Hundreds of them have been killed during the occupation, and several hundred families were captured. Men and boys were killed, and women and girls were treated as war slaves. Several Ezidi temples have been burned and bombed by the terrorists. Many Ezidi elderly and children have died of thirst and hunger. Due to the lack of medicine on the mountain, they are still living in tragic and disastrous circumstances. The refugees are trapped on the mountain..

The Shengal Tragedy and the Threat of Genocide

By Shakhawan Shorash

10 August 2014

The Ezidi (Yazidi) Kurds[i], who have their own religion and faith, have suffered under oppression since their foundation. They have been on the verge of annihilation under the Ottomans and faced ethnic cleansing from the Arabization policies under the Ba’ath regime. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, they have been a target for extreme Islamist terrorists and attacked by suicide bombers. For instance, there was an attack on August 14, 2007, in the Ezidi towns of Kahtaniya and Jazeera near Mosul.The bombs killed 796 people and wounded more than 1,000 people. The Ezidis have been subject to discrimination by the Muslim majority in the region.

The Ezidi Kurds are a vulnerable group, as they are a small religious minority in the area near and on the border of Arab territory in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds have been subject to oppression because of their nationality, but the Ezidis have been subject to oppression because of their Kurdish nationality and their different religion. Although they have lived under the shadows of threat and oppression, they have learned through their history how to survive. They have adjusted their behavior and have tried to live in peace with the Muslim majority and other religious groups, such as Christians, in the area. They have survived despite the threats they have experienced during their existence.

The dangers against them increased after the extreme terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took Mosul and other cities in the Sunni area. Many Ezidi families who lived in Mosul fled the city with  other ethnic minorities. The dangers came nearer as the ISIS was close to the city of Shengal and the Ezidi villages in the area.

The August 3, 2014, ISIS attack on Shengal and the surrounding area and the occupation of Shengal, which had more than 30,000 residents, was a disaster for the Ezidi people and their faith. Tens of thousands fled to the Kurdish north or the dry Shengal Mountain near the city. Hundreds of them have been killed during the occupation, and several hundred families were captured. Men and boys were killed, and women and girls were treated as war slaves. Several Ezidi temples have been burned and bombed by the terrorists. Many Ezidi elderly and children have died of thirst and hunger. Due to the lack of medicine on the mountain, they are still living in tragic and disastrous circumstances. The refugees are trapped on the mountain, and they are still under the threat of genocidal killings. There is a furious war between the Peshmerga forces and the Jihadists in the area. The Ezidi refugees are burying their loved ones who die slowly, one after another, due to hunger and thirst, while waiting for help. In the last two days, more than 10,000 people have been rescued by the Kurdish forces of Yekinekani Parastni Gel (YPG), “The Protection Forces of People,” who placed them in a refugee camp near the city of Derk in Syrian Kurdistan. There are still tens of thousands of refugees who wait for help. They will die if they remain on the mountain a few days more.

The ISIS Jihadists are against everyone who refuse their faith or disagree with them, and they regard non-Muslims, such as the Ezidis, as nonbelievers, or Kufar. They believe the Ezidis are devil worshipers who deserve to die. They believe in the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate[ii] under the rule of Sharia. Creation of an Islamic rule similar to the early Caliphate rule in the seventh century is the ultimate goal for them. They take the Quran texts literally, and they are intolerant toward other faiths. As they belong to the Wahabisme[iii], they refuse other Islamic religious lines and faith.

In fact, the Ezidi faith is more exposed than the Christian and Jewish faiths because their religion is smaller and does not have the same international support. Furthermore, the Islam religion has never accepted the Ezidi faith as a true religion. It is expected that the ISIS will not show any mercy toward them as they believe that the annihilation of the Ezidi religion and its followers is a duty of the Jihadists.

The ISIS have a genocidal conviction against the Ezidis and, consequently, the expected crimes against them will go beyond ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity. They attack them with the intent to destroy the Ezidis as a community and a religion. The genocidal acts are already taking place. According to the Human Rights Commission, the Jihadists have killed the men and boys of the captured families and have taken the women and girls as war slaves. This is physical destruction with a determined intent to destroy. The ISIS let the Christians leave the city of Mosul if they do not convert to Islam, but they treat the Ezidis differently. They kill the men and take the women as slaves. For the Jihadists, the members of the Ezidi community are not human beings worthy of life; they are devil worshipers against Allah and Islam. The dehumanization of the Ezidis is legitimatized by the intolerant Islamic faith of ISIS. Thus, the killing of them is a necessity that frees the Islamic State of these unwanted elements.

The treatment of the western and international media of the Ezidi catastrophic situation is disappointing, as we can see their attention is mainly on the Hamas–Israel conflict in their news coverage. The western coverage of the Shengal massacre and tragedy is pretty frail. In the first three days of the catastrophic situation of the Ezidis, none of the main news agencies reported the tragic event. It was important for them to focus on Gaza, but was it not also important to use five minutes to tell the word the history of the massacre of a defenseless people that is on the verge of genocide? Where is the objectivity of the professional press?

President Barack Obama’s speech mentioning the present threats of genocide against the Ezidi people is probably the first important international accentuate of the Ezidi people. However, President Obama’s speech was influenced by the US Iraq policy and the importance of keeping Iraq united, which is not pleasing to the Kurds. The current military and humanitarian assistance from the US and other western countries to the Kurdish government are important. There is also a hope that the Ezidi’s tragedy will be over soon, but we should not take become complacent as they need urgent help and protection right now.