03
August 2018
Past Event
Living With Genocide: Four Years After ISIS Attacked

Living With Genocide: Four Years After ISIS Attacked

Past Event
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Headquarters
August 03, 2018
Scenes from the now destroyed city of Sinjar, which was recently liberated from ISIL militants who originally captured the city on August 2014, November 26, 2015
Caption
Scenes from the now destroyed city of Sinjar, which was recently liberated from ISIL militants who originally captured the city on August 2014, November 26, 2015
03
August 2018
Past Event

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004

Speakers:
The Hon. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States

Kent Hill

Executive Director, Religious Freedom Institute

Pari Ibrahim

Executive Director, Free Yezidi Foundation

Sherri Kraham Talabany

President, SEED Foundation

Loay Mikhael

Senior Iraq Advisor, Iraq Haven Project

Nina Shea
Nina Shea

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Religious Freedom

Douglas M. Padgett

Senior Advisor, Office of International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State

The Hon. Dr. Fareed Yasseen

Ambassador of Iraq to the U.S.

Ashur Eskrya

President, Assyrian Aid Society

In the summer of 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants attacked the city of Mosul and then continued an assault across the Nineveh Plains. They devastated the historic homelands of the Christian and and Yezidis, displacing more than 100,000 people in a matter of days.

In the first week of August, ISIS began a brutal assault on the Yezidi community in the Shingal (Sinjar) region. In a few short days, the group had killed over 10,000 Yezidis. Another 6,417 were kidnapped, and many of them were sold into sexual slavery. Hundreds of Christians in towns across the Nineveh Plain who did not flee faced beheadings, crucifixion, sexual enslavement and forcible conversion.

Four years later, hundreds of thousands of Yezidis, Christians, and others are still displaced, unable to return securely to their homes. 3,000 Yezidi women and children and dozens of Christians remain missing. Iraq’s Christian community has been devastated, with 90 percent having fled the country since 2003. Those who have been rescued from ISIS are deeply traumatized from the experience, as are their families and communities.

On August 3, Hudson Institute hosted a discussion on the current state of the ethnic and religious groups that were attacked by ISIS in the 2014 Nineveh Plains and Mosul offensives. The Hon. Dr. Fareed Yasseen, Iraq’s Ambassador to the United States and the Hon. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States. This was followed by welcoming remarks by Kent Hill, executive director of Religious Freedom Institute, and a panel including Free Yezidi Foundation Board Director Pari Ibrahim; Sherri Kraham Talabany, President of the SEED Foundation; Ashur Eskrya, President of the Assyrian Aid Society; Senior Advisor at the Office of International Religious Freedom, Douglas Padgett; and Loay Mikhael with the Iraq Haven Project. The panel was moderated by Senior Fellow and Director of Hudson’s Center for Religious Freedom, Nina Shea.

This event was co-sponsored with the Religious Freedom Institute.

Related Events
24
February 2025
Past Event
Nonproliferation in Great Power Competition
Featured Speakers:
Yashar Parsie
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs
Moderator:
Peter Rough
A North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile on March 24, 2022. (Photo by API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
24
February 2025
Past Event
Nonproliferation in Great Power Competition

Experts will discuss the arguments for and against US nonproliferation efforts and why nonproliferation remains a worthy goal.

A North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile on March 24, 2022. (Photo by API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Yashar Parsie
Rebeccah L. Heinrichs
Moderator:
Peter Rough
26
February 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Adapting at Scale: A Conversation with Major General Kunkel, Air Force Director for Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming
Featured Speakers:
Dan Patt
Timothy A. Walton
Major General Joseph Kunkel
Air Force Research Laboratory’s XQ-67A Off Board Sensing Station flies near Palmdale, California on February 28, 2024. (DVIDS)
26
February 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Adapting at Scale: A Conversation with Major General Kunkel, Air Force Director for Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming

Major General Kunkel will join Hudson Institute Senior Fellows Dan Patt and Timothy A. Walton for a fireside chat. Major General Kunkel will then take questions from the audience.

Air Force Research Laboratory’s XQ-67A Off Board Sensing Station flies near Palmdale, California on February 28, 2024. (DVIDS)
Featured Speakers:
Dan Patt
Timothy A. Walton
Major General Joseph Kunkel
26
February 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
“Seven Things You Can’t Say about China” with Senator Tom Cotton
Featured Speakers:
Tom Cotton
John P. Walters
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) in a hearing on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
26
February 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
“Seven Things You Can’t Say about China” with Senator Tom Cotton

Senator Cotton will join Hudson President and CEO John Walters to discuss the senator’s new book and why Communist China is America’s most dangerous enemy.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) in a hearing on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Tom Cotton
John P. Walters
11
March 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Motwani Jadeja US-India Dialogue Series | US-India Relations in the Trump 2.0 Era: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Ashley Tellis
Aparna Pande
President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on February 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
11
March 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Motwani Jadeja US-India Dialogue Series | US-India Relations in the Trump 2.0 Era: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead

Join Hudson for a conversation on US-India relations under the second Trump administration and the road ahead.

President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on February 13, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Ashley Tellis
Aparna Pande