COPENHAGEN, Denmark – From her home in Denmark, Shermin Khalaf reads the news about renewed Islamic State (ISIS) attacks on Yezidis in Shingal, and wonders whether her ancient religious minority has any place left in Iraq.
“ISIS began attacking Kobane, and now they are back in Shingal,” she explained, worried for good reason because her Yezidi family members were among the tides that fled a murderous ISIS assault in August.
The militants, who have been weathering air attacks by a US-led coalition of some 50 nations, launched a major attack Monday against thousands of Yezidis who are surrounded on their sacred mountain in northern Iraq.
In an assault in August, ISIS massacred civilians -- who they consider to be ‘devil worshippers’ -- and sold women into slavery, forcibly converting others. A rescue operation evacuated thousands from the mountain through Syria into Iraqi Kurdistan, but many remained behind.
"I hope that my family and Yezidis have a future in Shingal. But honestly I think they don’t," said Khalaf.
An estimated 7,000 civilians are in danger as ISIS forces draw closer to the religious minority’s last line of defense. ISIS had encircled the group over a week ago, toppling a string of villages along the only exit routes from the mountain.
Meanwhile, Yezidis in Europe with relatives and friends in Shingal say they can do nothing but pray and worry.
All day yesterday, Rozhin Suleiman was on his phone with family members in Shingal.
“They can’t take it anymore; I can’t either," Suleiman said of the strain of watching his family driven from one place to another.
“First they were attacked in Shingal, so they fled to Syria. There, they were attacked again. They returned to Shingal, and now they are in danger again,” he explained. “My family doesn’t know where to go.”
Kheyri Amin, who lives in Germany, also spent all calling her family – but no one answered.
“My fear is that ISIS has kidnapped them," Amin said, voicing the worst fear that comes to the mind of many like her. She hopes that the United States – which began its bombing campaign in Iraq over the Shingal incident – would focus air raids again where Yezidis are most in danger.
Saliha Fetteh, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at University of Southern Denmark, fears that "Yezidism will soon be history in Iraq.”
Fetteh, who has lived and studied in Iraq, compares the fate of the Yezidis to those of Iraq’s Jews, who were once one of the oldest religious communities in the world, with hardly a trace remaining now.
"These Jews no longer exist in Iraq. That same way, the Yezidis may risk disappearing from Iraq."
