| Al-Dawaa , the daily mouthpiece of the Islamic Dawaa Party, Iraq Organization, devoted a whole article to the religious and sectarian extremism in the country. The newspaper said that fears of internal divisions have become a reality in a country where extremism is leading the country to an all-out civil war. Describing religious extremism as the most dangerous, the newspaper called on the Iraqi parliament and government to work out an anti-extremism law, similar to the anti-terrorism law. |
"A whole article" on the E-word, begorrah! And "fears become reality"!! Rip van Tanzeem may have spent the last five years in a drunken stupor, or perhaps a coma, but you must admit he is catching up with events right quick.
We may mostly pass over diagnosis of the bushogenic plague, then, Mr. Bones. We need not prove to Rip the Awakened that Peaceful Freedumbia does indeed exhibit certain troubling symptoms of extremism and sectarianism. Apart from Dr. Righteous Virtue and the advocacy firm of Lynx Badger Cartoonoclastes LLC there are not too many paleface planmongers around who suppose otherwise. However Rip is especially intolerant of religious extremism, unless he is simply fibbing.[2] What does that mean in the context of the AEI-GOP-DOD occupation? Probably nothing much like M. de Voltaire used to go on about, that is a safe beginning.
At the moment whose name comes to mind in connection with "leading the country to an all-out civil war"? Who is throwing gasoline on the figurative fires? Is it not His Excellency Núrí (Jawád) Kamál al-Málikí, Président du Conseil des Ministres de la République Irakienne, the Belisarius of Basra, pater patriae, Hannibal Redux, etc. etc.?
But poor M. al-Málikí’s extremism is not reasonably to be labeled "religious" without some advance warning that the dreadful R-word is about to be perverted. We have joked ourselves, I believe, about His Excellency's sudden conversion to the cult of St. Max Weber. Maybe Rip the Awakened seriously considers Statism to be "a religion" the same way certain clowns at Rio Limbaugh talk against "secular humanism." This abuse is not impossible, but if intended, it must be signalled in advance. Anyway, if Rip was actually proposing to outlaw the prime-ministerial brand of extremism, that would be unusual to deserve special mention from any adequate journalism. [3]
If not the obvious suspect, which of the less obvious ones? The Rev. Señorito's "Tendency" is almost invariably presented as extremist in the aggression-language press. Certainly there exist neo-Iraqi subjects of AEI-GOP-DOD who would agree independently. But as with Hannibal personally -- and presumably the whole non-Iraqi Da‘wa apparat that Hannibal leads -- the political position of the Dynastic Sadriyya is not particularly faith-befouled. Irreligious or unreligious extremism can be imputed to either Núrí or Muqtadae by those who dislike them and their positions and their patrons and their clients extremely enough, but if they are "religious extremists," then so was Will Rogers. [4]
The gruesome twosome of Supreme Hakeems and non-‘Iráqí Da‘wa look more like the Party of Torquemada than anybody else on the sane side of M. Bin Ládin, but here too it would be silly to think that their views about mythology and theocracy are of first-rate political importance. The Holy Family cherish a special version of wiláyat al-faqíh all their own, and it is certainly an extreme version in the sense of being unheard of before sometime last month, yet 999 opponents in a thousand would associate the extremism of the Supremes not with the Khomeiní menace but with the notorious plan to set up a Free Kúrdestán for Twelvers.
The authentic Free Kurds seem not to have emerged from hillbillydom sufficiently to develop an ecclesiastical politics. For them, national liberation movement has always come first, and it comes first still.
The Virtutites care for nothing beyond "jobs for the b’hoys," so far as I have ever been able to make out, and what could be more impeccably rootless-cosmopolitan than that attitude?
Rip van Foolin’ cannot mean to accuse his own august and happily christened Islamic Appeal Party (the Iraq Organisation) of religious extremism. Like the Virtutites, they have managed to keep their tenets to themselves, if they have any tenets. The only perfectly clear account I have come across said that IAP(IO) was set up by evil Qommies and sinister Safavids for ends of their own. That would explain the name, certainly, but beyond that convenience I see no grounds to think it likely to be the case. And regardless of what front groups they use, will the evil Qommies really be found intervening to support anything that is reasonably to be called "religious extremism" in the former Iraq? [5]
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But let us move on to the proposed therapy, Mr. Bones, even though we can’t altogether find the patients. Maybe they will show up eventually on their own. Rip van Foolin’ "called on the Iraqi parliament and government to work out an anti-extremism law, similar to the anti-terrorism law."
That strongly suggests that IAP(IO) is backing Hannibal Redux, but it does not quite altogether nail the point down. Sufficiently Machiavellian pols might call for extraordinary powers to be conferred on some klutz in office who won’t know what to do with them so as to make them available to themselves later on after they grab control. I can’t think of any individual neo-Iraqi subjects other than A. Chalabí and ‘Abdu l-‘Azíz al-Hakím who are even half that smart, and both these celebrated statespersons are alleged to be on Hannibal’s team. [3] Still, as a foreigner, one never knows for sure about such things.
One may ask in the abstract whether Signore Macchiavelli would be interested in such a ploy. I incline to think not. I believe that he would advise that since there is no de facto legitimacy left in Peaceful Freedumbia after five years of AEI and GOP and DOD, Rip van Foolin’ and the IAP(IO) should turn away from the ineffectual gray of legalism and bureaucratic paperwork and look towards the ever green and invigorating tree of Just Go Do It! Simply kidnap ("arrest") whoever needs to be kidnapped without worryin’ about whether she is a terrorist rather than a faith-crazy extremist, or vice versa, or perhaps a Really Bad Guy of some third type altogether. Who cares?
Perhaps Rip worries that lackin’ an appropriate scrap of paper in hand at the time of this or that kidnappin’, he and his agents may at some latter time end up on trial at The Hague. This is extremely unlikely to come to pass, however, and if by a weird fluke it ever does, the scrap of paper will almost certainly not avail him much. Assuming anybody can even find it after the Barbarian Sack of the International Zone....
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[1] It still needs some rhetoric work, you say? I know.
[2] Always a possibility with militant Republicans anywhere around. Let the caveat be taken to apply to all future quotations from GOP-occupied pols and cits, the same as IMHO ever implicitly pervades the whole.
[3] The adequacy of ’Aswát al-‘Iráq has gone into a tailspin of late, admittedly.
[4] I should not insist upon it, but the Da‘wa of Non-‘Iráq is arguably more of a "religious" racket than the Sadr Tendency and the Mahdí Army, now that the latter have broken with the U.I.A. or Twelver Caucus and the former have not. "Theocommunitarian extremism" must be different from "religious extremism," but it can never be totally distinct.
[5] There was, to be sure, that apostate seminarian who pleased Grand Ayatollah Michael Bin Ledeen by discoverin’ a Qommie plot to infiltrate a new generation of zombie clerics loyal to His Eminence Khamene’í into Noble Najaf under the overcoat of Muqtadae. ("If you believe that, sir, you would believe anything.")
[6] There is also -- just possibly -- a third, the slippery M. Muwaffaq ar-Rubay‘í, although he too is said to be either on Hannibal’s team or on Langley’s payroll. (Or why not both?)
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