It looks as if the Islamic fundies are taking over.
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Once liberal Basra is becoming fundamentally strict
City a flash point in Shiite-dominated Iraq
By Edward Wong
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
July 9, 2005
BASRA, Iraq The loudest sounds emanating from musicians' row these days
come from explosions.
Ahmed Ali walked through a shop that sold musical instruments before it
was gutted by a bombing a week earlier, the latest in a series of
mysterious attacks in this narrow alley in the last half-year, he said.
The men here, just a block from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, sell
instruments by day and perform at weddings in the evening.
"They say it's forbidden by Islam," Ali, 18, said as he went back to his
own shop, its shelves stocked with drums. "We're afraid of everything.
I'm afraid of it all. I'm afraid even when I'm talking to you."
The once-libertine oil port of Basra, 350 miles south of the capital and
far from the insurgency raging in much of Iraq, is steadily being
transformed into a mini-theocracy under Shiite rule.
There is perhaps no better indication of the possible flash points in a
Shiite-dominated Iraq, because the political parties that hold sway here
also wield significant influence in the central government in Baghdad
and are backed by the country's top clerics.
Efforts to impose strict Shiite religious rule across Iraq would almost
certainly spur resistance from Sunni Arabs and the more secular Kurds.
But here in Basra, the changes have accelerated since the January
elections, which enabled religious parties to put more radical
politicians into office.
Small parties with names like God's Vengeance and Master of Martyrs have
emerged. They work under the umbrella of more established Shiite groups,
but many Iraqis suspect them of being agents of the Iranian government.
One of the leading parties was formed in Iran by an Iraqi cleric living
in exile during the reign of Saddam Hussein.
The growing ties with Iran are evident. Posters of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution, are plastered along
streets and even at the provincial government center. The Iranian
government opened a polling station downtown for Iranian expatriates
during elections in their home country in June.
The governor also talks eagerly of buying electricity from Iran, given
that the U.S.-led effort has failed to provide enough of it.
"The political situation is very confused and very mixed up," said Saleh
Najim, the dean of the engineering college at Basra University. "Most of
the radical Islamic parties are concentrated in Basra. The people feel
very upset about these parties. They are wasting our time."
Basra is not yet entirely in the grip of fundamentalism pirated copies
of American movies like "Showgirls" and "Striptease" can still be bought
in the market.
But conservative rule has affected daily life. Thursday and Friday have
been designated the official weekend, rather than Friday and Saturday as
in Baghdad, because Saturday is the Jewish day of rest.
There is an upside. Basra, though trash-strewn and impoverished, is much
safer than Baghdad and other cities beset by the Sunni-led insurgency.
The riverfront walkway known as the Corniche buzzes with life at night.
Even foreigners can openly walk the streets.
But insecurity is a constant for many Iraqis who do not conform to a
strict interpretation of Shiite Islam. In the music bazaar, a tattered
warning sign appears on a shuttered instrument shop owned by a famous
musician known as Kareem Trumpet.
The sign denounces as "soldiers of Satan" the city's "whorehouses and
dealers in porn DVDs and gambling shops and music stores."
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050709/news_1n9basra.html
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John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
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