Iraq's Yazidis, minority religious sect in northern Iraq, flees approach of militants ISIS

From The Wall Street Journal:

Linked to Zoroastrianism and rooted in beliefs in the oneness of good and evil, the Yazidi faith is sometimes regarded as unusual or heretical, leading to a history of repeated persecutions, Mr. Lazheen said. Yazidis are so used to having to pick up and flee, he said, that they don't record their religion or sacred texts in writing but spread them through song and chant.

The Islamic State considers Yazidis to be devil worshippers. As with Christians across northern Iraq, the Islamist militants swept into the Yazidis' towns and gave them stark ultimatums: Convert to Islam or be killed. Hundreds of Yazidi women across Sinjar were captured as "war booty" as they attempted to flee, displaced residents said. No one had information on those women's circumstances.