The Islamic State's Êzîdî Genocide in Iraq: The Sinjār Operations

Abstract

This paper critically examines the Islamic State's annihilatory violence committed against the Êzîdîs in Iraq since 2014. It argues that the violence is a product of both Êzîdî marginality and the ideology of the Islamic State, which is grounded in its particular neo-historical iteration of Islam. Annihilatory violence is fundamental for the IS to actualize its iteration of the holy Qur'ān, the words and actions of the Islamic prophet, and historical events, dividing the world into binaries of the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War, or good and evil. It draws from anthropological research and interviews conducted by the authors with survivors and perpetrators in 2014 and 2016 to argue that the Islamic State's campaign against the Êzîdîs constitutes the subjective and objective elements of the crime of genocide.