ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—In passionate testimony, Yezidi activist Nadia Murad urged the world to bring her former Islamic State captors to justice and to not avert their eyes from the crime of genocide. “Our crisis is your crisis,” she told United States lawmakers. “Terrorism is destroying the human heritage we have collectively built, not as one people, one nation, one color, one religion, but the civilization we’ve built together as humans of different cultures and faiths” said Nadia Murad to remind the world that ISIS is a common enemy for all, regardless of the ethnic, religious, and cultural differences. Murad testified on Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in Washington during a hearing to discuss Islamic State ideology and its relation to the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Florida and other so-called lone wolf attacks. While calling on the world to do more to combat the threat of ISIS, Murad had harsh words for the Islamic world, which she said did not do much against the terrorist threat. “What happened to Yezidis is still continuing. I passed this message to Egypt and Kuwait because this is done under name of Islam. I have asked Sheikh of Azhar in Cairo to recognize ISIS as an infidel group within Islam, but he refused to do so. I do not say Islam is terror but ISIS use Islam, therefore the ISIS ideology should be stopped.” “And we have not seen any Arab or Muslim countries recognize ISIS as an infidel group.” Murad called on the Islamic world to prevent their youth from joining ISIS and she warned about the ISIS brainwashing program that could bring more disaster to the world in the future, something her own family knows too well. “More than 1,600 children were taken from Sinjar to be subjected to ISIS brainwashing and terrorist ideology, including my 13-year-old nephew who has now been brainwashed and tells his own mother that she is an infidel.” Murad bemoaned the ideology and fear that ISIS spreads, noting that many have failed to help the Yezidi minority. “When Yezidi women and girls escaping to many families in Iraq and Syria, seeking protection, they were rejected. They could have helped them but they did not and they seized [the Yezidi girls and women] and hand them back to the militants,” she said. Murad told the committee that the world should recognize the ISIS crimes against Yezidis as genocide. “Some are old enough to remember what happened in Germany and other places. The civilized world did not act until it was too late. The Yezidis are experiencing holocaust anew. We suffer a human brutality, murder, sex slavery, and forced displacement.” “What happened to Yezidis is genocide. True that ISIS committed many crimes in Iraq and Syria but what happened to us was different,” she said. And not just that, she asked that there should be more action to stop ISIS from committing further crimes. “I ask you to prevent those are delivering weapons and money to ISIS. And no one should buy their oil.” She reminded the Americans and international community that ISIS will reach many other places in the world if the world does not act to stop them. “I was heartbroken when I witnessed the crimes in Orlando, because for the same reason, for no reason, they were killed and abused as the way I was, and I was not surprised when they did that because ISIS will not stop and will deliver their crimes everywhere.” “The Yezidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria cannot defend themselves; in countries such as you, Belgium and others, you cannot counter them so how we, as a minority, can face them?” she asked. “I ask the US, also, to work with allies and foes alike to establish a safe and protected zone for Iraqi and Syrian religious minorities. All must agree on this, now. The Yezidi people cannot wait.” “Do not let them grow more and more by indifference. Any form of ambivalence will be felt as encouragement,” Murad warned. She is sad that the world did not bring the genocidal perpetrators to justice yet. “Daesh [ISIS] has committed genocide against my people, against United Nations law, against US law, the UK parliament, in France and so many others. Yet the ISIS or Daesh case has not been referred to the ICC or the international court. I am sad that the world doesn't focus on bringing such genocidal perpetrators to accountability. It's painful to me as a survivor to see a world that turns away, averting its eyes, ignoring the worst crimes.” Murad concluded by telling the world they should learn more about the Yezidi tragedy and crisis and stand with them. “Learn from the Yezidis experience. Come to us, sit with us, let us teach you what this is like. Visit our people, face and hug our orphaned children, see our unprotected mass graves, view our ravaged farms and hill tops. Please bring your powers to help, to heal, to solve. Come share our tears. Our crisis is your crisis.” Nadia Murad is Yezidi rights activist and survivor of the Islamic State. Earlier this year she was nominated by the Iraqi government for the Nobel Peace Prize.
