Iraq's hijacked future
Mahmood Elahi, Ottawa, Canada
Prof. Mansoor Moaddel, professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University and an Iraqi-American, recently wrote: "While neither American nor Iraqi security officials have yet found a way to tame the militias, the Iraqi public is increasingly drawn toward a vision of a democratic, non-sectarian government for the country." But a significant minority with strong sectarian outlooks might have hijacked Iraq to their agendas. When Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq with an iron fist, he didn't have the support of the majority. But a small well-armed Sunni minority provided all the support he needed to brutalise the Shiite majority and the Kurdish minority.Although the Sunni minority lost their grip on power after the US-led invasion, they are literally slaughtering their fellow Shiites. Now the Shiites are retaliating, killing Sunnis and destroying Sunni mosques. Almost daily, murdered and mutilated bodies of Sunni victims are being found. Most of them are victims of the Mahdi Army led by staunchly anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. Such tit-for-tat killings by Sunni and Shia extremists show that they have successfully hijacked Iraq's future and the majority of moderate Iraqis are powerless to stop the mayhem just as they were powerless to stop Saddam Hussein's systematic slaughter of the Shiites and the Kurds. Today, once dominant Sunni Arab minority are attacking the Shiite majority hoping to provoke a Shiite backlash which will bring other Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt to their rescue. Iran, for its part, is hoping that a Shia-dominated Iraq will join hands with Shia Iran to end the Sunni domination of the Muslim world. Iraq is caught between these opposing forces and never-ending violence seems to have become the norm. Unless Iranian Mullahs and Saudi Wahabis give up their rivalry and stop using Iraq as a proxy, the dream of moderate Iraqis may remain only a dream.
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