Country: Iraq

Group: Kaka’i

Date: 26 October 2022

Name: Madison Schultz (lead), Anthony Un, Jacob Kebe, Hajer Rahee, Kelsey Dwyer

Content Warnings: lethal violence, religious persecution

Approximate Time Period: early 2000s-present

The Kaka’i, also known as the Ahl-e Haqq or Yarsan, is an ethnoreligious minority in Iraq and consists of approximately 200,000 people (Kikoler, n.d.). The Kaka’i are often viewed as being Kurdish in ethnicity but have a unique culture, language, and syncretic religion that is more connected to Zoroastrianism and Shi’a Islam (Minority Rights, 2017). As a result of ongoing persecution, the Kaka’i are secretive about their religious practices (Minority Rights, 2017). As a result of the rise of ISIS, the Kaka’i’s identity as a religious minority has made them targets of attack by the extremist organization. In 2016, after continual threats from ISIS for the Kaka’i to convert to Islam or be killed, ISIS targeted a Kaka’i neighborhood in Tuz Kharmatu and killed six people with a car bomb (Minority Rights, 2017). In April 2020, ISIS gunmen attacked a Kaka’i village in Kirkuk, which killed 5 people, and then in June 2020, another attack in Kanaquin in the Diyala Province perpetuated by ISIS killed 6 people and wounded 6 more (Puttick, 2017). The Kaka’i have been targets of kidnappings, death threats, assassinations, and boycotts of their businesses due to their religious identity (Minority Rights, 2017). Currently, the Kaka’i are still targets of oppression and violence and face ongoing discrimination as a result of their religious identity. Many Kaka’i have fled to the surrounding Kurdish controlled regions of Iraq to flee ongoing persecution from terrorist groups like ISIS and others (Ghafuri 2020).

The data quality for this synthesis receives a 3 because of its peer reviewed articles and trusted sources.

Sources

  1. Kaka’i. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 6). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kakai/
  2. Lawk Ghafuri. (June 6, 2020). ISIS claims responsibility for deadly attack in Khanaqin. Rudaw. https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/15062020
  3. Kikoler (n.d.). “Our Generation Is Gone” The Islamic States’s Targeting of Iraqi Minorities in Ninewa. Iraq Bearing Witness Report. Retrieved from https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/Iraq-Bearing-Witness-Report-111215.pdf.
  4. Puttick, M. (n.d.). From crisis to catastrophe: The situation of minorities in Iraq. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRQ/INT_CRC_NGO_IRQ_19113_E.pdf