Whenever Muslim extremists trigger headlines worldwide for their latest atrocities, Islamic history professor Abdul-Karim Khan of Leeward Community College is approached by students, faculty and friends who ask: How can these terrorists possibly use religion to justify their aggression?

Khan takes a big breath and patiently starts: "There is nothing in the Quran that can justify a human being killing another human being (because) he is not a Muslim," adding, "A vast majority of Muslims do not subscribe to the extremist worldview they (terrorists) have."

"Common Muslims" like himself, who make up 99 percent of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, are often asked to defend their faith against Islamophobia, for which only a few thousand radicals are responsible, Khan said. So even if it is outside of a classroom, he is regularly called upon to teach people about his faith, "but that’s my job," he said with a laugh.

The latest crisis has been the Islamic State’s persecution of the little-known Yazidi people, mistakenly condemned as "devil worshippers and infidels" who two weeks ago began fleeing by the thousands to Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq to escape murder, he said. The terrorists have also targeted Christians and other religious minorities, as well as members of their own Sunni Muslim sect members who object to the killing of these infidels, Khan said.

The Islamic State is commonly known as ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or ISIL, with the "L" for the "Levant" region in the Middle East.

Many Yazidi perished without food, water or shelter from the blazing sun before the Kurdish and U.S. military came to the group’s rescue, but President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the U.S. succeeded in helping the Kurdish military break the siege of the mountain.

Khan, a Sunni Muslim originally from Pakistan, said critics of Islam point to various sections of the Quran that direct Muslims to kill nonbelievers. He said those sections are taken out of context.

They refer only to specific circumstances when Muslims were told to fight people who evicted them from their homes and lands, Khan said.

He said people can find Muhammad’s overall philosophy about living peacefully with their neighbors in Surah (or chapter) 2, verses 190 to 192 of the Quran. Muhammad teaches that Muslims must cease fighting when an enemy stops his aggression, because "God does not like aggression," he said. In Surah 8, Verse 61, if an enemy asks for peace, Muhammad says to forgive them and "trust in Allah," Khan added.

There has been much misunderstanding about the faith of the world’s 500,000 Yazidi, who live mostly in Northern Iraq, and have been constant victims of oppression. What makes it harder for them to defend themselves is they don’t have a sacred book like the Quran or Bible that documents and explains their beliefs, he said.

Their beliefs have been passed down orally.

Khan said, "The Yazidi faith is an offshoot of Zoroastrianism and thus pre-dates both Christianity in the Middle East and Islam in the region. The Yazidi faith was put together by its 12th-century religious leader, Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir, who died around 1162 A.D. and is buried in Mosul, the Iraq city that is currently controlled by the Islamic State."

"He (Musafir) was trying like the Baha’i to bring good things from all religions, but it made himself vulnerable to persecution," he added. The Yasidi faith incorporates elements of Christianity, Judaism and Islam — including the story of Genesis, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the archangel Satan. The Yazidi’s principal peacock archangel "Shaytan" is revered, and his name is the same word for Satan in the Quran.

"This has caused many Christians and Muslims in Iraq to assume that the Yazidis are worshipping the Satan of the Bible and Quran. The Yazidi deny this, saying that they do not believe in a devil," according to www.religioustolerance.org.

Khan said, "Persecution itself is immoral in the Islamic religion and in the Christian religion. It’s immoral whoever does it for whatever reason."

Yazidi also reject the idea of hell; but believe in heaven, and the reincarnation of the soul after death, says www.religioustolerance.org.