An ancient Sumeran statue dating from around 2520 BC. The Sumeran mythology is thought to be one of the world's oldest religion, on which others are very much based.

An ancient Sumeran statue dating from around 2520 BC. The Sumeran mythology is thought to be one of the world's oldest religion, on which others are very much based. Photo/Wikipedia

A new religion, Zuism, based on the worship of the ancient Sumeran gods promises a refund for government religion taxes for everyone registering with their religious group in Iceland.

On the Zuist website in Iceland it was advertised that anyone over the age of 16 registering with the religion ( and thus unregistering from the National Church of Iceland) would get a refund for these fees called parish fees. However, tax authorities have responded to mbl.is explaining that if Zuists go ahead to refund parish fees to their members they will have to pay income tax from these funds.

Zuists would like to abolish government funding to religious organisations in the form of parish fees and believe that the "state should stop gathering data on the personal religious beliefs of Icelanders."

In recent years there has been increasing pressure from over half of the Icelandic public, according to polls, to separate church and state.

In the last few weeks, hundreds of Icelanders have signed up as members of the Zuist religion.

Zuism is based on ancient Sumeran texts and the Sumeran religion is one of the world's oldest religions, believed to be the basis of the world's religions. It survived for instance in the mythologies and religions of ancient cultures such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, Hurrians, Akkadians, Egyptians, Romans and other culture groups.

According to Sumerian mythology, the primordial union of An and Ki produced Enlil, who became leader of the Sumerian pantheon. After the deities banished Enlil from the home of the Gods, Dilmun for raping the goddess Ninlil, she had a child, Nanna, god of the moon, Nanna and Ningal gave birth to Inanna, the goddess of war and fertility and to Utu, the god of the sun.

According to the Zuism website in Iceland the Sumeran religion is practiced by the singing of ancient Sumeran poems.