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Iraqi scholar burns his books to protest Yazidi ethnic cleansing

A well-known Iraqi scholar on Yazidis has burned all the books in his personal library to protest the ethnic cleansing of the minority group.
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, wait for aid at an abandoned building that they are using as their main residence, outside the city of Dohuk August 25, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR43P9T
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On Sept. 18, Bir Khadr Suleiman, a famous Iraqi writer and researcher, burned all the books in his personal library to protest the extermination of Iraq’s minorities. In Dahuk in northern Iraq, Suleiman gathered his books, and, in the presence of a number of his supporters, burned them while weeping over his many years of work.

Suleiman is one of Iraq's most famous researchers on the Yazidi minority, publishing nine books in English, Arabic and Kurdish over four decades. His work sought to present an authentic, more accurate image of the Yazidis and dispel prevalent stereotypes on the minority. His library contained valuable and rare texts on the Yazidis that he had accumulated over his long career, including his own works.

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