salim

In a simillar previous incident , when a Jordianian shooted and killed some Isreal students across the boarder, the Jordanian King, went in person to give his appologies to Isrealies. In this case the king also paid a visit but to the junior electronic newspaper that published the report to ask editors to be more carefull not to hurt the Jordanian reputation by puplishing such news.! Alot of Iraqies interpreted this visit as a couraging sign for the killing .. In Jordan , a visit by the King is a honor .. Usually when they don't like some thing they send security police. Today the father of the criminal, retrieted his position and said that his son was killed in Mosul while fighting the Americans not in Hilla.!

اؤيد الراي اعلاه بشده وخصوصا اؤلئك المراهقين في الغربه كيف يمكنهم المزج بين ثقافتهم الشرقيه والاسلاميه خصوصا وبين مفاهيم المجتمع الغربي وكمحور للنقاش في مجال فهم اسلوب التعامل مع المراهقيين اطرح الملاحظه التاليه يقول امام المتقيين على ابن ابي طالب لاتجبروا اولادكم على عاداتكم فقد خلقوا لزمان غير زمانكم علما ان مفهوم الزمان كوحده لسرعه تغير الظرف الاجتماعي قد تسارع بمئات المرات عن ما كان مألوفا ايام الامام فالفرق الاجتماعي بين جيليين يعيشان في مجتمع ستاتيكي كمجتمع الباديه غير كميته بين جيليين يعيشان في مجتمع لندن حيث ايقاع الحياه وسرعه تغيير الظروف الاجتماعيه ناهبك عن جيليين احدهما لازال يعيش مفاهيم الباديه واخر يعيش معه في نفس البيت يتربى على مفاهيم الانترنت ولا اقصد هنا تلقي ثقافه الانترنت التي هي متيسره في انحاء العالم ولكن اقصد مفاهيم المجتمع الغربي الدي انتج الانترنت مفاهيم الانفتاح والصراحه وعدم وجود القيود او الحساسيات في تبادل الافكار

Saudi Shiites Look to Iraq and Assert Rights By NEIL MacFARQUHAR Published: March 2, 2005 ATIF, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 25 - The Shiite Muslim minority in this kingdom once marked their Ashura holy day furtively in darkened, illegal community centers out of fear of stirring the powerful wrath of the religious establishment. But this year Ashura fell on the eve of the 10-day campaign for municipal council elections, to be held here on Thursday, and a bolder mood was readily apparent. Thousands thronged sprawling, sandy lots for hours to watch warriors on horseback re-enact the battlefield decapitation of Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, in 680. A few young men even dared perform a gory, controversial ritual no one can remember seeing here in public - beating their scalps with swords until they drew blood to mirror Hussein's suffering. "It used to be a story that made us weep only," said Nabih al-Ibrahim, 42, a portly civil engineer running for a city council seat. "We believed we were weak. That this is why we didn't govern ourselves for a long time." "Maybe now, after all that has happened in Iraq, we will take something political from the story of Hussein," Mr. Ibrahim added, echoing a common sentiment. "Now the issue will take another route, because Shiites have started the growth of their political culture." Saudi Arabia's religious establishment, which is dominated by the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam, still damns such rites as pagan orgies. But the fact that Shiites, at least in this city, their main center, no longer feel the need to hide reflects a combination of important changes here and elsewhere in the Middle East. The most important include the emergence of an elected Shiite majority government next door in Iraq, the campaign for municipal elections here in the country's first nationwide polls and a relaxation in some of the discrimination that Shiites have long faced in the kingdom. The limited municipal council elections scheduled throughout eastern Saudi Arabia are expected to earn Shiite candidates all five seats up for grabs in Qatif, an urban area of 900,000 on the Persian Gulf. In a sight startling for Saudi Arabia, Sheik Hassan al-Saffar, a dissident Shiite cleric who has been jailed and spent the 15 years before 1995 in exile, spoke for an hour in one candidate's campaign tent on the first big night of electioneering. Even limited elections are important, he said, "because they ignited in people's minds the spark of thinking about their interests and aspirations." Sheik Saffar also drew parallels to Iraq, saying voting was the least Saudis could do, considering the risks their brethren had taken next door to exercise this new freedom. He took great pains to say it was a question for all Saudis, not Shiites alone. The kingdom's two million Shiites, most living in the Eastern Province, constitute about 10 to 15 percent of the native Saudi population. The minority naturally faces the same problems as other Saudis, utterly lacking freedom of assembly, expression and most other basic civil rights. Activist Shiite women are outraged that all Saudi women are barred from voting. But the Shiites feel their problems more acutely because they have suffered religious and economic discrimination in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the aftermath of Iran's Islamic revolution of 1979. They were viewed as a potential fifth column, not least because Shiite Iran urged the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and violent riots erupted here in the early 1980's. The fact that the Shiite minority is concentrated right above the country's richest oil fields inspired a particularly harsh crackdown. There has been no Shiite cabinet minister, and only one Shiite ambassador - to Iran. Shiites are kept out of critical jobs in the armed forces and the security services. There are no Shiite mayors or police chiefs, and not one of the 300 Shiite girls' schools in the Eastern Province has a Shiite principal. Saudi Shiites believed that the government would at least start to regard them as citizens, especially after Crown Prince Abdullah met nearly two years ago with a group that presented a petition for equal rights, titled "Partners in the Nation." The prince called for a better understanding between Sunnis and Shiites and included prominent Shiites in a couple of sessions of his "national dialogue," virtually the only public forum where Saudis are allowed to discuss ways to combat the religious extremism carried out by Al Qaeda and its followers. In the last few years some restrictions on Shiites in Qatif were lifted or at least overlooked, including allowing limited construction of community and Shiite mosques, as well as the public celebration of Ashura rituals. But the little that has changed outside Qatif raises questions in the community about the government's commitment to tolerance. Ashura celebrations are banned in Dammam, a neighboring city of some 600,000, including 150,000 Shiites. There is only one officially sanctioned Shiite mosque there, and no functioning Shiite cemetery. The distinctive Shiite call to prayer is banned, and even the small clay pucks that Shiites are supposed to rest their foreheads on during prayer are outlawed. Shiites in Dammam wish some of those issues could be discussed in the municipal election campaigns. The elections are being held in three stages in different parts of country, with the second, eastern stage scheduled for Thursday. But candidates and voters said they did not dare raise such topics in the election tents, lest the campaign be shut down. Saudi Shiites hope that once a few of them are elected to city councils, at least in Qatif, they can discuss their problems more openly. "Whoever is going to be elected by the people has the legitimacy nobody else has, not even the king, believe it or not," said one Qatif candidate in a flush of excitement. Exactly three minutes later he reconsidered. "It would be wise if you don't quote the statement about the king," he said, sparking a burst of laughter from his colleagues. The full-bore hatred that the Wahhabi sect bears for Shiites spills out on Web sites, in the local news media and even in school books. Saudi textbooks contain passages that describe Shiite beliefs as outside Islam - the original split emerging because Shiites supported the claim of Muhammad's heirs to control the faith. Wahhabis believe that Shiite veneration of the Prophet's family, including worshipping at tombs in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf, incorporates all manner of sins, including polytheism. Such practices prompt some to revile Shiites as a lower order of infidel than even Christians or Jews. A recent article in a Saudi magazine suggested that a form of temporary marriage allowed by the Shiites helped spread AIDS. When a Sunni was arrested for trying to set fire to a Shiite community center in Qatif, Sheik Fawzi al-Seif, a local cleric, said one writer on a Web site had asked why the arsonist had acted while the building was empty. Web sites also urged Sunnis to vote Thursday lest they find the dreaded Shiites on their municipal councils. Last week a prominent Islamic law professor, Abdel Aziz al-Fawzan, accused anyone who took part in any Ashura celebration of being an infidel, the rough equivalent of a death sentence. Shiites say they have no recourse to address any manner of discrimination. "Who am I going to complain to, a judge who is a Wahhabi sheik?" said Hassan al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric. What Saudi Shiites really seek is a clear statement from the government pronouncing Shiite Islam an accepted branch of the faith, believing that all other rights will flow from that. But the Saud dynasty gained its control over much of the Arabian Peninsula via adherents to the Wahhabi teachings, and its legitimacy rests on maintaining their support. The religious establishment considers itself the guardian of Sunni orthodoxy and holds sway over institutions including the courts and the education system. Shiites say they have learned their lesson that riots only lead to repression, although the Saudi government remains wary that any sectarian violence in Iraq may ignite similar clashes at home. Shiites think a combination of outside pressure and changes like elections will slowly gain them equal rights. They believe that Osama bin Laden and his ilk created an important opening, with the royal family now casting about for ways to limit the Wahhabi extremism that it has encouraged but which now seeks to overthrow Saudi rule. More important, the minority puts great stock in what develops in Iraq, although the changes remain too raw and violent to gauge fully. If the Shiites who dominated the Iraqi elections show that they can work with Sunnis and Kurds, Shiites in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf say, it will strengthen the idea that democracy works and undermine the longstanding prejudice that Shiites are monsters intent on undermining Sunnis everywhere. The same holds for the Shiite majority in neighboring Bahrain, long ruled by a Sunni minority, and the Shiite minority in Kuwait. There are about 112 million Shiites among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. Fears about a Shiite wave have been expressed by such Sunni rulers as King Abdullah II of Jordan, who described the emergence of a Shiite crescent from Tehran to Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut as a possible threat to regional stability. (The Alawite minority that runs Syria is a Shiite sect, though mainstream Shiites regard it as heretical.) "What is happening today in Iraq raised the political ambitions of the Shiites," said Muhammad Mahfouz, the editor of a cultural magazine in Qatif, "that democracy and public participation is an instrument capable of defusing internal disputes, so Shiites can attain their rights and aspirations." Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting for this article.

Just for fun.. read this and remember it was just about three years ago !! What a change

Below is an article about one of the most sensative issues that will face the constitution.. Centralization/deCentralization of the power in the new Iraqi governement. What the writer might be missing , is the coverage of the Shia Bader millitia in comparison to the Kurds one. The Kurds have finnacial support through the oil revenues assigned to the kurd t wo governements, while Bader is more like a popular armed millitia with one tenth of power .. The Shia demand is to integrate the bader personalls into the new Iraqi Army, while the Americans are sensative against this. On the other side kurds refuse to integrate their forces with all encouragment by the Americans. on the long run Kurds and Shia have same interst of having a representative Army .. It is not into either of them to isolate themselfs from the central democratic power..However, it is in the interst of all fedrals to have their oun national local guards, some thing simmilar to what is happening in USA.. What Kurds are looking for under democratic Iraq would be of wellcome by Shia or even Arab Sunni , as far as they are no longer rolling the country alone,,We kept hear the call by some political leaders in ramadee for have a local force to control their affiars. Some thing that might never hear under the previous political eras.

The announcement of Aljaafree as Pm might came as expected for some observers outside Iraq, but it was not for many in Middle east and inside Iraq. During the last days before the announcement ,the competetion was so tight , that some anti Chalabi wrote yesterday " It was a a nightmare that we lived into during the last days". The fight was not between the two, it was between those who like Chalabi and those who don't .. Not inside Iraq alone but through Arab governments also. Some of the governemnts declared it , others let their media propaganda to express it. Among Iraqies, the race was very rapid. The more Arab media propaganda against Chalabi possible nomination , the more the balance was shifting increasingly to faviour of Chalabi, while the repect to Jaafree was kept consistant. Mainly among Shia , Chalabi was felt as the only exit solution. With his firm stand and concrete plan to root out the terrorists, and removing of Sadamees from the new police and Army institution, people found him a very promising.. On contrast, his rival Dr. Jafree was considered to be soft hypothatical moderate stratigest. Something that they beleived as non appropriat to deal with such brutal enemy. Aljaafree, was a rather theoritist than being a politician.. His islamic back ground and his record of opposing the removal of Saddam by Americans made a lot of Iraqis to look to him as non realistic expatriot .Aljaafree Dawa branch party had almost lost his supporters inside Iraq. On contrary, though very harmed by the CIA/Jordanian accusations of corruption, Chalabi was steadly and calmly building his roots among non politicized Shia Iraqis, who turn to be majority. Most of them looked highly to his role in liberating them by his practical approaches. Over the last ten years , Chalabi was lobying the Americans for his project "Iraq act" , while Jafree was sitting in London issueing a theoritical analysis of how dangrous removing Saddam would be on the hands of forgien powers. Today and after the announcement, most of anti Chalabi felt relief specially in some Arab capitalls, however most of the Chalabi supporters start drawing plans of how he will get back to power in the second run lately this year.. They felt very upset of having what they call the forgien factor to decide the final race. I personally think he will be the hotest one, having in mind that Jafree will get all bad of the next months, while Chalbi will sit lobbying Iraqis

Have a look to an NT view.. NT is well known with anto Bush policy for liberating Iraqis.. Indeed there is no relation between the two issues.. Shia majority is an Iraqi Majority. Shia are the only who didn't show absolute unity when it comes to political agenda,.. While Kurds and Other minorities are showing such ethinic focus policy , we found Shia distributed over very wide specrum , from Alawee to Alsader. The issue of three provices vito is by itself a mechanism to stop majority from forcing their views on minorities.. Nothing to do with being Shia or Sunni, arab or kurds. Here is the article. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/internat...ast/23iraq.html

A similar idea about how to deal with oil revenue was mentioned last week through one of the most popular , though controversial, leader in Iraq, Dr. Chalabi http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050221/...ws/21iraq_2.htm As for oil for food program, yes it is.. I don't think calling Iraq as covservative society in the sense that you discribed imight be non accurate.. Iraqis might be religious but way far from being convservative. Male and female students are walking miles every morning to reach schools on time, in country where there is about 30% unemployment.. Being religios has nothing to be conservative.. You might ask how.. To answer this question have a look to the American people.

Leifur, Thank you very muvh for your interst and follow up with Iraq and it's new born brave nation.. I would like to briefly translate your letter.. It is so intersting to have Iraqi people share friends their great experiences.. Below is a brief translations to the main lines of your great letter.. ادناه ترجمه للافكار الرئيسيه التي وردت في رساله ليفور من النروج الدي يطرح فيها امام العراقيين افكاراه وتصوراته من خلال تجربه بلاده النروج في كيفيه اداره ثروات بلاده النفطيه طالبا التعليق عليها.. يمكن للاخوه التعليق بالعربيه انا من النروج و احب ان اشارك قراء هدا الموقع الممتع كشخص غير عراقي . انا متفائل بما يجري في العراق واتابع تطورات اوضاعه حسب امكانياتي البسيطه واعتقد ان العراق والعراقيون يمكتلكون طاقه كامنه عظيمه جدا لدي مخاوف من ان الديمقراطيه لايمكنها الازدهار من دون اسس متينه واولها الاقتصاد العراقي المنهار صحيح ان هناك طبقه كبيره من رجال الاعمال والكفائات ولكن اغلب المعامل والموضفيين تابعيين للدوله مما يجعل الطبقه الحاكمه والحكومه مالكه لرقاب الاقتصاد وخصوصا النفط وفاسده في كل البلاد النفطيه التي تتحكم فيها الحكومه بالنط تصبح الدوله غير دمقراطيه واغلب الدول النفطيه بالعالم غير ديمقراطيه او سائره باتجاه الدكتاتوريه مثل فنزويلا , الدوله النفطيه الوحيده الديمقراطيه هي النروج ودلك براي لانها لا تنفق من ايراداتها النفطيه بل تدخرها للاجيال القادمه واعانه المتقاعدين وتعتمد على الضرائب لدا اعتقد انه من الافضل تحويل اشتمار النفط الى شركه عامه يمتلكها كل ايناء الشعب ويستطيعون الاطلاع على مردودها وارباحها بشكل شفاف يمكن الاطلاع عليه مثلا بالانترنت صدام كان يعتمد على النفط لادلال شعبه والسيطره عليهم وهدا ليس غريبا على من يخلفه حتى لو كان ديمقراطيا لاحضت ان الكثير من القوائم الانتخابيه جعلت من الاعتماد على النفط وسيله لاقامه المشاريع الكبيره مثل ادامه مشروع النفط مقابل الغداء الدي يحول الشعب الى جموع عاطلين بدلا من دلك يجب توجيه العائدات لبناء البنيه التحتيه لمشاريع الانماء الصحي والضمان الاجتماعي والتعليمي

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2005Feb17.html Alawee is mixing papers No one had called for removing Bathist from government offices.. But to remove those who had role in commiting crimes against people. I found his comments about the role of Systani as non accurate and of bathee style of manupolating facts, and just to give excuses

The article below might high light some of the political struggle inside Coalition list between secular and Islamists.. The writer might not be accurate in calling the chamces of Mr. Chalabee as loo. He is the one who is calling for secret voting within the list in resolving the issue. That is because he is confident of getting the votes of the larger scular and sunni members than the 30% islamists members in the slate.. He is also relying on the Alsadrees members. This article might be a proove to those who still believe that this is not a democracy,and keep putting it as just an American played prpoganda.. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/internat.../16iraq.html?th

Something to read.. From egyptian Akhbar Alyoum Newspaper By Maha AbdulFatah.. have a look to an example of how an Arab scholar sees the current political process in Iraq I will comment later

Alawee got about 1.2 Miillion votes. Having in mind that he is a secular non ethnic non factionist and non tribal based , it looks to me he did very well in a very short time of six months. Most of those Iraqis whom I talked to , put his strong points as : 1- He showed a very strong stand against the voilance in Najaf and falouja 2- He kept him self a way from clergy, something that would assured the split between religion and state 3- He got very good relation with US, which might allow him to set good relation between Iraq and US. The weak points as : 1- He showed some simpathy to former Saddamists 2- Kept a closer relation to Jordan. 3- Too close to US authorities 4- Didn't show a dramatic success in fighting terror Some of them went to vote for him despite the later points, others found the weak points as sufficient to choose other slates Below is an article that the writer had based his findingd on a Sunni arab " trianglle " based private organization ran by Mr. Dulaimee. I personally found the findgings and the analysis as politicaly motivated. The issue of stand firm in Najaf and Falouja is the secret in getting 1.2 Million votes. Allawee is considered today the most powerfull political identity in the comming assembly .. Having in Mind that the other slates are coalitions of many parties .. The kurdish is of two parties.. The united coalition is of at least seven parties Have fun reading another way of looking into the new Iraqi political map http://www.iraq.net/displayarticle6526.html

Alyia AlSaadee had a different story She decided to excersize her right for voting with all family members in Aleskan/Baghdad voting center including her 11 years son and other four family members.. Alyia was blocked from that and her son too.. They both got killed in the suicide attack on the voters, her hasband and other son are still in emergency and her medical doctor student daughter is still hospitalized.. Please remeber Alyaia Alsaadee, the voter who couldn't make her dream !

One need to remember that the new constitution needs to pass the Veto of any three provinces.. For those who are faking worry about what the constitution might looks like under a mojority Shia assembly , they need to remeber that any constitution with Shia clergy ruling aspects will be easily Vetoed by the six Sunni "Arab and Kurds" provinces.. That is just in case there is such possibility of having Alsystani turn back his 10 centuries school of thought of isolating sate from religioun!! U.S. Officials Say a Theocratic Iraq Is Unlikely By ERIC SCHMITT Published: February 7, 2005 ASHINGTON, Feb. 6 - The Bush administration sought Sunday to allay concerns that a Shiite religious state could emerge in Iraq as a result of last weekend's elections. Speaking on television news programs on Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, opposed direct cleric involvement in daily governing, and that most Iraqis rejected an Iranian-style theocracy. "We have a great deal of confidence in where they're headed," Mr. Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday." "I don't think, at this stage, that there's anything like justification for hand-wringing or concern on the part of Americans that somehow they're going to produce a result we won't like." He added, "The Iraqis have watched the Iranians operate for years and create a religious theocracy that has been a dismal failure, from the standpoint of the rights of individuals." In his interview, Mr. Cheney also elaborated, for the first time, on the meaning of President Bush's challenge to the Iranian people to rise up against their ruling clerics. In the State of the Union address, Mr. Bush said, "As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." Pressed to say what, exactly, the United States would do, Mr. Cheney said he and Mr. Bush "wanted to encourage the efforts that we've seen previously in Iran to promote freedom and democracy." The statement, he said, was intended "to encourage the reformers, if you will, inside Iran to work to build a true democracy, one that doesn't vest enormous power, as this one does, in the unelected mullahs, who, we believe, are a threat to peace and stability in the region." Both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld addressed Iran's nuclear ambitions, with Mr. Rumsfeld saying in a CBS News interview that he thought Iran "could be some period of years off" from actually building a nuclear weapon. Both men said there was still time to use diplomacy to disarm Iran, though Mr. Cheney said that if the current talks broke down, the administration would seek sanctions at the United Nations Security Council. It was Iraq, however, and the delicate question of who will emerge in control of the country, that dominated the comments of both men. As Shiite religious parties prepare to take power in the new national assembly, senior Shiite clerics are debating how much of the Islamic faith should be enshrined in Iraq's new constitution, which the assembly will write. A constitution based on Koranic law would sharply depart from the transitional law that the Americans enacted. In one of four appearances on television news programs on Sunday, Mr. Rumsfeld echoed Mr. Cheney's cautionary words. "The Shia in Iraq are Iraqis," Mr. Rumsfeld said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." "They're not Iranians. And the idea that they're going to end up with a government like Iran, with a handful of mullahs controlling much of the country, I think, is unlikely." But he warned that it would be "a terrible mistake" if the new assembly adopted a constitution that denied "half of their population, women, the opportunity to participate fully." Administration officials acknowledged that they would have much less influence over a transitional Iraqi government selected by the newly elected assembly, but were relying in part on Ayatollah Sistani's stature to steer Iraq clear of a government led by clerics. "If you're looking for guidance in terms of what the relationship is likely to be between the religious faith, Islam, and the secular side of the house, the government, you really need to look at the top cleric, Sistani," Mr. Cheney said. "He also has been very clear, from the very beginning, that he did not want to play a direct role and doesn't believe clerics should play a direct role in the day-to-day operations of government." As officials here monitor the election returns, Mr. Rumsfeld declined to set any schedule for withdrawing the 150,000 American troops. He said any exit strategy would be based on conditions on the ground - including the size of the insurgency, Syrian and Iranian help in combating it, and whether Iraqi "fence sitters" joined the political process - rather than a specific date. Mr. Rumsfeld also spelled out in greater detail than before the abilities of the 136,000 Iraqi police and military personnel that the Pentagon has said are trained and equipped. Until recently, defense officials had given scant details on the abilities of individual Iraqi units. Last week, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 40,000 of those Iraqi forces were able to handle the most challenging missions. But Mr. Rumsfeld said Sunday that that did not mean the remaining security forces were ill-prepared. "Some of them are trained to be policemen, and now a policeman is not a counterterrorism, or a police commando," he said on CNN's "Late Edition." "There are about 7 or 8 or 10 different categories that are being trained to do very different things." When asked about the American plans to train and advise Iraqi forces, Mr. Rumsfeld said on "Meet the Press," "The important thing to do is to see that we do not create a dependency, that we encourage them to take over that responsibility." Mr. Cheney reiterated - but this time with more definitiveness and humor in his voice - his determination never to seek the Republican nomination for president. Pressed on the issue by the host of "Fox News Sunday," Chris Wallace, Mr. Cheney said, "I don't know whether you want me to take a Sherman." The reference was to the Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, who declared, "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve." "That'd be good," Mr. Wallace said. Mr. Cheney then took an abbreviated Sherman, and added, "Not only no, but badWord, no." "I've got my plans laid out," he said, describing rivers he has not yet fished and time he wants to spend with his grandchildren. "I'm going to serve this president for the next four years, and then I'm out of here." David E. Sanger contributed reporting for this article.

Another victory that Iraqi voters might achieved.. Iraqi politicians 1 are realizing that the voice of people should be respected and they need to work together. --------------------------------------------------------------- Iraq's Sunnis Rethink Strategy Sat Feb 5,12:00 AM ET By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post Foreign Service BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 -- Influential Sunni Arab leaders of a boycott of last Sunday's elections expressed a new willingness Friday to engage the coming Iraqi government and play a role in writing the constitution, in what may represent a strategic shift in thinking among mainstream anti-occupation groups. The signs remain tentative, and even advocates of such change suggest that much will depend on the posture the new government takes toward the insurgency and the removal of former Baath Party officials from state institutions. But in statements and interviews, some Sunni leaders said the sectarian tension that surged ahead of the vote had forced them to rethink their stance. Iraqis voted Sunday for seats in a 275-member transitional parliament, which will appoint the government and draft the constitution this year. In all likelihood, the parliament will be dominated by members of the country's Shiite Arab majority and by ethnic Kurdish Sunnis from northern Iraq (news - web sites), leaving Sunni Arabs and others who oppose the presence of foreign troops in Iraq with little representation. "We are taking a conciliatory line because we are frightened that things may develop into a civil war," said Wamidh Nadhmi, the leader of the Arab Nationalist Trend and a spokesman for a coalition of Sunni and Shiite groups that boycotted the election. "The two sides have come to a conclusion that they have to respect the other side if they want a unified Iraq." He cautioned, however, that "perhaps it will not succeed." The Association of Muslim Scholars, one of the most influential groups, sent mixed signals this week -- saying it would respect the election results, while arguing that the new government will lack the legitimacy to draft a constitution. But the sermon Friday at the association's headquarters, the Um al-Qura mosque, was decidedly conciliatory. Directing most of his words at the new government, the preacher called Iraq its "trusteeship" and said the people's welfare was "a great responsibility on your shoulders." A meeting Thursday at the home of a Sunni elder statesman that brought together some largely Sunni groups, including those that boycotted the elections, produced an agreement to participate in drafting the constitution, "without condition," said Nadhmi, one of those in attendance. A spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, which withdrew from Sunday's vote but still was listed on the ballot, said its members would not enter parliament but that the party would not object if independent candidates who were included on its list took seats. "We're getting the same vibes," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "It's my sense that there are a number of people in the Sunni community that are trying to build consensus in that community that . . . participation in the political process would be to the best advantage of the Sunni Arab community," the diplomat said. A decision by Sunni Muslim and other anti-occupation groups to engage the new government and help draft the constitution would mark one of the most important shifts in Iraq since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s fall in April 2003. In the subsequent 22 months, the country's tumultuous politics have often broken down between groups willing to take part in a U.S.-led process and those opposed to participation as long as the U.S. military occupied the country. While the opponents largely came from the Sunni minority, long the country's most powerful sect, they also included followers of a militant Shiite Muslim cleric, Moqtada Sadr. The shift in thinking appears to have arisen from a calculation that the election may have created a new dynamic in Iraq, as the country slowly moves past an emphasis on the U.S. occupation and more toward the blueprint of a future state. The groups do not speak for the insurgency, but the Association of Muslim Scholars, in particular, holds great sway in the Sunni Arab community in central and western Iraq, where there are signs of grass-roots discontent over the boycott. As part of the dialogue, the community appears to be formulating concrete political demands that were often missing before. Those demands center on the presence of 150,000 U.S. troops in the country and the date of their departure. "What we're asking for is a conditional timetable," said Ayad Samarrai, a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party. "It's not rigid and it's not impossible to achieve," he said at the party's headquarters, echoing statements made this week by the Association of Muslim Scholars and Nadhmi's group. "We take into consideration that some delay might happen, but at least if we have a plan, we can have the confidence of the people that we are working toward this goal." Officials with Sadr's movement took a similar stand Friday in Kufa, the group's headquarters in southern Iraq. "I call for all those who backed the elections to demand a formal schedule for the withdrawal of foreign forces," said a spokesman, Hashim Abu Raghif, reading a statement in the name of Sadr, who has rarely appeared since fighting ended in August between his militia and U.S. forces. "They asked to hold the elections, and they were answered. So let them end the occupation." U.S. officials and their Iraqi allies have refused to set a time for a withdrawal, saying they instead want to wait until Iraqi security forces can enforce order. Given the uneven track record of the freshly trained forces, the officials have been loath to set a deadline. "I just don't think right now that the American government wants to get in the business of time frames," the diplomat said. "Better not to make promises that you are not sure that you can keep." The results of Sunday's election may not be complete until next week, but a list backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most influential religious leader, has made the strongest early showing. While diverse, the list is anchored by two avowedly Islamic parties: the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and factions grouped under the Dawa party. Both Shiite parties have sent conciliatory signals in recent weeks, urging the widest possible participation in the constitution's drafting and playing down the role of the Shiite clergy in the coming government. But the agenda of the Supreme Council, in particular, sits uneasily with many Sunni leaders, who fear the group is beholden to neighboring Iran and who recoil at its often explicitly sectarian rhetoric. (Often, Sunni Arabs are reluctant to identify themselves as such, framing their words in nationalist rather than religious terms.) In Baratha mosque, loyal to the Supreme Council, the prayer leader on Friday ridiculed the Association of Muslim Scholars and compared its brand of Islam to "Saddam Hussein's Islam." Samarrai and others said they were already worried by other statements of candidates on the Sistani-backed list, who began jockeying for positions in the government even before the election was held. Their biggest concerns: that a Shiite militia loyal to the Supreme Council would enter the government's fledgling security forces and that the process of weeding out former Baathists would be stepped up. "Worse or better depends on the policy of the next government," Samarrai said. "That will be the end of it," Nadhmi said in an interview. "There would be no reconciliation." In part, the Sunni and nationalist groups may be playing to their own constituencies. By all accounts, the Sunni turnout was far lower than that of Shiites and Kurds, although Sunni leaders debate whether that was a result of intimidation or adherence to calls for a boycott. But some residents in such Sunni towns as Ramadi and Tikrit have suggested there may be regrets over the choice. The disappointment seems strongest in urban areas, which have proved less sympathetic to the insurgency than the countryside. The insurgents "made fools of us," said Mahmoud Ghasoub, a businessman in Baiji, a restive northern town. "They voted to disrupt the elections but failed. Now we have lost both tracks. We did not vote, nor did they disrupt the elections." Mohammed Hayawi, 41, a bookseller in Baghdad, voiced similar sentiments, even though he voted. As a nationalist, he said, he resents the American occupation and remains baffled at the lack of electricity almost two years after Hussein's fall. "The ballot box was for America," said Hayawi, who voted for the party of Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister. "I know I was being hypocritical. But there was no other choice. The future of Iraq is a line that goes through the occupation. If you asked me why I was voting, it's because I want to find something to pull me out of this mud." He paused, then added: "Maybe this is the rope that will save us." Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Kufa, Salih Saif Aldin in Tikrit and Bassam Sebti in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Let us move on.. What will the new government looks like, a government that about 50 Iraqi beloved lifes was paid to ellect.. Election Over, Iraqi Shiites Confront Internal Rivals By DEXTER FILKINS Published: February 1, 2005 AGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 31 - The ballots are still being counted, but the hard bargaining to form a new Iraqi government has begun. Less than a day after millions of Iraqis flocked to the polls, the leaders of the major political parties said they were reaching out to potential allies in what is almost certain to be a coalition government. Between rivals, candidates signaled that the battle lines had been drawn. The most likely contest, political leaders here say, will pit the largest coalition of Shiite parties, the United Iraqi Alliance, against a group led by the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi. The struggle, in addition to setting the composition of the next government, will raise fundamental questions about the nature of the new political order. Principal among them, these political leaders say, will be the role of Islam in governing the country and the relative influence of the United States and Iran. On Monday Dr. Allawi, a secular Shiite and close ally of the United States, stood before television cameras and offered himself as a leader who could hold this fractious country together. The speech appeared as a direct challenge to the United Iraqi Alliance, which is likely to be a big winner. Much of its popularity is due to the backing of Iraq's pre-eminent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. "It is time to put the divisions of the past behind us and work together to show the world the power and potential of this great country," Dr. Allawi said. "The whole world is watching us." Dr. Allawi's speech drew the immediate attention of Shiite leaders, who are worried that their sprawling coalition could be picked apart by a savvy and aggressive politician. Of the United Iraqi Alliance's 228 candidates, about half are unaffiliated with a political party, and the coalition's leaders worry that those independent candidates might be wooed by promises from other politicians. Shiite leaders acknowledge the fragility of their coalition. "Yes, we are concerned that the coalition could come apart," said Ali Faisal, a senior leader of the Party of God, a member of the Shiite coalition. "But we don't think it will fall apart for Allawi." Shiite leaders say they are confident that the United Iraqi Alliance will end up the leading vote getter, even if it does not capture an outright majority in the new assembly. The alliance, dominated by the largest Shiite parties, Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Republic of Iraq, or Sciri, has declared its commitment to a secular Iraqi state. Despite its religious roots, fewer than a half dozen of the 228 candidates it fielded are clerics. Still, even if the Shiite coalition captures a majority of the votes, and hence a majority of the seats in the 275-member assembly, that would not be enough to form a government. For that, the coalition would need to be able to secure a two-thirds majority. The reason lies in the complicated rules in the interim constitution. Under the charter, the national assembly must first pick a president and two deputies by a two-thirds majority. The president and deputies then pick a party or coalition, along with its choice of a prime minister, to form a government. In practical terms, that means the group that ultimately takes power needs the same backing as the president the deputies: two-thirds of the assembly. Shiite leaders believe they have a formula for securing the necessary two-thirds majority: through a deal with Kurdish leaders. So if Dr. Allawi's slate of candidates, called the Iraqi List, or a coalition that he patches together wins just one-third of the assembly seats, he would be in a position to block the ascension of the Shiite coalition to power. Then, political leaders here say, Dr. Allawi could be in a position to offer himself to the coalition as a candidate for prime minister, or he could try to pick off members of the Shiite coalition and cobble together a coalition for himself. Barring that, Dr. Allawi could use his effective veto power to extract political concessions from any new government. Everything will depend on how Allawi does relative to the Shiite coalition," said an aide to an Iraqi political party leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Allawi's chance will come if the Shiite coalition breaks up." To prevent that from happening, the leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance are working feverishly to shore up their group. It is ungainly alliance: secular technocrats, like Adil Abdul Mahdi, the current finance minister, and Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader, as well as acolytes of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric who led several armed uprisings against American forces. In addition, Dawa and Sciri, the two main Shiite parties in the coalition, are longtime rivals. Advertisement Shiite leaders are hoping that the same powerful force that brought the Shiite coalition together, Ayatollah Sistani, will be able to hold it together once the ballots are added up. "Sistani is blessing this list," said Adnan Ali, a leader of Dawa. "If anyone makes a side deal, he will lose in the eyes of society." One of the main stresses inside the Shiite coalition stems from a division over the group's choice for prime minister. The two main candidates are Dawa's leader, Ibrahim Jafari, and Mr. Mahdi of Sciri. Leaders of both parties have begun making deals to gain the support of their candidates within the coalition. The struggle for the prime minister's job does not end there. Two other leaders of the Shiite coalition who are not affiliated with either Dawa or Sciri, Mr. Chalabi and Hussein Shahristani, are also said to be seeking the job. "Believe me, the back-room dealing has already begun," said a senior leader of the Shiite coalition, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. As he hinted in his speech on Monday, Dr. Allawi may try to offer himself as a secular alternative to the Shiite coalition, and as someone unlikely to fall under the influence of the Iranian government. Some Iraqi political leaders, especially Sunnis and the Kurds, have expressed concerns that some of the principal members of the Shiite coalition, like Sciri's leader, Abdul Aziz Hakim, are too close to the Iranian government, which supported Sciri in exile during the years of Saddam Hussein's rule. Some also worry that the Shiite coalition could ultimately come to be dominated by clerics like Mr. Hakim and Ayatollah Sistani from behind the scenes. "Perhaps the majority of the members have connections with religious groups," Adnan Pachachi, a secular Sunni political leader, said of the Shiite candidates. Dr. Allawi, a former member of the Baath Party and a confidant of the Central Intelligence Agency, casts a wide political net. As a counterweight to the United Iraqi Alliance, he could, Iraqis say, draw together a coalition of Sunnis, secular Shiites and possibly Kurds. The problem for Dr. Allawi is that however solid such a coalition may look on paper, in practice it could prove difficult to bring together. Dr. Allawi's relations with the Kurds, for instance, have been strained over the ethnic issue of Kirkuk, the ethnically mixed northern Iraqi city that Kurdish leaders want to bring under their control. "The secular element is not unified," Mr. Pachachi said. "It does not work as one." The prospect of having Dr. Allawi loom as a big player in the next government has prompted irritation from some members of the Shiite coalition, who say his popularity stems largely from an expensive television campaign. One of Dr. Allawi's critics is Mr. Chalabi, a cousin and a political rival. "I don't think it was a massive endorsement," Mr. Chalabi said of the voting. "Everyone knows that his mandate is a Madison Avenue mandate."

http://www.sotaliraq.com/iq/Sattar-Alsaadi-02022005.htm In Arabic.. A poet morning the policeman who sacrified him self .. Have a look to his photo.. And Pray for his soul..

Another article in NT Seems the courage of Iraqis had enlightened some dark corcers of the libral media .. Wondering when it will get the Arab m governmen's sponsered one, such as Aljezera! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/internat...l?oref=login&th Iraqis Who Died While Daring to Vote Are Mourned as Martyrs By EDWARD WONG Published: February 2, 2005 NAJAF, Iraq, Feb. 1 - Salim Yacoubi bent over to kiss the purple ink stain on his twin brother's right index finger, gone cold with death. "You can see the finger with which he voted," Shukur Jasim, a friend of the dead man, said as he cast a tearful gaze on the body, sprawled across a washer's concrete slab. "He's a martyr now." The stain marked the hard-won right to vote that Naim Rahim Yacoubi exercised Sunday, and the price he paid for that privilege. Mr. Yacoubi, 37, was one of at least 50 Iraqis who died in bomb and mortar attacks as millions of people marched to polling centers in the first free elections in decades. At least nine suicide bombs exploded in Baghdad alone. In one of those, the bomber detonated his device outside Kurdis Primary School near the airport, sending dozens of shards of shrapnel into Mr. Yacoubi. The victims of election day violence are being hailed by many Iraqis as the latest martyrs in a nearly two-year-long insurgency that has claimed the lives of thousands. They were policemen who tried to stop suicide bombers from entering polling centers, children who walked with elderly parents to cast votes, or - in the case of Mr. Yacoubi - a fishmonger who, after voting, took tea from his house to electoral workers at the school. At polling centers hit by explosions, survivors refused to go home, steadfastly waiting to cast their votes as policemen swept away bits of flesh. Shiite Arabs, oppressed under the rule of Saddam Hussein, turned out to vote in large numbers, and those who died in the attacks are being brought now to the sprawling cemetery in Najaf, this holiest of Shiite cities, for burials considered fitting of their sacrifices. The official cause of death on Mr. Yacoubi's death certificate reads, "Explosion on the day of elections." As the body washer sponged Mr. Yacoubi on Tuesday, blood as dark as the ink on his finger ran from cuts in the back of his head. Four wailing brothers clutched at the body. A group of women in full-length black keened outside. "All of us talked about the elections," said Hadi Aziz, a 60-year-old neighbor. "We were waiting impatiently for this day so we could finally rid ourselves of all our troubles. Naim was just like any Iraqi who hoped for a better future for Iraq, who wanted stability for Iraq. We hoped that after the elections, the American forces would withdraw from our country." Two days before the vote, the portly Mr. Yacoubi, a father of nine, drove with his friend Mr. Jasim to Khadimiya, a Shiite neighborhood, to have a new robe made for the occasion, Mr. Jasim said. On Sunday, he got up at dawn. "He was very proud, and he put perfume on himself and gave out pastries and tea," Mr. Jasim said. At 8:30, Mr. Yacoubi walked to the local primary school to cast his vote, Mr. Jasim said. He was frisked by policemen as he stood in line. Inside one of the classrooms, he checked off box No. 169 on the national ballot, for a slate of candidates backed by the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. Then, impressed by the dedication of the election workers, Mr. Yacoubi went home to boil tea for them, Mr. Jasim said. He had dropped off the tea glasses and was walking away when the bomb went off. "It's not the man who exploded himself who's a martyr," Mr. Jasim said as the body washer wiped away dried blood. "He wasn't a true Muslim. This is the martyr. What religion asks people to blow themselves up? It's not written in the Koran." Mr. Aziz, the neighbor, nodded. "This is the courage of Iraqis," he said of Mr. Yacoubi's decision to vote, "and we will change the face of history. This is our message to the countries of the world, especially those that are still under a dictatorship and want to walk the same road as the Iraqis." On Monday, another family arrived at the cemetery with the body of Ali Hussein Kadhum, 40, a farmer from Mahawil. Mr. Kadhum was one of five people killed by a rocket-propelled grenade aimed at their minivan as they drove from a polling center on Sunday, the family said. He told his family, 'We shouldn't go to the polls together, we should go one by one, because we may face terrorists,' " said an uncle, Muhammad Kadhum Jabaara. "It turned out he was right. Because of that, we got a chance to live." In the dusty lot outside the washing rooms, another family strapped a coffin holding the body of a policeman, Adil al-Nassar, onto the roof of a blue minivan. He had just been cleaned. Now it was time to take him to the golden-domed Shrine of Ali for his final blessings. He was not the first policeman to be brought here. Officer Nassar, 40, died after tackling a man who had leapt into a line of women waiting to vote at Osama bin Zaid Primary School, said Kadhum al-Hashim, the officer's father-in-law. "There were many people, and Adil was just guiding the voters into the school when the terrorist jumped into the line of women," Mr. Hashim said. Several others died in the explosion, he added. The victim's brother, Muhammad al-Nassar, wiped away tears with a white scarf. Adil al-Nassar had joined the new police force just a year ago, his brother said. He had a family to feed: a wife and three children, the eldest an 8-year-old son. "He's a martyr now," Mr. Nassar said. "He saved many lives for the greater good." To which Mr. Hashim added proudly: "Despite the explosion, the voters came back to the polling center as if nothing had happened. The police just evacuated the bodies, then let people back in." An elderly neighbor, Kadhum Hussein, said the elections had been worth all the heartache. "God has spared our lives and spared us from the dictator," he said as he scratched his white beard. "The situation is better than before, and we are freed from all things under the past regime." One man in the funeral gathering showed visitors two palm-size laminated cards with Koranic verses that Adil al-Nassar had carried in his pocket. Each was marred by shrapnel holes. One verse read, "God, I ask you for your mercy, because we come to return to you and we ask you for your help and to meet our needs." Just then, a station wagon pulled up with a pair of wooden coffins on the roof. Several men piled out and pulled from the coffins the bodies of two brothers, the intestines of one exposed. They were killed Sunday by a mortar round as they walked with their parents to a polling center in a Baghdad slum, family members said. Two more martyrs, they said, two more bodies to wash and bury.

وصلني عبر البريد اللاكتروني ان المبدع كاظم الساهر قد اعد مقترحا للنشيد الوطني سيقدمه استمع له http://iraqimix.com/shared/Songs/Kazem.mp3 http://iraqimix.com/shared/Songs/Kazem.mp3

I know people who drove from San francisco to LA late night , driving for 9 hrs to reigster and comeback on same day. I was talking to some family members inside Iraq on the phone this morning .. One strange case, a cousin is a parralized since born can't speak but understand .. She want to join after she recongnized that her name is listed.. Her brother and old Mom need to hold her, marching on foot to the post. I asked them to get photos for her voting , I don't know if photos are allowed though! Amazing.. howmuch the call to freedom is so strong , people are talking about unbelievable stories .. They are scared to death but they keep saying we will do it. Some are planning to wear coffins " a white light dress" and pray before leaving to the posts.They told me that they want dye clean! On one Mosque there was a call for volunteers to replace those ellection officails who might be killed , immediately 700 young 17-23 old men and women registerd. While I write , I am crying , alot of my family members and friends are going , I don't know whom will not see or hear from again

http://www.daralhayat.com/opinion/01-2005/...83cc/story.html