Posted on 05/09/2003 5:51:49 PM PDT by blam
Murder of Catholics selling alcohol raises fundamentalist fears
(Filed: 10/05/2003)
Fanatics are trying to fill the power vacuum left by the fall of Saddam and it puts a community in fear, writes Kate Connolly in Basra
It was because of a stomach upset that Sabah Gazala did not go to work in his off-licence in the El Saymar district on Wednesday. Had he done so he might still be alive today.
Two men were doing the rounds of the alcohol shops in town that day, ordering them to close their doors or see their businesses blown to smithereens. Most obeyed. But an unwitting Mr Gazala, a licensed seller of alcohol, arrived at work on Thursday at 8am as usual.
Just two hours later he was lying in a pool of blood following a single shot to the back of his head by gunmen dressed in traditional dishdasha shirt-dresses who sped off in a taxi. Now Mr Gazala's body lies on a metal tray in a mortuary at the al-Talimi hospital in Basra.
Several streets away and just 10 minutes after claiming their first victim, a respected Roman Catholic, the gunmen struck again, killing Abdul Ahed, 55, also a Catholic. Since the killings all the city's alcohol shops have closed their doors. The work of the murderers - suspected fundamentalists - could not have been more effective.
"We have been selling alcohol for many, many years. Despite the Muslim ban on alcohol we were accepted by those with whom we have lived in harmony forever and who were actually our best customers," said Mr Gazala's best friend Walid, 36, also a seller of alcohol, who was too scared to give his full name.
But since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, lawlessness rules on the streets of Basra and while a healthy indication of the new-found freedom is demonstrated in the number of political parties springing to life, radical religious groups are using the power vacuum to assert their influence.
In the Mar Afram Church of Basra's Chaldean Catholics, Fr Gabriel Kassab preached a message of peace, urging his 2,000-strong flock to forgive the killers. But outside, worshippers expressed their fear that in a new Iraq they will face oppression - something no one can recall feeling previously.
"Don't you see the threat of Islamic fundamentalists is making us scared to walk out of our homes," said Rosa Gorgis, 48, whose husband had been forced to close his shop. "The alcohol sellers are easy targets in the fundamentalists' fight for domination."
Sabah Masur Ashak, 41, who has cleared the stock from his shop, said he could imagine returning to work only once the small police force now being trained by the British military started to have a real impact on the widespread crime that is causing many citizens to become prisoners in their own homes.
Some even say that life was better for them under Saddam, who issued licences to Christians to sell alcohol.
"We're under no illusion that Saddam particularly liked us, he just wanted to avoid chaos in his country," said Walid's brother Isam, 46, who has run an off-licence for 20 years. "Nowadays there's no attempt to quell the chaos and we won't feel safe at least until there's a new government in place."
But Isam and his wife Munira, 40, are not prepared to wait that long. Later this month, once the school year ends, they and their six children will make a new life for themselves in Mosul. Many other off-licence owners have already packed up and left.
Religious leaders in Basra condemned the killings yesterday. "The consumption of alcohol is banned under Islamic law, but we always sat down with these people and tried to reason with them," said Sheik Yussef Hassani, a Sunni cleric. "Killing is not our answer. Our Prophet once condemned a woman to hell because she tortured a cat."
Everyone is scared to discuss the possible political allegiances of Saheb's and Abdul's killers.
The finger has been pointed at several Shia groups with fundamentalist tendencies that were suppressed under Saddam. Their members were forced into exile and are now starting to return, mainly from neighbouring Iran.
Among them are The Highest Council of Islamic Revolution, whose leader Mohammed Bakr al Hakim, will return from exile in Iran today and has chosen Basra, where he has many followers, as his first port of call. There is also the party of Said El Sader, who was killed by the regime in 1999.
But the name on most people's lips yesterday was the El Dawa Religious Party, a grouping with extremist tendencies whose founder, Mohammed Bakr El Sader - a cousin of Said - was hanged by the regime in 1980.
Yesterday the leader of its Basra branch, Kassim Atya al Bazuny, was quick to deny any involvement. "I was in Baghdad over the past few days and have not heard of this incident," he said. "If I see someone drinking I reprimand them and walk out of their sight but the fact is we live in an Islamic society where selling and drinking alcohol is forbidden. The Christians have to recognise that."
Allah gave them a 'exemption chit' so that they can have a better life in an infidel country?
This bigot does not live in an Islamic society. there are other religions besides Islam in Iraq.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.