The Wall of Terror

"All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall"

*Roger Waters (outside the wall)

Cheer up Iraqis, federalising Baghdad has begun and the plan of “The Great Wall of Terror” is moving on. The Americans say it is only a temporary measure to curb the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiis. Al-Maliki shyly ordered the work to be halted but as expected, his words were ignored by the Americans as well as Iraqis working with them in the frail Baghdad security plan. But is it really a temporary measure? History has different thing to say. The Berlin Wall stood almost three decades against the will of the German people until its destruction in 1989. The Israeli wall of separation is also there to stay despite local and international condemnation. in our “Brave New World” where values of Globalization, inter-continental giant companies and Capitalism are prevailing and determined to shape our grandchildren’s future, there seems to be a growing fear from outsiders. This fear was the driving force behind the creation of physical barriers and subsequently segregating communities and creating Ghettos. So the “Wall Mania” is thriving and “Concrete industry” is booming. The United States established a long fence separating its borders from Mexico to prevent “Illegal Immigrants” from entering the sacred American soil. Britain launched its E-Boarders scheme; Saudi Arabia is planning to build a wired fence along its boarders with Iraq to prevent terrorists in Iraq from infiltrating its territories. Another plan is going on its southern boarders with Yemen. United Arab Emirates also wants to do the same on its boarders with Oman to tackle illegal workers hoping to reach Dubai for work. The American legacy in Iraq first started with Paul Bremmer when large “concrete masses” were seen gradually increasing on the streets of Baghdad trying to protect American bases and government buildings from suicide bombers. Iraqis call them “Bremmer’s walls”. Now The Great wall of Al-Ahdamiyah. A kind of collective punishment for the people of this old Baghdadi district who will be segregated from their neighbours and their biometric details will be saved on small chipped IDs in order not to be forged (the same procedure used with Asylum Seekers in the West) and used by “insurgents”. On one hand, The American tried to justify their move towards Ahdamiyah people by saying that the aim behind this wall is to prevent Shiaa death squads and Al-Mahdi gangsters from killing and kidnapping Sunnis. On the other, they tell the Shiaa that the main reason is to prevent Sunni insurgents from hiding in Ahdamiyah and taking its houses as a shelter after they carry their attacks against Shias in neighbouring areas. The last thing that Imams Musa Al-Kadhim and Abu Hanifa Al-Nu'man want to see is their followers killing each others under their names. These two Imams were the victims of the same dictatorial “Abbasid” regime. Abu Hanifa paid his life as a price for his support to Mohammed Bin Abdullah (Known as Thu Al-Nafs Al-Zackiya) Bin Al-Hasan Bin Ali Bin Abi Talib, a revolutionary rebel against the Abbasid regime and a descendent of the Prophet’s Family (Ahlu Al-Bayt). For centuries, Tigris River was the only natural barrier separating the spirits of these two great Imams and the domes of their shrines. In 1920 great revolution of Iraq, Shiaa and Sunni delegates in Ahdamiyah and Khadhimya exchanged visits and united against the British occupation. In 1963, Hadi Hashim Al-Ahdamyy, a veteran Iraqi communist found refuge in Al-Khadhimya and remained there for two nights after the bloody coup of February the 8th, fighting the Ba’athists with his followers (most of them were Shiaa communists) until his capture on the 10th of February when he was tortured to death in the notorious Qasr Al-Nihaya. Othman Al-Ahdamyy, the heroic youngster who rescued seven Shiaa pilgrims from drowning after Al-A’ema bridge stampede and then he himself drowned because of exhaustion. These bright spots in the history of relations between Ahdamiyah people and neighbouring areas should be remembered and learned by the Americans and Al-Maliki's government. We must not allow the Americans to turn Sahat Antar and Omar Bin Abdul-Aziz Street and Al-Gre’aat (where one day most Baghdadis ate Samak Maskouf) and other places in Ahdamiyah to be cut off from Baghdad’s Body and isolated from the Baghdadi community and confined in a large prison. The children in the picture above should not face this giant dead-silent concrete wall when they go to school every morning. This wall must be destroyed in order to let these children go to school and to play with fellow children from neighbouring districts and share a dream of one united Iraq for all Iraqis. A dream that their parents wished to fulfil and their current leaders failed to achieve.