Kurdish Leader says fundamentalists against Iraq's rebirth
Paris (AsiaNews) The tragic toll of the killings of Shiite Muslims in Karbala and Baghdad today is growing by the minute. Late this afternoon 140 people were counted dead while 400 wounded. All were peace-loving citizens who had come on pilgrimage to holy sites of Shiite Islam in memory of the assassination of the Mohammed's nephew. Meanwhile, Karbala hospitals are overcrowded and chaotic, citizens find difficulties in verifying bodies of loved ones with their heads blown off and mosques have launched blood donation campaigns for badly needed transfusions.
AsiaNews interviews the nephew of Massoud Barazani, Sivan Barazani, a Sunni representative in Paris of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan. Below we ask his opinion as to why new attacks have occurred.
What is happening in Iraq? Before Kurds were being killed and now its the Shiites' turn
For years everyone milked the fatted calf. The government had bought out many people's consciences. Apparently today, people cannot imagine that Iraqis can live in and rebuild their own country. Some insane people really want to kill themselves or lead a bad life have been sent to Iraq to become human bombs against Iraqi citizens. Recently a letter written by the (regional) head of Al-Qaeda, Abu Mus'ab al Zarqawi, was intercepted in Iraq, in which he announced such types of attacks so as to sew discord among Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis.
Today is a holy day for Muslims (Ashura), a day of mourning in memory of the assassination of the great Prophet Mohammed's nephew in Karbala. They (the terrorists) chose this very day to launch their strikes on millions of innocent pilgrims and civilians.
And for what reason?
Zarqawi's letter said Shiites must be attacked in order to trigger a civil war in Iraq. But Iraqis know all too well who is carrying out such attacks against them and why are being waged. They are fully aware that their attackers are not Iraqi Sunnis and that until today all the suicide bombers were non-Iraqi Arab citizens .
What purpose would it serve to provoke civil war among Iraqis?
Their goal is to destabilize Iraq. Civil war would bring about this for many years to come. Before there was a regime in power that helped those who wanted to destabilize the country, but not its people. A judge during the Saddam Hussein era used to earn 3 dollars a month . They (those who favor destabilization) cannot get it into their heads that Iraqis can finally lead their lives like all other ordinary people. Is unthinkable that people to come from Yemen or any other foreign country to fight against survivors of an (authoritarian) regime. They criticize the so-called "American occupation" of Iraq, but they cast the anger out on Iraqis and not American soldiers. The Americans who came here have liberated Iraq from dictatorship and in a short while they'll be gone.
Al-Qaeda bases its terrorist ideology on religious ideas, but isn't it contradictory to attack holy sites of the very same religion?
This tendency in Islam, which defines itself as being Muslim, has always showed violence toward Islam. In the 13th century they destroyed the cities of Najaf and Karbala (Shiite holy places). The have a limited vision of Islam, of which in reality has never existed and does not exist. There has always been such fundamentalism. The worst type of fundamentalism is that which calls faithful to kill themselves and others.
Can such attacks eventually wear out of governments throughout the word which are determined to help Iraq?
This is a fight of humanity against obscurantism. I know that Italy these days is talking about its role in Iraq. If Italy were to leave Iraq today, it would be like saying "you won" to terrorists. At this point in time you can do as you wish, but one day they'll come and launch their attacks on Rome.
This is precisely what the Americans felt about isolationism. It is wrong to think that your are safe an ocean away for the problem. Experience shows us that what consequences come about when not intervening in other regions. If after the Soviets withdrew there would have been a stable government in Afghanistan, there wouldn't be all these nuts running around the country, people convinced of killing their neighbor in the name of some crazy principle.
The only valid principle has to be that of saving human lives. Whoever saves the life of one single person saves all of mankind. For monotheistic religions, a person who snuffs out one single life is equal to someone who has destroyed all humanity. In Iraq hundreds of innocent lives are being lost. Italy has a moral duty, like all other countries, to fight against this scourge.
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28/01/2005
08/07/2021 09:17
