Chermera

The site of "40 Men" in the Sinjar mountains - posted in memory of the several hundred Yazidis murdered by Al Qaeda last week. How do these small minorities manage to hold out?

Comments

[Justin Anthony Knapp]

Ethnic/religious minorities in the MENA region are fascinating to me, from Assyrians to Zoroastrians. The Mandeans are particularly fascinating.

[Urban Infidel]

Beautiful photo and nice tribute.

But aren't the Yazidis the ones who stoned that 17 year old girl alive on video tape recently?

[Don Cox]

"But aren't the Yazidis the ones who stoned that 17 year old girl alive on video tape recently?"

Those who did that are Yezidis, including some of her own family, and should be arrested and tried for murder. But the crime is no excuse for killing hundreds of other people who had nothing to do with it. The crime was not committed by the Yezidis as a whole, collectively. Your question is equivalent to "Wasn't it the Muslims who did the London tube bombing?"

As for survival, living in the mountains helps. And after centuries of persecution, the Yezidis had become very secretive and kept their heads well down. The diaspora are more confident, as is the case with other religions.

[Don Cox]

"But aren't the Yazidis the ones who stoned that 17 year old girl alive on video tape recently?"

Those who did that are Yezidis, including some of her own family, and should be arrested and tried for murder. But the crime is no excuse for killing hundreds of other people who had nothing to do with it. The crime was not committed by the Yezidis as a whole, collectively. Your question is equivalent to "Wasn't it the Muslims who did the London tube bombing?"

As for survival, living in the mountains helps. And after centuries of persecution, the Yezidis had become very secretive and kept their heads well down. The diaspora are more confident, as is the case with other religions.