What is "yazidis"

The Yazidis (also Yezidis, Êzidî; ) are an ethnically Kurdish religious community or an ethno-religious group indigenous to northern Mesopotamia. Yazdanism (Yazidism) is an ancient religion that is strictly endogamous. Yazidism is not linked to Zoroastrianism but rather to ancient Mesopotamian religions. Even though they are ethnically Kurdish, Yazidis are a distinct and independent religious community with their own unique culture. They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraq. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria exist as well. The number of Yazidis in their native lands has been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany.

The Yazidis are monotheists,*The Religion of the Yezidis: Religious Texts of the Yezidis: Translation, Introd. and Notes, by Giuseppe Furlani, J.M. Unvala, 1940 -- "The religion of the Yezidis is monotheistic" pg. 3

• The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion, by Birgul Acikyildizm, I.B.Tauris, August 20, 2014 – "...the monotheism of the Yezidis..." pg. 71
• Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, by Barbara A. West, Infobase Publishing, January 1, 2009 – "...the ancient Yezidi religion (monotheist with elements of nature worship)..." p. 53
• Religious Freedom in the World, by Paul A. Marshall, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000 – "The Ezidi ("Yezidi") religion, a monotheistic faith..." p. 212 believing in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. The Peacock Angel, as world-ruler, causes both good and bad to befall individuals, and this ambivalent character is reflected in myths of his own temporary fall from God's favour, before his remorseful tears extinguished the fires of his hellish prison and he was reconciled with God.

This belief builds on Sufi mystical reflections on Iblis, who refused to prostrate to Adam despite God's express command to do so. Because of this connection to the Sufi Iblis tradition, some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region equate the Peacock Angel with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan, which has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as "devil worshippers". Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under fundamentalist Sunni Muslim revolutionaries.

Starting in August 2014, the Yazidis were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in its campaign to "purify" Iraq and neighbouring countries of non-Sunni and non-Islamic influences.