Iraqi’s Turning Against Religious Fanaticism.

I posted this on the other topic but wanted it here also.

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

In the “Terrorist hyjacked Islam” view, the first two paragraphs support their thesis, as does the third, to an extent.

In the “Islam itself is the problem” view, the last paragraph above is the most telling in the lead of the story. “I hate Islam” is a VERY couragous thing to say, considering the widely held belief that heresy such as this is punishable by death.

Both points of view/philosophies must also see the quote “Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives”. Not “evil American and Zionist crusaders”, ISLAMIC CLERICs!! This level of introspection is rare in Arabian/Persian Islamic history.

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied. Fingers caught in the act of smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its wearer. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.

Remember what I stated above about terrorism and jihad in one’s backyard……

“In the beginning, they gave their eyes and minds to the clerics; they trusted them,” said Abu Mahmoud, a moderate Sunni cleric in Baghdad, who now works deprogramming religious extremists in American detention. “It’s painful to admit, but it’s changed. People have lost too much. They say to the clerics and the parties: You cost us this.”

“When they behead someone, they say ‘Allahu akbar,’ they read Koranic verse,” said a moderate Shiite sheik from Baghdad, using the phrase for “God is great.”

“The young people, they think that is Islam,” he said. “So Islam is a failure, not only in the students’ minds, but also in the community.”

A professor at Baghdad University’s School of Law, who identified herself only as Bushra, said of her students: “They have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them.”

Again, both points of view can find validation. In this case, I would side with the “Islam is the problem” as every time I see an IED video posted on youtube, “Allahu akbar” is there along with Koranic verses condoning the act.

Of note is the making jokes line. Sadr is often called “The Down Sydrome Boy” because, well, he looks like a muppet with its mouth closed too tightly. This admission by the professor is also punishable by death in both Sunni and Shia Islam.

That was not always the case. Saddam Hussein encouraged religion in Iraqi society in his later years, building Sunni mosques and injecting more religion into the public school curriculum, but always made sure it served his authoritarian needs.

Shiites, considered to be an opposing political force and a threat to Mr. Hussein’s power, were kept under close watch. Young Shiites who worshiped were seen as political subversives and risked attracting the attention of the police.

Just a reminder to debunk some of the NYT’s earlier writings……..

Zane Mohammed, a gangly 19-year-old with an earnest face, watched with curiosity as the first Islamists in his Baghdad neighborhood came to barbershops, tea parlors and carpentry stores before taking over the mosques. They were neither uneducated nor poor, he said, though they focused on those who were.

Then, one morning while waiting for a bus to school, he watched a man walk up to a neighbor, a college professor whose sect Mr. Mohammed did not know, shoot the neighbor at point blank range three times, and walk back to his car as calmly “as if he was leaving a grocery store.”

“Nobody is thinking,” Mr. Mohammed said in an interview in October. “We use our minds just to know what to eat. This is something I am very sad about. We hear things and just believe them.”

The article is three pages long and worth the read. I leave you with two take-aways bolded from above.