MENA Minorities

"In the Fray"— @UChicagoMag 's new article about my #Yazidi advocacy work with Yazda @YazdaOrg https://t.co/Dkq6CzOH5g pic.twitter.com/rcVEu2nr3e — Matthew Barber (@Matthew__Barber) 4. März 2016

Westerners join Assyrians militia to fight ISIS by Isabel Coles, Reuters (...)The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha - meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq. A map on the wall in the office of the Assyrian political party affiliated with Dwekh Nawsha marks the Christian towns in northern Iraq, fanning out around the city of Mosul. The majority are now under control of ISIS, which overran Mosul last summer and issued am ultimatum to Christians: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most fled. Dwekh Nawsha operates alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect Christian villages on the frontline in Nineveh province.(...)

Phillip Smyth, who writes the blog Hizballah Cavalcade about Shiite militias in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, has an extensive policy paper (more a monograph) on Shiite militias in Syria out via the Washington Institute. I haven't read it yet, but after browsing through the notes my expectations were raised. The Shiite Jihad in Syria and Its Regional Effects by Phillip Smyth, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Btw there is also an interesting posting from last month on Hizballah Cavalcade about a new Shabak militia in Iraq .

Readers of this blog might remember, that the case of Swiss nationals fighting in Syria for the YPG-affiliated Syriac Military Council had been a topic here already. Now German magazine Focus published a report about this approximately 10 fighters and the support they are receiving from the neutral country. „Kampf ist christliche Pflicht“ Kreuzzug gegen den Terror: Schweizer Christen ziehen gegen IS in den Krieg by Focus Online A very great article by Rania Abouzei for National Geographic deals with the current political situation of the Christians in northern Iraq, including it's leadership, plans for autonomy and the recent phenomena of Christian militias, even though their establishment is (so far) rather symbolic. The latter is a huge difference to the passivity of the Christians during the civil war after the fall of Saddam Hussain, when the Christians reacted with passivity to persecution. This shift is also reflected by the contacts of the Assyrian Democratic Movem...

In contrast to the case of the Christians, which is more an expulsion, what is happening now to the Yazidis clearly has genocidal features. Other minorities like the Shabak might be next. One of the best overviews comes from Matthew Barber (also read his piece on the expulsion of Mosul's Christians) for Syria Comment: IS Routs Peshmerga, Takes Control of Sinjar Mountains, Jeopardizes Yazidi Homeland by Matthew Barber, Syria Comme nt Some round-up: Iraq’s Religious Minorities are Being Slaughtered and ISIS Just Captured the Last Town Giving Them Shelter by Andrew Slater, The Daily Beast In a major defeat for Kurdish forces the Iraqi town of Sinjar was captured Sunday by the group known as ISIS, now calling itself the Islamic State. This is the Kurds first major loss to ISIS and a catastrophe for the religious minorities who had taken refuge in the area and are now at imminent risk of being slaughtered. Reports from the region describe an unfolding tragedy with...

Mosul's Christians Say Goodbye by Christian Caryl, Foreign Policy Assyrians and Christians under attack in Iraq and Syria  by Stephen Starr, The Irish Times Iraqi Christians Huddle Miles From Militants in Mosul , AFP   Iraqi Christians find refuge in ancient monastery by Jane Arraf, AlJazeera America Militants' advance threatens Christians in Iraq  by Arwa Damon, CNN

The ISIS' takeover of Mosul, Iraq's second city, threatens the fragile Christian presence in the Ninawa plain, which has developed in recent times. Nina Shea has a very pessimistic reading of the Christian perspective in Iraq - and there is little to object at the moment even though it seems like ISIS has not reached the Christan strongholds yet. Btw, Italian Priest Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, who was kidnaped by ISIS in Raqqa, is most likely alive according to recent Italian reports , contrary to the article below: The Cleansing of Iraq's Christians Is Reaching It's End Game by Nina Shea,  The National Interest

Fascinating report by Anne Bernard, the Beirut bureau chief of the New York Times, from Saiyida Zainab near Damascus, which houses the Shia shrine of the prophet Muhammad's granddaughter (or one of them to be exact). Protecting the shrine serves as a pretense for the involvement of Hizballah and Shia fighters from Iraq in Syria. Muslim Shrine Stands as a Crossroads in Syria’s Unrest   by Anne Bernard, The New York Times

Lebanese news portal Now. published an extensive interview with Philip Symyth, a leading expert on the still underreported phenomenon of Shiite militias in Syria, who operates the blog  Hizballah Cavalcade .