[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Ethnic cleansing in Iraq

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Ethnic cleansing in Iraq 
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1187968405.shtml


   In Commentary Magazine, [1]Michael Totten writes

     Hundreds of Iraqi Yezidis, members of an ancient religious sect
     heavily influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism, were murdered last
     week in the most deadly terrorist attack in the world since
     September 11, 2001. Fuel tankers packed with explosives were
     ignited in a refugee camp near the town of Kahtaniya, just outside
     the Kurdish autonomous region. Officials say the death toll has
     surpassed 500. The American military says this is the handiwork of
     al Qaeda. Theyâre probably right: this has their fingerprints all
     over it...

   Al Qaeda and their Islamist state sponsors have a pattern of
   'cleansing' people they consider to be inferior or insufficiently
   Islamic from any patch of land they can get their hands on.

   Al Qaeda also tends to carry out multiple, coordinated attacks. That
   was [2]also true in this case:

     The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks by
     flattening a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five
     officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid
     using gunmen dressed as security officers.

     Nine US soldiers were also reported killed, including five in a
     helicopter crash.

   Totten says:

     I know the Yezidis, however, and I canât say Iâm immune. I visited
     their capital, their âMecca,â in Lalish, near Mosul, in 2005 and
     again in 2006. They are among the kindest, gentlest people I have
     ever met. I went to see them because the president of Dohuk
     University told me to go. âI am a Muslim,â he said, âbut I love the
     Yezidis. Theirs is the original religion of the Kurds. Only through
     the Yezidis can I speak to God in my own language.â Some
     conservative Muslims libel the Yezidis as disciples of Satan, but
     they have a respected place in Kurdish culture. Kurdistanâs flag is
     unique among those of Muslims in that it includes a religious
     symbol, the Yezidi symbolâthe sun, instead of a crescent.

     The Yezidis have never declared war on anyone. They are the closest
     thing Iraq has to Quakers. Perhaps al Qaeda massacred the Yezidi
     refugees because they were a soft target, and because terrorists
     need body counts to be credible. Perhaps the Yezidis were killed
     because they are âinfidels.â But does it even matter? Al Qaeda has
     no alleged grievances against the Yezidis, who have no political
     power and no militia, and who do not participate in sectarian
     Muslim rivalry. Even Saddam Hussein left them alone.

     Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who himself is an ethnic Kurd, said
     the attack on the Yezidisâ refugee camp was genocidal. This is an
     overstatement. I canât blame him, though, for reaching a bit. We
     need a new word for the instantaneous massacre of 500 innocents.
     The conventional and overused label of âterrorismâ somehow doesnât
     quite say it.

   More on the Yezidis and [3]The beginning of the Universe

   Michael Howard, writing for the Guardian reports on the Yezidis from
   Lalish - [4]Among the Yezidi, a people in mourning

References

   1. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/totten/825
   2. http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1290702007
   3. http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001064.html
   4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2151455,00.html