Güneş Murat Tezcür – The Conversation

Bedouin fighters at Mazraa village on the outskirts of Sweida city, during clashes in southern Syria on July 18, 2025. AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed

July 23, 2025

Understanding the violence against Alawites and Druze in Syria after Assad

Güneş Murat Tezcür, Arizona State University

A scholar of religious minorities and the Middle East explains the historical persecution and marginalization of the Alawite and Druze communities.

Pictures of Yezidis slain in 2014 by Islamic State group militants, found in a small room at the Lalish shrine in northern Iraq. AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

July 22, 2024

The Yezidi genocide devastated Iraq’s community 10 years ago − but the roots of the prejudice that fueled it were much deeper

Güneş Murat Tezcür, Arizona State University

Yezidis are an example of what one scholar calls ‘liminal minorities’: faith communities whose religions’ legitimacy is denied by more powerful groups.

Dilbar Ali Ravu, 10, is kissed by his aunt, Dalal Ravu, as Yazidi children are reunited with their families in Iraq after five years of captivity with the Islamic State group, March 2, 2019. AP Photo/Philip Issa, File

November 26, 2019

5 years after Islamic State massacre, an Iraqi minority is transformed by trauma

Tutku Ayhan, University of Central Florida and Güneş Murat Tezcür, University of Central Florida

Interviews with the Yazidi survivors of IS attacks that killed 3,100 people in 2014 reveal the emotional, cultural and spiritual scars of religious persecution.

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