Some of the foundations of religious faith at that time were based on intercession, meaning that when people claim to hold to the prophet’s companions or household, then it does not mean following their way of life, but to get their intercession on judgement day. People believed that life is mortal, and is not worthy of human interest but must one must tend to the afterlife instead, most importantly by performing religious duties on one hand and to get the intercession of those favored by God on the other. As for morals and good treatment and so forth then they are not important as all sins in their regard may be forgiven by the intercessors whom God loves extremely. It is clear that this principle of ‘intercession’ has roots in the composition of the governing state in old times, people are used to see that the person who is close to the sultan is able to save someone’s neck or grant rewards, this was reflected on their religious faith. This also explains many contradictory social patterns in Ottoman-era Iraq as the people (government and commons) were extremely focused on rebuilding shrines and mosques at times where oppression and thievery was common between people, as the government oppresses people who oppress each other, all believing in a seat of heaven once the intercessors speak their words.

One of the most controversial cases in Sunni-Shiite debates is the succession of Prophet Mohammed, any researcher looking into the case through modern objective lenses will feel that the case is one of the far past and has no exclusive relationship to the present, Iraqis opinion was different, as they believe the person who succeded the prophet will be their intercessor and could rescue him from damnation.

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Iraqi Moral Values:

Iraqis in the Ottoman period were closer to Bedouin values than Islamic values, due to the control of the ‘Bedouin tide’ on them, there is a stark difference between the values of Bedouins and Islam, in a nutshell, Bedouin values glorify racism, vengeance, looting, killing women to wash away shame and so forth, while Islam condemns all that and considers it banned. Nevertheless, those values were common in the Ottoman period as many people glorified the man who shakes the ground when he walks and who robs houses at night out of manhood, describing him as a ‘lion’, ‘nightman’ or ‘tribe’s pride’.

Those Bedouin tides have always encompassed the Iraqi society at one time or another, in a continuous ebb and flow as Iraq is adjacent one of the world’s greatest Bedouin foundation deserts without any natural barriers separating the two. Bedouin tribes were always ready to enter Iraq and live there, seizing opportunity at times of chaos and wars and famine, or when the government is weak and culture is ripped apart. Bedouin tribes then control Iraqi roads, threatening cities and villages, urging civilians to pick up arms to defend themselves, and in the process spreading values of vengeance, racism and invasion. It appears to me that the most recent Bedouin tide which engulfed Iraq in the Ottoman priod was more severe than any one that preceded it, as Iraqi society never witnessed an era where Bedouin values so dominated as this one. I could bring the following as reasons:

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Ali al-Wardi is often considered the ‘Godfather’ of Iraqi sociology, A secular-styled writer of Shiite lineage, al-Wardi has written what many considered to be the definitive books on the history of Iraq and the psychology of its unfortunate inhabitants. His neutrality, which rejected both Marxist communism and Pan-Arab nationalism (the two major sparring factions at the time) put him at great troubles. I have long searched for his books and by a stroke of luck managed to find them online. I have been reading in this book ‘Glimpses’ for quite a while, in the following series of posts I am going to translate what I felt is relevant and crucial for those who want to understand why is this going on in Iraq. This book was published in 1951, but it didn’t take it long for me to be dumbfounded by how little we progressed, and how much we stepped back. Take a look and see for yourself. al-Wardi, like my least favorite bloggers Iraq The Model unfortunately agree with me, is a must-read for anyone who even thinks of breaking it into understanding Iraq. This is for all the people who think ‘Iraq’ is still related to those distant civillizations we like to trumpet every now and other: The Sumerians, Babylonians, Akkadains, even our own Islamic civillizations of Kufa, and Harun al-Rashid’s Abbasid Baghdad, have nothing to do with the Ottoman-Saffavid foundations this bastard Iraq was built upon.

Ali al-Wardi,
Glimpes in the Social History of Modern Iraq
Published in 1951. Read the rest of this entry »

We had something to celebrate last week. After a long lull, our house was blessed with routine search NUMBER TEN, by the Iraqi army this time. They said they were clearing the area of terrorists and just wanted to make sure everything was in place, and nobody was trespassing on nobody’s residence.

Mum and I know it before tanks and Humvees blip in our radars. This time I was enjoying the breeze so much that I lost my sense of smelling uniforms and armoured vehicles. Unfortunately, mum had a dream of an Iraqi politician, whom we’re not huge fans. Without having a chance to interpret the nightmare, she jolted me to wake up before somebody breaks in and do it in a more startling way – as if I wasn’t startled anyway. It was 7:00 A.M for Heaven’s sake! Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Meemo for his blog “showtime” and cross-posted to the Olivebranch Network.
Warning: this post is “silly to read”.

Hello! It’s me again. Can you believe it people? I’m back after almost two months; I mean I’m back to posting not back to Baghdad. Anyways as we all know and see on TV, some things in Baghdad are getting better, some ways; but the strange thing is when you talk to anyone living in Baghdad he’ll tell you everything is the same old shit- nothing is changing, the security is bad like it was 3 months ago and the electricity is even worse, coming for just 2 hours a day. One hour of electricity in the morning and one hour at night. Who needs electricity anyway? We are in the 21 century and people can still live like cave men, you know like some kind of an “adventure” for the whole of Baghdad.

I think the security, peace and this kind of stuff will come back to Baghdad in umm let’s say 3 years, I don’t know, that’s what I think because there’s more troops coming to Baghdad; that must help in someway and the prime minister is doing a good job too, first ly he’s not supporting the militia now, secondly he’s finally doing some tours of Baghdad’s streets. I’m not sure he’s not such a hero to go out of the Green Zone if he wasn’t 100% sure that the streets are a little safer. He would never do such a thing like this last year, so I think its kind of a clue that things are getting better, but it’s getting better like a turtle, you know, it’s getting better so damn slow… Read the rest of this entry »

Twelfth in a beautiful series of paintings by Baghdad Artist

Written by Mixmax on his blog Mix Mode

They are four kidnapped! No, the number is 5: one financial expert and his four bodyguards were kidnapped from inside the ministry of finance. The whole world is turning upside down for those 5 British nationals (some sources says they are in fact German); the spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs in Great Britain is urging citizens to cooperate if they know anything or have any hints to help finding the kidnapped. Prime Minister Blair announced that “the U.K and Iraqi governments are doing everything they can to find the five people and are fully investigating the circumstances.”

This piece of news is found on every single news website – some of them were two headlines with one saying 4 and the other saying 5 is the number people kidnapped!

I always admired the way the west value its citizens – something as part of their culture, or shall I say moral? I watch Sky news from time to time and in the past month or more there is this huge campaign on every single bit related to the little girl kidnapped on a vacation location in Portugal. Yes, I mean the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann, the four-year-old British girl who vanished during a vacation in a resort in Algarve with her parents. They even have a website for that purpose, with telephone numbers, updates, information…etc There is also a reward of around 3 million euro, pictures of the child have been everywhere from Belgium to Great Britain in case someone sees here. In addition, the parents of the little poor girl are also preparing to meet the pope on the 1st of June. I won’t doubt for a minute that a book will be published by the end of the story. Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross Posted from Global Voices Online)

Everything is here this week… from going to schools in a war zone, review of the latest political scene in Iraq, must-see video blogs, stories of extreme bravery and extreme pathos, a $1000 KFC meal, and if you read to the end, how gays cruise in Amman.

If you read no other blog post this week read these two:

My deepest condolences goes out to Sunshine whose uncle, “M”, was murdered on Wednesday for nothing more than a few papers. She writes:

uncle M’s dream was to see his daughter graduation , she is determined to accomplish her dream and her father’s dream , after the funeral , she stayed in my grandparents’ house to study , she couldn’t concentrate in her house , her exams will start soon . I also heard about another relative , who was kidnapped but freed versus money.. Try to concentrate in such circumstances?! In addition to a hot weather with out electricity (46 C. ), Can you ??

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Written on Monday, April 30th, 2007 by Faiza al-Araji for her blog “A family in Baghdad” and cross-posted to the Olivebranch Network.

Peace be upon you.
I haven’t written for a long time, I no longer have the temperament to write.
I don’t know; is it because of the silly, frustrating news from Baghdad, the continuance of violence, killings, the bloodshed of innocent Iraqis, the plundering of Iraqi wealth; or because I am busy with the people and their distresses.I receive calls from families in Baghdad or Amman asking for medical or humanitarian aid, or from Iraqi hospitals calling for help, asking for the most simple supplies, like Insulin, which was supposed to be available in all Iraqi hospitals being the responsibility of the Iraqi Ministry of Health. They ask for medical Oxygen bottles, manufactured in Baghdad, but the poor security conditions prevent the supplies from reaching hospitals situated on the outskirts further.

My mind is so confused; I don’t know where to start each day. I thought I’d write down the items I follow up in a small notebook so I would remember them. Ok; so I’ll try to organize my thoughts. There are some water purifying units sent from an organization
www.iraqwaterproject.org

I work with them as a volunteer here in Amman, we buy the units to be sent to Iraqi hospitals. So far we have sent six units as follows: to Al-Qa’aim Hospital, Falluja, Samara, Al-Diwaniyah, Hadeetha, and Al-Ramadi. I cannot describe my suffering and anguish to finalize each shipment; going between telephone calls to Iraq, sending daily e-mails to the doctors, following up buying the units here, then sending them either by cars or plane to Baghdad, then the worries and the waiting until they finally notify me that the shipment has arrived in Baghdad, where I must then arranging a way to send it on to the final destination. Read the rest of this entry »

Not sure on which side I should lie, back seems to be a lesser evil, one shot to the head or stomach I’d be painlessly dead in no time, front means I could get a bullet in my spinal cord and end up like mum’s friend; a vegetable because of one tiny metal chunk fired in the late ‘80s to celebrate Iraq’s so-called ‘victory’. But what if my legs or arms get shot, do people shot in the extremities live with disabilities?

These were my thoughts for the first hour or so on my first night’s sleep on the rooftop.

The thoughts and bad dreams were forced by a neighbour’s comments on the US soldiers in their noisy aircrafts firing weapons on sleeping Iraqis and stepdad’s account of the flames that once engulfed a neighbour’s bed when a plane dropped some ball of fire right ontop of their house; true or not I was freaking out already. The recurrent nighttime shootouts next door by the end of each we find little bits of bullets, only made it worse. Read the rest of this entry »