Yezidis - An Ancient People Under Siege

In this episode of Hindu Radio I interview Gulie Khalaf. She is an American Yezidi schoolteacher and leading Yezidi activist from Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. After her people in Iraq became the focus of the Islamist terror group ISIL she rose up to the occasion. Gulie recently went back to Iraq to assist her people languising in refugee camps.

Until this year most people had never heard of the Yezidi. Suddenly as the terrorist group ISIL began massacring and kidnapping their people the world moved into action. US President Obama ordered the US Airforce into action. Yet after some intitial efforts the Yezidi were once again forgotten. As they were buthchered and chased out of town after town the Yezidis were forced to take shelter in their ancient stronghold of Holy Mt Shingal. For months they battled repeated attemtps by ISIL to storm the mountain. Many Yezidi martyrs gave their lives in this effort. Only in the past week were the terrorists forced back from the mountain. 

During this crisis the Indian spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also visited Iraq and organized a peace conference and gave a speech at the Kurdish Parliament. Meanwhile the Hindu community united with the Yezidis and has raised thousands of dollars on behalf of the Yezidi people of Iraq.

Now long term efforts must be developed to rehabilate the Yezidis and recover their ancient homelands.