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Arabs and Kurds are
trading insults online as the election debate moves
into cyberspace.
Tempers are flaring in cyberspace as the young
people of Iraq express their opinions in hundreds of
online “chat rooms” accessed from internet cafes
across the country.
The chat rooms – a virtual discussion space where
internet users can engage in usually unmoderated
debates on any subject they choose – are gaining in
popularity as young Iraqis embrace technology that
was banned under the Saddam regime.
But many discussions about the January 30 elections
and the implications for the war-torn nation are
spilling over into threats and insults as Arabs and
Kurds clash online.
In the La Ilaha Ila Allah (There is no god but
Allah) chat room, an Arab using the screen name
ahmed_basry, told a Kurdish internet user, ary_2004,
that his people were “agents of the Americans and
Israelis”.
An angry ary_2004 defended the Kurds by telling
ahmed_basry that all Arabs were “agents of Iran and
Syria”.
“We are all Islamists, you dogs!” replied
ahmed_basry.
“You idiot - shut up!” said ary_2004.
These online rows reflect the tensions on streets
and cafes across Iraq as the population gears up for
the republic’s first democratic elections for
decades.
The anonymity of the internet allows Arabs and Kurds
to confront each behind pseudonyms, with the result
that the exchanges are far more heated than they
would be face to face, and debates often get out of
hand.
In the “Ahali Kirkuk” (People of Kirkuk) chat room,
kurdish_sarbast and hasan_sidqy quarreled bitterly
over the future of the ethnically divided city of
Kirkuk. The latter fled the online forum when
kurdish_sarbast warned him, “If you don’t return to
your original home, we will kill you.”
The issue of oil-rich Kirkuk, which is claimed by
both Arabs and Kurds, is a major point of discussion
both online and offline and the Kurdish desire for a
federal state has made them the target of much
anger.
Hemn Omed, head of Sara Internet Café in
Sulimaniyah, said he does not monitor what customers
say in the chat rooms. But he said he is aware that
his Kurdish customers are often insulted when they
go online.
“When they know you are a Kurd, they reply to you in
a very indecent way,” Omed said. “You cannot chat
with them about politics.”
But he told IWPR that he had not been asked by any
political or cultural body to prevent such
conversations taking place in his café.
Analysts believe that the internet is merely
highlighting the serious divisions that already
exist between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds.
Jawad Hamza, a young Arab from Baghdad, described
the Kurds as “separatists” and denounced their
attitude towards the occupying Americans.
“They caught the hands of the Americans, and brought
them to Iraq to steal the oil of Kirkuk,” he
claimed. “Whenever I find a Kurd in the chat room I
enter, I call him names until he leaves.”
But Kurdish youngster Ako Jalal in Sulimaniyah said
it’s the Arabs who think in a nationalist way. “They
don’t listen to anyone, they are idiots,” he said.
“They think Kirkuk is an Arab city and that is why I
call them bad names. They don’t care about Iraq’s
future.”
Others believe that chat rooms could give Arabs and
Kurds a place to air grievances and eventually work
out peaceful solutions to their problems.
Soran Muhamad Ra’uf, a student at the University of
Sulimaniyah, has chatted online with Syrians and
Palestinian Arabs for a long time and has been able
to persuade some of them to listen to the Kurdish
perspective.
Ra’uf said that Arabs in other countries simply do
not have any background about the atrocities
perpetrated against the Kurds in Iraq, and they see
Saddam Hussein as the leader of Islam.
Dr Arsalan Baiyz, a member of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan’s political bureau, said it is only
natural for Kurdish youth to lash out against Arabs
after years of oppression under successive Iraqi
regimes. He added that it is necessary for Arabs to
understand the reality of the Kurdish situation at
this critical time.
“If the Arabs don’t listen to Kurdish views and are
rude, it may create a gap between us which will be
difficult to bridge,” he said.
Baiyz said he does not believe any of Iraq’s
problems will be solved in chat rooms.
Instead, he said Iraqis should engage in
intellectual discussions in which each group listens
to each other and seeks just solutions to their
problems. A failure to hold frank debates about the
real issues that divide Kurds and Arabs will only
hurt both groups, he warned.
By Wriya Hama Tahir in Baghdad (ICR No. 97,
19-Jan-05)
Wriya Hama Tahir is an IWPR trainee in Baghdad.
http://www.iwpr.net
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