[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 39

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Op zaterdag 25 januari 2014 01:31 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:
Maar het biedt volgens mij wel voordelen als de Koerden als ��n blok meedoen in plaats van verdeeld over twee. Mede hierdoor zijn er wat zetels verloren in Kerkuk volgens mij. Beter dat ze dus een lijst vormen bij nationale verkiezingen.

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Op zaterdag 25 januari 2014 01:31 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:

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Maar het biedt volgens mij wel voordelen als de Koerden als ��n blok meedoen in plaats van verdeeld over twee. Mede hierdoor zijn er wat zetels verloren in Kerkuk volgens mij. Beter dat ze dus een lijst vormen bij nationale verkiezingen.

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Op zondag 26 januari 2014 16:40 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Fallujah is al enkele weken in de handen van ISIL, vandaag zijn deze video's gepubliceerd, ze zeggen dat ze vijf Iraakse soldaten te pakken hebben gekregen:

جنود الهالكي بيد رجال الدولة الاسلامية في الفلوجة

اسرى قوات المالكي في الفلوجة 26-1-2014

Ze hebben eerder vier soldaten die ze te pakken hadden gekregen gedood.

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Op zondag 26 januari 2014 16:49 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:
Waarom doden ze hun. Ze kunnen hun toch ook als krijgsgevangenen nemen en dan inruilen voor eventuele gevangenen van ISIL.

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Op zondag 26 januari 2014 18:31 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:

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Misschien wil de Iraakse regering niet onderhandelen.

Er zijn vandaag meerdere aanslagen gepleegd in Bagdad en Kirkoek.

Positief nieuws:

Zojuist is bekend geworden dat Irak kampioen van Azi� is geworden
http://www.the-afc.com/en(...)22-championship.html

Saoedi-Arabi� is verslagen in de finale.

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Op zondag 26 januari 2014 18:56 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:
De grootste sponser van terrorisme KSA is verslagen door Irak.

Zie de ironie.

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Op zondag 26 januari 2014 19:11 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:

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KSA is in rouw gedompeld.

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Plan to Convert Iraqi Districts into Provinces Widely Opposed
By Adel Fakhir 7 hours ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi government’s intention to turn four districts into provinces is illegal and opens a can of worms that is dangerous for the country and likely to fuel greater sectarian violence, according to analysts, lawmakers and politicians.

Last month, Iraq's Council of Ministers said it has decided to turn the districts of Tuz Khurmatu, Talafar into provinces and recommended a study to turn the Nineveh Plain and Fallujah into additional Iraqi provinces.

The ministers’ decision, which followed a resolution in December to turn Halabja into a province, needs the approval of the Iraqi parliament.

But the announcement has caused an uproar, with districts such as al-Rifaai, al-Zubair, Khanaqin and al-Massib also demanding provincial status. The provinces of Salahaddin and Mosul, meanwhile, have threatened to declare themselves as autonomous regions.

“In light of the political conflicts that are driven by political and partisan interests, this decision will not be the right one, as it will generate a lot of crises and will surely be manipulated by many,” strategic expert Mohammad al-Faisal said.

“How beneficial and feasible is this decision to the Iraqi state? This question clearly reveals the open political and security war existing in Iraq,” Faisal charged.

“Creating new regions in Iraq, based on sectarian considerations, is still inspiring the conflicting parties,” he said. “This is a tit-for-tat game.”

Liqa Wardi, an MP from the Sunni Al-Iraqiya party, agreed with Faisal.

“The conversion of some districts into provinces at this stage, due to ethnic or sectarian considerations, is not suitable; it will foment division and increase rivalry among citizens,” she warned.

Wardi accused the Iraqi government of raising the issue for political gain in the Iraqi legislative elections, due in April.

“It's a political demand for a particular bloc, aimed to serve as an advertising campaign in the upcoming elections,” she charged.

“The government's unilateral policy is indirectly pushing for the formation of regions through the adoption of policies of exclusion, marginalization, and injustice,” she said. “It is the government itself that pushes the districts to make these demands; it’s an underlying governmental desire.”

Meanwhile Aliya Nassif, an MP from the Free Iraqiya party, questioned the powers of the Council of Ministers.

“The Council does not have the power to convert the districts into the provinces,” she said, noting it was against constitutional laws and amendments.

She advised the ministers to: “Legislate a law that would regulate the mechanisms of creating new provinces... so that the matters would take their legal form and would not conflict with the constitution.”

“The (ministerial) decision leaves the door open for many districts to turn into provinces and regions, without taking into account the social, the financial and security aspects,” Nassif warned.

“Each new province will need to form a local government and directorates and the demarcation of the new administrative and Provincial Council,” she noted. “Thus, the damage will be greater than the benefit."

Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, said last week that the creation of any new province is "illegal."

“At the time of the former regime, there was a law called the law of the provinces which allowed the formation of new provinces from districts under certain conditions. But the new amended law has canceled this rule,” said Nujaifi, one of Iraq’s top Sunni politicians.
- See more at: http://rudaw.net/english/(...)sthash.ye8KEfbb.dpuf

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Op maandag 3 februari 2014 21:53 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Iraq says kills 57 Islamist militants in Sunni province
Iraqi troops and allied tribesmen killed 57 Islamist militants in Anbar province on Monday, the Defence Ministry said, in advance of a possible assault on the Sunni rebel-held city of Falluja.
http://www.reuters.com/ar(...)dUSBREA120NG20140203

Iraq car bombs cause carnage around Baghdad
A new series of car bombings in and around Baghdad on Monday killed at least 16 people, officials said, as Iraq's Shiite-led government grapples with a stubborn Sunni extremist-led insurgency in the western Anbar province.
http://www.cbsnews.com/ne(...)nage-around-baghdad/

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Op maandag 3 februari 2014 22:05 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:
Zijn de Islamitische militanten nou verdreven uit Fallujah, Ramadi en de rest van Irak door eht Iraakse leger, of nog niet.

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Op maandag 3 februari 2014 22:07 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:

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Nog niet. Ze maken zich 'gereed' om Falluja binnen te vallen, maar dit zeggen ze al een paar dagen.

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Op maandag 3 februari 2014 22:12 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:

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Ik denk dat Irak bloedige dagen te wachten staat.

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Without God in Baghdad
Despite its dangers and taboos in the conflict-ridden nation, some Iraqi youth are turning towards atheism. Mariwan Salihi met a few of them. One of the Iraqi capital’s most vocal young activists, who uses the pseudonym Omar Al-Baghdadi for his own security, is often described as “Baghdad’s Converter.” His mission, among others, is to enlighten his friends and other young people about atheism.

“I became an atheist at an early age, after I investigated my former religion, Islam, in depth. I discovered that my religion is not the only one that exists on earth; there are more than 1100 other faiths and their followers all claim that their religion tells the absolute truth. So religion is a form of Dogma,” the 22-year old engineer and activist says from his home in one of the major Sunni-inhabited areas of Baghdad.

“My parents know I am an atheist, and so do my friends"

According to Al-Baghdadi, most of the writings in the Islamic holy book, the Koran, are labeled as "scientific facts," which he believes are mostly incorrect. “It has many mistakes,” he adds, claiming that even the ancient Hindu scripts from India, the Vedas, contain more accurate facts than the Koran.

The fact that Omar chose to have no religion, and categorizes himself as an atheist, is no secret to his immediate circle of family and friends.

“My parents know I am an atheist, and so do my friends. My brother, Ahmed, became an atheist too after I led him to some books, and discussing with him about many topics regarding science and philosophy. Even most of my friends have become atheists now,” he claims, because of his posts on social media sites like Facebook.

Although his parents have accepted his choice, and respect him for his intellectuality, he also admits that they “hate it” when he tells them that “there’s no God.”

“Not everyone’s parents or family accept atheism, so some of us might hide our convictions from them.”

But he proudly says, that they have the support of other liberal, secular and atheist individuals and politicians in the country, which he declines to name.

“In the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections, in April, atheists will cast their votes for the secular political blocks and parties,” Omar predicts.

7% of Iraqis don’t believe in God

Coming out as an atheist – or non-believer – in Iraq, or any other Muslim-majority society for that matter, isn’t as easy as in the West. Although a largely secular society since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1932, the major religion in Iraq is Islam (divided among Sunnis and Shias), followed by an estimated 95% of all Iraqis. In a country where no nationwide census has taken place for nearly three decades, more recent survey-results seem to contradict these numbers.

In a poll released in April 2011, by the now-defunct Erbil-based Kurdish news agency AKnews, ordinary Iraqi citizens were asked “Do you believe in God”? The answers were quite surprising for this Middle Eastern country, home to many holy sites for Muslims, Christians, Jews, and many other religions; 67% answered yes, 21% probably yes, 4% probably no, 7% no, and 1% had no answer.

According to Nawaf Al-Kaabi, a 23-year old university student from Basrah in southern Iraq, the number of atheists could be much higher if that poll was held in 2014.

"Many atheists in Iraq could be at danger from extremists and militias linked to religious groups, if they are too open about their views". “The new generation of Iraqis are tired of religious extremists and politicians, who are responsible for the ongoing sectarian divide in the country,” he says.

“Young people travel, read, watch TV, and are connected to the internet…with so much out there, they have become skeptical of their own religion now.”

But he agrees that many atheists in his country could be at danger from extremists and militias linked to religious groups, if they are too open about their views. And, that was the case with one of Iraq’s most well-known atheists.

The 22-year old Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar fled to the United States, partly due to his conflict with Islamists over his secular humanist identity, but also because his brother, cousin and best friend were killed in sectarian violence in his native Iraq.

Growing up in a moderate Shia family, the outspoken Al-Mutar received many death threats from Al Qaeda elements and the Shia Al-Mahdi Army, two influential and powerful religious militias operating in his country. And although it is not a crime to be an atheist in Iraq, religious militias often take matters into their own hands.

Today, Al-Mutar leads an international organization and regularly speaks at events. He’s the founder of Global Secular Humanist Movement, which has nearly a quarter million ‘likes’ on Facebook.

Back in Iraq, Faisal became an atheist at an early age, and although he was taught at a public school in his country, he was quoted as saying “reading philosophy, keeping an open mind, being curious about the world, made me finish all my education in Iraq without losing my brain in the process.”

The Kurdistan Region is safer for atheists

In 2008, The New York Times ran a piece called “Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics,” in which it interviewed 40 young people from five Iraqi cities, during some of the most violent periods of the American occupation of the country. The newspaper quoted young Iraqis “exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism” and “disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.”

But in the northern parts of the country, in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, young Kurds often feel they have more freedom to express their views. Spared from the sectarian violence seen elsewhere in Iraq, Kurdistan portrays itself as a tolerant place, with a semi-secular system.

Suzan Star, a 22-year old Danish-Iraqi student, originally from the multicultural city of Kirkuk, and an ethnic Kurd, became an atheist only after she left her parental home and settled in her own apartment.

“My Muslim parents had a big influence on me; they taught me to be a good Muslim. But when I left home, I felt free to choose for myself,” she explains.

One of the reasons why Star turned to atheism, is because it gave her different perspectives on her own life, and as she sums, life no longer makes her afraid and depressed, and that it allows her to finally follow her dreams, “without religious restrictions” – even when her parents disapproved her choice “and think she will go to hell for that.”

Suzan was soon surprised to find out that there are many other young Kurdish atheists in Iraqi Kurdistan and in the diaspora.

“I know many other Kurdish atheists, mostly in Europe, and none of them have received threats for coming out.”

In Erbil, Kurdistan Region’s capital, the Canadian-Kurdish Adam Mirani agrees that’s easier to say that one doesn’t believe in God in Kurdistan than in the rest of Iraq, but adds that in the Middle East – like in the rest of the world – people are not in right mindset to accept others who have no religion.

“When you look at a place like Iraq, where religious divisions are deep and are a direct result of the extreme violence which exists in much of the country, bringing up something like atheism just seems pointless, because progress won't happen in the atmosphere that exists here,” the 26-year old photographer and program assistant at a local NGO says.

“Iraq is not ready for a small community of atheists to band together and bring different opinions to the public sphere, and frankly it's dangerous. I would rather push atheism in countries where it's accepted, yet if people are brave enough, then I commend them for their courage,” a cautious Mirani concludes.

http://www.yourmiddleeast(...)god-in-baghdad_21355

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Op woensdag 5 februari 2014 00:26 schreef Aloulou het volgende:

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Omar al-Baghdadi heet ie ook nog

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Bombings kill at least 22 in Iraqi capital


Bombings kill at least 22 in Iraqi capital

5 February 2014 /BAGHDAD, AP
Multiple bombings rocked central Baghdad on Wednesday, striking mainly near the heavily fortified Green Zone where key government offices are located and killing at least 22 people, Iraqi officials said.
The attacks were the latest in a relentless push by Sunni militants to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government's efforts to maintain security in Iraq, two years after the pullout of American troops from the country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings but such systematic and brazen attacks against government buildings, security forces and Shiites in general bear the hallmarks of al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq. The terror group has become emboldened by the successes of its fellow militants in the civil war next door in Syria and by widespread Sunni anger at the government in Baghdad.

The deadliest of Wednesday's attacks took place across the street from the Foreign Ministry building, when two parked car bombs went off simultaneously in two different parking lots. Those explosions killed at least seven people and wounded 17, a police officer said.

Shortly afterward, a suicide bomber walked into a nearby falafel restaurant where he set off his explosives-laden belt, killing five people and wounding 12, the officer added. The restaurant and others around it are often used by officials or visitors waiting for security escorts to take them inside the Green Zone.

Also Wednesday morning, a parked car bomb went off in Khilani Square in the Iraqi capital's commercial center, killing five people and wounding 11, another police officer said. Security forces sealed off the area as firefighters struggled to put out the blaze ignited by the bombing. Smoke billowed from several stores and stalls as some vendors hurriedly stuffed their goods into big bags and carried them away on their backs.

Two medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media.

Iraq has seen resurgence in violence over the past year. According to U.N. figures, 2013 had the highest death toll since the worst of the country's sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007. The U.N. said violence killed 8,868 last year.

Al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq has in the past staged spectacular attacks on Iraqi government ministries such as in August 2009, when suicide bombers hit the Finance Ministry and the Foreign Ministry ministries, killing more than 100 people. The bombings were quickly claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq, as the group was known at the time.

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Op woensdag 5 februari 2014 10:55 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:
En Aloulou, dus je vind het zo te zien goed dat Moslims "Murtadeen" worden.

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Op woensdag 5 februari 2014 20:23 schreef Aloulou het volgende:

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En Baklava, dus je vind het zo te zien goed als deze jongeren de doodstraf zouden krijgen

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Op woensdag 5 februari 2014 20:55 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:
Nee wel levenslang de cel in wegens Apostasy.