Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

As sectarian violence spins out of control in Iraq, today The Washington Post reports that Moqtada al-Sadr’s compound was struck with two mortars. He was inside and survived injury.

 After the attack, al-Sadr released a statement with the obligatory call for calm. As translated by The Associated Press:

 "I call upon all brothers to stay calm and I call upon the Iraqi army to protect the pilgrims as the Nawasib (militants) are aiming to attack Shiites everyday," the statement said, according to the Associated Press. 

Or did he? The Post article points out:

 In the past two months, attacks on two Shiite targets — a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra, and Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, a stronghold of Sadr support — have unleashed the greatest sectarian bloodletting since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003. Sadr issued similar appeals for calm after both attacks.

 However, Sadr’s thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia is accused by many U.S. officials and others in the violent retaliation to the mosque bombing and Sadr City attack.

 Al-Sadr uses the word "Nawasib" in his statement. It is a very loaded word and is code for inciting violence in otherwise benign statements. "Nawasib" is understood by the Shiite to mean "those who declared hostility against the household of the Prophet". It is an insult used to refer to Sunnis. It is not a word you would use when you are interested in reconciliation. It is a word you would use to incite hate and violence. To make the comparison more immediate, consider that there are similar words that racists use in the United States (and I will not repeat them here) when they are interested in hatemongering.

 The radicals use our ignorance of their culture against us. They are very adept at playing the Bush Administration for full advantage, on the one hand, getting material support as the "good" guys in the Green Zone, and on the other hand, using that "material support" to kill innocents while we are patting ourselves on the back for teaching these people about democracy.

 Hate always has many names. In Iraq, Hate sometimes likes to call itself "Nawasib".

Peace Takes Courage

via Steve O of Bring it On

Every Muslim in the world recognizes the title of this post. Those words begin every chapter (surah) but one of The Koran.  The Arabic words Rahman (most gracious) and Rahim (most merciful) are considered to be two of the ninety-nine attributes of Allah. Grace and Mercy are the foundation of the religion of Islam. The word Koran itself is generally translated to mean, "Read". This is the first word in The Koran - "Read". Ignorance is not consistent with being a Muslim.

We live in a world where much killing is committed in the name of religion. And, much killing today is being committed in the name of Islam, in the name of Allah. I recognize that the reader may now want to point out that much killing has been and is being committed in the name of other religions also. Why do I single Islam out today? The simple answer is that I am a Muslim. I am not ready to cast stones at others without taking down the glass in my own house.

The New York Times gives us today a glimpse into hell. The Times article gives us chilling commentary on evil manifested. I argued in an earlier post about the danger in Iraq from the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade; but the Times article brings into the mainstream the atrocities these groups are committing in Iraq. They are not committing your run of the mill killings; they are using creative tools of the torture trade like electric drills. What kind of animal do you have to be to drill a man’s head for brutal pleasure?

They are committing these atrocities, the systematic killing of Sunni Muslims, with ruthless efficiency and in the name of Islam. I say to them: Read. I say to them that I have seen your faces before. You have killed in other places and at other times in the name of some cause or other. I have watched you kill mothers, fathers, husbands, wives and I have seen you kill children. I have watched you from a child’s hiding place as you nearly beat a man to death in search of my own father. I have seen your coward’s eyes behind the hot muzzle of your weapon. I have seen the blood on your hands.

Madness has been unleashed in Iraq and we have all been its enablers. I grieve for the ordinary citizen of Iraq. I say to you that this too shall pass. Reason lies at the end of this meat grinder. But I fear a lot of killing is left to be done before reason returns.

We, who sit thousands of miles away, watch the tragedy that is current day Iraq unfold on our television screens. After a while, the daily killings all seem to blur into each other. Not much catches our attention anymore. The tick tick tick of human life expiring at a steady click becomes part of the background noise. We perk our ears and focus our eyes every now and then when something really dramatic occurs that breaks the monotony of mayhem. Otherwise, life lumbers forward and we busy ourselves with our work and our family. This monotony is captured well by E.M. Forster’s pen:

And again and again fell the world like the ebb of a dying sea.

I suspect life is also like that in Iraq. Where the daily killings, even though they are immediate, are taken in stride as life tries to survive and make sense of the horrors all around. I suspect this, but the Iraqis live this. Today see this reality for yourself through the eyes of an Iraqi citizen. Read the post entitled "Lynchings and Holy Wars" on the blog Healing Iraq. See man’s inhumanity to man and ask yourself if you believe that Iraq is not already over the waterfall.

Today, I grieve for Iraq, I grieve for her people and I grieve for her children.

I leave you with the words that stirred Hemingway. A meditation by John Donne:

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness…No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.