Friday, August 15, 2008

Religious Holidays

The number of Shiite holidays in Iraq has now reached 111 days per year, reflecting the growing sense of religious freedom and political power associated with the Shia faith in Iraq today. Shiite holidays now put Iraqi security forces on alert for 30% of the year. [more...]

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

كم صدام في تاريخ الأمة العربية المجيدة

منسي الطيب
عرب تايمز
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كاتب عراقي مقيم في الولايات المتحدة
Email: mansialtaib@yahoo.com
كم صدام في تاريخ الأمة العربية المجيدة

لم يكن (صدام بن أبيه) ، بظلمه وجوره وطغيانه ، حالة استثنائية فريدة من نوعها في تأريخ العرب والمسلمين ، بقدر ما كان كغيره من الأقزام المتفرعنة امتدادا حتميا لمن سبقه من الخلفاء والحكام والقادة العرب الذين أصبحوا في ما بعد سُنة وشريعة أعراب متبعة لمن بعدهم من اللقطاء المتكررين بنطف آبائهم المقذوفة في رحم الزمان المغتصَب.

يؤكد علماء الإجتماع الغربيون على ان الإنسان بن بيئته. وصدام لم يكن كذلك فحسب ، بل كان إبن تأريخ عربي قذر مزيف ومزور ومقلوب ومكتوب بدماء الضحايا ليجعل منهم ظالمين ومن قتلتهم مظلومين ومغبونين ومفترى عليهم!

كثيرا ما سألت نفسي هذا السؤال: ماذا كنت سأفعل لو كنت مكان صدام؟ وكنت كلما أعدت السؤال على نفسي ، يكون الجواب نفسه في كل مرة ، وهو اني سأقتل وأذبح وأعذب البشر وأدمر البلدان وأحرق الشعوب وسأفعل أكثر مما فعله صدام بنفسه وبشعبه وبأمته العربية المهزومة مادام هناك من يصفق لي ويبرر جرائمي الوحشية للعالم!

وإذا كان صدام قد اختبأ في حفرة من حفر المخازي والعار -- التي لا تليق حتى بجرذ أجرب -- هاربا من قدره فإني سأختبأ في حفرة أقذر وأحقر من حفرته ، ليس خوفا من عدوي أو فرارا من قدري لكن هربا من انتمائي لهكذا أمة عربية مريضة ترى في الجبناء أبطالا ورموزا قومية ودينية.

ومَن يحاول أن يسأل نفسه هذا السؤال وتكون إجابته مختلفة عن إجابتي ، فليحمد ربه -- أيا كان هذا الرب – لأن السائل لم يكن عربيا مثلي!
لماذا؟

قد يختلف اثنان من الأعراب حول شخصية عربية وقائد اسلامي مثل خالد بن الوليد. سيّما إذا كان المختلف الأول سنيّا يرى في خالد القائد والمجاهد وسيف الله المسلول في ميادين الذبح والسلخ واغتصاب النساء. وكان المختلف الثاني شيعيا تعوّد على الظلم والإضطهاد واللطم والبكاء واتقن فنون التقية التي يتجنب بها شر أخيه المختلف الأول في نظرته الى خالد وأمثاله من عشاق الدماء.

لكن ، ماذا لو كان خالد بن الوليد شيعيا؟

أكيد انه سيصبح سبأي مجوسي بن متعة وسيجرده التأريخ السني العربي الرخيص من السيف الذي حباه الله به لقطع رقاب البشر ، وسيجد الشيعي -- في المقابل -- لخالد ألف نص ديني يبرر له إجرامه وإرهابه وطبخه لرؤوس أعداءه في قدور الطعام ، وسيكون اغتصاب خالد بن الوليد للسيدة (ليلى) في نفس اليوم الذي قتل فيه خالد زوجها الصحابي (مالك بن نويرة) أمامها نوع من انواع المتعة المحللة في القران!

المسلم الشيعي لا يختلف كثيرا عن المسلم السني في نظرته إلى الرمز والقائد العربي الجبان بقدر ما يختلف معه في كيفية انتهاز الفرصة -- التي دائما ما يفشل فيها الشيعي -- والجلوس على عرش السلطان واستغلال كل النصوص الدينية المقدسة لصالحه الشخصي ، وحكومة اللصوص العراقية الحالية خير دليل على ذلك ، إذ ان هذه الحكومة قد وعدت العالم مجبرة بديمقراطية عراقية نموذجية تكون الأولى من نوعها في تاريخ العرب والمسلمين؟ ولا أعرف من أين كانت ستستمد هذه الحكومة تعاليم وقوانين ديمقراطيتها وهي عربية إسلامية ليس في تاريخ عروبتها الطويل من الرموز ما هو أهون في الإجرام والإرهاب من خالد والحجاج والرشيد والسفاح وصدام وغيرهم؟ وبالتالي أثبتت هذه الحكومة للعالم أنها ليست قادرة إلا على الهدم بدلا من البناء والعمران والسرقة بدلا من ارجاع حقوق المظلومين وتعويضهم، وإذلال الشعب العراقي أكثر من إذلاله في عهد الديكتاتورية السابق.

وإذا كان الشعب العراقي في السابق مظلوما ومضطهدا ومحروما من حقوقه ، فالآن مظلومية هذا الشعب أكبر وأضطهاده أكثر ونصيب حرمانه أوفر ، ولا أدري مَن هو المسؤول الحقيقي الأول عن هذا كله؟ هل هي أمريكا التي أرادت عن قصد للشعب العراقي أن يجرّب الحكم الشيعي الفاشل بعدما جرب حكم السني المستبد لأكثر من ألف وأربعمائة سنة هجرية فأورث العباد ثقافة الحزن المؤبد واللطم السنوي وسايكيلوجية الثارات المرفرفة براياتها على أعمدة الكهرباء المقطوعة منذ سنين؟

الإثنان ، الشيعي والسني ، لا يصلحان للحكم ماداما ينهلان تعاليمهما الديمقراطية المقدسة من بئر عتيق واحد ، هو بئر زمزم الذي حفره أبوهما ابراهيم الخليل الذي وُلِد في مدينة الناصرية العراقية وترك عائلته المسلمة في مكة السعودية ليذهب الى مدينة الخليل في فلسطين بعائلته اليهودية الثانية ليصبح بعد ذلك أبا دينيا لأكبر ثلاث ديانات سماوية إرهابية متناحرة في سبيل الله ، والضحية تكون دائما الشعوب المضطهدة المبتلية بتأريخ سخيف لا يمجد إلا الطغاة والقتلة والصداميين.
وكم صدام في تاريخ الأمة العربية المجيدة؟!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Iraqi YouTube: al-Furat's Subtle Attack Ad

It seems that the things EyeRaki talked about regarding the divergence of interests between Iran and Abdilaziz al-Hakim's SIIC, seen by many Iraqis (incl. Sadrists) as nothing more than an Iranian fifth column isn't behind-the-scenes furor anymore, check out this very interesting, subtle attack ad on Iran, aired on al-Hakim's Furat-TV, to my knowledge, nobody, including the Americans and the Sunni-on-its-sleeve media outlets ever did think up such a direct attack ad, even though it's not very obvious, by and large, Iraqi anti-terrorism ads are obvious, so I didn't try to look hard into it, although it tells you to 'see' and asks you rather cryptically 'did you know now?', the references are amazingly nuanced. Which suggest another way of looking at this, these ads are paid for by some other agency, some strangely creative and advanced agency for this region, the intelligence in this video suggest something of the work of the very mysterious Iraq of Tomorrow Group, who also did the Terrorism Has No Religion الارهاب لا دين له campaign, it has to be them, all the other patriotic ads I've seen are really Saddam-era stupid. They might have intentionally made the references obscure so that channels such as al-Furat would broadcast them unknowingly.
Anyway, don't worry about not understanding it, the bad guys at MEMRI have done all the work for you.
One thing is for sure, the complicated relationship between Iran, America and the two major Shi'i parties in Iraq is very hard to describe coherently.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Iraqi Atheist Resumes Blogging

Our favorite Kadhimiya Atheist finally sheds light on his recent adventures, or lack thereof. The man seems to be kinda down, so cheer him up a bit with a comment or two.

A Sectarian Analysis of Yassir al-Habib's TOEFL Score

This is very surprising, in fact shocking, because usually most men of religion, especially ones raised in their native homelands (Kuwait, in this case, although he speaks with an Iraqi dialect), are often stereotyped as rather illiterate in virtually every other field of knowledge. Sheikh Yassir al-Habib, a notorious YouTube Shi'i young cleric, employs English masterfully in this YouTube series to explain a (disputed) Shi'i view that Prophet Muhammed did not die a natural death, but was assassinated by his wives Aisha (at his time of death, she had just hit 18 btw) & Hafsa, the daughters of two of Shia Islam's Supervillians/Sunni Islam's Heroes (not exactly superheroes, Sunni Islam is boring): first two caliphs Abu Bakr "Blueye" Bin Quhafa and Umar "Ribbreaker" Bin al-Khattab .
It has been taken for granted that for countless centuries, the Shia were the oppressed and the Sunni were the oppressors, however, this doesn't necessarily indicate that the Shia are anymore peaceful or tolerant than the Sunnis in any way, they simply lost the power struggle, and facing the fact of being sore losers, they settled for a vindictive agenda that was put on hold until future Terminator-Mahdi activates World Shutdown Sequence, while the Sunnis happily chopped off their heads and have rather enjoyed their sadistic tenure in power (as opposed to the Shi'i masochistic self-sacrifice) until they were put in the Losing Shi'i position of the food chain at large by the West when Napoleon washed up Egypt's shore. In fact, a world where Shia make up 90% of the Muslim world would find the Umayyad-following, Nasibi Holy-Imam-Killing sect of Sunnism in a very difficult environment that might force them to adopt many of the evasive measurements now unique to Shi'ism.
But enough What-Ifs, being only 10-15%, the Shia found no other option but to hit the mattresses and be implicit about their own takfirist impulses. This finds itself true in many manifestations, especially when comparing the accomodative role of the Shia minority in Syria and the suppressive role of the Sunni minority in Iraq, (coming up in a future post).

Because of all of this, Sheikh Yassir al-Habib is an interesting figure, he is a young cleric who has quickly gained notoriety, attained quickly by bombast and controversy, unlike virtually all Shi'is, he publicly blasphemes the companions harshly and explicitly, for which he was imprisoned in Kuwait, only to manage to seek asylum and resettle in the United Kingdom, the man is a recurring figure in many discussion forums and video sites, you might him remember as the guy who actively called for the burning and destruction of Sunni mosques following the Askariya 2006 events (although that video was edited for effect), in many ways, the extremism of his views are equivalent of the Wahhabi 'Takfiri' sheikhs who are murderously opposed to the Rafidha Shia, a class that usually summons Ibn Taymiyya alongside modern stalwarts such as Ibn Baz, Ibn Jibreen, and Salih al-Fawzan. But the rarity of extremist figures on the Shi'i side is only a matter of the careful prudent hate of the traditional Shi'i system, produced by centuries of a their perception of being oppressed. In defiance, Yassir courageously describes the Sunnis as 'unbelievers', he also complains that the Askari shrine is under the control of the 'Nawasib' (lit. Ali-haters, but here he means the Iraqi Sunni endowment) and the priority of its reclamation is more important than reclaiming Jerusalem, in fact, his default word for 'Sunnism' in this video is a dismissive 'Bakri sect'. Listening to his lectures, the whole Shi'i thing seems to be concetrated at getting sweet revenge from Umar.
So we come to ask the big question again, often asked by the larger West vis-a-vis the smaller Islam in the food chain, is this Yassir al-Haibi guy an extremist nonsensical offshoot who wants to make it big quick or are there some concrete facts that supplied this hatred and he's just being honest about it? Well, for most of the time, Sunni-Shia relations were lukewarm at best, and they only come into unison when faced by a common enemy, such as Abu Naji** in 1920s Iraq (although the intents of the various factions in that revolution comes into heavy dispute), or the general lack of interest in religion in the 60s, heydays of Pan-Arab Nasserism, which was a time when the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party would hold demonstrations in tandem with al-Hakim family against Qasim's Communists, and most spectacularly a fatwa validating the Shi'i sect by the highest Sunni authority, Egyptian al-Azhar (which, interestingly, was built by Fatimid Shia), although the Azhar hurridely distanced itself from the fatwa as time progressed and the Iranian revolution burst upon the panicked Gulf and the shit-ruined America, who both hurried to Saddam. Other than these circumstantial periods, the constant assurance that 'everything is all right' and 'we are only different by 20% or less' is made more worrying with the number of the dead piling up and the increase in extremist hysteria from both sides of the camp, all signs of a very strained hostility that is constantly emerging after being buried not-so-subtly in history books. with the Sunnis naturally being the more outspoken considering their size , their traditional dominance and their perceived loss of power. That's the only difference, as evidenced by the concentrated dose of honest hate of al-Habib as lashed out in this reactionary fashion. In this environment, which lacks any understanding of meaningful coexistence, Prophet Bush's shock-and-awe democracy won't work, so here's hoping for another miracle, (although not one as my otherwise-nice uncle suggests: nuke all the Shia.) :)


** Abu Naji = An Iraqi slang for British, what, you think your 'Haji' is original?