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[audio logo] Northern Iraq and the Nineveh plains are some of the most culturally and religiously diverse places in the world.

Religions and cultures many Americans have never even heard of have peacefully co-existed for millennia.

It is a tapestry of Christians, Muslims, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, and more.

In 2014, this diversity came under violent attack by ISIS or Daesh, as they are called regionally.

Many people had to flee their homes during what is called the time of displacement.

Men, women, and children were persecuted, tortured, raped, and murdered at the hands of Daesh.

But Daesh was beaten, and the people are beginning to return and rebuild.

We have been lucky enough to meet some of the people taking it upon themselves to make a difference in this broken place and unify its fractured people, which is why we find ourselves in a cave on the side of the road.

[music playing] Kurdistan, a country within a country.

Ostensibly part of Iraq, it has its own government and is considered semi-autonomous.

Our journey begins there with Hardwired who you may have met in our previous episode in Mosul.

They are a US based organization devoted to fostering pluralism and tolerance through education and community empowerment.

Today, they're taking us to meet one of their master trainers at a Yazidi Holy site.

It was, however, Nowruz or Persian New Year, and many Kurds were off work and out celebrating.

So we got a little distracted.

First, it was the caterpillars.

And then next thing we knew, we were being invited to tea and shisha.

[side conversation] [laughter] Our translator and Hardwired cultural liaison Hannah got involved.

Things escalated.

[music playing] We arrived at Lalish, the holiest Yazidi site and tomb of the founder of Yazidism, Sheikh Adi.

A Kurdish speaking monotheistic people whose belief emerged in the 12th century.

Yazidis were heavily persecuted by Daesh in 2014.

Over 5,000 Yazidis were killed during the genocide at Mount Sinjar.

We were there to meet Hardwired lead trainer, Ryan Salo Carter, who told us more about the Yazidi people.

[non-english speech] We are now right in Lalish shrine.

Considered the main shrine for Yazidis and all over the world.

[non-english speech] All Yazidis from all over the world, they came here for worship.

Ryan, so you're Yazidi?

Yeah.

One of the things I heard about Lalish is that each Yazidi is supposed to come to this location every year or once in their life?

[non-english speech] When Yazidi are born-- Yes.

--his parents brings him here.

Oh, OK. [non-english speech] Yeah.

Specifically, there was a spring.

They call it a white eye.

Here, they wash his body.

Like a baptism?

Exactly.

Yes.

OK.

So they do a baptism here-- That's right.

Yeah.

So this is a super holy place for the Yazidi.

Correct.

And is it the most holy place?

Yes.

[non-english speech] That's right.

This is the sacred place for Yazidis.

It's gorgeous.

I mean, so we are in Kurdistan right now.

Yeah.

But the Yazidis are lots of countries.

Yes, exactly.

Yazidi live here and the region surrounding Lalish.

And also in [inaudible].

And today is a special day.

[non-english speech] It is a national and historical occasion.

And all people living in this area, they are celebrating.

So talk a little bit about the Yazidis in the last maybe few years.

Yeah.

[non-english speech] 2014 when ISIS attacked cities with weapons-- [non-english speech] --I was watching TV, sometimes I can't sleep at night.

And ISIS were in Mosul.

Yeah.

I got close.

August 2014 after the occupation of Mosul by ISIS, ISIS attacks Sinjar.

At that time, I was living in Bashiqa and Barzani, two cities.

We moved so quickly and we left everything, just our papers and documents.

How much time did you have before you had to leave?

Less than one day.

Less than one day?

[non-english speech] Displaced to KRG, we knew that ISIS is intolerant.

The places that ISIS attacked and controlled, they ask people to be with them or they murdered them.

You could either convert or you get killed.

[non-english speech] Definitely.

[non-english speech] We didn't had any chance, just fled.

ISIS, they did horrible things in Sinjar.

They took women and young women, and they raped them.

They took the boys, they threatened them.

If you don't be with us, we will kill you.

[non-english speech] You just imagine the moment when a child separated from his mom, how they killed the man in front of their families because they are different in religion.

And a religion that's been around a long time, many thousand years.

[non-english speech] It was deep, deep suffering.

And the Yazidis who've been oppressed over many, many years, ultimately, the Yazidis survived, right?

Yeah.

[non-english speech] When you lose farm or something material things, it's not losing.

But when you lose a people, human, this is the hardest.

Everybody has a story here.

Yes, that's right.

And for an outsider coming here, I just noticed that the Yazidi people seem happy and beautiful.

Yeah.

[non-english speech] Yazidis, they love life.

Love to live.

And also, the people that you are observing now, they are the survival people from the chaos.

[non-english speech] One of the example, this is our land.

It deserves to stay and build it.

He said, I have the feeling of love for everyone.

Hardwired gave me the tools to convey this love.

The fact that you guys both can demonstrate, how people of different religions really anyone can get together.

Again, thank you for the hard work that you guys do.

It's important to show that outside of war and destruction, there can be love and goodness and you guys are part of that.

Unity and diversity.

You're the heroes in our world.

Thank you.

[non-english speech] Ryan told us it was his suffering that inspired him to join Hardwired, so he could fight for pluralism and diversity.

The only way forward is to turn their joint suffering into power, he said.

We soon got a taste of the Yazidi love for life as we were once again invited in by total strangers.

[lively chatter] [singing in arabic] [applause] This is Kurdish song.

Our next stop was the Court of Churches, a historic site of four distinct Christian churches in the devastated old city in West Mosul.

[music playing] They were destroyed by coalition airstrikes because ISIS had converted them into their base of operations during the occupation.

Its restoration is being undertaken by UNESCO, and we are lucky enough to meet site engineer, Anas Zahid Abdul-Malik.

A Muslami and a Muslim, Anas is proud to be a part of this project to bring Christians back to the city.

We are also joined by Hardwired Global's founder, Tina Ramirez.

[music playing] Yeah.

This place locally known as Hoshimiya, which means the Court of Churches.

We have four churches, one for Syriac Orthodox, we have the Armenian church-- you can distinguish by the unique tower, and we have two Syriac Catholic Church.

On the right side is the ancient one.

It dates back to 800 years ago.

And the new one was built in 1862.

So basically, this place located in the heart of the old city of Mosul where people lived together, Muslims and Christians for centuries because the vast majority of people were living here were Christians.

And unfortunately, they left Mosul.

Here, ISIS occupied this place and use it as headquarters for them.

So this is the church where hit by airstrike.

During the liberation?

Yes.

You've been rebuilding so much since last time I was here too.

This is the cloister, and we are going as a unit to re-establish this place as a community center.

And the community center will be for everyone, all the religions, all faiths, this whole community.

Of course, because what makes Mosul unique is the diversity of people.

And what makes this project unique is that I may say most of the workers and the engineers are Muslim, and they are rebuilding a church which is a symbol of hope and peace for everyone.

So we are very happy to bring back our brothers from Christian, from Yazidi as well.

And as much damage as there is, the plan is-- the hope is to try to get it done even in this year.

Yes, it's a challenging thing, but-- Well, everything seems challenging in Iraq, and everything seems to be able to be done.

Yeah.

I mean, is there anything that can't be done?

No.

[laughter] There's nothing impossible.

When there is hope, there is nothing impossible.

You guys actually received the Pope.

Yeah.

The Pope has done the mass, and he entered to this church.

Muslims and Christians will come together hands with hands to rebuild this City.

Beautiful.

Inshallah [inaudible].

Inshallah.

Inshallah.

[laughter] So this is an interesting project because UNESCO does a lot with heritage.

But yet, in the backdrop, you're using a lot of modern techniques to preserve the old.

The project is a combination of reconstruction, conservation, and restoration.

So the idea is not to blend everything and just to indicate what is new and what is old.

Everything should be kept as a witness's for what the church suffered.

So the damaged part will be reintegrated harmoniously with the whole.

We're hit by airstrike.

The bullet holes will keep as a memory for the next generation.

It tells a story for what happened to the.

It's such a story of Iraq.

Yes.

This balance is fascinating.

Yes, of course.

And it's a new technique used in Mosul maybe for the first time.

And that's why you have the numbers on the columns and the-- Yes, each piece is collected from the rubble by hand in order to reuse them in the reconstruction.

[music playing] And just step on the concrete blocks only.

It's not fully de-mined.

It's not fully de-mined?

So how do you guys come in everyday?

We have hardhats.

[laughter] Well-- Yeah.

So we sometimes take some risks.

And why were they specifically ISIS in here?

Why did they camp out in here?

Because they thought the coalition will not bomb churches, so they used most of the church as offices.

With all the work that you guys do with reconciliation and the religious plurality and pulling these things together-- I mean, when you look at it, what does this represent, the reconstruction and-- I mean, I'm encouraged by what Anas is doing and how the Muslims here are leading the efforts to rebuild.

And I think that the community that has fled, seeing that gives them hope, even as this construction takes place.

And it will eventually be rebuilt, and the people will come and there will be this great celebration as we were talking about.

The people have been able to continue their faith, their lives have continued even outside of the buildings because that wasn't something that ISIS could destroy.

Daesh couldn't destroy who they are as a people.

And as a people, I mean, they've survived for 2000 years in Iraq and in many other places with that faith that goes beyond a building.

I was here two weeks after the genocide started, and the communities were forced to flee from Sinjar and from Mosul and the Nineveh plains.

And meeting those families then and seeing the refugees that had fled or the displaced people that had fled and hearing their stories and now being here seven years later and all the work that we've done in between, there is hope.

I think hope is being restored here in so many ways, and this is just one example of it.

A few weeks ago, a group of Christians come here to visit the church, and they were surprised Muslims people are rebuilding a church.

And when they left, one of them, he said, this definitely will bring back the trust.

So it touched my heart because I feel like Christian people lost some trust in this city, and I hope he will come back again and see all this church were rebuilt as it was.

[music playing] And you can see the bullet traces has been refilled with the specific materials.

Use the handrails, Craig.

[laughter] Yeah.

And you hear the call for help.

Yeah.

The sound of bells are missing now, and we want to hear both sounds here in Mosul.

So they call the prayers as well as the church bells.

Yeah.

For me, it's a sad moment to only hear the call for prayer even if I am Muslim.

It could be a beautiful sound.

Exactly.

People will remember Mosul before ISIS and they were-- when they were together.

Wow.

Now it's just like really coming from all sides, the call to prayer.

Imagine if you hear the sound of bells as well.

[prayer call] Wow.

But you can see all the destruction from up here too.

It's-- And some of the houses were for Muslims as well.

So they not only separated Muslims and Christians, even the Muslims were separated in this area.

It's our city.

Yeah.

We don't want to live alone.

Yeah.

It's beautiful.

It says a lot.

Listen.

[prayer call] Finally, we were headed to Qaraqosh in the Nineveh plains to see a predominantly Christian orchestra perform a plurality of Eastern songs.

We spoke with another of our Hardwired translators, Gary, who was instrumental in the formation of the orchestra by coordinating between the various NGO supporters like Hardwired and their partner organization Hammurabi.

This orchestra is called kinnor orchestra which is in our old language, a kinnor is a harp.

It was established at 2019.

From graduate music courses as well as from professionals, altogether come from Nineveh plain or [inaudible].. And mostly from the city of Qaraqosh or Bakhdida as it's called.

And the music though, is it a mix of different-- It depends on the event that we are implementing.

But for this one, we are doing a mixture that consists of mostly Eastern music with different backgrounds, different languages.

For instance, we have Arabic songs, Syriac music pieces as well, Syriac neo-aramaic songs, and Mosul heritage as well.

And music for ancient Iraqi musicians and composers.

What is the beauty of these musicians coming together here in Iraq?

Actually, the conductor is Father Duraid Father Duraid actually talked about music groups that came from all around Iraq-- from the South, from Basra, from Mosul, from Bakhdida, from different places, how can they play music in harmony under one lead regardless of the background of the person or the group, regardless of where is this coming from.

This is music.

This is what makes us unite and play in harmony regardless where we come from, regardless what are our backgrounds.

When we spoke, you mentioned that instead of holding guns, they can hold instruments because music brings people together.

Before 2016, before ISIS time, it was no almost no people going to music classes.

After displacement, we start such thing, music courses.

Because people at that time in the time of displacement didn't only need food assistance and medical assistance.

Sometimes you need education.

Sometimes you need something spiritual.

That's why we started the music lessons.

You can now start seeing many persons, many young persons holding music instruments.

As you've seen the orchestra come together, how do you feel about seeing this because you've been around this area and you went through the displacement?

But how do you look at this?

It makes me feel proud, and I can see that in the eyes and in the performance of the young musicians as well.

Is this a good indication of the direction of progress of Iraq overall?

Actually, we do our best from our side.

We hope this will encourage others to do so.

Even though people come from different areas, there is a lot of harmony.

And there's these types of beautiful cultural events in addition to everything else that can happen.

So for me, it looks like this is a good indication where Iraq as a country can go forward.

Of course.

It is a sign of hope.

We followed Gary into the performance hall and saw firsthand the seeds of hope for this wounded country.

[music playing] Funding for the Good Road has been provided by-- What makes a good road?

Blazing a trail, making a difference.

Being unafraid to take the path of most resistance.

Toyota has a beyond zero vision for a carbon neutral future that lets you find your own good road with Toyota's electrified lineup, including battery electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles.

Designed to get you where you want to go, from work to school or wherever your adventures take you.

Toyota is all about paving good roads.

Proud sponsor of the good road.

Toyota, let's go places.

[audio logo] Here in Asheville, we're a mixture of genres.

A hybrid of styles, settling for nothing, hungry for everything.

All drawn together to stand out.

You are welcome.

Always, Asheville.

Music is the great unifier with power to change the world.

Musicians create that positive change music each and every day.

In Your Ear studios, diverse musicians creating diverse music that unifies.

Bank of America.

What would you like the power to do?

Philanthropy Journal, stories about bold people changing the world.

The Buccaneer Beach and Golf Resort, Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands.

[music playing]