Kurdistan Suffers From Hate

ERBIL, KURDISTAN — Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish territory of Kurdistan may be the most pro-American area in the Middle East. The Biden administration recently extended aid to Kurdistan’s Peshmerga militia and its operations against the Islamic State. Although the military threat...

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ERBIL, KURDISTAN — Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish territory of Kurdistan may be the most pro-American area in the Middle East. The Biden administration recently extended aid to Kurdistan’s Peshmerga militia and its operations against the Islamic State. Although the military threat to Kurdistan has receded, its existence remains tenuous.

Kurdistan’s people live in a bad neighborhood, with national, political, ethnic, and religious disputes all around them. Hostility and persecution have dominated, most recently when the Islamic State briefly conquered much of the country, a decade ago coming within 55 miles of Erbil. Thousands were killed and millions were displaced, with much of the violence directed against religious minorities.

Today Kurdistan’s ties with the U.S. also make it a target of Iran and the its allies. Iranian-backed Shia militias frequently rocket the American military base at Erbil, while in January Iran launched a missile attack on what it claimed to be the local “espionage headquarters” of Mossad. Indeed, the threat of missile attacks caused the airline to cancel my flights just days before my planned departure for Kurdistan earlier this year. Iran’s missile strike resulted in temporary closure of the airport. (READ MORE from Doug Bandow: Iran Tries To Stem Religious Conversions From Islam)

Alas, Kurdistan’s relations with Baghdad sometimes seem little better. Pursuit of independence in 2017 triggered tighter central government controls; last September Kurdish and Iraqi forces clashed over a contested military base. Erbil Governor Omed Xoshnaw complained: “War is being waged against the Kurdistan Region from all sides.” With the territory of five million people losing ground, dependent on Baghdad’s financial largesse, controlled by “the ruling duopoly” of two antagonistic ruling families, and under pressure from Turkey, Kurdistan’s government unsuccessfully sought a major boost in support by Washington.

It is difficult to be neutral in a region where everyone else seems to take sides. Yet Kurdistan is not just home to the Kurdish people. With Kurds never much taken with Islamic radicalism, the territory became a sanctuary for persecuted minorities. After the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion triggered sectarian conflict, many Christians fled north to safety. The Syrian civil war and ISIS’s later advance across Iraq spurred additional desperate human waves, including Yazidis and members of other vulnerable faiths. During my first visit to Kurdistan, the church across the street from my hotel hosted refugees in its courtyard.

In its 2024 annual report the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom described the status of religious minorities in Iraq as “precarious.” Explained the Commission: 

Iraqis of many faith backgrounds, especially religious minorities, faced ongoing political marginalization by the government as well as abuse by both government-affiliated and nonstate actors. The [Iraqi and Kurdish governments’] continued failure to resolve longstanding jurisdictional disputes over certain northern territories created a power vacuum filled by armed groups, including the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), defensive Yazidi fighters and Yazidis groomed into PMF service, and remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Hardwired in Kurdistan

Many groups, American and international, seek to combat religious persecution around the world. Hardwired, founded by former Capitol Hill staffer Tina Ramirez, stands out for seeking to combat intolerance, hatred, and violence at the root, people’s beliefs of one another. Its name reflects the belief that people are “hardwired” to possess a conscience and respect the lives and dignity of others. 

Ramirez said the group provides “legal, educational, and social training in the promotion of these values in diverse cultural contexts.” The plan is to cultivate “a culture of respect for the innate human dignity of all people in their communities, regardless of faith or creed.” Hardwired runs several education and training initiatives, but the most important in Kurdistan are school programs for students, which address teachers and parents along the way.

The organization goes to places most people avoid. I’ve traveled with Ramirez and her colleagues to South Sudan, Morocco, and Kosovo, as well as Kurdistan earlier this year. When we arrived in Erbil it seemed a world apart. “The situation is fragile,” said Ramirez of nearby Mosul, long home to many Christians: “No one is sure what will happen. The militias could fight at any time.”

The Christian minority did not publicly celebrate Christmas. The Gaza conflict had “increased the hostility of Shia militias,” she explained. These feeling were even shared by Kurds otherwise friendly toward the U.S. and Israel. A Kurdish teacher told me that the fighting had “united the community on a humanitarian level,” since “we all have experienced injustice.” He emphasized: “we know what it feels like to have civilians killed, kids killed.” Thus, “everyone is united around this injustice, regardless of religious, political and ethnic dimension.”

Which makes Kurdistan and the surrounding area, including Mosul, an important venue for efforts to reduce religious and ethnic tensions. Hence Hardwired’s extensive program, begun in 2015. The group has created the world of Fruitopia, in which people are assigned to be different fruits and interact with each other. Immersing themselves in this admittedly unusual alternative universe has enabled kids to address some of the most serious social issues, helping to transform minds and hearts.

For instance, in the 2023-2024 school year the school prepared 768 teachers for the mission and is expected to reach more than 8,000 students. Next year the group will add a second training session for teachers and undertake new initiatives to promote pluralism among students. Ramirez spoke of the need “to create a culture of resilience.” To do so, “it is essential that we embed the initiative to create change.” She noted that Hardwired’s work is audited, and the reviewers found that some 70 percent of participants had changed their minds. During my visit I discovered much hope among otherwise fearful teachers and trainers, along with the transformation of individual lives that will hopefully deliver a better future.

Hardwired’s school curricula help children of different grades understand why they should reject the prejudices of those around them and treat as equals those who think differently or look unfamiliar. The objective is to create a safe environment within which children can discuss and experience pluralism even if it is absent elsewhere in their lives.

Although kids are the ultimate target, Hardwired first must prepare additional trainers and teachers, who will further spread the message. A trainer noted that “real change requires deep discussion” about the issues. After transforming the teachers, and those who train them, Hardwired hopes to change the students.

Teachers Respond

I talked with a group of teachers from Mosul, an Iraqi city near Erbil which had a large Christian population before the Islamic State’s devastating rampage, who assessed the program. One said that there was “a lot of suffering in Mosul. Participation in the program was out of need since it provided a way to rebuild the community.” He was “happy to be part of it” because it “was helping to build the community again.” Another teacher said that the participants “loved it.”

A female teacher — women were in the minority but very much present — noted that demand “for such a program was very intense.” Hate speech was “very open” in the region. Much was directed against Christians. Hate speech also sometimes targeted Shia and Sunnis. She was “very concerned that such speech was seeing the light again.” Some groups “trade on conflict,” using “any occasion to fuel it.”

A teacher from a Kurdish area bordering Turkey said that “the program is very much needed” since “conflicts are still happening.” He told us that the “biggest evidence of the program’s impact is the fact that he drove all the way to the meeting.” Other teachers, who were overwhelmingly Muslim, argued that it was “very important to help them understand Christians” and other religious minorities, and that the program was “very different from anything else happening in the region.”

One urged Hardwired to increase its activities: “There are lots of questions about the program. When will they repeat it, and expand it?” He insisted: “we need more,” especially in rural areas with tribal conflict. Another teacher’s main complaint was the “lack of follow on.”

A Kurdish teacher said that “at the personal level the program is very impactful.” As a result, she stayed in contact with Hardwired. The program “helped open minds,” she observed. In her case, she “gained perspective, to see through a plan for the long term.” It was “a chance to hear different perspectives which she never had heard before.”

Another teacher had a similar reaction: “The program is like I put on new glasses. I see things completely differently.” It changed him at work, he said. He had been “very stubborn,” but has “become more open-minded and willing to listen to other perspectives.” He said that his work at the education ministry has changed. A third said that he had “embedded a sense of pluralism within his family.” He said that he “now thinks about what others are thinking, what is fueling” their behavior.

In another meeting, a trainer reported that participants “built trustful relations with people we trained. Since then, they are talking more with us.” As a result, he said he completely changed his approach to education. After the training “the teachers change,” said a participant. “They realize that they can’t be a concrete mixture if the parts don’t work together.” (READ MORE: At 75, Remember NATO Objective of Rearming Europe)

Another trainer talked about the importance of bringing this message “to teachers of Islamic studies.” They tended to “isolate themselves within groups. Most did not engage, since doing so might contradict their agendas.” In some cases, he added, believers in different religions were convinced that they could not forgive one another. Others feared that outsiders “were coming to corrupt them.”

A Christian trainer said that in one of the toughest areas, an ISIS-dominated village, Hardwired found “motivation, encouragement, and a willingness to take the concept further and implement it.” Tensions between Arabs and Kurds were high, going back to conflicts between earlier generations. Yet the result was “real change” among those who went through the program. After which they were better able to see outside their community and seek to move from intolerance to pluralism.  

A consistent theme was that the principles advanced influenced teachers as well as students and helped change lives. A teacher said that “everyone was engaged” in the program. Another observed that many teachers “experienced flashbacks to our experiences, connected to examples in recent years of what happened to us.” In his case, at least, the training process “brought up his experiences and opened them up,” enabling him to confront them.

Most of the teachers with whom I spoke were fervent advocates for the program. One said that “in most cases people were thirsty for such concepts.” Participants urged expansion of the training to art and sports teachers. Another explained that the lessons had broad applicability, including addressing “problems on the playground” and more. In sum, it was “a very successful experiment, able to achieve a lot.”

Surveys of participants delivered similar results. After the class, students demonstrated greater respect for people of different backgrounds or religions. Children also showed greater acceptance of girls and religious minorities in class. Moreover, kids felt greater sympathy for victims of violence. Classes with students of mixed backgrounds enjoyed the greatest increase in learning. And children’s tolerance of and respect for others increased throughout the program.

Given this experience Ramirez said she plans to “come back and work with teachers who have been trained,” and to “later expand it to more cities.” She hopes to be able to “choose newly assigned, younger teachers” to have a more lasting impact. When she asked teachers at the meetings whether they would be willing to help, they enthusiastically discussed who could assist where. They clearly believed in the program. (READ MORE: Xi Jinping’s Persecution of Chinese Christians)

Obviously, there are no panaceas to the problem of religious intolerance, hostility, and persecution. A multitude of challenges must be addressed, requiring a wide variety of responses, in Kurdistan and elsewhere. However, long-term progress requires confronting proverbial “root causes.” Hardwired’s work demonstrates that it is possible to combat the transmission of hate to future generations. The group’s programs are reaching school kids and helping them move beyond enmity and intolerance, and the dismal, even deadly, future likely to result. More such initiatives are desperately needed in Iraq, and elsewhere around the world.

Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire.

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