Your Father Is Not a Victim, Mr. Aziz!

As I was checking the latest tweets on Iraq on my iPhone this morning, I came across a BBC World tweet that read “Tariq Aziz is a victim, says his son http://bbc.in/9uCfME.” I shook my head in disbelief as I read what the son said. I retweeted and commented, “No, he isn’t, said the Iraqi people!”

A few hours ago I listened to a recorded interview with him again, repeating his same statement on BBC’s Radio Live5, as I was waiting for the presenter to introduce me to the audience to comment on this topic.

He added that his father was not involved in criminal acts against Iraqis. He admitted that his father was in the government and that he was “serving his country,” and here where this statement set me off.

‘Up All Night’ program presenter Rhod Sharp knew what to ask me, and I expected it. As an Iraqi, do I agree?!

No, I don’t! I think Aziz was part of the tyrannical machine that held a strong grip on Iraq for three decades. He was one of the closest people to Iraq’s infamous tyrant for a long time, and was a loyal Baathist until the very end of the former regime in 2003.

Serving his country? He must be kidding me! A lot of Iraqis were tortured, killed, abused and exiled under his watch. He was not serving his country; he was serving Saddam and the Baath party that terrorized and destroyed Iraqis. He knew very well that he was a member of an abusive regime.

To my surprise, the Vatican urged Iraqi authorities not to carry out the death sentence against Aziz. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told the AP that the Vatican usually would pursue any possible humanitarian intervention to halt an execution via diplomatic channels.

Hmm… I wonder why the Vatican didn’t intervene when the Saddam regime, to which Aziz belonged, executed Iraqis in every possible inhumane way. At least he was tried with dignity and put on trial unlike many under Saddam who were hanged, shot to death, put in burning acids and thrown in the human grinder that fed the fish in the Tigris River with fresh ground human meat.

But now the question is will his execution make a difference in the new Iraq? No it won’t. It’s a still a mess and a big mess. Will it bring Iraqis together? No it won’t. Will it divide them? They’re already divided. The only outcome I see is maybe the closure that those who were victimized by him will finally have.

Some say he’s an old, dying man! Yes, but justice is justice. It should not be based on emotions; it should be based on facts. Others say he was educated and well-spoken. I say, Saddam was educated and well-spoken too. Does that mean he should have not brought him to justice? And many say those in power in the new Iraq are worse. I totally agree, but does it mean we should not bring the former criminals to justice?

So yes, Mr. Ziad Aziz, your father was not a victim and you grew up watching your own people suffering by a tyrannical government with which your father worked! But I can’t blame you for defending him. He was your father after all.

Hijacking Mesopotamian Heritage

The last time I attended Babylon International Festival was in 2000. Then, it was a celebration of the world’s arts and culture and a revival of a civilization’s history. There performed various Arab, Asian, European, American and African artists, dancing and playing traditional and contemporary music, leaving Iraqis enjoy precious times as they endured the hardships of the Iran-Iraq war and the 12-year international sanctions.

But today, seven years after it was canceled due to the US-led invasion, the festival opened with failure and disastrous atmosphere. No dancing, no singing! Nothing but two badly-performed plays on globalization and hating the United States. The reasons, according to The New York Times, were religion and politics!

The Times reported that the deputy governor of the Babil province, Sadiq al-Muhanna, “declared the ban on music and dance… which he called offensive to Muslims during religious ceremonies for Imam Sadiq.”

This news came in like a lightning strike to me. It is really sad that religion hijacked the entire Iraqi society, whose culture and art battled and survived dictators, wars, barbarians and invasions throughout history.

Iraq was a country where culture and arts met and flourished. It was a country that gave birth to great artists whose imprints were recorded for thousands of years across the globe. But today it’s a country marked by religion and only religion. Instead of reviving our glorious history, the leaders of the new Iraq are forcing that form of submission. They coat Imams’ graves with pure gold; they block streets for weeks in celebration of death or birth anniversaries of those Imams and now they cancel the entire basis of the Mesopotamian civilization: appreciation of art and culture.

We have become worse than the most conservative countries in the Middle East. Even in Saudi Arabia, where men and women are flogged if found mingling with each other, people celebrate their culture by dancing and performing in national festivals, and they don’t even have Mesopotamian heritage to revive.

My heart breaks for Iraq. It makes me gravely sad to see how religion has become the winner in the former secular country that I remember.

I dream of going back. Every day. But the Mullahs hijacked my country and turned it into a bigger mosque, where people cannot do anything but pray to deaf ears. I’m afraid the dream is shattering. I’m collecting the pieces but not sure how long this will last.

New Golden Domes? What about the people?

Celebrating Eid Al-Fitr in Baghdad this year came with the reopening of the Kadhimiya shrine domes! The domes, that had been already coated with pure gold hundreds of years ago, were re-coated with new shining, pure gold tiles.

I first heard about the news today when a coworker of mine shared the photos with me. I was literally shocked and disturbed at the same time. I sighed and thought about all of the money, gold and the resources that were used to carry out that project.

Secretary General of the Kadhimiya Shrine Fadhil Al Inbari talked to Noon website (Arabic):

“The [project] was directly funded by the Shiite Endowment. The total of number of tiles used to cover the dome is 10261. The work process lasted 6000 hours (equivalent to two years of continuous work). The total weight of the pure gold that was used to cover the dome is 112,400 Kilograms, and that 300 workers, engineers and technicians worked on it.”

This doesn’t end there! Al Inbari told the website that they have started a new phase of rebuilding the minarets of the same shrine with 3600 Kilograms of pure gold as well, in addition to building a new shrine for Mohammad Al-Sadr, the Imam who was murdered by the Saddam regime and whose son Moqtada Al-Sadr’s militia was responsible for the murder of thousands of Iraqis during the sectarian war.

I thought about the barely-functioning power grids, the absence of clean and sanitized water in rural areas, the lack of security, the dying agriculture, the Baghdad greenbelt that should protect the city from the dust storms, the orphans who go to bed hungry, the elderly who cannot afford medicine … and the list goes on and on.

What is sad about this is that there are millions of people who supported and believed in this “reconstruction” process. They preferred that this money goes to such a project and not their very own country’s infrastructure, which they have been suffering from for a while.

I guess those who supported it should stop complaining about water and electricity and let the late Imam whose grave is covered with a golden dome fix the electricity and bring them clean water.

It is really ironic that the very same people, who criticized Saddam for the very same reason of spending Iraq’s money on building gigantic mosques, do the exact same thing.

Give Iraq a Break!

When Saddam Hussein used his tyrannical methods to control Iraqis, he left an entire population traumatized. I mean really traumatized, not my-cat-don’t-speak-with-me traumatized!

This is a fact, but what surprised me today as I was reading the news is finding out that there are Americans who claim they are traumatized by him!

Jane Arraf of the Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday that Iraq will pay $400 million for Saddam’s mistreatment of Americans. She writes:

The claims include compensation for emotional distress from the children of two contractors seized near the Iraq-Kuwait border in 1990.

Emotional distress?! Seriously? The entire population of 25 million are already traumatized, not only by the actions of the dictator who brutalized his own people, but also by the two successive U.S.-led wars and the 12 years of international sanctions when hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children died of hunger. Talk about emotional distress!

It is really disturbing to see such people file law suits against a country that is trying to stand up on its feet to rebuild and revive its life. What is more disturbing is that those people are so inconsiderate that just because they have “emotional distress” they want to prevent millions of dollars to be used in rebuilding a country that their very own country took part in its misery.

So let the “traumatized” contractor’s sons enjoy yet another beautiful day at school with their brand new backpack the Iraqi government paid for, and let the real traumatized Iraqi children battle their bomb-filled, insecure way to get to school.

Give me a break! Give Iraq a break! Isn’t it enough what had already happened?

Talk to an Iraqi

Haider Hamza is an Iraqi who goes around the US, with a small wooden booth titled “Talk to an Iraqi”, and he just sits there and lets people come and talk to him.

Obama in Cairo: Extending the Olive Branch

Nothing better illustrates the change Obama is trying to do with the U.S. policy towards the Muslim world than his speech today in Cairo.

By addressing the Muslims in Egypt, Obama opened a door that was closed for eight years due to the Bush administration’s horrible approach with the Arab and Muslim countries. Walking through that door, Obama was greeted respectably and lovingly by those who once hated his country to the bone.

The fact that Obama is approaching the Muslim world through such a speech is very similar to someone carrying the olive branch, in my opinion. He is seeking peace for the world, unlike Bush who sent bombs instead, not to mention his administration’s black-or-white attitude that led to ongoing wars.

In this speech, Obama didn’t show signs of weakness or humility like how some conservative republicans view it. In my opinion he was the most powerful person. He initiated approaching the Muslim world by extending his hands to combat the stereotypes and the mistakes committed by his predecessors. In it, I viewed the other good face of America. In fact, I saw that the American administration can actually be nice to the others!

Fair could also describe the speech as well. For instance, when he mentioned how Muslims and the Americans should not perceive each other depending on stereotypes. Another example is when he criticized both Palestinians and Israelis for being responsible for the horror happening in their region. I agree the Israeli settlements should stop and also agree that threatening to destroy Israel will not bring the Palestinians any good and that it should stop.

The other thing that attracted my attention was when Obama indirectly criticized what the Bush administration did. The fact that the American president acknowledges that the Iraq war was “a war of choice” is enough to say that Bush did not have to invade Iraq, yet he did. However, he stated that Iraqis are “better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein,” which I agree and disagree with at the same time. It was good to get rid of Saddam, but the life of the Iraqi people was wrecked by the ignorant policies that were made by the Bush administration. We can’t really say that our lives are better off now than under Saddam, because it’s still a complete wreck compared to that before the invasion. I’m hoping that it won’t last like this and by then Obama’s statement would fit.

Bush and his henchmen believed in imposing the Jeffersonian democracy upon the countries they invaded. It’s amazing how for the first time I hear Obama admitting that “no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by another.” When I heard that, I said, “THANK YOU!” Was it hard to acknowledge such a simple, yet powerful fact? That’s what Bush did not understand or did not want to understand. You can’t impose democracy; you teach it; you increase people’s awareness of it, but not force it the way you like, ignoring the background of that country.

Overall, I saw that the speech came in a time when tension between the Muslims and the West has reached its peak. It’s very nice to see that Obama took the initiative of extending hands. I know this speech may not leave a big impact on many Muslims and Arabs but I think it’s like baby steps. By course of time, things will change to the better hopefully if Obama continues his positive and peaceful attitudes. It’s a long road but the thousand-mile road starts with one step.

Abu Ghraib

After it was handed over to the Iraqi government, the notorious Abu Ghraib prison has been renovated and opened in a new shape. Its ill-remembered name has been changed as well. It is called Baghdad Central Prison now.

On this occasion, The New York Times’ Baghdad Bureau Blog featured its reporters and photographers narrating what they had seen as they covered stories inside that hellish jail from the horrific days when the Iraqi tyrant used to rule and the times when the prison fell in the US military’s control where Iraqi inmates were abused and tortured.

Titled “Abu Ghraib,” The New York Times blog post contains strong graphic images.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Fierce Competetion to Shape Iraq’s Future

On Saturday, Iraqi people are going to the polling centers to cast their ballots in the country’s provincial elections. I’ve been following the elections news and thought I should share some information I have gathered in that regard.

For those interested in understanding what the ABCs of the elections are, read this MSNBC Q&A report.

As you may all know, violence in Iraq has decreased due to several factors, including the segregation of the cities and the neighborhoods within and the joint Iraqi-American military operations that helped fight the insurgents and militias who almost took over the country. But above all those factors was the fact that the Iraqi people themselves have finally realized that there was no need to fight each other anymore. This, of course, excludes the politicians. And this led to a relative reconciliation that has finally penetrated into the warring Iraqi society.

Saturday’s provincial elections are critical. I believe they will be a new kind of test where Iraqis are going to see if those they are voting for will take the country forward and not backwards. It is a test for Iraqis themselves as well. The results will reveal whether the people have learned their lessons of the past elections. Of course, it is hard to assume they did as democracy is still new and it’ll take them decades to understand how it should work.

In this post, I’ll try to post some of the main concerns and most important issues that are related to the elections:

– Shiites, Maliki and the south

In most of the provinces across the country, the direction nowadays is not religious. People no longer care about the fact that the candidate is the son of the prophet, his grandson, or even the prophet himself. All they need is clean water, electricity, jobs and security. This is a milestone in the road of understanding that religion should be separated from the state. In this regard, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, an Islamist and a leader of the Dawa Islamic Party and who runs The State of Law Coalition slate, is not using his party’s religious mottos. In an interview with the Washington Post, a campaign manager for the Shiite coalition said, “Maliki is Islamic as a person, but as a statesman? No, he’s secular.” He added that there are other priorities he and his candidates need to consider.

Ghassan Al-Attiyah, a secular political analyst has noted this change as well. Yet, he told the Post that the important question is if Maliki is sincere in “wearing the mantle of reform instead of Islam.”

In a recent poll conducted by the widely-read independent Azzaman newspaper and Al-Sharqiyah satellite TV, Maliki and his State of Law Coalition are on the top of the charts. According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, Maliki’s popularity these days has risen due to his strong statements regarding the centralization of the Iraqi government, which I think is a tactic he’s using to win the votes because he knows some Iraqis, except the Kurds, do not want the country to be divided into federal regions. This tactic is scaring his Kurdish and other Shiite rivals, of course. Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the cancer-ill leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has been calling uninterruptedly for separating southern Iraq from the rest of the country in a federal region that will look hugely like Iran and be run by Mullahs and Ayatollahs. The Kurds on the other hand are not worried about that. They already have their federal region, ruled by them democratically. However, their concern is how much power should the central government own. They have not yet gotten rid of the trauma Saddam had caused in brutalizing them and their rights. The outspoken Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament told the New York Times that “people think [Maliki] has overreached.” It has even reached the extent that Waleed Salih Sherka told the Post that “[Iraqis] got rid of the dictator and nightmare Saddam Hussein only to get this new dictator wearing the uniform of democracy.” Wow, the competition is fierce. Several Iraqi and American newspapers have also mentioned that there have been some heated discussions recently between the Masoud Barzani and Maliki.

In addition to Maliki’s coalition, other candidates from other political parties are competing to win some seats. Those include the communists, the secularists, members of the Fadhila party, the nationalists, and some independent candidates who gain their support from the tribes in the provinces.

– Anbar, once restive now tries to be democratic

Anbar province was one of the most violent part in the country. Who of us doesn’t know the Fallujah battle? Today, the Sunnis in Anbar are focusing on democracy rather than violence. The Post’s Anthony Shadid reported from Ramadi, the provinces’ capital, that competition is fierce between the tribes-backed candidates and the political parties. Anbaris may find it hard to have technocrats or seculars to rule the province. They are left with the tribes because these tribes revolted against Al-Qaeda and restored the power from the terror organization. The tribes insist that The political parties like the Iraqi Islamic Party are not beneficial for the province. Shadid quote one of the candidates calling the IIP “liars” and “cowards.” They call Harith al-Dhari, head of the Muslim Scholars Association and a strong supporter of al-Qaeda in Iraq, “a barking dog” since all he does is complaining from his comfort zone in Jordan.

In any case, the Post reported that of the 29 candidates in Anbar, 15 are tribal figures.

Believe it or not, a group of secular liberals are also running in this election. The Post reports that “Shiites and Kurds sit on their board. So do a Christian and a Jew, one of the handful left in the country.” The paper said they advocate human rights and transparency, and end of corruption and the rehabilitation of Iraq. However, Shadid observed that “no one seems to be listening [to them]. “No one really can,” writes Shadid.

Against the tribes’ candidates run the Iraqi Islamic Party which created a coalition with some tribes. Called “Coalition of the Educated and Tribes for Development,” the coalition includes four Sunni political blocks, according to the Opinion Web site, Niqash. It also mentioned that violent incidents might occur between the competitive factions. One of the candidates Shadid interviewed was Hamid Al-Hayes who threatened to “kill all of their candidates” if theirs are attacked.

– Nineveh and the Kurd-Arab divide

It’s been continuously reported that the Kurds in the north are trying to include some of the non-Kurdish lands to their region. Their efforts include attempting to control parts of Nineveh province which is the home of Mosul, Iraq’s largest second city after Baghdad.

Since the election campaigns started, violence increased in the restive province. Niqash reported that several members of the competing political factions have been killed since the campaigns started. Observers believe these assassinations aim to destabilize the area.

In the northern province there are basically two slates, one include Arabs and the other include the Kurds. The Washington Post observed that Arabs in the province are looking forward to win in order to “appoint a governor and use their political power to roll back the Kurdish expansion.”

***

In the midst of this race of who will run the provinces, election posters have been stuck on almost every building and electricity post. Since corruption is a disease Iraq is still suffering from, some candidates used several methods to make people vote for them. Azzaman reported that Iraqis have been complaining about pressure and threats carried out by some parties to force them vote for their candidates. The threats varied, including assassinations and kidnappings. The paper added that they have even tried to bribe people to vote for their candidates.

***

I wish I had the time to write more about everything related to the elections. However, I suggest you read the articles I have linked to in this post for a better understanding of how this election is shaped.

blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

In modern Islam, Shiites Revived and Sunnis did not like that!

A few days ago, I finished reading a very interesting book about the Middle East and more specifically about the Shiite Muslims. The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr is a must-read for all those who have no idea what the terms ‘Shiite’ and ‘Sunni’ mean. I actually recommend it more for those who are interested in knowing why there is a difference in the two terms and why was all this fuss called ‘sectarian war in Iraq.’
Although I knew many things mentioned in the book, I still found that there were things I did not really know. Nasr narrates, analyzes and discusses them in details.

I have a friend in Philly who is a Shiite Muslim from Saudi Arabia’s infamous Qatif city. We have always sat and discussed issues that concern our region, religion, and our lives as they are related to these things. One day, I was completely upset and mad at what I had discovered in our religion. The discussion we both had led to realizing that it’s not the problem was not in the religion itself more than the practitioners of Islam themselves who used certain things and interpreted them the way they wanted them to mean. The goal is to make others believe them, and nothing other using certain things from the religion to make them believe in was better than that. During that discussion, I told my friend about my memories of Islam in Iraq. I remember leaning back on the plastic chair, saying “Our religion was simple. The war made it gross.”

Indeed, it was as simple as knowing the basic things in the Quran, knowing your prophet is Mohammed and your God is Allah and that there were other prophets whom God chose to deliver his messages. Yes, there were Sunni and Shiite differences, but among the people (at least those in Baghdad whom I was one of) it was not something we really cared about. During those years, books about religion were rarely found. The secular Baathist regime made sure people in my generation do not understand or know what the real history behind the two sects was. My family did tell me that the Shiites were victimized throughout history, especially during the Abbasid Empire era, but they never really went into details about it nor they stressed on making me or my sister insist on knowing it because it was not a big deal then.

The internet revolution and the flow of the books and the articles about the real history between the two sects appeared on surface in the aftermath of the US.-led invasion of Iraq, letting me and many others in my generation be able to read and learn about that grim and gruesome history of wars and struggle to get power.

One of these books is the Shia Revival. The book opened my eyes to many things that I did not before the war. I knew it all started when Prophet Mohammed died but did not know other details, including the fight between Iran and Saddam was a Shiite-Sunni fight. I know understand why the Arab countries supported Saddam against the “Evil Persians” and why Iran went on for eight years to fight Saddam. The goal was who would dominate? The Sunnis who wanted the Arab World always be Sunni or the Shiites, represented by Iran then, who wanted to spread their faith to a larger crowd in the Arab World?

Addressing the West in his book, Nasr relates the Shiite rituals to those of the other religions. This was something that I did not really know. Nasr also talks about Saudi Arabia’s Wahabism a lot. It is widely connected to the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites these days. It goes way back to the days when the Wahabis invaded the holy city of Karbala where Imam Hussein is buried and slaughtered the Shiites there, believing that they were infidels and tomb worshipers. He also writes about the Lebanon Shiites and how they emerged as a fighting and strong force in the region, making even Sunnis follow them in their fight against Israel which was occupying their land for decades. Then, came the Iran-Iraq war and the whole struggle of keeping the Shiites away from domination. There is also a long, detailed and very interesting chapter about Khomeini and his role in Shiism, followed by an interestingly-analyzed chapter about the new Iraq which he called it ‘The first Shiite Arab state,’ a term that I’ve never heard before and a one that is so true.

Overall, the book shows that the struggle is not religious more than political. Peoples from both sects were caught in the middle of this conflict. They were used and brain-washed over the decades to create differences.

Anyways, it is a wonderful book and a good source that I strongly recommend to readers interested in learning about political Islam.

The other book I’m sunk in its waters now is Robin Wright’s Dreams and Shadows: the future of the Middle East.

Blog.bassamsebti@gmail.com

Zionists, Jews

When Omar and I were waiting for the 44 bus in J.F. Kennedy Street in Center City Philadelphia, a small picture stuck on the bus stop drew my attention. I went closer to see who the person in it was. As I reached it, I found out it was Sharon’s, former Israeli Prime Minister.

The sticker carried a website address which eventually appeared to be a blog address. In all cases, I wasn’t interested. Sharon is the last person on earth that I would care about or hear what is happening to him.

However, I stopped for a minute staring at the photo not because Sharon was on it but because memories flashed back into my mind, memories of the Zionists and the Jews.

There was one advantage I learned from this war, I told Omar. He looked at me and asked, “which war?” The latest one, I replied. I learned how to differentiate between the term “Zionist” and “Jew”.

He looked at me in daze! “Yes, it’s only in 2003 that I learned what the difference between these two words is.” There were so many questions in his mind. I didn’t wait for him to ask them. I explained why it’s just recently that I learned that difference.

At home, we never discussed politics, NEVER, period. My parents were so cautious about these things. Any mistake would take all of us, if not all of my tribe, to jail or execution by Saddam’s people. One of the things we did not discuss at home was who the Jews and the Zionists are. It was only once I recall my mother and grandmother talking about their Jewish Iraqi neighbors and friends whom they missed. I was 12 or 13 at that time. I asked both of them about it. My mother sighed and said that the Iraqi Jews were very nice and lovely people. That was it. She never mentioned anything after that neither did my grandmother.

I was like most teenagers whose main source of news was Saddam’s regime’s media outlets and school curricula. They all denounced the “Jews”. None of them clarified what the difference was. Like most of those in my age, I was brain washed. I was taught to hate the “Jews”, all of them, not only the “Zionists”.

I tried to know more about what is happening in Palestine but all of what I learned was how the “Jews” occupied Palestine and established their illegal state. I asked my parents a lot about it. I got nothing. They always told me not to be indulged in such conversation with anyone, even inside the house. My father’s attitude was if you say it here, you’d say it outside and that would lead to the execution of the family if not the whole tribe if Saddam’s men discover that we were questioning this issue. “Always be away from politics and such issues,” I remember him saying.

When I was in undergraduate school, I didn’t know anything about how journalism works. When the second Intifadha occurred in September 2000 between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis, I was full of hatred. I hated the “Jews”. I didn’t know that this term was far broader than what is happening in Palestine. I was forced to join the protests organized by the Baath Party to denounce the “Jews”.

Before 2003, the term “Jews” among most Iraqis in my age meant the Zionists. I even recall how a rumor was spread in my undergrad school when one of my classmates said that a member of the “Backstreet Boys” band is Jewish. Most of the classmates told her that “this was untrue. It seems there was someone trying to distort the reputation of the band in Iraq”. She swore she read that in an American magazine smuggled through Jordan. No one believed her. Eventually, she stopped talking about it.

It is also ironic that one of the text books I had in my undergrad school was written by Noam Chomsky. It was about Linguistics. I recall my professor saying that Chomsky was a Jew who is against the State of Israel! He did not elaborate and none of the students asked him more about it. No one wanted to be in trouble. I kept wondering how come he is Jewish and he’s against the State of Israel which we called the “Zionist Entity” at the time. I found no answer till after the 2003 war.

Finally, the confusion I had and the decades of misinformation have come to end. After the invasion, I was able to start the investigation by myself. Saddam was gone. It was time to ask without being fearful.

The first thing that clarified things to me was when I worked with American journalists. I discovered that some of them were Jews. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid and confused. I couldn’t even ask for people’s advice. How come I tell them I work with those whom they hated their entire lives? Should I keep working with them or stop? I wondered. I was torn. “These are Zionists,” I thought at the time until I found out the real difference.

It was through the internet that I first recognized that mysterious difference that was hidden and kept away from Iraqis for decades. It was time to ask more about the Iraqi Jews. Who were they? Where did they go? How do they look like? Were they like the Israeli soldiers killing the Palestinians? And more questions were that were held hostage in my mind for a long time. I let them free. I asked everyone knew an Iraqi Jew. I started with my grandmother. I sat on the brown wooden sofa in her kitchen. We talked for hours. Eventually she cried when she remembered her best Jewish friend Clair who was her neighbor as well. She was one of the thousands of Iraqi Jews who were forced to leave Iraq in the 1940s. She told me all about them. They were like us, Iraqis. She told me that they were very famous of the trade of cloths. My grandfather was a wealthy man whose main cloth merchants were Jewish. He owned several factories of sewing clothes. She narrated stories of how my mother, uncles and aunts had so many Jewish friends who used to go together to the same schools.

She recalled the “Farhood al Yahood”, a pogrom against the Iraqi Jews that took place on June 1-2, 1941 where Jews were injured and murdered, Jewish property was looted, and Jewish houses were burnt down.

For three years now, I think of those people. I kept asking myself, why did that happen to them? They are Iraqis. That was their home as well as mine. I felt so angry and unable to imagine how much I was deceived. I even feel guilty because they were deprived from their homeland by the time we enjoyed it. Sometimes I think what is happening now is heaven’s revenge to what happened to the Jews.

Until this day, I surf the web to read more about them and their traditions hoping to meet up with one of them one day. All what I read is moving and touching. Some of their writings brought tears to my eyes. I remember an article written by Shmuel Moreh, an Iraqi Jewish Professor and Chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq in Israel. In his article posted on Ilaf, Moreh described how his uncle cried for Iraq as he was dying in the hospital. He narrated what his uncle went through after the Farhood events until he reached Israel. His last words brought tears to my eyes. He wished he didn’t leave Iraq despite all of what happened to him.

Another Jewish Iraqi website I came across is called Reminisce of Baghdad where the author documented his family’s pictures and tales when they were in Iraq accompanied by Iraqi music. He also linked to other Iraqi Jewish artists who their longing to Iraq is represented in their paintings.

Today, I have many Jewish friends whom I am proud of. Today, I know who they are and what they stand for. But now that I know there is a difference, there are hundreds of thousands Iraqis who don’t. Generation after generation was taught to hate the “Jews”, all the Jews. How are these going to learn the difference? How are they going to love the Iraqi Jews if they consider all of them Israelis?

To all the Iraqi Jews, I take a bow to your love and loyalty to your country which you were forced to leave. One day, all of us will go back to our beloved Iraq and restore our bonds.

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