One of our friends, a worker in the Middle East, wrote this past week, “If we would really stick to the criterion of why a people group makes it onto our list of UPGs in the first place we should follow through and reduce the populations radically lower. The Qashqai for example. They made it onto the list as the NOMADS who wear colorful clothes and live isolated from their Persian conquerors. Qashqai the real Turks who prefer to marry Turks number probably 200,000, not the 1.5 million that we list them as in our database. An Iranian professor in Iran says that in 50 years most of the minority languages will die in favor of Persian and English the languages of commerce and the Internet.” Most all of us understand that these unreached people group lists exist mainly as mobilization tools. We all have a responsibility to clean them up when we see/experience errors. Some believe theologically that when we actually have a church among every people group, Jesus will finally be willing to come (Matthew 24:14). Your thoughts? Just click “Comment” below.
I agree. Romantic “ethnic” notions often conflict with our rapidly globalizing world. Keep in mind, though, that the Ethnologue, as the list of the world’s languages (www.ethnologue.com) attempts to record actual speaker numbers, not numbers of “ethnics”, so should be more realistic.
This people group is found on peoplegroups.org, Joshua Project, ethnologue, and Wikipedia with a population between 1.5 and 1.75 million. The literature identify the Qashqai as nomads who are now settling in commercial centers.
Who the people actually are is different than whether they are unreached.
A people group is considered unreached when less than 2% of the population is Evangelical in faith and practice.