**1. Introduction**

There are three forces that affect and threaten the existence of minorities across the Middle East in various democratic and non-democratic countries. First are the forces of globalization. Minorities usually reside in peripheral areas and in order to integrate into the labour market and occupy decent jobs that require high skills, members of minorities have to travel to metropolitan areas. This economic integration is usually followed by social and cultural integration and even assimilation, which leads to sidelining and even elimination of a minority's identity over generations [1]. Second is that minorities are forced to fight in a civil war for the survival of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, such as the Assad regime of Syria. They are compelled to sacrifice their young men for such regimes, otherwise, they would be attacked and harassed by this same regime. And third is the harassment and indiscriminate assaults by Islamist and fundamentalist regimes as well as movements against religious minorities. This article focuses on post-Islam tiny religious minorities, such as the Druze, Bahai and Yezidis, where in this regard members of these religious minorities in the Middle East are regarded by Islamist movements as heretics, who should be subjugated and forced to convert to Islam. Tiny religious minorities have no mother

state and consequently are unable to conduct transnational relations with such a state. For example, while Jews all over the world can conduct transnational relations with Israel, as their mother state that represents their interests, these tiny religious minorities have no mother state that otherwise can represent them. Thus, tiny religious minorities are found in a self-help situation and have to manipulate the various actors in their arena in order to survive.

These three forces mentioned above are not mutually exclusive as more than one factor can take place simultaneously with others. In addition to the major threats that these minorities encounter, each of them had experienced a 'Final Solution' or (an attempted) genocide of its own, as will be explained below. In addition, the article refers to international law regarding minority rights, while despite major progress in this set of laws, it remained ineffective, given that states ignored it out of hand and regarded it as illicit interventions in their internal affairs, while the international community has refrained from taking additional steps to implement, let alone enforce it [2, 3].

It is worth noting that the harassment and persecution of post-Islam minorities are not typical merely to ISIS, where in the past there were attempts of coercive mass conversion into Islam and execution of those, who resisted such conversion. These attempts were vindicated by several verses from the Quran that were interpreted as a call for the execution of those who refuse conversion into Islam and to enslave their women. These verses in the Quran include Muhammad 47:4, Al-Tawba (Repentance) 9:5 & 9:12 and Al-Nissa (Women) 4:24, among others.

The verse in the book of Muhammad (47,4), for instance, instructs the following: 'So when you meet those who disbelieve, then strike their necks until when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either favor afterwards or ransom them until the war lays down its burdens'. These verses were interpreted by Islamist followers as instruction from God to fight and execute those who resist surrendering and converting to Islam.

The tiny religious minorities in the Middle East are invisible religious minorities, who are not different in their external appearance from their surrounding society. They could be visible by choice in case members of these minorities decide the dress in their traditional customs. Another feature of these minorities is that they live in the periphery in their own villages and hamlets, where they constitute a majority of these villages, but they have to travel to metropolitan cities in order to seek education and employment. Further, many of the non-Dhimmi, post-Islam, religious minorities follow the practice of *Takiyya* or Dissimulation. Based on this practice, members of these religious groups seek at the personal level to conceal their true religion and to appear in front of their surrounding communities as if they belong to major religions, mainly Sunni Islam. Concealing one's true religious affiliation and the pretension of belonging to another major religion is a strategy of survival for members of these minorities.
