Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

James Hider, Iraqis crack open a furtive drink as Mahdi Army retreats from streets - Times Online, December 8, 2007

The men emerged from behind the shop’s metal grille clutching black plastic bags, or with pockets bulging, eyes peeled for the enforcers of Islamic law.

They hurried with their precious, clanking cargo to waiting cars or quickly flagged down taxis. It may be furtive but, for the first time in years, alcohol is being sold openly again on the streets of Baghdad.

With security slowly improving in the city centre Iraqis are returning to a long-forgotten pastime — drinking. In the days when the Mahdi Army, the deadly guardians of Muslim morality, roamed central Baghdad at will, many alcohol vendors had their shops blown up and their colleagues kidnapped and murdered.

There is still much nervousness involved in selling liquor. With unemployment high, though, and a thirsty clientele in dire need of a drink to calm its blast-shattered nerves, vendors are once again risking all to sell liquid relaxation.“Yes, we are still afraid,” said Murad Abdul, the owner of a shop in Karrada, a middle class area where Christians live alongside wealthy Shia, long the area with the most off licences. A few months ago there were none that dared open, and buying alcohol meant knowing the right people.

Mr Abdul has reason to be afraid. He was kidnapped from his shop by the Mahdi Army in April 2006. They demanded a hefty ransom. His family did not have the money but managed to borrow £6,000.

Ali Hamdani and James Hider, Basra’s murderous militias tell Christian women to cover up or face death - Times Online, December 8, 2007

On her first day at Basra University this year a man came up to Zeena, a 21-year-old Christian woman, and three other Christian girls and ordered them to cover their heads with a hijab, or Islamic headscarf.

“We didn’t listen to him, and thought he might just be some extremist student representing only himself,” she said. The next day Zeena and two of her friends returned to class with uncovered heads.

This time a man in the black clothes of the Shia militia stopped them at the entrance and took them aside. “He said, ‘We asked you yesterday to wear a hijab, so why are you and your friends not covering your hair?’. He was talking very aggressively and I was scared,” Zeena recalled.

The girls explained that they were Christians and that their faith did not call for headscarves. “He said: ‘Outside this university you are Christian and can do what you want; inside you are not. Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately’,” Zeena recalled. Terrified, the girls ran home. They now wear the headscarf all the time.

In the past five months more than 40 women have been murdered and their bodies dumped in the street by militiamen, according to the Basra police chief. Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf said that some of them had been killed alone, others gunned down with their children. One unveiled mother was murdered together with her children aged 6 and 11.