Middle East Focus: More on Allawi and Secularism, Drinking Booze and Herding Goats in al-Anbar …………..

Arabia Deserta

More on Allawi and Secularism, Drinking Booze and Herding Goats in al-Anbar …………..

“The court disqualified the candidate on charges that he was a loyalist of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, and it left open the possibility of barring still more. Moves by the court, if upheld on appeal, would erase the two-seat victory by a largely ‘secular coalition’ led by Ayad Allawi, a Shiite who served as an interim prime minister after the American overthrow of Mr. Hussein………….”

Dognabbit! If I hear this nonsense about a “secular coalition led by Allawi” one more time…………..
This has become a silly mantra by Western media this year. Allawi’s coalition consists of several blocs, some of them very non-secular (I wouldn’t use the economic term ‘cyclical’ here). A couple of them are Islamic fundamentalists of the Sunni variety, including that of outgoing vice president Tarek al-Hashimi. Somehow it is “sectarian” if it is Shi’a, but it is “secular” if it is Sunni. I got news for you in the Western media: they are all sectarians whether they wear a turban, wear a ghutra, or drink booze while herding goats in al-Anbar.

As for sectarianism: the most sectarian government in the Middle East is not even in Iraq, it is to the south and west of Iraq. When was the last time a Shi’a was a cabinet minister, a deputy minister, assistant deputy minister, department head, school principal, chief dog catcher in Saudi Arabia? The answer is: they’ll think about it when hell freezes over.
Cheers
mhg

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