The massacre of 500 people belonging to the Yazidi community in northern Iraq at the hands of soldiers of the Islamic State, also called ISIS, has spurred government relief efforts not only from Washington, but also from officials in Baghdad and Kurdish forces nearby. But as President Obama ordered airlifts to relieve the ISIS-besieged northern Iraqi community, many are asking a salient question: Who are the Yazidi?

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At its core, "Yazidi" is not an ethnic term, but a religious one. Most Yazidi are Kurds, part of the ethnic group found across northern Iraq into Syria and Turkey, and some reports list the Yazidi faith as the indigenous religion of the Kurdish nation before the majority converted to Islam between the 10th and 12th centuries AD. Those Yazidi that kept the faith formed their own communities isolated in the northern Tigris River watershed even as various empires rose and fell around them.

By the time Europeans entered the territory, the Yazidi had long been reviled by native Muslim and Christian communities alike for being "devil-worshippers," stemming from a unique story at the heart of the religion. A syncretic faith with aspects of Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and Zoroastrianism, Yazidi scripture tells of the angel Tawuse Melek who, having been ordered never to bow to any other being, refused to do just that when God ordered him to acknowledge the superiority of the newly-created Adam. This parallels the tale of Iblis in the Koran, whose refusal to submit to Adam led him to be cast out of Heaven for the crime. Iblis would go on to become the Muslim devil-figure.

To the Yazidi, Tawuse Melek's act of defiance was a divine test. Adhering to his original orders even in the face of damnation, Tawuse Melek was seen by God as being willing to use a sense of judgement in a conflicting situation. For his devotion, God made the angel Heave's representative of on Earth. Muslims concluded that even though the story of Tawuse Melek ends very differently from that of Iblis, there is enough of a similarity to see the Yazidi as a devil-worshiping sect.

Yazidi consider the charge deeply offensive; in another story, Tawuse Melek, upon seeing human suffering, wept so bitterly his tears extinguished the fires of Hell.

ISIS fighters have not been discriminatory. Along with the Yazidis, anyone not Sunni Muslim is a legitimate target, including Shia Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Druze, Alawaits, atheists, and even those Sunni not espousing the extreme version of Islam ISIS promotes.

An estimated 650,000 Yazidi live in Iraqi territory, with ISIS-led killings continuing unabated, it is likely the population will be driven out of ISIS territory. Fierce fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIS opened up a window for 2000 Yazidi refugees to flee across the Syrian border on August 10th.

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