The Obstacle

She was injured in the first American attack on Al-Fallujah in April 2004, the surgical team did the best to help her and her mother, a couple of Islamists girls and I, were also looking after her.

After finishing her treatment the consultant decided to send her home as she didn’t need to stay in the hospital, everyone was against his decision as she wanted to stay in the hospital, but, the two girls had different explanation “he is sectarian”, I had never imagined such thing about him and the man was really not as his team and friends were from different sectors and religions and he never talked about religion or even politics, yet, I realized something else; there is a word going to disturb our life.

Sectarianism is the most common accusation nowadays, it’s the worst thing we’re suffering and probably we’ll suffer for many years.
Many people don’t know what sectarianism means, many people think that sectarianism is about fighting the others, refusing to marry them or to deal with them.

Many people refuse sectarianism and try to deny it, however, they accept it subconsciously; many people try to defend my country by saying that this mentality is a foreigner one which was brought by the invaders, but they believe that their sectors are threatened by the others and they have to get their rights.

It’s quite surprising that there are many agnostics, atheists or believers who don’t care about religion and don’t practice anything religious, yet, they defend their sectors or even their turbans.
It has been like a race which wasn’t decided by them so they have to live with it, it doesn’t have anything to do with believing in certain things apart from being threatened as you belong to that group.


Once Imam Ali said “fanaticism is not to be in love with your people but, to consider the most evil guys from your people are better than the saints of the others”.

I think sectarianism is denying facts or justifying crimes and defending criminals just because they’re from our sector. Ignoring the others and denying their sufferance is a barrier between us, it’s the main problem which is used by whoever wants to create a quarrel or even a war.

Our flagrant mistake is considering sectarianism as a fact we have to cope with not a cancer we have to eradicate.

Many people think that religion is the main reason behind sectarianism; in fact sectarianism has nothing to do with religion apart from using it to convince people or probably to cheat them. Whenever someone asks me; are you Sunni or Shiite? I reply: I’m neither, I’m Iraqi only. I don’t say I’m Muslim, because the question is about politics not religion

I appreciate that being oppressed, threatened and loosing a family member are factors which make people stop thinking properly, I know that sufferance makes people biased to one side, yet we have to think probably to solve our problems instead of waiting for their consequences.

It’s obvious that many Shiites are defending Al-Malki government just because the prime minister is Shiite, they deny the horrible failure, corruption and the torture in prisons or they even try to justify such things. Others may defend Al-Hakim or his Badr brigade, Al-Mahdi army and even the Iranian role in Iraq. Nothing can explain their attitude apart from being Shiites.

On the other hand, many Sunnis are defending whoever is considered Sunni or even whoever against Shiites like: Saddam, Al-Qaida, Sunni turbans and even the wicked Mishaan Al-Juboori.

It’s stabbing that people are ignoring how bad those guys are, it’s horrible that we accept being slaves for no reason. People are going to accept being ruled again by dictators if they are from their own sectors and this is the real threat to us and to the new generation, it’s really the worst which we can ever expect.
If we go on with this attitude we’ll sink more in this mud and we’ll suffer other ages of slavery; this time it’ll be the slavery of sectors.

We have to realize that if anyone of either side gets the power, he will just be another Saddam; will we be pleased if we see another Saddam is ruling Iraq? People don’t think about taking them to wars, confiscating their properties, dealing with them like slaves and depriving them from simple human rights.
Whenever everything settles down they’ll think and they’ll regret it.

Whoever wins this war, we will lose, all what we will get is being abused by a dictator and his followers.

To think about a country controlled by Sunni insurgents means thinking about depriving women from education, banning happiness and being hundreds of years backward, moreover, being ready to fight everyone in this world as they’re human beings. What they did in Afghanistan is a good example.

Not far away from that, letting the country to Shiites forces means living in endless misery and horror, being dressed in black for the whole year, loosing human rights and waiting for civil war between Shiites themselves apart form the war with Sunnis, the best example is what goes on in the southern cities of Iraq nowadays which represents the beginning.


In regard to how horrible our life is nowadays, it’s obvious that we don’t trust each other, yet, can we trust someone else? We have to admit that no one cares about us, no one accepts helping us and no one is going to do so. We are the only ones who have the duty of solving our problems, and if we don’t, no one else will even think about it.

The only way to solve our problems is by thinking about the country and its people instead of thinking about sectors. We have to admit that the idea of giving a certain share to every sector has failed, let’s look at our ministries, putting people in positions according to sectors is destroying everything.

The only fact we have is Iraqis are suffering and dying regardless to their sectors, all Iraqis are deprived from fuel supplementations, electricity and from living a normal life, and we have to admit that Iraqis have always passed through the same sufferance regardless to their sectors.

No one can say that Sunnis didn’t suffer from Saddam’s regime or Shiites were not tortured in the Iranian prisons.

I’ve been accused of being unrealistic when I criticize people for being unfair or when I ask them to think how the others are suffering, I don’t think that it’s too much if we ask people to be a bit fair, I know that no one is perfect, but still we have to look for justice.


I’m not asking people to deny their sectors, it’s a right for everyone to choose what they believe in, all what I’m imploring Iraqis is to think about everything logically, not to justify crimes of those who consider themselves as leaders and not to let them get a benefit from our disagreement, I don’t think that there is someone who deserves to be holly, in simple words “let’s not be slaves of sectarianism”.