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ARTICLE: Iraq Sees Islamic Resurgence
Everyone:
OK, I found this article while perusing the raw news wires at work earlier tonight and, knowing it should generate some good discussion, have posted it below. You know the score — read the article and contribute to this thread as you see fit afterwards.
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I'm left wondering: What did U.S. and allied forces do in post-World War II Italy, Germany and Japan to keep the remnants of their defeated enemies —Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism — from rising back to power? I ask, because I wonder if we might have to use similar measures in Iraq to not only beat back Saddam's remaining supporters, but to also keep the fundamentalist elements of the Shiite population from trying to impose their will on *all* of Iraq.
What it comes down to is this: I think we're going to have to spend years occupying and administrating in Iraq, just like we did in Japan and, to a lesser degree, Europe from 1945 onward. And we're going to have to pour money into it (along with Afghanistan) in the form of a Marshall Plan II.
But do we have the *gumption* to do that? And if we do have the gumption to do it, does the rest of the world have the *stomach* to understand that things aren't going to be hunky-dory all the time during this process? I know that MacArthur did his best to respect Japan and all, but there had to be times when he had to use more stick and less carrot than he might have liked. Same would also apply to Germany during its de-Nazification process.
Reality. We all love it, don't we?
Gatekeeper
OK, I found this article while perusing the raw news wires at work earlier tonight and, knowing it should generate some good discussion, have posted it below. You know the score — read the article and contribute to this thread as you see fit afterwards.
***
Tell America: ‘Islam is back,’ cleric says
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — At Baghdad’s al-Kindi Hospital, the Islamic revolution that some Iraqis fear and others crave is in full swing.
The administrator’s office, formerly occupied by a Baath Party appointee, has become the sanctuary of Sheik Abbas Zubaidi, a young cleric with a pronounced limp acquired during torture sessions in the jails of the ousted regime.
Hanging on the wall in place of the obligatory picture of Saddam Hussein is a photograph of the snowy bearded Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite ayatollah assassinated in 1999. He is the inspiration to a new generation of Islamic radicals.
Young men with pistols stuffed in their belts hover in attendance as the sheik dispenses medicine, food and cash to a steady stream of needy people. Stacked in the corner are two Kalashnikovs and a prayer rug.
Zubaidi never misses any of the five daily prayer sessions stipulated in the Koran, and when the Islamic republic he dreams of is established, neither will anyone else in Iraq, he says.
‘‘The new government will be ruled in the name of God in heaven, whose light shines into all walks of life,’’ said Zubaidi, who says he derives his authority from the powerful Hawza el Miya seminary in Najaf, the holy Shiite city in southern Iraq.
‘‘You can tell America: Islam is back.’’
Unintended consequences
This wasn’t what the Bush administration intended when it set out to topple Saddam’s regime and transform Iraq into a ‘‘beacon of democracy’’ for the region.
But already, less than three weeks since Marines occupied the heart of Baghdad, a different vision of Iraq’s future has begun to take shape. It is a future in which Iraq would be ruled by Shiite clerics who take their orders from the ayatollahs in Najaf. It is an Iraq where women would be forced to wear the black, head-to-toe garment known as the abeya and where music, dancing and alcohol are forbidden.
It is an Iraq that would look a lot like neighboring Iran.
Bush administration officials have accused Iran of interfering in Iraq’s affairs to promote its brand of Islamic radicalism. As exiled Iraqi clerics return from Iran, some likely are carrying with them influences, instructions and, perhaps, money and arms from their former hosts.
Repressed ambitions
The dynamics driving Iraq’s nascent Islamic revolution are rooted just as much, however, in the hopes of Iraq’s long-oppressed Shiite community.
Newly released from the harsh restrictions imposed during 35 years of secularist Baath Party rule, Iraqi Shiites are embracing vigorously their newfound religious freedom, and many say they dream of establishing their own Islamic republic in Iraq. Shiites represent about 65 percent of the population in Iraq, and if the elections promised by President Bush eventually are held, their votes will carry enormous weight.
In the cities of the Shiite-dominated south, clerics have created a de facto Islamic mini-state, moving into vacated government offices and forming committees to address critical issues such as the restoration of electricity, water and social services.
In the Shiite slum of Baghdad once known as Saddam City but renamed after the slain Sadr, the mosques are dispensing health care, medicine and justice. Armed volunteers answerable to local clergy enforce order, detaining thieves and patrolling the streets.
The movement appears to have the broad support among residents.
‘‘Of course we want an Islamic government. Shiites are in the majority in Iraq, so we should have the right to choose,’’ said Haidar Shaqr, 22, a local barber living in Sadr City. He says he would support the introduction of Sharia, Islamic law. That would include the veiling of women and severe punishments for adultery and theft.
‘‘These are Islamic laws, and they will become the civilian law. They are the laws of the sky and the heaven,’’ he said. ‘‘Now, it’s just a Shiite thing, but with Saddam gone, the sheiks are insisting that these laws should be for everybody in Iraq.’’
Some Shiites fear ulterior motives
But not all Shiites are happy with what they see. Hameed Hussein al Araji, the chief surgeon at al-Kindi and a Shiite, says he is deeply alarmed and fears his hospital is just the starting point for a creeping Islamic revolution. Al-Kindi is in an area that includes Christians and other minorities and is one of several Baghdad hospitals occupied by armed mullahs.
Zubaidi and his gunmen moved into the hospital April 10, the day after Saddam’s regime collapsed, saying they had come to protect the building from looting. At first, Araji said, the doctors welcomed them, but Zubaidi and his men quickly hinted at ulterior motives.
‘‘I have told him, ‘I don’t like guns in the hospital. We have women here and children,’ " he said. ‘‘But it seems that he has his own agenda. His stated purpose was to protect the hospital, but we think he has a political reason for doing that. He is trying to win the hearts of the people. He gives out drugs, crutches and money.’’
The hospitals are virtually the only functioning institutions in Iraq, and that endows them with political weight. Before the revolution in Iran, the Shiite clergy there won the support of ordinary Iranians by providing social services in impoverished areas neglected by the state, and in Lebanon, the fundamentalist Shiite Hezbollah movement rose in Shiite areas by doing the same.
The speed with which the clerics moved to control the hospitals after the collapse of Hussein’s regime leads Araji to suspect their actions were planned in advance.
‘‘Some of the Shia leaders are neutral and try to keep religion and politics separate, but some are well-organized and are trying to create an Islamic government,’’ he said.
‘‘I hope America won’t stand by and allow them to direct the hospital as a nucleus for the coming of a religious government, because this is not the desire of all Iraqis,’’ he added.
U.S. officials wary
Some American officials say they won’t stand by.
Jay Garner, the retired general appointed to administer the country, said last week that the United States would not tolerate an Islamic republic in Iraq.
But as the U.S. begins to establish an administration for postwar Iraq, the Shiite clerics are filling a critical gap.
Not all of them see their role as permanent.
‘‘We don’t have any aim to be in the new government,’’ said Sheik Abdel Mehdi al Salami, the senior cleric in charge of the southern city of Karbala. ‘‘We want to see a government that represents all the people of Iraq. The Shiites of Iraq are the biggest percentage of people and the government should respect the religious traditions of the Shiites, but at the same time it should give an equal amount of respect to the traditions and religions of other groups.’’
Shiite divisions exist
There are deep divisions within the Shiite clergy, and Zubaidi aligns himself with a radical branch. If Iraqis of different religions or opinions don’t like the idea of an Islamic republic, they will have to get used to it, he said.
‘‘Just as Iraqis grew accustomed to listening to music, so they will grow accustomed to listening to religion in their lives,’’ Zubaidi said.
Araji counsels patience. A degree of political turmoil is inevitable in a country that has suddenly had freedom thrust upon it, he says.
‘‘We hope these things are temporary,’’ he said. ‘‘We paid with our blood for our freedom, and the Americans, they paid with their blood too. Can we believe Americans shed blood only to see an Iraqi government just like the one in Iran? I don’t think so.’’
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — At Baghdad’s al-Kindi Hospital, the Islamic revolution that some Iraqis fear and others crave is in full swing.
The administrator’s office, formerly occupied by a Baath Party appointee, has become the sanctuary of Sheik Abbas Zubaidi, a young cleric with a pronounced limp acquired during torture sessions in the jails of the ousted regime.
Hanging on the wall in place of the obligatory picture of Saddam Hussein is a photograph of the snowy bearded Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite ayatollah assassinated in 1999. He is the inspiration to a new generation of Islamic radicals.
Young men with pistols stuffed in their belts hover in attendance as the sheik dispenses medicine, food and cash to a steady stream of needy people. Stacked in the corner are two Kalashnikovs and a prayer rug.
Zubaidi never misses any of the five daily prayer sessions stipulated in the Koran, and when the Islamic republic he dreams of is established, neither will anyone else in Iraq, he says.
‘‘The new government will be ruled in the name of God in heaven, whose light shines into all walks of life,’’ said Zubaidi, who says he derives his authority from the powerful Hawza el Miya seminary in Najaf, the holy Shiite city in southern Iraq.
‘‘You can tell America: Islam is back.’’
Unintended consequences
This wasn’t what the Bush administration intended when it set out to topple Saddam’s regime and transform Iraq into a ‘‘beacon of democracy’’ for the region.
But already, less than three weeks since Marines occupied the heart of Baghdad, a different vision of Iraq’s future has begun to take shape. It is a future in which Iraq would be ruled by Shiite clerics who take their orders from the ayatollahs in Najaf. It is an Iraq where women would be forced to wear the black, head-to-toe garment known as the abeya and where music, dancing and alcohol are forbidden.
It is an Iraq that would look a lot like neighboring Iran.
Bush administration officials have accused Iran of interfering in Iraq’s affairs to promote its brand of Islamic radicalism. As exiled Iraqi clerics return from Iran, some likely are carrying with them influences, instructions and, perhaps, money and arms from their former hosts.
Repressed ambitions
The dynamics driving Iraq’s nascent Islamic revolution are rooted just as much, however, in the hopes of Iraq’s long-oppressed Shiite community.
Newly released from the harsh restrictions imposed during 35 years of secularist Baath Party rule, Iraqi Shiites are embracing vigorously their newfound religious freedom, and many say they dream of establishing their own Islamic republic in Iraq. Shiites represent about 65 percent of the population in Iraq, and if the elections promised by President Bush eventually are held, their votes will carry enormous weight.
In the cities of the Shiite-dominated south, clerics have created a de facto Islamic mini-state, moving into vacated government offices and forming committees to address critical issues such as the restoration of electricity, water and social services.
In the Shiite slum of Baghdad once known as Saddam City but renamed after the slain Sadr, the mosques are dispensing health care, medicine and justice. Armed volunteers answerable to local clergy enforce order, detaining thieves and patrolling the streets.
The movement appears to have the broad support among residents.
‘‘Of course we want an Islamic government. Shiites are in the majority in Iraq, so we should have the right to choose,’’ said Haidar Shaqr, 22, a local barber living in Sadr City. He says he would support the introduction of Sharia, Islamic law. That would include the veiling of women and severe punishments for adultery and theft.
‘‘These are Islamic laws, and they will become the civilian law. They are the laws of the sky and the heaven,’’ he said. ‘‘Now, it’s just a Shiite thing, but with Saddam gone, the sheiks are insisting that these laws should be for everybody in Iraq.’’
Some Shiites fear ulterior motives
But not all Shiites are happy with what they see. Hameed Hussein al Araji, the chief surgeon at al-Kindi and a Shiite, says he is deeply alarmed and fears his hospital is just the starting point for a creeping Islamic revolution. Al-Kindi is in an area that includes Christians and other minorities and is one of several Baghdad hospitals occupied by armed mullahs.
Zubaidi and his gunmen moved into the hospital April 10, the day after Saddam’s regime collapsed, saying they had come to protect the building from looting. At first, Araji said, the doctors welcomed them, but Zubaidi and his men quickly hinted at ulterior motives.
‘‘I have told him, ‘I don’t like guns in the hospital. We have women here and children,’ " he said. ‘‘But it seems that he has his own agenda. His stated purpose was to protect the hospital, but we think he has a political reason for doing that. He is trying to win the hearts of the people. He gives out drugs, crutches and money.’’
The hospitals are virtually the only functioning institutions in Iraq, and that endows them with political weight. Before the revolution in Iran, the Shiite clergy there won the support of ordinary Iranians by providing social services in impoverished areas neglected by the state, and in Lebanon, the fundamentalist Shiite Hezbollah movement rose in Shiite areas by doing the same.
The speed with which the clerics moved to control the hospitals after the collapse of Hussein’s regime leads Araji to suspect their actions were planned in advance.
‘‘Some of the Shia leaders are neutral and try to keep religion and politics separate, but some are well-organized and are trying to create an Islamic government,’’ he said.
‘‘I hope America won’t stand by and allow them to direct the hospital as a nucleus for the coming of a religious government, because this is not the desire of all Iraqis,’’ he added.
U.S. officials wary
Some American officials say they won’t stand by.
Jay Garner, the retired general appointed to administer the country, said last week that the United States would not tolerate an Islamic republic in Iraq.
But as the U.S. begins to establish an administration for postwar Iraq, the Shiite clerics are filling a critical gap.
Not all of them see their role as permanent.
‘‘We don’t have any aim to be in the new government,’’ said Sheik Abdel Mehdi al Salami, the senior cleric in charge of the southern city of Karbala. ‘‘We want to see a government that represents all the people of Iraq. The Shiites of Iraq are the biggest percentage of people and the government should respect the religious traditions of the Shiites, but at the same time it should give an equal amount of respect to the traditions and religions of other groups.’’
Shiite divisions exist
There are deep divisions within the Shiite clergy, and Zubaidi aligns himself with a radical branch. If Iraqis of different religions or opinions don’t like the idea of an Islamic republic, they will have to get used to it, he said.
‘‘Just as Iraqis grew accustomed to listening to music, so they will grow accustomed to listening to religion in their lives,’’ Zubaidi said.
Araji counsels patience. A degree of political turmoil is inevitable in a country that has suddenly had freedom thrust upon it, he says.
‘‘We hope these things are temporary,’’ he said. ‘‘We paid with our blood for our freedom, and the Americans, they paid with their blood too. Can we believe Americans shed blood only to see an Iraqi government just like the one in Iran? I don’t think so.’’
I'm left wondering: What did U.S. and allied forces do in post-World War II Italy, Germany and Japan to keep the remnants of their defeated enemies —Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism — from rising back to power? I ask, because I wonder if we might have to use similar measures in Iraq to not only beat back Saddam's remaining supporters, but to also keep the fundamentalist elements of the Shiite population from trying to impose their will on *all* of Iraq.
What it comes down to is this: I think we're going to have to spend years occupying and administrating in Iraq, just like we did in Japan and, to a lesser degree, Europe from 1945 onward. And we're going to have to pour money into it (along with Afghanistan) in the form of a Marshall Plan II.
But do we have the *gumption* to do that? And if we do have the gumption to do it, does the rest of the world have the *stomach* to understand that things aren't going to be hunky-dory all the time during this process? I know that MacArthur did his best to respect Japan and all, but there had to be times when he had to use more stick and less carrot than he might have liked. Same would also apply to Germany during its de-Nazification process.
Reality. We all love it, don't we?
Gatekeeper
Comment