots in a frenzy of nationalist, pro-Nazi rage.

A Brief History of the Jewish Community in Iraq

The experiences of the Jewish people in Iraq over history were varied, with periods of persecution and horrific attacks, as well as times of relative calm and somewhat tolerable conditions. Although there had been numerous instances of violence against Jews during their long history in the land under various regimes, including pogroms, decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues in Iraq, and occasional forced conversion to Islam, by the end of the 19th century, conditions were significantly better, although still far from perfect.

Under centuries of Islamic rule, Jews were subjugated and classified as dhimmi (‘protected person’) and were required to pay taxes, sometimes exorbitantly high. Failure to do so could result in death, or the death of a community representative. As the Ottoman empire began to crumble, however, reforms introduced led to Jews receiving a greater degree of equality, a process hastened by the subsequent era of British colonialism.

During the 19th century, Baghdad emerged as a strong Jewish and economic center as the influence of the Jewish families of Aleppo, who had dominated the Jewish communities of the Middle East over the previous century, waned. The Iraqi Jewish population grew so rapidly that by 1884, there were 30,000 Jews in Baghdad. By 1900, the number had risen to 50,000, with Jews representing over a quarter of the city’s total population.

From 50,000 to 10 in one century. That is a hostile environment! Please go to Honest Reporting for the rest of this article. 

First Modern Brits were Black, Groundbreaking DNA Test on 10,000-year-old Fossil Reveals

Don't you just love irony?

© Justin Tallis / AFP

A pioneering genetic analysis of the UK’s oldest complete skeleton, which is around 10,000 years old, has revealed that the first modern Britons had a “dark to black” complexion.

The National History Museum carried out cutting-edge genetic sequencing and facial recognition technology on the ‘Cheddar Man,’ the skeleton found near Gough’s Cave in the Cheddar Gorge, and found that the first British settlers had dark skin, dark curly hair and possibly blue eyes.

The research on the Mesolithic fossil undermines the commonly held assumption that a people’s geographical origin is a determinant of skin color and physique.

“It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories that we have are really very modern constructions, or very recent constructions, that really are not applicable to the past at all,” said Tom Booth, an archaeologist at the Natural History Museum who worked on the project.

Most white people currently living in Britain are believed to have 10 percent of the skeleton’s DNA.

“The combination of quite dark skin and blue eyes is something that we don’t imagine is typical, but that was the real appearance of these people, something that’s quite rare today,” said Professor Chris Stringer, research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum.

Before the Cheddar Man’s lineage, there were around nine colonies of hunters, but it is understood that they were all wiped out by harsh temperatures. The Cheddar Man’s 12,000-man fort, however, thrived in the climate. They lived in tents and hunted boar and deer using hunting dogs, and bows and arrows.

Yoan Diekmann, a computational biologist at University College London and another member of the project’s team, agreed with Booth and called into question the link between Britishness and whiteness.

“The historical perspective that you get just tells you that things change, things are in flux, and what may seem as a cemented truth that people who feel British should have white skin, through time is not at all something that is an immutable truth,” he said.

The Cheddar Man was already known to have been around five foot five inches tall, around 10 stone in weight, with good teeth. He died in his early 20s.

The research is in stark contrast to a previous reconstruction of the Cheddar Man by the University of Manchester in 1998, which thought the British ancestor to be white-skinned. Director of the study, Robert Stoddard, is remarkably reported to have said that the Cheddar Man probably “looked pretty much like any modern inhabitant of a Somerset pub.”

The original model- composed without any access to genetic testing- also pictured the Cheddar Man to have straighter and lighter hair compared to the latest one.

“It may be that we may have to rethink some of our notions of what it is to be British, what we expect a Briton to look like at this time,” Dr Rick Schulting, associate professor of archaeology at Oxford University, told the Daily Mail.

Genetically, the Cheddar Man belonged to the “Western Hunter-Gatherers”, Mesolithic individuals from Spain, Hungary and Luxemburg.

His ancestors, however, are thought to have originated in Africa before moving to the Middle East and then Europe.

The European population has genes which are associated with reduced pigmentation, but the Cheddar Man was found to have “ancestral” versions of the genes, hence the new claim to “dark to black” skin tone.

Migration will give UK Biggest Population in Europe by 2045

© Travelpix Ltd / Getty Images

The UK is on course to be the most populous country in the EU before 2050, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Britain’s population will surpass France and Germany’s, soaring from the current 65 million to an estimated 76 million people by 2045.

The rapid growth is thought to be down to the greater number of births compared to deaths every year since 1955, with the exception of 1976.

The ageing population is another contributing factor.  The number of over 65s has grown from 14.1 million in 1975 to 17.8 million in 2015.

The ONS report said that while we should “celebrate” the growing population, it could also put more pressure on public services such as health and housing.

Much of the growth in the UK’s population may be down to net migration- that’s the difference in the number of people coming into the country and those leaving.

Net migration has reportedly increased the population between 2004 and 2015 by an average of 250,000 each year.

Migrants coming into the country tend to be between 20 and 36, which is regarded as “traditional working age”.

The UK is currently the third largest country by population among European Union and European Free Trade Association member states.

Brexit Secretary David Davis recently insisted Britain’s doors “won’t suddenly shut” to “talented” migrants.

“The hospitality sector, hotels, and restaurants, in the social care sector, working in agriculture, it will take time. It will be years and years before we get British citizens to do those jobs,” Davis said.

“Don’t expect just because we’re changing who makes the decision on the policy, the door will suddenly shut. It won’t.”

But his views are in stark contrast to those of UKIP, which has used net migration as a selling card for its Leave campaign during the EU referendum.

Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage told the BBC he wanted to bring migration levels “back to normality” as the figures for net migration had gotten “out of control”. 

“Normality was what we had from Windrush right up until the year 2000, where we had net migration into Britain ... between 20,000 and 50,000 people a year,” Farage said.

He added that since then “we have gone mad, we opened the doors to much of the world but in particular, we opened up the doors to 10 former communist countries, and as a result of our EU membership we have absolutely zero control over the numbers who come.”

What is Britain Doing, Sending More Troops to Iraq/Syria?

British military specialists arrive in

Middle East to train Syrian rebels

FILE PHOTO: Soldiers from the RECCE and PATROLS Platoon, Fire Support Company of The 1st Battalion The Royal Welch Fusilers (1 RWF) mount heli borne Eagle VCP's (Vehicle Check Points) near the southern Iraqi City of Basra. © The British Defense Ministry / AFP

More specialist UK soldiers have arrived in Iraq to train anti-Islamic State rebel forces to fight in Syria, joining the 500 already deployed to the region.

Their arrival was announced as the UK hosts a conference of defense ministers from countries involved in the coalition fighting Islamic State.

The 20 trainers – who are likely to be special forces soldiers – will teach so-called ‘moderate’ fighters infantry skills, combat first aid and other battlefield tactics.

The existing deployment is thought to be made up of around 500 soldiers from the 4 Rifles infantry regiment, which is based near the Kurdish-held city of Erbil alongside specialist soldiers from the Royal Engineers and Royal Signals.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has previously stated that anyone receiving UK training would be vetted to ensure that no knowledge was passed on to jihadist groups.

The deployment of UK special forces has come under increasing scrutiny, with critics claiming that it has now become the basic form of UK military operations and as such should be brought under democratic oversight.

Thank you Britain for putting me in the position of agreeing with Jeremy Corbyn; I may never forgive you for that; but he is right on this issue. Parliamentary oversight just might be sufficient to help the government see that by supporting rebel fighters you are prolonging this dreadful war, killing more civilians, making their lives miserable, and creating thousands more migrants.

There is no 'moderate' opposition in Syria. There may be some groups of mercenaries who are not as bad as others, but, in the end, if Assad is overthrown, you have no way of controlling who takes power, whether a 'moderate group' or something far worse than Assad. In all probability it will require a coalition of several rebel groups, which means some of the worst elements of militant Islam will be involved.

Most Syrians don't want regime change, certainly to an unknown entity that could very likely impose Sharia upon the country. 

If the west, and Saudi Arabia stopped supporting these rebel mercenaries, the war in Syria would end in weeks and people could start to rebuild their lives. Eventually, some Syrian migrants might even decide to return home. But, of course, that wouldn't sell bombs and missiles.

The UK is one of the few countries which flatly refuses to comment on covert military activities to either the media or to questions by elected lawmakers in parliament.

Calls for a new war powers act have been backed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, among others, who made his case to the Middle East Eye website in August.

“I’m very concerned about this because [former Prime Minister] David Cameron – I imagine [Prime Minister] Theresa May would say the same – would say parliamentary convention requires a parliamentary mandate to deploy British troops. Except, and they’ve all used the ‘except,’ when special forces are involved,” Corbyn said.

His comments were immediately attacked by former soldier-turned-Tory MP Bob Stewart, who told the Times that the PM must have the opportunity to deploy troops “when they think it’s crucial.”

Three British Sisters and Their Nine Children Cross the Border into IS Syria

"It's a one-way ticket; there's no coming back!"

Bradford (above) is a city in west Yorkshire, northern England. It is located about 14 km west of Leeds. Known as the curry capitol of Britain, Bradford has about 25% Muslim people mainly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. 

Three Bradford sisters and their nine children split into two groups to cross the border into Syria, an IS smuggler has told the BBC.

The smuggler in charge of some of IS's border operations said the first group went early on Wednesday and the second on Thursday.

Sisters Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood and their children went missing after travelling to Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, two of their husbands made an emotional appeal for them to return. Akhtar Iqbal and Mohammed Shoaib said they "could not live" without their families and begged them to come home.

The Sugra family

BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood, who is on the Turkish-Syrian border, said he had spoken to the smuggler who confirmed the crossing.

"If what he says is true, it clears up the main ambiguity of this story - whether the sisters were really heading for the so-called Islamic State, or some other part of Syria, controlled by some other armed group," said our correspondent.

He said the information came up during a casual conversation with the smuggler, who is known to be an IS member, but when asked for an interview about the incident he asked for money which the BBC refused.

The information also fits with the news that one of the sisters, Zohra, sent a message to her family that she was inside Syria - but she did not say exactly where.

The North East Counter Terrorism Unit said it was "continuing to make extensive enquiries" in order to try and bring the women and children home.

The Zohra family

By Paul Wood, BBC Middle East correspondent

Every armed group in Syria has its own network of smugglers - and the so-called Islamic State is no different.

They move people - and sometimes cash and weapons - across the border for profit and for the cause.

Like all smugglers, IS uses a network of safe houses along the border, though the area of border open to them has been shrinking as they lose territory to a Kurdish military advance, backed by US airstrikes.

The Turkish security forces occasionally shoot, and kill, people crossing the border illegally, but most crossings are uneventful with many smugglers coming to "an arrangement" with the Turkish border guards.

The Khadiya family

Once inside Islamic State territory, however, the women and their children will not be allowed to leave.

I spoke to an activist who runs a secret network trying to get disenchanted jihadis out of the so-called caliphate.

He told me some 400 had been killed trying to leave - and that 200 women were under house arrest.

The group went missing following a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed Shoaib (right) appeared in tears at the press conference alongside
Akhtar Iqbal (centre) and family lawyer Balaal Khan

They travelled to the Saudi city of Medina on 28 May and were last seen in a hotel in the city.

The family was supposed to fly to Manchester following their pilgrimage, but their husbands reported them missing when they did not return. They had last spoken to their children on 8 June.

The women's brother is understood to be fighting with extremists in Syria and it is believed the group missed a previous flight to Saudi Arabia in March after being questioned by security officials.

Bradford Council said they had not been made aware of any issues surrounding the family or the safety of their children ahead of the disappearance.

At a press conference on Tuesday Mr Iqbal made an emotional appeal to his wife Sugra, saying: "I'm shaking and I miss you. It's been too many days."

Mr Shoaib, husband of Khadija, dismissed any suggestions the sisters were in unhappy relationships saying he and his wife of 11 years had a "perfect relationship".

Syed Zubair Ahmed, the estranged husband of Zohra Dawood did not attend as he is currently in Pakistan, where he has been living for the past seven months.

'Quietly condoning IS'

David Cameron says IS is one of the biggest threats the world has faced

Dr Mohammed Iqbal, president of Bradford's Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, insisted that propaganda was reaching Muslims over the internet, not through mosques.

But Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum, accused families of those travelling to Syria and Iraq of "endlessly pointing the finger at others" and said communities should take responsibility.

It comes as Prime Minister David Cameron has warned of the dangers posed by those who "quietly condone" Islamic State militants' extremist ideology.

Speaking at a security conference in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, he stressed the importance of tackling radicalisation at its source.

Radicalization, is the process of demonizing otherwise devout people. I'm not talking figuratively, but literally. It is literally demonic for women like these 3, to jointly go insane and take their children into a place where the sons will most likely die at an early age, and where the girls will become brides, willing or unwilling, shortly after puberty.

Nowhere, in a sane world, is such an action justified. Islam is horrifically evil! Those 'peaceful' Muslims are not the majority, they are those who have been partially assimilated into western culture, a culture that younger Muslims are rejecting in favour of more 'devout', ie radical Islam.

The west is in serious trouble and most governments are suffering from 'Ostrich Syndrome'. It may already be too late to stop them from turning Europe into an Islamic continent.