The Mandaean Association of Michigan is primarily made up of immigrants from Iraq who immigrated to the greater Detroit area. Mandaeism or Mandaeanism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist. Mandaeism has historically been practiced primarily in the countries around the lower Euphrates and Tigris and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. This area is currently part of southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Persecution in Iraq and Iran has caused many Mandaeans to leave for diaspora populations in Europe, Australia and North America. There are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide,[1] and until the 2003 Iraq war, almost all of them lived in Iraq.[5] The 2003 Iraq War reduced the population of Iraqi Mandaeans to approximately 5,000 by 2007. Most Iraqi Mandaeans fled to Syria and Jordan under the threat of violence by Islamic extremists and the turmoil of the war.
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