Zuism

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Zuismus ( Zuism ) is an Icelandic movement that acts as a religious community to practice the Sumerian religion . The Zuism is in coverage as Zuismus translated into German; his followers call themselves zuistar . Between 2015 and 2017, the Zúistar were led by a group of people who, with the help of the zuist community , wanted to express their protest against the Icelandic form of a church tax , the so-called sóknargjald , and experienced a strong increase in membership during this time. At the end of 2019, the dissolution of the community was announced.

history

Zuism was registered as a religious community in Iceland in 2013. The Icelandic statistical office Hagstofa Íslands had only two members in 2014, as of April 2015 four. Zuism was in danger of losing state recognition as a religious community due to inactivity. At the end of 2015, the Zuisten experienced such a strong increase in membership within a few days that they were now one of the largest religious communities in Iceland. On November 30, 2015, 1,124 Zuists were registered, making Zuism the eighth largest religious community in Iceland and with its members, among other things, significantly exceeded the number of registered Muslims (around 800). A day later, the number of members had almost tripled to almost 3,000, which means that Zuism temporarily exceeded the number of members of the neo-pagan Ásatrúarfélagið , which had existed since 1972 and which as of April 2015 was the sixth largest Icelandic religious community. In the meantime, Ásatrúarfélagið, with 3583 members at the beginning of 2017, has overtaken the Zúistar with 2845 members (also at the beginning of 2017).

The Zúistar describe themselves as a “platform for their members to practice a religion of the ancient Sumerians ”, but admitted in 2015 that the actual goal of their organization was the abolition of laws that grant religious organizations financial or other privileges. The management of the Zúistar at the time wanted to fully reimburse the members of the sóknargjald that the Zúistar are entitled to as a state-recognized religious community, and the Icelandic tax authorities responded by announcing that in this case income tax would be payable on the reimbursement. Another demand from the Zuistar was to abolish the state register of religious affiliation for Icelanders. If its goals are met, the organization should be disbanded. The Guardian reported that this alignment was due to a "takeover" of the Zuist movement by a group of citizens.

There was a conflict over leadership of the community. The so-called "Senate" (öldungaráð), a group of people among whom the Zuisten recorded their strong membership growth in 2015, did not succeed in registering a company that could have received the sóknargjald and paid it out to its members. The payment of the money to the Zuisten was put on hold until the management issue was resolved. After it had emerged in autumn 2017 that the Icelandic Zuisten were still legally under the direction of their original founder Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson, the "Senate" declared that it had lost the argument and called for a withdrawal from the Zuist community. Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson, on the other hand, has also called for further admissions and stated that the sóknargjald can now be reimbursed, or alternatively, the members could choose to go to charity.

In February 2019, Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson announced that he would step down from the leadership of the Zúistar and that a new head would be announced soon. In December 2019, however, it was announced that the community would be dissolved and its assets distributed to members and charities once the ongoing litigation was resolved.

On the Zúistar's website, the community's long-term goal was to build a ziggurat in Iceland.

Web links

  • Zuism (website of the Zuistar under the direction of Ágúst Arnar Ágústsson)
  • Zúistar á Íslandi ( Memento of November 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), website of the “Senate”, since autumn 2017 referred to as the “former Zúistar site”

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dagmar Trodler: Controversy about Zuismus . In: Iceland Review . December 3, 2015. Accessed December 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ Zúistar á Íslandi ( Icelandic ) Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved on December 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c Harriet Sherwood: Icelanders flock to religion revering Sumerian gods and tax rebates ( English ) In: The Guardian . December 8, 2015. Accessed December 20, 2015.
  4. ↑ Database query on hagstofa.is . Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  5. ↑ Zúistar orðnir fleiri en múslimar á Íslandi ( Icelandic ) In: Vísir . November 30, 2015. Accessed December 7, 2015.
  6. ↑ Fjöldi zúista hefur þrefaldast síðasta sólarhring ( Icelandic ) In: Vísir . December 1, 2015. Accessed December 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ 11 things to know about the present day practice of Ásatrú, the ancient religion of the Vikings ( English ) In: Iceland Magazine . May 27, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b c Birkir Blær Ingólfsson: Hvetja Zúista til að SKRA sig úr félaginu ( Icelandic ) In: ruv.is . Ríkisútvarpið . November 3, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  9. ↑ a b Zúistar á Íslandi: The religious organization Zuism ( English ) Archived from the original on December 7, 2015. Retrieved on December 7, 2015.
  10. ^ A b Paul Fontaine: New (Old) Promises Parish Fee Refund ( English ) In: The Reykjavík Grapevine . November 25, 2015. Accessed December 8, 2015.
  11. ↑ Adam Boult: Why are atheists flocking to join Iceland's fastest-growing religion? ( English ) In: The Telegraph . December 7, 2015. Accessed December 8, 2015.
  12. ↑ Fyrrum Síða Zúista á Íslandi . Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  13. ↑ Ágúst hættir sem forstöðumaður Zúista ( Icelandic ) In: Zuism . February 4, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  14. ↑ Jelena Ćirić: Icelandic Zuist Church to Dissolve ( English ) In: Iceland Review . December 16, 2019. Accessed December 30, 2019.
  15. ↑ Zuism á Islandi ( Icelandic ) Archived from the original on December 8, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2019.