Saturday, August 26, 2006

Political Analysis

There seems to be a new “modeh” to attach the nationality Iraqi with more detailed sectarianism, living abroad, this new “modeh” I have witnessed is mostly and if not always coming from non-Iraqis.
There is the type that wants to appear all knowing, probably as news paper-intellectuals, and there is this type whom they think that they are the top-notch political analysts, visualizing Iraqi politics in a very discreet, absolutist either white or black type of analysis, leaving so many intricate, details in the trash bin.
The supposed, ever so existent Sunni and Shi’a schism is not the only analytical tool of Iraqi politics, I do not hear much about the tainted secularism, or anything about class issues in Iraq, after all, we are one hell of a “6aba8i” society.
Not so long go, women in Iraq used to wear mini skirts in their universities’ campuses, Iraq had the first female judge in the whole, wide Arab world and Middle East, and ages ago, Sunnis and Shi’as from the same social class had more in common with each other, than with their counterparts from the lower social strata.

Why is there a lot of ignorance about class struggles in Iraq, isn’t one of the reasons of why communism found quite of a receptive audience in Iraq?Iraqis started hearing stories of a female Engineer marrying a trucker, this did not happen before. Wasn’t there also, Shi’a political parties attracting Sunni’s political activists, so both and together to combat the wide spreading secularism in Iraq. The later, might not be so much of a use for political analysis today, but the history of this type of the Iraqi political scene makers were not absolute in complexion, even with the proposed variables I am offering for more detailed Iraqi political analysis, I am, also, being discreet.

Why can’t people admit, Iraq has always been a volatile, crazy place, it was never defined in absolutism, or else, you will have error inscription all over, and isn’t that what is happening!
So, why do I hear in the media of this absolutist, blunt analysis of Iraqi politics and society, so deterministic into made-up blocks, Sunni’s and Shi’as.

For all those foreigners, you think you know me if you knew I was Sunni’s or Shi’a, and likewise, for all those stupid, Iraqi politicians, they think they know me and who I support because of my background, did not Iraq witness brothers and sisters, part of them atheists, part Sunni’s and part Shi’as, aren’t there tribes in Iraq, that are partly Shi’a and partly Sunnis, how about Baghdad, how stupid of them trying to divide a city that is so “mixed” in every orientation possible; funny I use “mix”, I am sorry, but I do not accept such a silly term, I just need it to get in your head, you fool.
I never knew what my parents were, Sunni’s or Shi’as, only when I came to Canada, call me stupid, ignorant, whatever, I careless, but I sincerely did not know what kind of sect my parents belonged to, and I also, talked to couple of Iraq-Canadians, and they found the same thing, they did not know what kind of sect they belonged to. In Iraq, I do not remember people asking others if they were Sunni’s or Shi’as, it was “3aib” and nashaz, y3ani shameful and odd. And even when I try to remember my childhood friends, I have difficulty figuring out who is Shi’a or Sunni, we simply do not know, probably we were little kids, but this kind of culture and identity politics, even if it existed in realms I did not experience before, is exacerbating, I mean we have political parties according to one’s religious sects, call me a self-imposing secularist, but that does not make sense, at least to me. I mean Iraq need political parties that offer economic solutions, some sustainable development plans, something to progress social well-fare of the Iraqi people, something to combat SECTERIANISM and not to promote it, probably end those stupid militias, are those stupid politicians thing they can do something about the militias, in a country where its politics all run by identity politics, each group feel frightened, security is needed to all Iraqis. In the end, the very plebian masses of the Iraqi society are the ones who are paying the price, not the elitists, and the very weakness of these masses is that they listen to these elitists, Iraqis should be given books, or at least history books, so they can know they their grandparents long time ago, had a civilization to offer to the world and not disgusting ignorance. (I actually voice my concern to give books to the entire middle east/Arab world).
If only people felt the love to their country, and I must admit, I am just writing in here, and I will be eating my mom’s home made ba8lawa. Damn, i live in luxury! I am thankful.

3 comments:

zmanutdz said...

the new ' modeh ' for me is the need of iraqis to enquire about where you lived or born in iraq. I can only see this as an indirect way to identify whether you are sunni or shiite.

A reply like ' Adthamiya' will get you a positive response from someone Sunni but will end the conversation with a Shiite. The best part is after identifying yourself being Shiite,Sunni,Kurdish or Christian...etc . You get the usual cliche of ' I dont care about secularism and I only asked out of curiousity '.

Intellectuals and newspapers are all trying to be too clever and showing us they know alot about Iraq and Iraqis because they googled 'Iraq' and watched some muqtada al sadir video on youtube.

The sad part is that people do care whether they are sunni or shiite now and it actually makes a difference these days. You maybe killed if you were Sunni and found in a Shiite area.

Being Sunni or Shiite makes a difference in Baghdad now, people are leaving certain areas and moving to live after receiving death threats. Sadly, the once ' mixed ' city is now being quickly divided and the Tigris is developing into a very good bisector of dear Baghdad.

P.S.: I know this is some random rambling and was not really a comment for the post, but plz forgive me. When I start to write about Iraq, I just find too many things to say and so ideas get mixed halfway through ow yamich il 7asba :)

Shams said...

"Intellectuals and newspapers are all trying to be too clever and showing us they know alot about Iraq and Iraqis because they googled 'Iraq' and watched some muqtada al sadir video on youtube."

Even political elitists in Iraq, they analyse Iraqi people's divisiveness based on secterian schism only, and personally, i think there were way more variables that lead to this, after all not all people are like that in Iraq.


"The sad part is that people do care whether they are sunni or shiite now and it actually makes a difference these days. You maybe killed if you were Sunni and found in a Shiite area"

i think the extremists, militia factions are the one who started to make the whole situation alot worse, i know a family whose brother got killed because of his name, and when i talked to her , and to other relatives, they do not seem to have grudges against the other sect, it is a matter of knowing the big picutre.

"When I start to write about Iraq, I just find too many things to say and so ideas get mixed halfway through ow yamich il 7asba :)"

yala you can always vent, we all need to vent and think i guess. :)

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