Response from Peter Sluglett on"Sectarianism: Our Miserable Reality"

Dear All,

Please find below the response I had received from Mr. Sluglett about my latest post titled "Sectarianism, our miserable reality". Prof Peter Sluglett is the British historian who was debating this sensitive subject with a group of Iraqi "Academics" on other blogsite.

for details about Prof. Peter Sluglett, please click below:

http://www.hum.utah.edu/display.php?module=facultyDetails&personId=637&orgId=302

Mr. sluglett's response ( in dark blue and bold letters):

(Recently I have noticed that there is a growing trend by many academics, Arabs as well as Iraqis, journalists and even bloggers interested in Iraqi political history, to paint a rosy picture of Iraq prior to the American invasion in 2003. It was a very good tactic, as on one hand, they denounce the whole political process endorsed by the Americans in Iraq and criticises the failure of subsequent Iraqi governments (which is right as things are moving from bad to worse in Iraq now), But on the other hand, these strategies work intentionally to “polish” Saddam and the Ba’ath dictatorship. In addition and through a process of “desensitization”, these people deny, or at least, try to lessen the impact of Saddam’s regime atrocities by comparing them to what is happening now.
I am well aware of the dangers of that and I don’t think I can be accused of doing so.
For example, when Abdul-Bari Attwan of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, was asked in an interview about the mass graves and Saddam’s Mukhabarat torture chambers, he purposefully answered the question by a comparison with what the Americans did in Abu Ghraib prison. These attempts are seriously dangerous as conclude that Iraqis do not deserve a decent, peaceful and prosperous life. Furthermore, it states that we always must be ruled by dictators otherwise we will end up with what we currently have under the American occupation. This is a variant of the strong man theory beloved by, among others, the absurd Majid Khadduri This issue is very complicated and has many aspects that needs to be addressed and discussed thoroughly but I am trying to highlight one fundamental problem that dominated the modern Iraq History: Sectarianism. If you regularly follow popular Iraqi blogs (some are listed on my blog site) and the way they handle the “Sectarianism” issue in Iraqi society, you can admit that most of them try to persuade us that Sectarianism was not known to Iraqis until the Americans invaded Iraq. Ma kan farq baynana etc So it was a post 2003 phenomenon. Obviously nonsense.
Moreover, they insist that previous regimes that ruled Iraq from 1921 to 2003 was not sectarian-built and the Shia of Iraq in particular, were well represented in all parts of the government. Neither of these two things is correct, but it is much more nuanced.
Look at the following excerpts: “The reality is, back then, the British did not use the divide and rule among the Moslem population so you never new who was a Shia and who was a Sunni” Nonsense again “Iraqis at the time and later never considered themselves as Sunni or Shia but as Muslims. That was the reality” Also rubbish “We, Iraqis, do not identify ourselves as Sunnis and Shias, not even as Moslems or Christians, not before the occupation anyway. When asked about our identity we would say: Iraqis. The 1970 Iraqi Constitution, which is still valid, as we do not recognize a constitution written by the occupier, states that Iraq consists of two main ethnic groups: Arabs and Kurds, in addition to Turkmen and other groups. We do not consider a sect or a religion is an identity” Again this is an invention “The Iraqi non-sectarian approach to Iran and Da'wa party and other similar parties was obvious from the fact that most of the Iraqi troops which fought Iran during the 8 years war, were Shias defending "not their faith" but their own country against Iran” There is a certain amount of truth in this “The intifada which took part in the south during the crisis of the Kuwait war and after the withdrawal of the Iraqi army, while the state was at its weakest, was run by the Iranian guards and militias, the same which are conducting now the crimes of mass kidnapping, torturing, and killing.” This reflects an anti-Iranian bias which both does and does not have substance. “All what we hear now is how the Shiites were excluded from the government jobs and the high ranks in the baath party and the Iraqi cabinets under the rule of baath party. We don’t hear about how the Sunnis suffered too, and the Turkumans and the Kurds and everyone”. Again, sentence 1 is fairly accurate and sentence 2 we tried to address in Iraq since 1958 .. The above were extracts from correspondences by Iraqi academics (and one from another popular Iraqi blog) debating the issue of sectarianism with a British historian dealing specifically with modern Iraqi history since the 70s. It is obvious that they deny any sectarian elements in our history especially when it comes to the sensitive issue of Shia and Sunnis. The point is, not to deny sectarianism, but to look and see how it actually functioned. Iraq 1920-6t3 for instance wasn’t Northern Ireland where the largest political fact was the Catholic/Protestant split. Now, let’s look at facts and stop hiding things under the carpet. We have to admit that sectarianism is deeply embedded in our society since the Othoman-Safavid wars era. It was intensified with the creation of modern Iraq in 1921 and it was the ONLY stable Iraqi political phenomenon that successive regimes, including the current government (except Abdul Kareem Qassim’s’ regime) agreed upon. BUT it was a political sectarianism manipulated by the state against its citizens and not obviously apparent (although present) on grass root levels. Again even this seems a bit strong because for most of the time it was a government run by Sunnis rather than a Sunni government.
Covering the aspects of this issue from 1921 until now needs books to be written rather than a blog. Exactly; it also benefits from comparison with Bosnia, Lebanon etc.)

Sectarianism, our miserable reality

Recently I have noticed that there is a growing trend by many academics, Arabs as well as Iraqis, journalists and even bloggers interested in Iraqi political history, to paint a rosy picture of Iraq prior to the American invasion in 2003. It was a very good tactic, as on one hand, they denounce the whole political process endorsed by the Americans in Iraq and criticises the failure of subsequent Iraqi governments (which is right as things are moving from bad to worse in Iraq now), But on the other hand, these strategies work intentionally to “polish” Saddam and the Ba’ath dictatorship. In addition and through a process of “desensitization”, these people deny, or at least, try to lessen the impact of Saddam’s regime atrocities by comparing them to what is happening now. For example, when Abdul-Bari Attwan of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, was asked in an interview about the mass graves and Saddam’s Mukhabarat torture chambers, he purposefully answered the question by a comparison with what the Americans did in Abu Ghraib prison. These attempts are seriously dangerous as conclude that Iraqis do not deserve a decent, peaceful and prosperous life. Furthermore, it states that we always must be ruled by dictators otherwise we will end up with what we currently have under the American occupation. This issue is very complicated and has many aspects that needs to be addressed and discussed thoroughly but I am trying to highlight one fundamental problem that dominated the modern Iraq History: Sectarianism.
If you regularly follow popular Iraqi blogs (some are listed on my blog site) and the way they handle the “Sectarianism” issue in Iraqi society, you can admit that most of them try to persuade us that Sectarianism was not known to Iraqis until the Americans invaded Iraq. So it was a post 2003 phenomenon. Moreover, they insist that previous regimes that ruled Iraq from 1921 to 2003 was not sectarian-built and the Shia of Iraq in particular, were well represented in all parts of the government. Look at the following excerpts:

“The reality is, back then, the British did not use the divide and rule among the Moslem population so you never new who was a Shia and who was a Sunni”

“Iraqis at the time and later never considered themselves as Sunni or Shia but as Muslims. That was the reality”

“We, Iraqis, do not identify ourselves as Sunnis and Shias, not even as Moslems or Christians, not before the occupation anyway. When asked about our identity we would say: Iraqis. The 1970 Iraqi Constitution, which is still valid, as we do not recognize a constitution written by the occupier, states that Iraq consists of two main ethnic groups: Arabs and Kurds, in addition to Turkmen and other groups. We do not consider a sect or a religion is an identity”

“The Iraqi non-sectarian approach to Iran and Da'wa party and other similar parties was obvious from the fact that most of the Iraqi troops which fought Iran during the 8 years war, were Shias defending "not their faith" but their own country against Iran”

“The intifada which took part in the south during the crisis of the Kuwait war and after the withdrawal of the Iraqi army, while the state was at its weakest, was run by the Iranian guards and militias, the same which are conducting now the crimes of mass kidnapping, torturing, and killing.”

“All what we hear now is how the Shiites were excluded from the government jobs and the high ranks in the baath party and the Iraqi cabinets under the rule of baath party. We don’t hear about how the Sunnis suffered too, and the Turkumans and the Kurds and everyone”.

The above were extracts from correspondences by Iraqi academics (and one from another popular Iraqi blog) debating the issue of sectarianism with a British historian dealing specifically with modern Iraqi history since the 70s. It is obvious that they deny any sectarian elements in our history especially when it comes to the sensitive issue of Shia and Sunnis.

Now, let’s look at facts and stop hiding things under the carpet. We have to admit that sectarianism is deeply embedded in our society since the Othoman-Safavid wars era. It was intensified with the creation of modern Iraq in 1921 and it was the ONLY stable Iraqi political phenomenon that successive regimes, including the current government (except Abdul Kareem Qassim’s’ regime) agreed upon. BUT it was a political sectarianism manipulated by the state against its citizens and not obviously apparent (although present) on grass root levels. Covering the aspects of this issue from 1921 until now needs books to be written rather than a blog. However, there is a document dated 28th October 1965 proves that Sectarianism was a major issue for most Iraqis especially the Shias even before the Baath came to power in 1968.
The document was a letter written by the prominent Shia figure Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi to the Prime Minister Abdul-Rahman Al-Bazzaz, expressing his concerns about many problems looming in the political atmosphere at that time. Below is the complete text of the letter in Arabic:

تحية طيبة.. وبعد، يسعدني أن أشير إلى محادثتنا التلفونية الموجزة غداة اضطلاعكم بأعباء المسؤولية وما تضمنته من التمنيات الطيبة لكم بالتوفيق، ويطيب لي كذلك أن اعزز ذلك الحديث بهذه المذكرة الموضحة لطائفة من القضايا والمشكلات الخطيرة التي تواجهها البلاد راجين ان يحالفكم التوفيق في درسها فقرة فقرة، تمهيداً للأخذ بمضامينها قدر الامكان، ومما شجع على تقديم هذه المذكرة في هذا الظرف بالذات ان رئاسة الحكومة يشغلها احد رجال القانون وتلك الخطوة حسنة، واحسن منها ان يكون المسؤول ذا سند شعبي متين وهو امر يساورنا الشك فيه الان.كان الشعور الوطني في العراق يتجلى بالغيرة الوطنية والحب العميق لأرض الاباء والاجداد وكان هذا الشعور الحافز الاول لصيانة وحدة البلاد، ولكن الاحداث والكوارث التي حلت بها نتيجة تصارع الاراء وتضارب الاهواء وتشجيع التفرقة عصفت بهذا الشعور النبيل واقصته الى ابعاد واعماق سحيقة، يخشى ان تتيح للاجنبي المتربص الفرصة للنيل من وحدتنا الوطنية المقدسة، ولم يعد خافياً على احد ان البلاد العراقية تجتازفي ظروفها الحالية مرحلة لا تحسد عليها من مراحل حياتها، وكيف تحسد على مراحل موسومة بكثرة مخاوفها ومشكلاتها، وما يتخللها من شكوك واحتمالات. وقد تسنى لي اخيراً ان اتصل بجمهرة من ابناء البلاد، وان المس مواقع الالم منهم والاحساس بما يخالجهم من سخط وتذمر، وفي وسعي بل ارى ان من واجبي ان اسجل ملخصاً مظاهر ذلك في الفقرات التالية:1- جاء على لسان السيد رئيس الوزراء في مؤتمره الصحفي قوله (ان الحكومة عازمة على اعادة الحياة الدستورية للبلاد واجراء انتخابات حرة وبهذا كما لا يخفى ستنتهي الفترة الانتقالية وتستقر الاوضاع في البلاد ويتمكن الشعب من ممارسة حقه القانوني في انتخاب من يراه صالحاً لادارة البلاد وتحمل مسؤولياتها الجسام).واننا نؤكد على ضرورة القيام عاجلاً بوضع اسس قانون الانتخابات العامة وعرضها على الشعب ليبين رأيه فيها حتى تتم الانتخابات المباشرة خلال فترتها المحددة في الدستور المؤقت، على ان يجري ذلك بإشراف سلطة معروفة بالحياد والاستقامة سلطة تضمن للجمهور حرية الصحافة والرأي والتعبير.2- تناول السيد رئيس الوزراء في مؤتمره الصحفي موضوع الوحدة العربية والاتحاد واجاب عن التساؤلات الكثيرة التي اثيرت حول تصريحاته. وفي رأينا انه مهما كانت اتجاهاتنا السياسية والاجتماعية في القضايا العربية، فان الوحدة الجغرافية ووحدة التاريخ والمصير قادرة في اي وقت على ان تخلق بيننا وحدة عمل، نواجه بها التحديات والمخاطر، ان الوحدة العربية في رأينا هدف يتم باستفتاء الشعب عليه، وان التضامن العربي وسيلة لحمايته.3- ما انفك حكم العراق في عصرنا هذا بالذات مشرباً بالاهواء والاغراض وان كانت تلك الاغراض مقنعة او مغلفة بالفاظ خلابة. ولم يكن الطعن في الحكم المذكور سهلاً، لأنه في ظاهره مستمد من مبادئ بنيت عليها القوانين المرعبة وقد اعتبرت الطائفية بموجب هذه القوانين جريمة تعاقب عليها.. ولكن العبرة ليست بالالفاظ المجردة والتشريعات المقنعة.. بل بالتطبيق السليم والادراك الصائب لروح تلك القوانين، ولم تكن التفرقة الطائفية مشكلة سافرة من مشاكل الحكم كما هي اليوم، ولم تكن مصدراً باعثاً على القلق المستحوذ على الشعب طالما استنكرت التفرقة وكافحتها وطالبت بالاقلاع عن هذا الاسلوب الممقوت، وطالما تنادى المخلصون باتباع نهج اخر تراعى فيه المساواة المطلقة التي اكدت عليها الشرائع السماوية والقوانين الوضعية.
الانتقاص من سياسة التفرقةومن الواضح ان الشعب العراقي انتفض اكثر من مرة على سياسة التفرقة النكراء، وعمل منذ ثورته الاولى عام 1920 على اقامة حكم وطني ديمقراطي يسهم باقامته وينعم في خيراته ابناء الشعب كافة لا يفرقهم عنصر او دين او مذهب.. وقد بارك الشعب ثورة الرابع عشر من تموز وعلق عليها امالاً كبيرة وتوقع المخلصون ان تستأصل جذور النعرات المفرقة باستئصال قواعد الاستعمار وركائزه. غير ان الاحداث الاخيرة برهنت مع بالغ الاسف على انبعاث روح التفرقة بشكل اشد واعنف من ذي قبل بكثير.ولا نذيع سراً اذا قلنا ان كثرة الشعب ساخطة جداً من جراء ذلك، وانها تعتبر كرامتها مهانة وحقوقها مهضومة، ولاسيما وقد وافق ذلك سوء اختيار بعض من يمثلونها في جهاز الحكم. واذا كان من الممكن ان تغض هذه الكثرة الشعبية نظرها عن بعض حقوقها في وظائف الدولة، وترك شبابها المثقف من حملة الشهادات العالية وغيرهم دون عمل، اذا كان من الممكن ايضاً ان تغض هذه الكثرة النظر عن التقصير المتعمد في انعاش مرافقها الثقافية والاقتصادية والاجتماعية، واذا كان من الجائز ان تغض نظرها عن مواقفها المشرفة في الجهاد والتضحية، فانه لا يسعها غض النظر عن التعريض بعروبتها واصالتها وكرامتها واخلاصها للوطن وللدولة التي اقامتها على جماجم شهدائها الابرار بذلك التعريض المثير الذي يلوح به بعض المسؤولين والصحف الاجيرة.هذا ومادامت الحكومة السابقة قد اعلنت عن التزامها الصراحة في القول وتصحيح الاوضاع المنحرفة، بادرنا تذكيرها بهذه الحقيقة، اذ ليست الدولة واجهزتها ووظائفها ومجالات العمل فيها وقفاً على طائفة دون اخرى انما توزع واجباتها حسب الكفاية، ولعل نظرة فاحصة الى الدواوين الكبيرة في الدولة ومن يشغلها تكفي دلالة على سياسة محاباة، خصوصاً وان كثيراً من المقربين محرومون غالباً من المؤهلات والكفايات والاخلاص.4- لاشك ان صيانة الوحدة الوطنية وحقن الدماء واعادة الطمأنينة والسلام الى ربوعنا في الشمال العزيز يتطلب منا درساً دقيقاً للقضية الكردية التي طال عليها الامد، ولما كان العرب والاكراد شركاء في هذا الوطن يتقاسمون غرمه وغنمه، فاننا نرى ان لاخواننا الاكراد حقاً في التمتع بحقوقهم المشروعة، وذلك عملاً بالادارة اللامركزية ضمن الوحدة العراقية، هذا الاساس الذي تقضي ضرورة الاخذ به اسلوباً للحكم في العراق من الناحية الادارية.5- تعرضت النقابات في العراق لمختلف اوجه الضغط السياسي الامر الذي حرفها عن خدمة منتسبيها في حدود صلاحياتها واغراضها المهنية. كما تحملت الفئات العاملة تبعات ذلك ففصل وسجن كثير منهم وحرمت عوائلهم من مصادر عيشها. لذلك وجب على الحكومة ان تعيد النظر في احكام قانون العمل، آخذة بنظر الاعتبار التي ظهرت لدى تطبيق القانون المذكور، وان تفسح المجال لقيام نقابات مهنية تراعي مصالح المنتسبين اليها رعاية حقة.6- لا نريد الدخول في جدل عن الاشتراكية من حيث كونها صالحة او غير صالحة للعراق، ولكننا نكتفي بالرجوع الى حقائق الاشياء، وبما حصل فعلاً من نتائج ليصدر الحكم مبنياً على الواقع دون الخيال، فعند تطبيق القرارات الاشتراكية في 14 تموز 1964 نلاحظ ان اوضاع العراق المالية والاقتصادية تزداد تخبطاً وارتباكاً، زيادة في البطالة وقلة في الانتج وتبذيراً في اموال الدولة وتهريباً لرؤوس الاموال الوطنية وعجزاً في الموازنة.لقد اشار السيد رئيس الوزراء الى طبيعة هذه الاشتراكية بقوله في مؤتمره الصحفي (ان هذه الاشتراكية لم تغير في الوضع الاقتصادي والاجتماعي في البلاد بقدر ما تحسنت احوال طبقة من الموظفين والمنتفعين على حساب الاخرين.اننا نؤمن بالديمقراطية الاقتصادية هي النظام الذي يلائم ظروفنا وحاجاتنا، واننا نؤمن بالعدالة الاجتماعية ونعتبر الفروق الاقتصادية البعدية في مجتمعنا خرقاً لقواعد هذه العدالة، فلهذا يمكن العمل على تقليل هذه الفروق عن طريق توزيع الضرائب وزيادة مكاسب الطبقة العاملة، ووضع خطة شاملة للتنمية الاقتصادية وزيادة الدخل العام.اننا نطالب الحكومة بتدارك ما أدت اليه تلك السياسة المرتجلة من بطالة وذلك بايجاد عمل للعاملين يكفل لهم مستوى من المعيشة يتلائم وكرامة الانسان. كما نطلب اعادة النظر في الاوضاع الاقتصادية مع تعيين مجالات القطاع العام والقطاع الخاص لكي ينصرف المواطنون الى مزاولة اعمالهم بحرية تامة واطمئان كامل.
القطاع الزراعيان القطاع الزراعي في العراق يمثل مصدراً اساسياً من مصادر الثروة العامة، ولقد ظهرت في قانون الاصلاح الزراعي اخطاء ادت الى تخلف الزراعة، لهذا نطلب اعادة النظر في اسس القانون المذكور وذلك في ضوء الاخطاء التي ظهرت في مرحلة التطبيق وندعو للعمل على تطوير شؤون الزراعة وحماية الانتاج وتحديد واجبات الزراع والعمل على تعويض المستوى على اراضيهم ومنهم اصحاب حق اللزمة، اذ اننا لا نقر مبدأ المصادرة مطلقاً.ونطالب بإعادة النظر في موضوع الضرائب خاصة ضريبة الدخل وضريبة الشركات والتعديلات التي جرت عليها اخيراً ونحث على دراسة علمية مبنية على التجارب التي مرت بها تلك القوانين لدى التطبيق ونطالب ابعادة النظر في القوانين الاخرى التي شرعت في ظروف مستعجلة فجاءت مخالفة لاحكام شريعتنا الاسلامية وغير ملاءمة لأوضاعنا وتقالدينا الاجتماعية ان الشريعة الاسلامية هي الاساس الراسخ الذي يقوم التشريع عليه وان اي قانون او انظام يتعارض معها يعتبر تحدياً لشعور الامة وعقيدتها الراسخة.7- لاتزال مفاوضات النفط بين الحكومة العراقية والشركات العاملة في العراق طي الكتمان ولم تعرف تفاصيلها بعد.ومع تقديرنا للجهود التي تبذل لاستخلاص حقوق العراق من الشركات الاجنبية، الا اننا نرى في القانون رقم 80 سنة 1963 وشركة النفط الوطنية مكسباً وطنياً يلزم الحفاظ عليه. لذلك نهيب بالسلطة ان تعرض نتيجة المفاوضات قبل الالتزام بها على ممثلي الشعب حيث تعود الحياة الدستورية الى البلاد ليقول الشعب كلمته فيها.8- كان الهدف الاساسي من تكوين الاتحاد الاشتراكي العربي في العراق ان يضم منتسبي النقابات ومختلف الفئات العاملة، غير ان هذه المنظمة لم يحالفها التوفيق على الرغم من اسناد السلطة لها مادياً ومعنوياً، ذلك لان الاهواء تنازعتها منذ البداية، يضاف الى ذلك انها قامت على مبدأ احتكار العمل السياسي وفكرة الحزب الواحد ولا نقر ذلك منهجاً للحكم في البلاد، ولهذا نطالب بأن تبادر الحكومة الى تعديل القانون الذي قامت بموجبه هذه المنظمة لتتمكن الفئات التي تستمد اراءها من صميم هذا البلد من ممارسة نشاطها السياسي.هذا ووفاء لأمتنا وقياماً بالواجب المفروض علينا وابراء لذمتنا بادرنا الى بيان اهم مشاكل الساعة التي تخالج افكار الجمهور مؤملين ان تعنوا بدراستها وبذلك الجهود في سبيل الوصول الى الحلول السليمة للمشاكل المذكورة كافة، وختاماً نبتهل الى الله العلي القدير ان يسدد خطانا جميعاً انه ولي التوفيق

.محمد رضا الشبيبي

As you can see, the letter is very detailed and discussed various important and sensitive problems which if you look at them even now, forty two years later, many of them are still lingering and unresolved. However; I underlined the points related to the issue of sectarianism as it is our main subject.
1. In the first highlighted sentence, Al-Shabibi clearly stated, contrary to the excerpts mentioned above, that sectarianism is a very obvious political problem at that time more than ever and it is a source of serious concerns to the majority of the people of Iraq. Whether you agree with him or not, this will not change the fact that this issue was a major concern at least for him.
2. In the second highlighted paragraph, he highlighted in details the grievances of the Shiaa population in Iraq (he did not mention the word “Shiaa” in his letter but you can simply realise that he was expressing their worries):
1.He pointed that the majority of the people were already very annoyed and angry because their rights were not preserved and they were “misrepresented” in the government.
2. leaving many of its highly educated young people unemployed, and
3. intentional neglect and underinvestment in its various cultural, economic and social establishments, and
4. Forgetting and ignoring its patriotic role in Iraqi history.
If these grievances were to be tolerated, Al-Shabibi then mentioned that the Shiaa of Iraq can not accept the accusations by some people in “responsible” positions and some newspaper of putting our “U’ruba” (Arabic origins and identity) and OUR LOYALTY TO OUR HOMELAND AND THE STATE under suspicion (this sentence verify that he was addressing the Shiaa of Iraq because Iraqi Sunni Arabs were never accused about their identity or considered as “of suspicious non-Arabic origins”).

Does this letter leave any doubts that “sectarianism” was an adopted policy by the Iraqi government at that time? Can we deny that the Sunni Arabs now are facing nearly the same problems that their Shiaa counterparts suffered from in the last decades? And if you look at the other issues highlighted in this letter, don’t you find them more or less similar to the highly controversial points in the new Iraqi constitution which gave an idea about how different sects in our society are deeply divided? And finally don’t you think that we desperately need someone like Abdul Kareem Qassim to teach those who are in the government how to build bridges between different Iraqis irrespective of their sects, religion or ethnicity? We have to stop lying on ourselves and face our miserable reality.

* details about Mohamed Ridha Al-Shabibi can be found on this website:

http://www.oudnad.net/09/yaser9.php

Our Biggest "April Lie"

When we were kids there was a common tradition in Iraq known as “Kithbat Neesan” or (April’s Lie). In the first few days of April we used to be cautious from believing any surprising or unusual news from friends as we were afraid of being dragged into and caught by “April’s lie” mockery. It was seen within the context of our innocent childhood with no intention to cause any harm but I do not know why we were celebrating lying on each other. In addition, I got no clue where this myth of “April’s Lie” came from and whether other nations have the same tradition of lying and cheating in April every year.
May be for that reason I have not posted anything on the blog for the past ten days, fearing that nobody will believe a word I have written. I left many drafts unfinished and waiting hopefully to be completed and published on the site. No, I am just joking. the main reason behind my hesitation was the rapid developments on the Iraqi scene over the two weeks. These developments proved that “April’s Lie” is not only limited to Iraqi kids but shared by adults and particularly those in the Iraqi government and parliament with their American allies.
April is not like other months in Iraqi history. It is very important for the current government as well as the old regime. Look at the following dates and you will realise the significance of this month. It is already packed with many anniversaries:
1. On the 7th of this month the Ba’ath Party celebrated its sixtieth birthday anniversary.
2. On 17/04/1988, we liberated Al-Faw peninsula from the “Persian Occupation”
3. On 28/04/1937, Saddam Hussein was born.
And there are anther two but not very well famous celebrations:
Baghdad’s day is on the 21st of this month and for those who graduated from Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, the 2nd of April is its day.

And if April was a very important month for Saddam and Ba’athists, it was much more significant for our “new Ba’athists”. Four years ago at this time we celebrated the toppling of the statue of Saddam but later on many Iraqis regrettably were disappointed with what the Americans have brought. The 9th of April is a public holiday since 2003, so another anniversary was added to the already stretched April’s list. However; this does not stop Al-Maliki from “inserting” another celebration. this time is to commemorate “the martyrdom of Mohamed Baqir Al-Sadr and his sister Bint Al-Huda”. In situations like this one, ordinary Iraqis use to say “Kim’let Al-Sib'ha Ou Chanet Bess Ay'zeh Shahool”* (the string of beads now has been completed and it was only lacking the “Shahool”). It is clearly obvious that Al-Maliki’s move was taken to please Muqtada Al-Sadr and his followers who constitute the only mass currently backing the prime minister.

Going back to “April’s lie” tradition and by looking at the above mentioned dates, most of these holidays lack the insight into the present or the future and almost completely indulge themselves in the past. The Ba’ath party is currently banned in Iraq and its ideas of Unity of Arab countries, Freedom of its people and Socialism proved to be the biggest April’s Lie that had never been fulfilled in its 60 year history. About Al-Faw, It was estimated that approximately 50000 Iraqi soldiers were killed and lost in fierce battles in 1986 for the sake of this piece of deserted land while at the same time Saddam rewarded many of Iraqi neighbouring countries with possession of Iraqi soil (the boarders’ settlement with Saudi Arabia). In mid nineties when Iraqis became accustomed to eating animal diet, Iraqi TV channels used to broadcast footages showing the President “The Necessity”, cutting a 4x3 meters cake on his birthday anniversary. In fact we were witnessing and celebrating our humiliating demise. But do things changed with the liberation/occupation of Iraq in 2003. Four years of continuous onslaught and the Iraqi government and the Americans are still coming with “April Lies” convincingly trying to make us believe them. The appointment of Ryan Crocker as the new American ambassador for Iraq replacing Khalil Zad was portrayed by the media as the magical solution for the complicated Iraqi situation whereas in fact Crocker was nothing but like “a Bedouin in a Baghdadi mosque”. With violence erupted in Diywania, curfews imposed in Baghdad and Diywania, destruction of the Sarrafiyah Bridge and the suicide bombing inside the Parliament, the Baghdad security plan seems to be on the verge of collapse and Al-Maliki’s response was only to distract people from thinking about their miseries and keep their attention focussed on past grievances. The absence of a clear prospect for the present and the future drives him and the Americans behind him to glorify events of the past. One American Lieutenant was asked about the tens-of-thousands rally in protest against the occupation few days ago, he exactly did the same thing as Al-Maliki and said “this kind of protest was not allowed for Iraqis before 2003, but now they are free to protest and express their opinions”. Most Arabic regimes and movements, particularly in Iraq, are obsessed by the idea of re-introducing past events and gain from their reflections on the present or the future. Moreover, we always tend to refer to “them” as being an obstacle preventing us from moving forward to achieve a decent and prosperous future. But in fact it is “us” who do not have any clear vision or an ideal framework to work within to achieve our aims. It is “we” who are empty. And if we ask ourselves who is “them”, the answer will be a very long list of enemies like Imperialism, The West, The Zionists…etc. the Iran-Iraq war was simply between two rogue regimes but it has been re-introduced by Saddam as a threat to our “precious” Nationalistic Arab ideals and it has been portrayed as being a war between Persians and Arabs and the diversion to the past was obvious when he decided to name that war “Qadissiyat Saddam”. Khomeini did the same but in a slightly different way. As a religious Shia’ cleric he exploited the concept of Al-Hussain Martyrdom to serve his goals and the Iranian media always referred to Saddam as being “Yazeed” and the Ba’ath regime as “Banu Ummayah”. Likewise, Al-Maliki and the Americans try to hide behind a shield of the past in attempt to free themselves from the responsibility of the current plight of Iraqi people and always try to accuse Saddam and his supporters as the main causes of our crisis. If Saddam himself was executed, what is the point of celebrating the martyrdom of Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadder? He is not the only religious cleric, whether Shia or Sunni, to be tortured and eliminated by Saddam’s brutal regime and also he is not the only Iraqi who was executed by Ba’athists. For how long we are going to gulp our past to escape a confrontation with future challenges and for how long we are going to cope with our government’s lies. It seems to that we are living our ever biggest April’s lie.


* this aphorism is usually mentioned when someone has many complicated problems, very difficult to be solved and waiting eagerly for a glimpse of hope that everything will be fine one day but instead, another miserable thing happens and adds to his ongoing despair. “Shahool” is a big and almost flat bead. Two of them are added to each string of beads to divide it into three equal parts.

Urgent Appeal to help Hussein Al-Shuwali

Dear All,

Urgent appeal to help an Iraqi child diagnosed recently with Acute Leukemia. there is no available treatment in Iraq now for his condition. if you think that you can help Hussein to receive treatment outside Iraq, please send email to Dr. Basil Al-Shihabi
shihabi@btinternet.com

* below is the original email sent by Hussein's father to Dr. Shihabi.

Dear Colleagues

Below an urgent appeal for help for this child with leukaemia. Can any colleague particularly Paediatricians help this child in any way please? God bless you and Iraqi people.

best wishes

Basim Al-Shihabi


----- Original Message -----
From: ali wadi
To: shihabi@btinternet.com
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 7:42 PM
Subject: اعلام
الأخ العزيز الدكتور باسم الشهابي ........السلام عليكم
انا أخوك أحمد الشويلي فأنا بأمس الحاجة الى استشارتك بشأن علاج ولدي الأكبر (حسين)الذي أصيب بمرض سرطان الدم(اللوكيميا)وهو راقد حاليا في مدينة الطب وقد شخصت الدكتورة سلمى الحداد نوع المرض( Acute promyelocytic leukemia AML-M3v)
وكما تعلم فان هذا المرض من الصعب علاجه في العراق لذا ألتمس مساعدتكم الكريمة في أرشادي الى اي منظمة او جمعية انسانية يمكن ان تتكفل بعلاجه خارج العراق او اي طريقة أخرى يمكن ان تمنح ولدي أملا في الشفاء.سائلا المولى جل شأنه أن لايريك مكروها في عزيز والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.Ali Al-Shuwali

Al-Maliki's Response to Tal Afar Carnage

The only response from the Iraqi government about the vicious circle of unrestrained sectarian retribution-killing in Tal Afar and Baghdad in the last two days came from the PM office. Al-Maliki’s reaction to the “events” of Tal Afar was to form a “committee to investigate” the allegations into off-duty policemen involvement in the revenge-killing of more than 60 Sunnis in that town, whereas his reaction to the massacre in Baghdad and Al-Khalis was “we condemn” and “pledge to eliminate Al-Qaeda members”.

Forming committees, condemnation and pleas to “wipe” Al-Qaeda are not something new to successive Iraqi Governments since April 2003. Al-Ja’affary was obsessed by forming investigating teams and opening inquiries. We all remember the tragic death of more than one thousand innocent Iraqis in Al-A’ema Bridge stampede nearly two years ago as well as the mass kidnapping of employees and visitors of the ministry of Higher Education by armed militias, linked to Al-Sadr, when they stormed the ministry at midday one year ago. Inquiries and investigations were launched but we do not know the results of these investigations and who was held accountable. It was merely a “fiasco” and exactly the same will happen again with the latest incidents. Members of Tal Afar’s police force, together with Shiaa militia men and Shiaa relatives of those died in the suicide bomb in Al-Wihda district one day before the retaliation, stormed a Sunni neighbourhood area and dragged the men out of their homes and shot them in the streets. This “mini” civil war in Tal Afar was to some extent similar to the events happened in Mosul in March 1959 after the failed coup attempt by Abdul-Wahab Al-Shawaf to topple Qassim’s regime. In both cases, the army intervened to stop the bloodshed and yesterday I read that 18 police men were detained in connection to the revenge-killing but few hours later one army spokesman said that the policemen were temporarily released because of the “severe mental and psychological pressure” and also to let them “attend the funerals of their Shiaa relatives” who died in the suicide car bomb a day earlier. This biased response from the Iraqi army and the Government will only add more fuel to the fire, especially if we know that the army units invited to calm the situation were mainly composed of Kurdish ex-Peshmerga fighters and under Kurdish control.

The most probable outcome of the investigations would be either “no result” until we forget what’s happened, as we already did with the results of the previous inquiries, or few policemen would be made “scapegoats”. However, there is another possibility that these policemen would be considered not guilty and may be awarded by the PM for their “patriotic” behaviours as exactly as what’s happened with “Sabrine Rape case”.

The reactions of the Shia-dominated government to the latest events helped the cause of Sunni extremists to wage a fully blown civil war in Iraq. The way in which Al-Maliki dealt with Saddam’s execution, the rape of Sabrine and now the Tal Afar carnage only proves that this government is unable to lead the country out of its disastrous situation. They keep intentionally repeating the same mistakes just to satisfy their sectarian narrow-minded view about Iraqi future. Their mentality is still haunted by the “oppression of Shiaa” images of the past. This mentality is not the way to build a new democratic Iraq. instead, it will only marginalise the Iraqi Sunnis, isolate the Iraqi Shiaa from the surrounding Arabic and the wider Muslim world and pushing it further towards Iran which is expert in using the Shiaa of the Arab world to achieve its dreams of dominating the region. Dismantling of the United Shiaa Alliance and subsequently the sectarian—constructed government and the intervention of the international community through the UN is the only option to limit the political and ideological platforms available for the Sunni extremists to exploit, end the American occupation and most importantly build a free democratic Iraq for all Iraqis.

No Childhood's End

"You, the child that once loved

The child before they broke his heart Our heart,

the heart that I believed was lost
So it's me I see, I can do anything.

I'm still the child 'Cos the only thing misplaced was direction

And I found direction

There is no childhood's end

I am your childhood friend, lead me on "

It was a sunny and warm day and nothing was better than going to the gym to get rid of my reluctant-to-disappear “Kirish”. I was there around lunch time. I plugged the headphones to my Ipod and went on the treadmill machine located before the big window through which you can see the neighbouring primary school courtyard. I timed my machine at 30 minutes and 8.5 km/hour speed in order to burn approximately 500 calories. As I began to heat up, I was looking through the window to the children playing in the courtyard. Most of them aged between 8 and 12. The courtyard itself was divided into three big squares and in each square there was a group of children: one was playing football, another one playing volleyball and the third, which drew my attention as they were the closest to the window, was playing rugby. Eights kids in each group, the match started between the two teams, the girls and the boys. You can tell both teams were multiracial, as you can see blonde, dark skinned and blacks among the players. White Caucasian, Asian, Far East, Afro Caribbean and others. One of the girls was Muslim as she was wearing “Hijab”. Both teams were keen to win and they were doing their best achieve their aim. As the match went on, I was sweaty and breathless with only 10 minutes passed since I began. These scenes of innocent childhood took me thirty years back when I was in Al-Rasheed primary school in Baghdad. In each corner of that school I left memories. I still remember the classes, the small canteen “Hanoot”, the library and the courtyard. We used to play football a lot but not with girls. They had their own games which we rarely play, especially “Tooky”. And I do not remember the girls playing football in my school. However; we used to play together “Shurta WA Haramiyah” (“Police and thieves” which is the equivalent of “Hide and seek”). We were not very well connected to the girls in our school. It seemed to me now that we shared the same physical space (the school) but were separate otherwise. I do not remember our teachers encouraging us to engage with each others. We must not cross the line with the girls that was the message from the family, the school and the society at large.

The world was changing around us but we were busy with our games and our pure innocent dreams. I discovered later that these six years of my primary school were unstable ones, for my family at least. Saddam came to power when I was in the third class. My aunt who was living with us began wearing Hijab. She was considerably influenced by the success of the Iranian revolution of 1979. and from a young woman wearing bell-bottomed jeans trousers and mini skirts, reading romantic novels in English and listening to The Beegees, Abba, The Beatles and pictures of the Italian actor Franco Niro and Marlon Brando pinned to the wall beside her bed, she started praying regularly, reading the Qur’an and “Mafateeh Al-Jinan” (Keys of Heavens), going regularly to Khadhimya, Najaf and Karbala and talking about Al-Sadr and Bint Al-Huda. My uncle who also lives with us decided to leave Iraq with his wife and headed to the not very well known Dubai at that time in late 70s. My father left his work in the government and established his private business because he was not able to cope with pressures exerted by Ba’athists on him to join the Ba’ath Party or the Popular Army “Jaish Al-Sha’aby”. The war with Iran started when I was in the fourth class and the small park near our school turned into a concrete-built shelter. I was feeling that something is going on around me but who cares as long as I can play football and read “Grindisers”, “Sindibad” and “Bisat Al-Reeh” comics with my friends N (our neighbour, originally from Mosul) and S (our neighbour as well, a native Baghdadi) and get my daily 200 “fillis” from my dad to secure my supply of crisps, biscuits (Bisculatta Brand) and a bottle of Pepsi as cans were not yet introduced to Iraqis.

We grew up and finished our education and everyone chose his path in this life and most of us joined the very long and never-ending list of Iraqi Diaspora all over the world.

I looked again at the “Kirish-reducing machine” and it is just five minutes left to end. I was drenched in sweat and breathless. The rugby match ended, the boys won and players of both teams hugged each other and sat under the shade of the big tree on the right side of the yard talking and laughing with each other and with their young teacher. I wished if I can free myself from the chains of my daily concerns: work, bills, rent, future career, IRAQ, my family and the people there, wished to leave all this behind and share few moments with these kids. The machine stopped but my “Kirish” was still there as well as the images of childhood reluctant to go. I realised how much we had missed in our childhood and how many spaces we were eager to explore, left untouched because of the fears of breaking the social traditions that our families and teachers imposed on us. But the picture was never gloomy, especially if you compare it with the current onslaught in Iraq. My concerns right now are not about the school education in Iraq, as more than 60% of Iraqi children not going to schools and the remainder not doing so regularly because of the widespread violence and fears of kidnapping. It is mainly about the games they play now. Playing football is almost a forgotten luxury. New games were invented to reflect the dreadful situation Iraqis face now. The Guardian Newspaper published an article two months by its correspondent in Iraq who described a new game popular among Iraqi children. They divide themselves into two groups, the first group act as they were driving a car and suddenly stopped by the second group which plays the role of a faked checkpoint. The leader of the second group acting as if he has a pistol in his hand. He points his pistol to the person sitting on the front seat asking him: Muqtada Al-Sadr or Harith Al-Dhari, Jaish Al-Mahdi or the Mujahidin? If the answer was not the one agreed on by members of the second group, the leader will say: wrong answer dude and they pick the driver and other passengers (members of the first group) and drag them out of their car and shoot them in the head. It is a game of life and death, not winners and losers and certainly we can not blame these children for such a dreadful game. They just copy what they see around them and transform it to an enjoyable game. The Americans, the Iraqi government, the parliament, the parties, religious leaders, tribal sheikhs, “Sunni resistance/insurgency”, “ Al-Dahari’s Mujahidin or the Al-Mahdi gangsters all share the responsibility for the continuous shedding of Iraqi blood. My advice for them is to subscribe with the same gym that I regularly attend for two important reasons: first, to get rid of their “Kirishs”, as most of them in terms of BMI (Basal Metabolic Index) criteria, exceeded the limit of overweight and considered as obese, thanks to billions of Iraqi dollars disappeared through out four years of corruption. And most importantly, to experience the socialising atmosphere of the gym and learn lessons from these innocent kids about tolerance, acceptance and loving each other.

*Kirish in slang Iraqi Language means "Fat Belly"

*to read the Guardian article about Iraqi Children titled "Children of War":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/outlook/story/0,,2012739,00.html

Iraq: Volatility of unstable society

“What a sad anniversary” the Independent wrote. Simon Jenkins of the Guardian also marked the occasion, saying “we are bid to celebrate the fourth anniversary of a lie” and all British media spared large space of their time to cover the fourth anniversary of the occupation/liberation of Iraq. ITV News, for example, chose Kadhum Al-Juburi, the Iraqi heavy-weight lifting champion, famous for destroying the statue of the overthrown dictator in Al-Firdous square in April 2003 to express his regret of toppling the statue. He said that the situation in Iraq is much worse now with the American occupation than under Saddam’s regime. At the same time, the results of a poll conducted in Iraq by the BBC, ABC News, USA Today and ARD German TV painted a gloomy picture about the current situation.
This poll came under criticism by those who supported the war and also some members of the Iraqi Parliament (Humam Hammoudi) but was extensively covered by the media here in Britain and used as a damning proof of the failure of the American policy in Iraq. But this is only one side of the coin. Another poll conducted approximately at the same time by the Opinion Research Business and published only by The Times newspaper came out with different results. Under the title “Iraqis: life is getting better”, The Times mentioned that most Iraqis questioned (around 5000) were optimistic and resilient. The conclusions withdrawn from this report have not been mentioned in other newspapers or TV News channels. Some criticised the credibility of the ORB who conducted the poll and accused them of working on a right wing agenda supported by the Bush administration.

As an Iraqi who cares about his family and the people of Iraq, I hope the figures obtained in the second poll were true. But if they were purposefully fabricated, this means that the first poll was more accurate. The situation in Iraq is dire and that was obvious in the findings of the first report. However, I still personally believe that both polls reflected the opinion of Iraqis, albeit differently. In the current turmoil, it is very expected to see Iraqis swiftly changing their minds and giving completely different reactions over major issues within a very short time. This changeability is not something new in the Iraqi society. Last week, I contacted my brother in Iraq and he told me how my parents got scared when someone knocked on their outdoor and was very frightened and begged them to open the door for him, but certainly they did not as they were scared themselves. Later, it appeared that this terrified man has escaped from his kidnappers who were looking for him in order to kill him. Then my brother gave detailed description of the continuous chaotic situation in Iraq. The next day I called again and asked if it is safer now with the new Baghdad security plan, their answer was “yes, there is a slight improvement”. These contradicting pictures over one day are not unusual in Iraq. This unpredictability of the way of our thinking and action may explain why many of those questioned in the above two polls denied that Iraq is in a state of civil war despite the fact that everyday the morgues of Baghdad hospitals receive an average of one hundred corpses. Most of those polled as well as many other Iraqis admitted that they do not believe in sectarianism but at the same time, the majority of them (especially those who live in mixed areas of Baghdad) can easily tell you who is a Shia or Sunni among their neighbours, schoolmates and colleagues at work. It became embedded in our unconscious mind to the extent that we do not believe in it anymore.
The majority were very pessimistic about the current situation but when they were asked whether they prefer Al-Maliki government over Saddam’s regime, the majority preferred Al-Maliki. Mark Etherington, a former paratrooper in the British Army who headed a team of reconstruction, both political and physical, of the Iraqi province of Al-Kut under the Coalition Provisional Authority, expressed his concerns about Iraqi police and members of municipal councils and the difficulties he encountered with the tribal Sheikhs. Unpredictability of their intentions, changing minds and allegiances, hampered many efforts to progress as he discussed in his book “Revolt on the Tigris”. Another female British officer served in “Abu Naji” camp in Amarah whom I met in London, told a funny story about this camp. She said “we were very concerned about mortars being fired on the camp from the surrounding villages and obviously we thought that we are unwelcome among the local people, most of them supported Al-Sadr and proud of resisting the occupation, but one day, an Iraqi interpreter works in the camp said that the local people are ready to stop the insurgents from using their villages as a base to fire mortars if the British paid some money to the local leaders and the families in the village”. She told me that this suggestion was rejected by the top authority as they did not trust the interpreter and as a result mortars kept falling over the camp until recently when it was handed to the Iraqi Army. This unpredictability and inconsistency in action is also very obvious in the current Iraqi Government actions and its daily handling of the situation.

But what are the reasons behind our unpredictable actions and changing opinions? The veteran Iraqi social scientist Ali Al-Wardi tried to explain much of the Iraqi personality complex by his theories about the clash between the Bedouin and civil values and traditions. The ultimate result of this struggle, as Al-Wardi concluded, is “Bedounisation” or “Tribalisation” of the cities and towns and not the opposite. He argued that 20th century’s Iraq witnessed many drastic changes at a much faster pace than under the Ottoman four-century’s occupation which left the Iraqi personality unstable, vulnerable and highly exposed to the surrounding social/economic, political and religious influences. This sense of insecurity became more obvious over the last thirty years which “metamorphasized” the Iraqi society to a level that Al-Wardi theories seems outdated and inapplicable. The absence of any stable period of time, even short-lived, in the modern Iraqi history left very little space for us to feel the depth of our shocking situation and to compare it to our past. We now consider the 90s with its shameful sanctions as unthinkable luxury and in the 90s Iraqis frequently used the term “Zaman Al-Khair” (time of prosperity) to describe the 80s when the middle class sect was still able to maintain a decent way of living and this cycle of distorted comparisons takes you decades back. We have to admit that the whole Iraqi society is insecure and helpless more than ever and needs radical solutions to let it stand again and the only solution left is to set aside all our sectarian and ethnic identities and revive the concept of our common “Iraqiness” identity.