Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

The Suicide Project of Iraq | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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That which we last expected from a figure as important as Abdulaziz Al-Hakim is the dangerous call that he made for a federal Shiite state in Iraq. He had chosen the worst possible timing for such a proposal as the anniversary approaches of the martyrdom of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim who had sacrificed his life for Iraq and not for a Shiite federation project!

I know Abdulaziz Al-Hakim well. For many years, he and his brother were guests in Kuwait in the last few days of the holy month of Ramadan during the rule of Saddam Hussein. For us they represented a project that far away from a sectarian Iraq. At least that is what we heard them state in their country, and we would never have expected that they sought for the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq to be a sectarian country divided on a basis of sect or race!

Such propositions were the alternative of which many Iraqis had dreamt. However, was it necessary then to make all these sacrifices against the rule of dictators, terrorism and sectarianism only to ultimately seek a new suicide project that will take Iraq back to where it started?

The Secretary General of the Badr Brigade, the military section of the Supreme Council, says that, “Shiites must start to establish a federation in the south or else they will regret it.” I wonder what this state, this dream or canton that would realize the dreams of Shiism will actually be like, and on what cultural criteria can a country in which Shiites, Sunnis, or Kurds live be based!

Iraq has suffered the corruption practiced by Saddam Hussein and more recently by international terrorism amongst Iraq”s Sunni Arabs. Some sides have succeeded in driving the Sunni majority away from participating in the most recent elections with the aim of disturbing the political and social balance. The country also suffers from Kurdish extremists who demand a sectarian federation based on geographical location instead of the democratic federation for which they had fought. Abdulaziz Abdul Hakim’s call, for all of those who love Iraq, represents a violent retreat from the project of a democratic Iraq.

We request that Abdulaziz Abdul Hakim, who we love and respect, to reconsider the new propositions that constitute a suicide project despite its possible good intentions.

We were not worried about Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. We were not concerned about terrorism or political disagreements. Now, however, we truly fear these separation proposals, which we hope that the wise man and other Iraqi politicians of all sects will abandon.