The Old Man Of The Mountains

In this article Rebecca talked about the rape and paedophile assault culture in the Islamic State and focussed on the plight of the Yezidis in particular. There is more, much more, that needs to be said about the Yezidi people and what is happening to them still. I also want to tell you about how they are fighting back against ISIS.

Yezidi culture is what is known as a root culture, that is to say that it is one of the earliest human cultures known. It dates back about eight to ten thousand years and its calendar (still in use today) is almost seven thousand years old, which makes it probably the oldest calendar in the world that is still in use today.

The religion of the Yezidis shares much in common with Vedic Hinduism and Melek Taus (Tawuse Melek), or the Peacock Angel to whom devout Yezidis address their prayers, is quite obviously a variant of Murugan, the equally ancient and still hugely popular Tamil Hindu peacock-god of South India. It is generally accepted that the Yezidis migrated from India by way of Afganistan to Iran, Iraq and the Middle East in a period of early aryan (the word ‘aryan’ as used here is not related to race but refers to ‘The Righteous’ — a way that the early peoples of Indian proto-Hinduism referred to themselves and is derived from the name of their mystical homeland that they called Airyna Vaeja) proto-Hindu expansion somewhen between six-and-a-half to ten thousand years ago. At that time, the time of their diaspora, they were called the children of Melek Taus. Melek, or Malik, is an ancient Semite god of Babel and Canaan. Melek or Malik can also be seen in the old Tamil word Malaiklavon that is another name for Murugan.

Up until the recent wholesale slaughter most Yezidis lived primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraqi Kurdistan with a small number of others resident in the hills in a swathe of territory that stretched into north-eastern Syria. They kept themselves to themselves and caused no problems for anyone

Now, the peacock that is Tawuse Melek’s symbol is not native to Iraq, or to the Middle East, but is indigenous to India. The serpent is the totem of Melek Ta’us/Murugan in Yezidi and the peacock is a secondary, but popular, symbol. Just as with the Hindu Murugan the serpent symbolizes the ‘kundalini’ (a primal energy, or ‘shakti’, said to be located at the base of the spine) released. Exactly like the Hindus the Yezidis use ’tilak’ (‘tikli’ or ‘sheether harr’ in Bengali, ‘tika’, or ’tilakam’, or ’tilak’ in Hindi) and place the marks upon their foreheads on religious occasions. The Yezidi also have a mythological homeland, from whence they say that they came, that they call Perani, which word is derived, in their language variant, from ‘Pazhani’, and that is a famous temple in Dindigul District of Tamil Nadu. The deity there is, interestingly enough and as one would expect, Murugan, also known as Karttikeya, Skanda, Kumaran, Kumara Swami, Subramaniyan or the peacock god.

The present crisis is the 74th instance of genocide committed against this ancient peace-loving people. This one began with an attack on Shingal where most of the Yezidi population resided. The latest attack began in May 2014 when ISIS crossed into Iraq from Syria. Frightened Yezidis fled from the plains to the mountains. ISIS then encircled the mountains and trapped the Yezidis there. The Yezidi tribal leaders were able to fight ISIS in the plains. In the mountains the Yezidis were able to hold out until August of that year when ISIS broke through into the mountains killing thousands.

Thousands died without food or water, children lived for days by being fed with the blood of their parents. When people were too weak to flee the mountain, and after thousands had died, ISIS entered the mountain region and gunned down thousands and thousands of Yezidis in cold blood. The bones of the dead are still strewn across the killing fields. IN ALL MORE THAN 210,000 ARE KNOWN TO HAVE DIED – not the paltry few hundred some would have you believe! Women who were captured were often raped and were sold in the new slave markets established by ISIS – often for as little as US $10. Naturally, and as we have come to expect from the Islamic savages, swords and knifes were used to decapitate the Yezidi men who had been captured and who, almost to a man, refused to convert to Islam and were beheaded.

500,000 Yezidis are now refugees. The Yezidi people were not a massive group to start with — there are fewer than a two hundred thousand Yezidis left in their homelands in the mountains and on the Nineveh Plain after the massacres and the flights (it’s estimated that, in total, half a million or more Yezidis have been murdered so far in Iraq and Syria by the followers of Mohammed). Their survival is crucial for the survival of this ancient founding civilisational culture and yet, along with the Christians of the region, whose cultures are also somewhat ancient, they are being actively denied visas from western countries whilst Mohammedans, that is to say whilst the followers of the very religion that caused this carnage, are allowed to travel where they will in the west.

However, all is not lost for the Yezidis. Many have found safe havens, although many, especially women, are still in dire trouble and suffering at the hands of the Muslim devil worshipping barbarians (as Rebecca cogently pointed out) and many have joined the various brave resistance groups that are opposed to the savages — the groups that western governments, led and strong-armed by that of the USA, refuse to arm or to help excepting with a weak, and mostly useless, aerial bombing campaign.

The big name, the man with the vision and the courage, the hope of all the surviving Yezidis, is the ‘Old Tiger of Mount Sinjar’ — Commandant Qasim Shesho. Following the massacres, Hindus globally began rallying to the Yezidi cause. The Yezidis under Commandant Qasim Shesho have formed an armed resistance group to protect the last surviving Yezidis from ISIS. Recognition for the efforts of the global Hindu community was recently expressed by Commandant Qasim Shesho himself speaking from the battlefields of Iraq. In a recently published interview with Zee News, he lauded the Hindus for their tangible support for the Yezidi cause.

 “As of October of last year Commandant Shesho has successfully rallied 2000  volunteers who are trying to do what seems impossible, i.e., containing ISIS    and stopping the next onslaught of Yezidi genocide by them. In a brief conversation with Namta Gupta, he spoke about himself and what he expects from the world community:

Where are you at present? When did you feel that you have to pick up arms?

We are at an army camp in Sinjar Mountain and some Yezidi boys are helping me here. We started fighting the ISIS since 3rd August 2014.

What was the situation before you picked up the arms and why did you feel the need to do so?

Where ISIS came in Sinjar there were close to 500, 000 Yezidi people who  lived there. They killed thousands of Yezidis, even those who were fleeing to Northern Iraq. Thousands of Yezidi men, women, and children have now been put into the prison by them and thousands of them have been sold as sex slaves. It is my job to protect my people and since I was also in army in 1972, hence taking on terrorism is important for me.

What help do you want from international community?

We want international community to help us protect the Yezidi people. They should do more airstrikes against ISIS, also, we need weapons and some army staff. If we don’t get them in the Sinjar Mountain then we will be in a very dangerous situation. We also need money for our army.

You have come here to fight but what about your family? Are they safe?

I know my future is in danger in Iraq and so is my family’s which is currently in Germany. ISIS has its people in Europe and everywhere in the world. But I would like to thank you and all Hindus… your government because they have shown care for us and have respected us like a family.

Winters are approaching, has any help been provided to common Yezidis

No. Situation that we are in is very bad; there are many Yezidi men, women and children out there….some 10, 000 are there (outside) so we need help.

So you are saying that no one has offered you any kind of help so far?

On this, I would like to thank PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) because they are helping the common Yezidi people but till now we have no one helping us in our fight against the ISIS. In fact some Kurds are helping us, like Masoud Barzani, but we need more help.”

(Italic emphasis is mine).

Much has been accomplished by the irregulars under Commandant Shesho’s leadership. A significant number of captured Yezidis have been rescued and many Yezidi religious shrines have been protected, most particularly the ancient shrine and tomb of Saint Sharrafuddin at Sinoun in the Sinjar mountains. The guesthouse of the shrine has been used as a garrison since August 2014 and the regular pilgrimage that should take place each 15th of August has been replaced by a steady trickle of Yezidi men and youths rallying to the Commandant’s colours. So far ISIS has not dared to mount any more wholesale attacks against the Yezidis in their mountains and a considerable area of Yezidi territory has been re-captured, but regrettably at least nine mass graves have so far been found – each grave seems to contain many hundreds of Yezidi men and boys.

Up until recently ISIS has attacked Sinoun more than sixteen times and Shesho and his men, aided by volunteers from the Kurdish Peshmurga, have successfully defended it using ancient weaponry and a few modern guns that the Kurdish government have managed to find for them — and bear in mind, before condemning them for being niggardly, that the Kurds have their own battles to fight against ISIS for the preservation of their own people.

Sinoun has also become a haven for Yezidi prisoners who have managed to escape the jihadists, most of them women and children arriving exhausted with blistered feet after a terrifying flight. “Whenever they contact us, we help them,” the Commandant said, speaking in February of this year to Vice News. “We send our men to pick them up whatever conditions and weather.” Around that time, too, about a hundred freed Yazidis were picked up by helicopters and taken to Dohuk, a Kurdish town sheltering the displaced, and there have been many more since then.

So, all is not lost for the Yezidis. But why is the government of the USA so vehemently opposed to arming Commandant Qasim Shesho’s embryonic army? Why is President Obama and his fellow Democrat politicians in government so determined to deny the right of self-defence to a people suffering genocidal attacks? Why is the President pressuring every government that it can to deny weapons to the Christians, the Kurds and the Yezidis whilst arming so-called ‘good’ Mohammedans who promptly join ISIS or go on murderous criminal rampages?

Commandant Shesho and his small army firmly believe that had they had appropriate weapons when ISIS first threatened them then the attack that started the genocide would never have taken place as even his small army would have been sufficient to see off the ISIS rabble. They still need modern weapons and they, like all the Yezidis that they are protecting, are still at risk, but for reasons that remain locked up in the seemingly twisted logic of the President’s mind no weapons or help will be extended to them, or the Christian militias, or the Kurdish Peshmurga fighters.

President Obama is, by his actions (or inactions) in this matter, laying himself open to charges of being a complicit and willing actor in genocide and slavery. Why is he doing what he is doing and taking the risk of being branded as an accomplice in mass murder, rape and pillage? Is he really as stupid as this makes him seem? Surely nobody can be that stupid – and surely he can’t be so stupid as to believe that a President has some sort of perpetual immunity from criminal charges!

Commandant Qasim Shesho is the last, best hope for the beleaguered Yezidi people. Ask your Congressman, or your MP, or your MEP why the western countries are not helping him, and don’t accept the feeble and inane excuses of those who follow the President’s line – whatever the hell that may be, of course, and who knows that!