Who Are The Yazidis?

I'm in the process of reading a book called Last Girl by Nadia Murad.  It's about a Yazidi girl in Iraq who was captured by Isis, who raped and  tortured her.  She was a Yazidi, a religious minority in Iraq, living in near Mt. Sinjar.  I wanted to know more about the religion and understand how people can hate another group of people because of their beliefs so much.  I learned quite a bit about Yuzidis, but I'll never understand the hate that caused genocide of their people by Isis.

Globally, Yuzidis number about 700,000, with the vast majority of them concntrated in northern Iraq, in and around Sinjar.  They are an historically misunderstood group.  Ethnically, they are predominantly Kurdish, but they are not Muslim.  They have kept alive their syncretic religion for centuries, despite years of oppression and threatened extermination.  The religion is derived from Zoroastrianidm.  The religion takes elements from both Christianity and Islam.  They worship a fallen angel, Melek Tawwus.  Melek Tawwus was forgiven and returned to heaven by God.  Because of this, Yazidis have a reputation for being devil worshippers, which has turned life threatening.

Under Ottoman rule in the 18th and 19th centuries alone, Yazids were subject to 72 genocidal massacres.  In 2007, hundreds of Yazidis were killed as a spate of car bombs ripped through their stronghold in northern Iraq.  Al-Qaida denounced them as infidels, which was sanctioned indiscriminate killing.  Much of what Isis did to the Yazidi community is discussed in Last Girl.

Last Girl is interesting, yet difficult to read.  It's not for everyone.  I found the religion fascinating.  A little bit of  Judeo Christian philosophy mixed in with ideas I had never heard of.  I still can't come to grips with the hatred of one group for another because of their beliefs.  It's just another example of the many wars in history that have taken place over religion.