Of Iraq Crisis And Amorphous Stories

PS BALI

Credit: AFP

The Iraq crisis is not just a phase which can be resolved either by the armed struggle or by the intervention of external agencies, but it is perhaps the long running ideological dispute with a dreadful history. The extremity of religious intolerance and sectarian clashes has given birth to this new facet of pursuing crises, which is leading to the destruction of Middle East nations, especially north of Iraq.

Majority of intellectuals and experts interpret and opine about this crises as a clash of interests between Shia and Sunni Muslims, wherein Sunni rebels feel oppressed and discriminated under the present government, headed by Shias. But, unfortunately the reason is far contrasting and grim. Media shows so-called Sunni Jihadis taking hostage, people dying and important areas being subjugated by the Jihadis, given name of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL). However, this is just a partial picture, because behind the curtains, these religious minorities are being exploited by vested interests. Has anyone given close look to ensuing crisis? Did anyone contemplate who is sponsoring these ISIL Jihadis to get arms and ammunition and who brings it upto them? ‘No’ is the answer. This crisis is neither just a religious war nor it is an indignation against the present realm, but a literal dangerous sabotaging imperialism on the part of powerful nations, to get hold into resources rich states, by inciting minorities to take weapons.

The clash is of Shia and Sunni philosophy of propagating and practicing Islam. As they say, “narcissist belie even what is praised by angels”, same is theory of Shias and Sunnis, neither Sunis are ready to accept that Shias are professing the same faith, nor Shias are ready to accept that Sunnis are also part of same Islam, which grew with the spirituality of Prophet Mohammad, thus giving vent to powerful nations to invade.

This all started with the Battle of Qadisseyah, where in 637 AD the Arabs drove the Persian Sassanids out of Mesopotamia, and of Ismail-I who from 1501 AD started the progressive transformation of Persia into a Shi’ite state, thus imparting to traditional Arab-Persian ethno-linguistic rivalry the sectarian complexion of a Sunni-Shia confrontation whose historical roots go back to the succession to the Prophet.

The emotional consequences of the assassination of the Prophet’s son-in-law, Ali, in 661 AD in the Grand Mosque of al-Kufa, and the military defeat of his sons, Hussein and Hassan, at the hands of the Ummayad Caliph, Yazd’s army, at the Battle of Karbala, 680 AD, reverberate down to the 21st century, never more strongly than the present when US intervention in Iraq has brought Shia Iran cheek-by-jowl with Sunni-Wahabi Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Emirates of the western coast of the Gulf that they share with Shia Iran on the other side of the same narrow waterway.

Till almost exactly a hundred years ago, Iran’s Shi’ism was principally pitted against the Sunni Turkish Empire of the Ottomans and the Sunni Kingdoms of Central Asia. The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire as a result of their defeat in the First World War led to the emergence of a number of Arab nations generally under the Mandate of Britain or France. Britain got Iraq and the modern history of Iraq begins in 1932 with King Feisal I being placed on the throne of Harun al-Rashid but as a vassal of the British Empire.

But to return to our narrative, the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958 and a decade later the Ba’ath Party under Saddam Hussein established its murderous rule. Murderous it might have been but it was also modernizing and secular.

Coming back to the track, what invoke these insurgents to kill innocent people on the name of Oppressed indignation? What inspires them to take law and order in hands? What makes them to become inimical to nuclear powers? All these questions have a single answer that this so called insurgency is a design of some powerful nation, who tends to make roots in oil rich Iraq. In this attempt to have some concrete reason to justify their presence in the Iraq, the powerful nation is exploiting Sunni minorities to go rebellion against the system.

Slowly and steadily things are turning as per their wish and without insinuating or making others realize, they are entering into Iraq as a savior. This is just a new kind of imperialism, wherein powerful nations incite minorities on the name of oppression to voice against system, to get their foothold on the land. Now, powerful nation is either exploiting Islamic states with Sunni majority or are manipulating neighboring states of central Asia to sponsor Jehad in Iraq.

It would not be predicament to say that all these kind of crises in central Asia is due to greed of Oil. The powerful nations want to occupy these areas no matter what so ever are the consequences. Therefore, people should understand the true nature of such crisis and do not accept whatever is thrown at them by the media, as a passive audience. It is not what media projects. Media is doing its job to attract audiences, but are fielding communal harmony at stake.