https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/22/refugees-cheer-canadian-promise-to-welcome-yazidis.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-yazidi-idUSKCN0Z20WR

I was writing another post, but I had news to share. Canada will be welcoming 1,200 Yazidi children. Some of these children fled ISIL and walked alone to camps. Others were accompanied by their mother. Many, if not most, have been abused and women were used as sex-slaves.

1. Survivors: Nadia Murad (left) and Lamiya Aji Bashar escaped Isis enslavement to become advocates for Yazidis, and were last month awarded the EU’s Sakharov human rights prize AP
2. A Yazidi child (Google Images)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-sex-slaves-lamiya-aji-bashar-nadia-murad-sinjar-yazidi-genocide-sexual-violence-rape-sakharov-a7445151.html

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/world/meast/iraq-rescue-mission/

The Genocide of Yazidis

ISIL’s persecution of the Yazidis “gained international attention and it directly led to the American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL.” (See American-led intervention in Iraq (2014 – present), Wikipedia.)

Pan-Islamism was the main cause of the Armenian genocide which began in the mid 1890’s under Sultan Abdulhamid II. (See Hamidian Massacres, Wikipedia). It is dated 1915, when the men were disarmed and orders issued to rape, enslave and kill the rest of the population. Earlier, in 1892, Sultan Abdulhamid II had also ordered a “campaign of mass conscription or murder of Yazidis as part of his campaign to Islamize the Ottoman Empire, which also targeted Armenians and other Christians.” (See Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, Wikipedia.)

Abdul Hamid II is pictured below as a Şehzade (Prince).

The Spread of Islamization

Islamization/Arabization spread all the way to the Iberian Peninsula. (See Islam in Spain, Wikipedia.) The Moors were exiled, but Moriscos still live in Spain. To my knowledge they are not Muslims. However, several North-African countries converted to Islam (Morocco, Algeria, etc.).

After the fall or the Byzantine Empire, at Constantinople, in 1534, the Ottomans also conquered several countries in Eastern Europe, nearly reaching Vienna. The inhabitants of these countries did not convert and were persecuted. However, there are Muslim communities in Eastern Europe.

Yazidism

The Yazidis are not Muslims. They are an ethnoreligious group whose religion is rooted in “ancient Mesopotamian religions and combines aspects of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.” (See Yazidis, Wikipedia.)

They inhabited Northern Iraq and, recently, they have been protected by the Kurds, which did not prevent a genocide resembling the Armenian genocide. The goal is the same: Pan-Islamism. The men who would not convert were killed. In 1915, male Armenians were disarmed, sent on long walks to nowhere or killed. Their wives and children suffered intolerable abuse and women who could do so jumped to their death. The scenario has not changed. Most male Yazidis were separated from female Yazidis and their children. Those who refused to convert to Islam were killed by ISIL.

ISIL’s persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and it directly led to the American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL. “Additionally, the US, UK, and Australia made emergency airdrops to Yazidis who had fled to a mountain range” and provided weapons to the “Kurdish Peshmerga defending them alongside PKK and YPG forces. ISIL’s actions against the Yazidi population resulted in approximately 500,000 refugees and several thousand killed and kidnapped.”

I will spare you further details, as I would be quoting the Wikipedia entry: Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL.

Conclusion

• help (US, UK, Australia, Turkey)
• Armin T. Wegner
• Extremism

The Yazidis are hiding in moutains. They have been helped through air drops of supplies. Kurdish Peshmerga were provided with weapons to protect them. Weapons of all abominations! At this point, they must be flown to safety. Now we know why President Obama led a coalition fighting ISIL. He answered a call for help. No one helped the Armenians, but German soldier Armin T. Wegner took photographs.

N.B.

Individuals whose ancestors or ethnically-related groups have committed crimes against humanity are not guilty. As well, far-right extremism is a universal affliction. United States President Donald Trump is currently conducting a major “cleansing” operation. He is also condemning difference. His actions are governed by pathological fear. However, a large number of Americans are fighting him and the courts oppose him.

Many ISIL terrorists are rebels without a cause who have travelled to the Middle East. As you know, there have been incidents reflecting Islamophobia in Canada. The worst is the Quebec City shooting. Alexandre Bissonnette’s twin has been hospitalized since his brother killed Muslims at the Grande Mosquée. Canada is protecting its Muslims and welcoming new ones.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) or Gendarmerie royale du Canada, an élite corps of policemen, have been helping people cross the border into Canada because, if left on their own, these individuals could be deported indiscriminately. These refugees are illegal immigrants and they are arrested and investigated. The RCMP/GRC must make sure individuals crossing the border are not criminals. However, people fleeing to Canada are human beings who have rights.

The Yazidis are mostly children or young adults who have been persecuted and most have lost their father. They may require medical support.

Source

“Europe’s Child-Refugee Crisis” (The New Yorker)

Love to everyone ♥

 

Genocide of Yazidis in broad daylight

© Micheline Walker
25 February 2017
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