Iraq Carnage: Sectarian Prisms, Domesticated Muftis
"BAGHDAD — Bombing attacks against Shiites on Friday near the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad killed at least 43 people and wounded hundreds, police officials said……. one week after five Shiite mosques in Baghdad were bombed in coordinated attacks, killing at least 29.......”
Actually the dead so far exceed 50. There was another bombing in Baghdad before that, killing over 30 mostly Shi’as. Before that there was a bombing that killed....and before that……and that.....etc
The preferred targets are Shi’a mosques: that way they can be almost sure of the victims.
Arab media report these bombings in a very detached way, as if they are occurring on Mars.They implicitly, some not so implicitly, blame the Iraqi government. Their main concern with Iraq is not the slaughter of the Shi’as (presumably by Sunni extremists), but that the Sunni Arabs (about 15% of the population) should share power equally with the Shi’as (about 65% of the population), or preferably regain absolute power and institute an Arab-style dictatorship (who needs elections anyway).Something that even Joe Biden and Hillary seem to support occasionally, especially when they are facing microphones.
Which brings me to Saudi Arabia, whose media and its satellites in some Gulf states are the most vocal opponents of what they call sectarianism in Iraq (but only in Iraq, and only since Saddam Hussein’s regime was overthrown).
Imagine if only one of these bombings had occurred in, say, Riyadh. The victims would be declared martyrs by some domesticated royal Mufti (they are all domesticated bureaucrats, these Muftis). There would be complaints about spilling the blood of Muslims….The Arab League, which is largely an arm of the Saudi government now, would strongly condemn.
But the 15% of Saudis who are Shi’as, and under whose land the oil is, would still not get a single cabinet post, nor a single undersecretary’s post, nor a single ambassadorial post, nor a single post on the appointed advisory council, nor…….will they ever get to go to heaven.
Cheers
mhg
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