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Who Are the Yazidis, the Ancient, Persecuted Religious Minority Struggling to Survive in Iraq?
posted on August 12, 2014At National Geographic, Avi Asher-Schapiro writes, “Considered heretical devil worshippers by many Muslims—including the advancing militants overrunning Iraq—the Yazidis have faced the possibility of genocide many times over.” Now, as ISIL forces the Yazidis to convert, die, or flee from their lands, the Yazidis and Yazidism—a syncretic religion with elements of Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Mithraism—face extermination again. Asher-Schapiro reports that hopes for their survival are pinned on the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and U.S. air support.