Wednesday 1 December 2021

Yazidi-phobia


A five-year old Yazidi girl’s Islamic State killer has been convicted of genocide in an historic trial in Germany. 

There are certain things I read in The Times's account of his conviction that I didn't read in the BBC's account, the most important being the name of the child: Reda. 

I don't know why the BBC didn't think to humanise her by including it. 

The Times also tells us that IS, among all the other wicked things they did to Reda and her mother, ''forced them to practise Islam', something the BBC also omits to mention. 

And, of course, in standard BBC practice, IS are ''militants'' while for The Times they are ''terrorists''. 

At least the BBC reported the case. The Yazidis have largely been forgotten. One of my favourite historians, Tom Holland, has done his best to help remind us of their fate and is always worth reading on the matterOn reading the shocking story that a school board in Toronto, Canada withdrew support for events featuring the memoir of Nadia Murad, the Yazidi woman who was enslaved by IS, because it could "promote Islamophobia", he wrote
What about the Yazidi-phobia that led the Islamic State to attempt the genocide of the Yazidis: a crime that is not only in danger of being forgotten in the West, but - it seems - is now actively being covered up?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.