I have been linking closely with Yezidi online activists and many of my associates have become part of a Yezidi alliance groups both online and in real life. My original purpose was to break the entire “Yezidis are Hindus” myth for the sake of both Hindu and Yezidi civilization. I wanted to build an alliance based on the reality that the Hindus and Yezidis are indeed two separate civilizations that can work together in harmony, especially in fighting against Islam. While I was not surprised to find discontent and resentment among the Yezidi against the encroachment of a false form of pseudo-Hinduism being pushed into their faith, I was shocked by the degree of anger and outrage this had caused. The reason the Yezidi are so vigilant about guarding their religion from assimilationist forces is because they have been waging this very same battle for generations, only it has been with Islamo-Secular Kurdistan and not Hindu India.
The issue with establishing Yezidi autonomy has many facets. First, the Yezidi are a rather small religion (there are around 1 million globally) and so it is difficult for them to maintain their religious continuity, especially when they are being attacked from all sides by Islamic militants, Christian missionaries, and now fake Hindu groups as we have seen with Brannon Parker (here), Ms. Al-Jilwah and Souptik Mukherjee (here) and Mark Pinkham (here & here) who are preying on the desperate and starving Yezidi refugees of ISIS in the mountain passes of Northern Iraq. The Yezidi also tend to be a contained community with little to no interest in conversions or necessarily detailing their religion to non-Yezidis. This has left them vulnerable to political forces which wish to subsume them. While many groups have tried to incorporate the Yezidis including Muslims and Persians, (and now misguided Hindus) the most aggressive assimilationist campaign against the Yezidi comes from non-Yezidi Kurdish elements.
Kurds are an ethno-linguistic group of people who live in the more or less mountainous regions stretching from eastern Turkey to northwest Iraq, cutting trough northern Syria and northern Iran. While Kurds follow many different religions including Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Bahai, Yarsanism, Alevism and the Yezidi religion, the majority of Kurds (70% or more) are nominal Muslims. The Kurdish people have always fought for independence as unique ethnic and cultural group from their Arabized neighbors, however starting in the 1600’s the Kurds were divided up among many different Muslim rulers and many of the Kurdish people eventually lost their native religions of Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and other native faiths and became Muslims. Kurdish politics in the modern era have become extremely complicated since the majority Muslim Kurds have a schizophrenic alliance to both their ethnicity and Islam.
Modern Kurds try to be “secular” in that they wish to include the remaining non-Muslim Kurds into their aspirations for a united Kurdistan. Even the Kurdish flag shows the sun symbol, an insignia used by both Yezidi and Zoroastrians in their region. However, underneath this so-called ethnic comradery boils a deep and lasting discontent, especially for the Yezidi. There are two major reason why the Yezidi do not wish to be subsumed by the Kurdistan nation. First, even though Kurds try to tout their secularism, the Yezidi know from experience that when push comes to shove, the majority Muslims of the area choose Islamic ties or sympathize with Islamic causes. The Muslim majority of Kurdistan favors Islamic apologism at the very least. Also, these Kurdish Muslims are susceptible to “Pan-Islamism”, meaning they are quick to side with Muslims outside the Kurdish ethnic group, turning on the non-Muslims of Kurdsitan. The second reason why Yezidi don’t like the alliance is that they resent being classified as “Kurds”. The Yezidi have kept separate from all other groups for centuries and not all of their origins are known. Many Yezidi find it to be presumptuous of Kurds to assume that just because the Yezidi speak Kurdish dialects that this was their original tongue. Some Yezidi feel closer with Persian origins.
However, now India must take this backdrop and think about its own relationship with the Yezidi. The Yezidi are extremely sensitive to cultural imperialism and attempts to assimilate them as mentioned above with Kurdistan. The Yezidi have been fighting a generational war against subtle advances on their culture, and so the current drive to brand the Yezidi as a far flung sect of Hinduism is striking a deep nerve within the Yezidi community. Posts that try to equate the Yezidi and Hindus are often met with animosity by the Yezidi, who are usually fresh off debating similar posts by Kurdistani forces. While many Hindus think they are creating an alliance with the Yezidi, they are actually driving a wedge between the two communities by touching a sensitive spot in the Yezidi psyche, namely assimilation.
If Hindus want to create a lasting relationship with the Yezidi than we need to support them as an autonomous people with their own nation, religion, culture and perhaps even ethnicity. India and Hindus must not become another Kurdistan for the Yezidi. We must supply their refugees with food, housing and ammunition and provide their spiritual national heads voices in our governments, but we must end this cultural imperialism, especially since it is being lead by organizations which don’t even represent Hinduism in the first place and are doing nothing more than souring our relationship with Ezdistan (The Yezidi Nation).
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