- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Faeez_omar

Violence is a way of life in Iraq and this is the justice it creates

Omar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:54:10 +0000

Violence in Iraq has been reduced, as Western generals and politicians are keen to point out, but it has not gone away. If anything, it has become more deeply ingrained.

The kidnapping and murder of Muntadher al-Mussewi shows how political violence has spawned criminal gangs capable of the vilest acts. Having learnt their trade from the Mahdi Army, a brutal militia, the kidnappers now carry on without even the veneer of political justification.

Were terrorists to disappear from Iraq overnight, the country would still be stuck, possibly for decades, with the culture of violence they fostered (building on the legacy of Saddam Hussein, of course).

So should the West use its by now limited influence to prevent another turn in the cycle of violence? Often that can work: when Arabs and Kurds rattle their sabres in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk, US advisers are right to scurry up north to calm them down.

Saddam Hussein Calls In To Radio Free Iraq

Omar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:05:50 +0000

Many people around the world have been cursed with cringe-inducing names (as this BBC story proves). Some, however, are more unfortunate than others.

On last week’s edition of Radio Free Iraq’s weekly call-in show, “Open Windows,” host Ferial Hussein spoke to a caller named Saddam Hussein, who complained that he has been facing discrimination and employment problems in Iraq due to his name.

Internally displaced from Diyala to Najaf, Saddam told Ferial that he had graduated from teaching academy and was attempting to find work with the Ministry of Education. He claimed that although he possessed the basic credentials required for the position, his application was rejected solely on the basis of his unfortunate name.

Iraq's New Surge: Gay Killings

Omar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:49:08 +0000

When my colleague and I sat down last April with Hamid, an Iraqi man from Baghdad, his trauma-induced stutter said as much as the words he spoke. Huddled inconspicuously in a dingy restaurant, Hamid recounted how militia members killed his partner along with three other men, two kidnapped from their Baghdad homes, two slaughtered in the streets. The next day, Hamid said, “they came for me. They came into my house and they saw my mother, and one of them said, ‘Where’s your faggot son?’ My mother called me after they left, in tears. ... I can’t go home.”

As the world hails Iraq’s supposed return to normality, the country’s militias — the same ones that spent years waging a sectarian civil war — have found a new, less apparent target: men suspected of being gay. The systematic killings, which began earlier this year, reveal the cracks behind Iraq’s fragile calm. Iraq’s leaders may talk of security and democracy from behind barbed wire in the Green Zone, but the surge of murders against gay men is a stark sign of how far Iraqi society still has to go.

Persecution of Churches continues, 6 Bombed again

Omar — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:21:40 +0000

The first bombing took place Saturday night at St. Joseph’s church in western Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official. Two bombs placed inside the church exploded at about 10 p.m. No one was in the church at the time of the attack.

Sunday afternoon, three bombs exploded outside churches, wounding eight civilians, the official said. The bombs detonated within a 15-minute span, between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. Two of the churches are in central Baghdad’s al-Karrada district, and the third is in al-Ghadeer in eastern Baghdad.

Sunday evening, a car bomb exploded outside a church on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad just after 7 p.m., the official said. Four people died, and 21 were wounded.

Car bomb kills dozens in Baghdad

Omar — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:32:06 +0000

At least 34 people have been killed by a large car bomb in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say.

Another 72 people were injured by the explosion from a parked car in the north-west of the city.

The attack happened near a popular restaurant in Shula, a poor, crowded mainly Shia neighbourhood.

In the last few days several similar attacks have targeted crowded tea shops across the capital, but this is the largest attack this month.

European Commissioner: “Islam Is Welcome. Immigration Is Moral Necessity”

Omar — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:26:58 +0000

Jacques Barrot is the European Commissioner for Justice. In an interview at Café Babel [in French] he gives some revealing answers which indicate that the European suicide is underway. He calls immigration an economic and moral necessity, adding...

How the U.S. Military Turned Me into a Terrorist

Omar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:36:04 +0000

A powerful excerpt from ‘Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan’ lays bare the racism at the core of the Iraq occupation.

Massive Blast Rocks Baghdad

Omar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:48:54 +0000

A spate of bombs have gone off in cities across Iraq killing more than 60 people. In Diyala, 60km north of Baghdad, province a car bomb exploded near a crowd of people outside a courthouse killing at least 40 people and wounding...

Sadr says US will be his enemy till the last drop of blood

Omar — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:41:12 +0000

In a statement Mr Sadr said “I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier,” adding “Which political process do you want to involve me in when you are occupying my...

"...Many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers..."

Omar — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:00:10 +0000

A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”