AMMAN, Jordan — Bashir Nader, a 55-year-old Iraqi, lives with his family in al-Hashmi al-Shamali neighborhood in Jordan’s capital, Amman. Nader fled the city of Samarra in 2016 to escape the Islamic State (IS) and Shiite militias who targeted the Mandaean community.

Mandaeism is an independent religion, and its followers claim it is the oldest monotheistic religion. Its followers revere Adam, Adam's son Seth, Noah's son Shem, Abraham and John the Baptist, who is the last of their prophets.

Nader’s family immigrated to Jordan looking for asylum, as did 2,500 other Mandaeans. In Jordan, more than 95% of the population follows Sunni Islam; the next biggest religion is Christianity, which dropped from 12% of the population in 1956 to less than 4% in 2012 (the latest available statistics) due to immigration, according to Kamel Abu Jaber. the head of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies.

The suffering of Mandaeans began in 2014 when IS took over Samarra in southern Iraq, an area where adherents of this religion are concentrated. They were faced with two choices: death or converting to Islam as IS considered them infidels, Nader told Al-Monitor.