A Family in Baghdad

Monday, June 18th, 2007
Peace be upon you…
The previous days and weeks saw acts of violence and clashes, not only in Iraq; there was a second bombing in Samara, a curfew declared from Wednesday to Saturday. But before that there were clashes in the Nahr Al-Barid Camp (= Cold River Camp), between armed groups inside the camp and the Lebanese Army, which received military logistic aid by American plains, flying from Qatar, Israel, or from hell, God only knows…
then there were clashes between Fattah and Hammas in Palestine; these clashes escalated very much from what they used to be for long months now. I cannot recall whether it was one year or more since Hammas won the elections, and a big number of Hammas men controlled the new Palestinian government, something that annoyed Bush and Israel, so they did all they could to topple this government, so they stopped their financial aid, and no more salaries were paid to the state employees. Then Fattah, represented by Mahmood Abbas, started putting pressure upon Hammas to get out of the government or to resign. Clashes started taking place between Fattah supporters and Hammas supporters… the Fattah supporters; represented by Abbas, who supports Bush and his project in the Middle East, by putting pro-American leaderships that carry out his orders. While the Hammas supporters are against the American project in the region, they made efforts to open a door for a dialogue of another kind; not that of an arrogant master with his slaves, as usually happens between Bush and the rest of the other countries' leaders, when the dialogue goes like: Yes, Master. Meaning= just do as told and do not argue…
Hammas tried to open a door for a mutual dialogue to reach a logical, moderate formula, but to no avail…
Conditions in Palestine deteriorated, reaching a dead-end, so the armed clashes between Palestinians became the daily ritual, exactly like what is happening in Iraq. The language of logical dialogue fell, because Bush doesn't want a logical, rational dialogue between people, for him; the bullet, the gun, the missile, and the tank are the masters of situations, and let people go to hell… children and families of innocent civilians fall victims of this armed violence, created by foolish or stupid or criminal men, some of whom might love his country, but has lost his mind in the middle of this insane whirlpool.
This is what is happening in Iraq since four years, and the same happened in Lebanon in the Nahr Al-Barid Camp some weeks ago… and in Palestine, in Gaza, the situation is still strained.
This is the harvest of excessive policies from Bush and the American administration, and we are paying its price… our poor people, our poor families paying the price of a stupid, unjustified violence.
Perhaps I am mistaken when I see this violence as unjustified, while it is justified for Bush and the likes of him; this violence is worth tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent people to die for, as long as the outcome would be for the benefit of that who seeks to dominate what they call- the Middle East, the oil source, and securing the existence of Israel with neighbors who are frightened chickens… all the Arab countries' people should turn into terrified chickens hiding in cages, those countries must turn into cages, and the products of these cages would go to Bush, his supporters, and followers…. Let the Iraqi oil, for instance, go to the boxes of the rich, so they would be richer; to the owners of American oil and weapons companies and whoever follows and obeys them; the Iraqi thieves who are merchants, or decision-makers in the Parties and the government…. And let the people of Iraqi go to hell…
These Iraqi people who are living on top of oil lakes, but are starving, in the same time; yearning for clean water, electricity, medicine, and work opportunities that would provide a decent life for families…..
As I see with my own eyes, and as facts on the ground here tell me; the region is heading for a dark future, controlled by a bunch of thieves and criminals, who suck our blood, plunder our wealth, and care nothing for our cries, our tears, our souls, or anything connected to us… we are all NOTHING to them….
The people of Iraq, the people of Lebanon, of Palestine, and who knows who's next into the crematory?
Sudan and Somalia are also living through a fire that dies down then rises up from time to time. And what about Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunis, and the other countries of the region? Will they leave them alone, or will that violence and bloodshed knock on their doors one day, to achieve the dream of the "Big Middle East"? is it a project to crumble the countries into small states? And why one party of the powers clashing with each other is always wearing the robe of Islam? Why is Islam being deformed and made to look ugly like this, so that the whole world should hate it, and it would be hated by the Muslims themselves?
A war against terrorism, or a war against Islam?
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When we used to live in Iraq, before the war and the American occupation, our main problem was the lack of political and democratic freedoms… now there are hundreds of Parties in Iraq, many TV and broadcasting stations, satellite channels, satellite receiving, mobile phones, computers, internet, and a lot of daily newspapers…
Did this solve the problems of Iraq, do we live happily after drowning into the seas of Bush's democracy?
In truth; all these changes entered our lives, but at the same time, some evil powers entered our lives, dividing the Iraqi people into Sunnies and Shia'ats, bringing new designations onto us, wanting to divide us, making us strangers from each other. All the Arabic and western media started talking about: the shelling of a mosque in a Sunnie neighborhood, the killing of ten Shia'at civilians, Al-Ramadi area houses Sunnie insurgents, Samara has a Sunnie majority, the shrine that was blown up is a Shia'at shrine in a Sunnie area, Al-Sader city is a Shia'at district…
Nonsense, empty talk, lies, mean and dirty words….
But it is being marketed every day, morning and night, for four years now in all the media; newspapers, magazines, TVs, and radio. And the Arabic channels are all repeating, like Parrots, the same silly, lying, disgusting rubbish…
We, the Iraqis, see it as disgusting, empty talk, bearing no truth; but how would the world outside Iraq know?
Almost everybody believed the story, believed that there is a Sunnie-Shia'at conflict in Iraq, and that the country is heading for a civil war…

Well then; we have been living with the Christians in Iraq for thousands of years, in the Muslim feast, our Christian neighbors come to congratulate us, bringing presents and chocolate, and in their feasts, in the New Year or the Easter, we visit them at their houses, carrying presents and chocolate…
That is how we grew up to be; we respect them and they respect us, we are not concerned with what is in their hearts. We do not say: we are God's chosen people, and the rest shall go to hell. We are not God, the Lord of all beings, for only He will call his followers to account.
But what happened to the Christians in Iraq after Bush went in?
He didn't rip the Muslims only, dividing them into Sunnies and Shia'ats, but also brought onto us extremist gangs who claim to be Muslims, and they go to the houses of the poor Christians and tell them: we are from the Islamic Republic of Iraq Organization; you have either to declare becoming Muslims, give us one of your daughters for free, or we will burn your houses…
So, where did these come from?
Is this the new Islam that Bush wants to spread in Iraq?
All the non-Muslim sects used to live in a state of harmony and peace with the Muslims; our neighbors were Christians or Baptists, we respect them, we compliment them, our children are the friends of their children.
But now, terrorist gangs attack them, displacing them, or threatening to burn their houses?
And Bush says in one of his speeches that before the war there was no freedom of worship in Iraq, and now, the Iraqi people enjoy the freedom of worship.
Where is this freedom of worship in Iraq now?
The Muslim mosques were burned, the Sunni's and the Shia'at's, the holy shrines were blown, and churches were also destroyed… the Sunnies, the Shia'ats, the Christians and the Baptists fled their homes alike, and no one enjoys their freedom of worship like they used to do before…
Is this the ugly harvest of democracy and globalization?
To rip apart people's unity, their heritage, their possessions, and drive them away from their houses?
What a miserable, gloomy, ugly harvest….
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Based on what was said, people have reactions towards all that is happening.
Some despaired and lost hope of Palestine returning to the Palestinians and Iraq to the Iraqis. These people live in an indescribable state of frustration and negative feelings, and perhaps they delivered their despair and frustration to their children and grandchildren, and that would be a big mistake towards themselves and their countries... some lay down in the face of the sweeping tide, especially the young people, lost without an aim or an identity, whose parents are mostly negative and thwarted people. These young people dress in a bizarre way, their hairstyles are funny; as they put gel on their hair so it becomes like spikes, they look like they have just been struck by electricity. And when you ask one of them- what happened to your hair? Are you from Mars? His face goes red, and he cannot find an answer… and the girls wear very tight jeans with a short T-Shirt, showing their bellies sometimes, and this is a style that doesn't make them feel embarrassed. Many times there are some veiled girls but they wear a tight trouser and a tight T-Shirt. I don't know who invented this kind of wonder veil, for in Islam, a woman is supposed to wear something loose (= not tight fitting) so the charms of her body wouldn't be evident to the men on the street… Some of the Arabic stations became agents to broadcast western songs, ads for western restaurants and western products, and western series, so that they controlled people's minds, especially the children and young people… there are also some boring Arabic news channels, full of news and news analysis that spoil tempers and make the body ache, driving people to frustration, then to turn off the TV set and prefer chatter about food, the kitchen, cloths, and gyms instead of talking about the hot daily events that burn the temperament…
And always, the question jumps into my head: what is politics? Is it something for the elite? Or is it our daily lives? Our future and that of our children?
Shall we withdraw from deciding the fate of our future, the future of our coming generations, and resort to petty talks to cheer up our selves and forget the frustrations of daily life?
Or do we harden our hearts and pull back our sleeves to show we're ready for the confrontation; we shall not let a bunch of thieves, rich people, and hard-hearted criminals, the owners of big companies, control this world to destroy it and rip it apart, so it will remain weak under their control, so the poor will be poorer and envious, and the rich would be richer and greedier…
The negative attitude with which we meet them is an encouragement to them, giving legitimacy and agreement to what ugly, destructive actions they commit, destroying this beautiful universe, created by the Lord of all beings to be a source of human's happiness, not their misery, created to contain justice, peace, beauty, quiet and rest, not to be a field for conflicts, killings, ruin and destruction.
We should all work to achieve justice, peace, and safety on this planet Earth... to stop those fools at limits they wouldn't go beyond…
If we do not move, ruin will move from one place to another, and violence will move from one place to another, reaping thousands more of innocent souls…
With all my regards and respect to wakeful people, who work seriously and actively for a positive change on Earth…
And all my sorrow for sleeping, negligent people, may their eyes go open one day….
Amen….
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