Ethnic violence and religious persecution linked to ISIS includes organised actions in territory controlled by the movement in their "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" as well as violence they actively incite in territory they do not control.
The movement have been accused of genocide against multiple groups:
TheIraqi Turkmen genocide refers to the series of killings, rapes, executions, expulsions, and sexual slavery ofIraqi Turkmen inIslamic State-controlled territory.[1] It began when IS captured Iraqi Turkmen lands in 2014 and it continued until IS lost all of their land inIraq. In 2017, it was officially recognized as a genocide by the Parliament of Iraq,[2][3] and in 2018, the sexual slavery was also recognized by theUnited Nations.[4][5]
TheYazidi genocide was perpetrated by theIslamic State inIraq andSyria between 2014 and 2017.[6][7][8] It was characterized by massacres,genocidal rape, and forced conversions toIslam. TheYazidis are aKurdish-speaking people[9] who are indigenous toKurdistan who practiceYazidism, amonotheisticIranian ethnoreligion derived from theIndo-Iranian tradition.[10]
Over a period of three years, Islamic State militants trafficked thousands of Yazidi women and girls and killed thousands of Yazidi men.[11] TheUnited Nations reported that the Islamic State killed about 5,000 Yazidis[12] and trafficked about 10,800 Yazidi women and girls in a "forced conversion campaign"[13][14] throughout Iraq. By 2015, upwards of 71% of the global Yazidi population was displaced by the genocide, with most Yazidi refugees having fled to Iraq'sKurdistan Region and Syria'sRojava.[15][16] Thepersecution of Yazidis, along with other religious minorities, took place after the Islamic State'sNorthern Iraq offensive of June 2014.[17][18]
Amid numerous atrocities committed by the Islamic State, the Yazidi genocide attracted international attention and prompted theUnited States to establishCJTF–OIR, a military coalition consisting of manyWestern countries andTurkey,Morocco, andJordan. Additionally, the United States, theUnited Kingdom, andAustralia made emergency airdrops to support Yazidi refugees who were trapped in theSinjar Mountains due to the Islamic State'sNorthern Iraq offensive of August 2014. During theSinjar massacre, in which the Islamic State killed and abducted thousands of trapped Yazidis, the United States and the United Kingdom began carrying out airstrikes on the advancing Islamic State militants, while thePeople's Defense Units and theKurdistan Workers' Party jointly formed a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the rest of the Yazidi refugees from the Sinjar Mountains.[19]
The United Nations and several other organizations, including theCouncil of Europe and theEuropean Union, have designated the anti-Yazidi campaign by the Islamic State as a genocide,[6] as have the United States,Canada,Armenia, and Iraq.[6][7]
The main targets of religious persecution by the Islamic State are Shia Muslims and Christians.
Shia Muslims have been persecuted by theIslamic State (IS), anIslamist extremist terrorist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place inIraq,Syria, and other parts of the world.
Despite being the religious majority in Iraq, Shia Muslims have been killed and otherwise persecuted by IS, which isSunni. On 12 June 2014, the Islamic State killed 1,700 unarmed ShiaIraqi Army cadet recruits in theCamp Speicher massacre.[20][21][22] IS has also targeted Shia prisoners.[23] According to witnesses, after the militant group took the city ofMosul, they divided the Sunni prisoners from the Shia prisoners.[23] Up to 670[24] Shia prisoners were then taken to another location and executed.[23] Kurdish officials inErbil reported on the incident of Sunni and Shia prisoners being separated and Shia prisoners being killed after the Mosul prison fell to IS.[23]
IS also targetedChristians andYazidis in northern Iraq on a "historic scale", putting entire communities "at risk of being wiped off the map of Iraq". In a special report released on 2 September 2014,Amnesty International described how IS had "systematically targeted non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, of individuals and forcing more than tens of thousands of Shias, Sunnis, along with other minorities to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". The most targeted Shia groups inNineveh Governorate were ShiaTurkmens andShabaks.[25]
Thepersecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder[26][27][28] of Christian minorities, within the regions ofIraq,Syria,Egypt,Libya,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Mozambique andNigeria controlled by the Islamic extremist groupIslamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by itsspillover but has since intensified further.[29][30][31] Christians have been subjected to massacres,forced conversions, rape, sexual slavery, and the systematic destruction of their historical sites, churches and other places of worship.
According to US diplomatAlberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of the victims of the conflict which is raging in Syria and Iraq have beenMuslims,Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."[32]
The depopulation of Christians from the Middle East by the Islamic State as well as other organisations and governments has been formally recognised as an ongoing genocide by theUnited States,European Union, andUnited Kingdom. Christians remain the most persecuted religious group in the Middle East, and Christians in Iraq are “close to extinction”.[33][34][35] According to estimates by theUS State Department, the number ofChristians in Iraq has fallen from 1.2 million 2011 to 120,000 in 2024, and the numberin Syria from 1.5 million to 300,000, falls driven by persecution by terrorist groups and repression by authoritarian regimes.[31]
Since 2014, theIslamic State (IS) has destroyedcultural heritage on an unprecedented scale, primarily inIraq andSyria, but also inLibya. These attacks and demolitions targeted a variety of ancient and medieval artifacts, museums, libraries, and places of worship, among other sites of importance to human history. BetweenJune 2014 and February 2015, the Islamic State'sSalafi jihadists plundered and destroyed at least 28 historic religious buildings inMosul alone.[36] Many of the valuables that were looted during these demolitions were used to bolster theeconomy of the IS.[36]
