On the occasion of the Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha), Mîrxan Karker from the Committee for Peoples and Religions of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) published a statement and called for "those who misuse faith for exploitation and power to be exposed".
Karker stressed that the Feast of Sacrifice is a special day and reminded everyone that it celebrates the end of the tradition of human sacrifice. The festival refers to the account in the Hebrew Bible of Abraham/Ibrahim's attempt to sacrifice his son Isaac, or later in the Islamic tradition Ismail, his son, to God, and the rejection of this sacrifice by the angel Gabriel/Jibril. The child was replaced by a goat. This is the reason for the current sacrifice of a sheep on the occasion of the Feast of Sacrifice.
Karker described the symbol of sacrifice as a significant image. He said that the festival was not about simply taking an animal and sacrificing it. It was about the fact that in the past the rulers, the oppressors, took everything from the people and did not stop there, but even demanded their children. Otherwise, they were threatened with floods, suffering and death. Karker said: "On the one hand, they made people afraid, on the other hand, they gave them hope. They said that if people did what they told them, they would go to heaven. If not, they would go to hell. Abraham demanded that people should no longer be killed for the interests of the powerful and found another symbol.”
Karker added: "But those who invoke the name of Abraham today are doing the same thing that the oppressors of the past did. They make people fight for their interests, in the name of the state, in the name of religion, in the name of the flag, in the name of borders, they slaughter people, behead people, make people disappear, torture people. In other words, they rule like Nimrod did back then. But Abraham did not accept that. Today's oppressors have also built many institutions to prevent people from learning religious truths. For example, the Ministry of Religious Affairs (DIYANET) has a huge budget, its employees use the latest vehicle models, it has thousands of members. They build mosques for thousands of people that not even two people go to. Look at the Kaaba, how simple it is, and look at what they have created. To hide their thefts and lies, they say, 'I built the palace for myself and also made the House of Allah a palace.' Millions of people visit the Kaaba, but it is simple. If they could, they would even change the shape of the Kaaba."
Karker stressed that the current government constantly uses religion to philosophize about poverty. "He [Erdoğan] claims that poor people go to heaven 500 years before the rich. If he has palaces and properties everywhere, why doesn’t he give his palaces and properties to the poor so that he himself can go to heaven? These hypocritical, disrespectful and disloyal people publicly mock society. These people who use religion say one thing and live another. We must know these enemies well. Therefore, our people, the believers, the religious scholars, should expose these hypocrites. On this occasion, we once again wish our resistant people, Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] and the Islamic world a happy Eid al-Adha."