|
Shias Too Lose Faith in Iraqi Government
4.12.2006
|
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, December
4, -- The noisy demonstration that greeted Iraqi
Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki on his visit to Sadr
City last week was more than just a protest. It
meant that the leader of a Shia-dominated government
was being rejected by an angry and influential group
of Shias.
Maliki's heavily guarded convoy was pelted with
stones and with shoes -- a grave insult in Iraq. And
this happened in a Shia area.
About 60 percent of the 25 million population of
Iraq is Shia, and Shia leaders now dominate
government. The government faces increasingly more
aggressive opposition from Sunni groups who feel
persecuted.
Sunnis, an estimated five million, were the dominant
group earlier under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The rest of the Iraqi population is Kurdish in the
north. Kurds include both Shias and Sunnis, but
stand apart ethnically as Kurds.
Iraq is now a deeply divided Muslim world. Sectarian
clashes between Shia and Sunni groups have been
growing by the day. Shias are a Muslim group who
believe - unlike the Sunnis -- that Prophet Muhammad
designated his nephew Imam Ali to lead the Islamic
community after his death. That old schism is now
deepening.
Sunni insurgents are suspected in the bomb blasts
that killed more than 200 in Sadr City. Noori al-Maliki
had gone there to pay condolences to the families of
the car bomb victims. But he was abused as a traitor
to the cause of Shias.
"He and other Dawa party leaders did not keep the
promises made to the Sadr movement before the
elections," a leader of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's
movement told IPS in Baghdad. Noori al-Maliki is
from the Shia Dawa party, but the Sadr group is far
more influential among Shias in this area.
"People are complaining that this government is not
paying any attention to them and their ruined city
despite the huge contracts signed for
reconstruction," the Sadr leader said. "We believe
that this government is not suitable for leading the
country, and we might withdraw support to it if no
major change is conducted."
Differences also arose between Maliki and the Sadr
movement, on which he depends heavily for political
support, over his meeting with U.S. President George
W. Bush in Amman last week.
The Sadr movement has 30 MPs in the Iraqi
government, and a withdrawal could damage a
government with little popular support.
The Mehdi Army, the armed wing of the Sadr group,
has issued stern warnings over the government's
relations with the United States. "America is our
enemy, and Bush wants to save his chair and party at
our expense," Hussein al-Bahadly of the Mehdi Army
told IPS. "The Amman meeting was a conspiracy
against the Shias, especially that King Abdullah of
Jordan was its godfather."
Both Iraqi and Iranian Shias consider King Abdullah
of Jordan an enemy because his father supported
Sunni-administered Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war in
the 1980s.
Disquiet is arising all around because the present
Iraqi government is losing support -- and so is the
United States in its occupation of Iraq. Recent news
that Britain expects to withdraw its 7,000 troops
from southern Iraq by the end of next year is likely
to bring further frustration to the Iraqi government
and the embattled Bush Administration.
Italy and Poland have already announced withdrawal
of their remaining troops.
These forces in the south are likely to be replaced
by U.S. troops, who are then likely to face
increased attacks from the Mehdi Army, which has
already launched an uprising twice against
occupation forces.
Further frustrating Washington is the recent visit
to Tehran by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Talabani is seeking help from Iran for preventing
Iraq's extreme violence from sliding into all-out
civil war.
Much of western media already calls the violence in
Iraq a civil war, but many within the country remain
reluctant to do so.
"Civil war as the media expresses is not yet a solid
fact," professor of political science at Baghdad
University Zahiu Yassen told IPS. "The violence is
still within the limits of political conflict
between ruling parties, and all the killings are
conducted by gangs hired by politicians. No Iraqi
has killed his neighbour for being Sunni or Shia,
but how long would people keep reason and patience?"
Shia death squads composed of members of the Mehdi
Army and the Badr Army, the armed wing of the
Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution
in Iraq are responsible for much of the recent
bloodshed in the country. Sunni insurgents too have
been hitting back.
It is widely believed that Shia militia groups are
backed by senior Shia leaders in the government and
parliament.
IPS
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 