Religion in Iraq

By Costas Onisenko

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Aug. 25 a ruthless campaign of "ethnic and religious cleansing" by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq amounted to a crime against humanity.
      

ISIL's focus on women criticised in Turkey and the Balkans

Citizens and experts urge states to react decisively against ISIL and its propaganda.

Atrocities being committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) include the recruitment of women to serve as sex slaves for fighters.

Militants of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) have released a video that seeks to show it enlightened hundreds of members of the Yazidi minority by converting them to Islam.

The production was issued not long after the group on Aug. 19 released a video showing one of its black-clad fighters beheading American journalist James Foley, sparking international outrage.

Yazidis fleeing their hometown of Sinjar after it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have started to settle in a camp established by Turkey’s disaster agency in the Zakho region of Northern Iraq.

The jihadist militants who have been committing atrocities in the name of Islam cannot belong to the faith, Turkey’s top cleric has declared, while also voicing his desire to visit the Gaza Strip together with religious scholars when conditions permit.

Iraqi Yazidis who have fled from Islamist brutality are facing health problems in the Iraqi villages in which they have sought shelter, with 22 people reportedly dying of health-related complaints in the past 10 days.

Jihadists carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraqi village of Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority, officials said on Aug 16.

Jihadists carried out a "massacre" in the northern Iraqi village of Kocho, killing dozens of people, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority, officials said on Aug 16.

Iraqi Yazidis are afraid to return to their ancestral lands due to fears of a future genocide, Feyyan Dahil, who has worked to bring attention to the plight of besieged members of her community, has said.
      

Yazidi women fleeing from northern Iraq have described to Hürriyet horrific scenes of the genocidal attacks of the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while also voicing confidence in ISIL’s ultimate defeat.