A delegation of top Yazidi religious leaders came to the US this week seeking help for their besieged community in Iraq. ISIS has particularly targeted the ancient religious minority, which ISIS calls pagan. More than 300,000 Yazidis have been displaced and now need humanitarian aid. The delegation says it has documented the names of nearly 7,000 girls and young women who have been kidnapped by ISIS and forced into sexual slavery. The group met with religious and political leaders and urged the international community to do more to stop what it called the “extermination” of Yazidis.

Murad Ismael, Yazidi Human Rights Advocate: “We knew there were hatred against us, but we did not know it would be to this extent, that people would see us not as human beings.”

Matthew Barber, University of Chicago scholar: “ISIS believes that Yazidis should no longer exist within what they call ‘Muslim lands,’ that God will hold Muslims accountable for allowing the Yazidis to have remained in the Middle East for this long.”

Watch more of our interviews with members of the Yazidi delegation.