Two months later, safe in Moorhead, he received news of an even greater catastrophe for family members and others of their Yazidi ethnic group still living in their homeland in northern Iraq.
"Over here, we didn't know what was happening. We were just crying," he said Thursday, Aug. 3, the third anniversary of the genocide that Islamic State terrorists inflicted on the Yazidi people. "Because we were just (here) two months, we didn't know even how to raise our voice in the community and ask for their support."
Now, more familiar with his new country and with a supportive community, he's helping to organize an event to remember the victims at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead. The first such event was held last August.
Out of 400,000 Yazidis in northern Iraq, 9,900 were kidnapped or killed over the course of a few days, according to a recent estimate by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and universities in Israel and Iraq. Of those, 3,100 were killed through executions or exposure. The rest were kidnapped, with many women and girls forced into sexual slavery.
Alhaidar compared their suffering to that suffered by victims of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and the Rwandan genocide.
In June 2016, the United Nations' Human Rights Council concluded that the Islamic State's attempt to erase the Yazidi people constituted an act of genocide. The terrorist group committed mass murder, separated children from their parents and forced Yazidis to convert to Islam. But the report also described horrific and cruel acts such as beheading men as their families watched or sexually assaulting mothers as their crying, screaming children waited outside.
Alhaidar said his people have always been persecuted for their beliefs and he doesn't consider this to be the first act of genocide.
The Yazidis are a people of mysterious origin who speak Kurdish but follow a monotheistic religion that features a creator god and angels, according to the Netherlands-based Free Yezidi Foundation. Most Kurds are Muslims. The mystery comes from their need to practice their religion in secret and passing knowledge orally to avoid persecution by their neighbors, including Kurds.
The Islamic State, which tolerates no religious belief different from it, including those of other Muslims, believes the Yazidis are literal devil worshippers.
There are 28 Yazidis in Fargo-Moorhead, according to Alhaidar. The largest Yazidi community in the U.S. is Lincoln, Neb., which has about 3,000.
Alhaidar said he remains very worried about Yazidis remaining in Iraq, where many endure bitter winters and scorching summers in tent cities. "People start to — they lost belief in life. And they are desperate. Daily there is suicide going on between them — a lot of mental issues."
Iraqi Kurds and Arabs continually try to redefine the Yazidis in ways that threaten their identity, he said, and many Yazidis are too scared to identify themselves as Yazidis.
According to Yazda, an international Yazidi group, some are trying to treat them as Arabs or Kurds who happen to follow the Yazidi religion or define Yazidism as a sect of Islam. They assert that their ethnic and religious identity are bound together not unlike Jews, who are both an ethnic and a religious group.
According to Alhaidar, his family was lucky to have escaped the genocide. While many Yazidis found themselves surrounded by fast-moving Islamic State forces, his mother, his brothers and their families were able to flee into a safe area. They have since been reunited in Moorhead.
"What we've got here, we never had it in our life in Iraq. Back in Iraq, we were third-class people. Over here people are very helpful. People are supporting us," he said. "Life over here is very beautiful."
If you go
What: The anniversary of the genocide of the Yazidi people in Iraq will be observed.
When: 5:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 4.
Where: Trinity Lutheran Church, 210 Seventh St. S., Moorhead.
How: This free event will feature Yazidi dishes, a short video about the 2014 genocide, a candle-lighting ceremony and a discussion with John K. Cox, history professor at North Dakota State University, and Ezzat Alhaidar, whose family survived the genocide.