Falakadin Kakai, Kurdistan's former minister of culture, and several other Kakai people received death threats from an unknown group.

The group, calling themselves “the guardians of Kakai belief,” sent a warning letter with a bullet to Kakai and others who have been involved in writing about the Kakai religion for school textbooks. The letter threatened to kill them and their families if they did not remove what they had written about the religion.



Except for Kakai, the rest of the writers refused to reveal their identities.



Rudaw was able to obtain a copy of the letter. It said: “We pledge to destroy and humiliate you and your families, regardless of who you are.”



“We swear on the Kakai religion that if you do not recall the material that you have published in the book, next time the bullet will end up in you and your family’s brains,” the letter said.



“They cannot frighten me. They are just a bunch of immature people,” Kakai told Rudaw.



He added that he has not personally written about the Kakai religion. “What has been written in the textbook is an introduction to Kakai beliefs and it is not offensive to the religion.



Kakai argued that those who wrote the introduction respect the Kakai religion and would not accept anything offensive to be written about their belief system.



“Those behind the threat didn’t even point out where in the textbook the Kakai belief was offended,” he added.