Arab-Americans: Only Iraquis are celebrating, not the other Arabs

[Batman]

excerpts:

Hundreds of Iraqis and Iraqi-Americans held a street celebration in Dearborn, Mich., cheering the apparent fall of President Saddam Hussein, but some Arab-Americans stayed away.


........Dearborn, with the nation's highest concentration of Arab-Americans, also has many Arabs with roots in other countries. They were absent from today's demonstration — a sign that other groups were not so enthusiastic about the war to topple Mr. Hussein.

......Most of the celebrators today were Iraqi Shiites, and for them the war is personal. All seemed to have family members who had been killed by the Hussein government, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims, or relatives who had been tortured or taken away and never were heard from again. Much of the celebrating took place in front of the Karbalaa Islamic Center, a gathering place for Iraqi Shiites.

"His own people know what's going on," said Ali Al-Baaj, 35, from Basra. "Most of us have had a relative, a father or a mother, killed."

Mr. Al-Baaj said the government had killed his uncle, taken away six of his relatives and bombed his house. He pulled up his right sleeve to reveal a sizable scar.

Ahmed Shaker, 25, a cook from a town near Najaf who took the day off to celebrate, said of other Arabs: "They haven't seen what we've seen. They didn't have people executed or captured." He said his grandfather had been executed and two of his uncles taken by the secret police.

Hachem Al-Swaychet, a local businessman with seven brothers still in Basra, said he was upset today when two Palestinian women asked him why he was celebrating.

"No Palestinians, no Yemeni, no Lebanese, no one else connects with us," Mr. Al-Swaychet said, pointing across the street from the Karbalaa center to a line of shops with signs in Arabic and English.

"Tell the Arab people," he added, "why don't you celebrate with the Iraqis?"

Other Arab-Americans, at their places of business nearby, did not see today as one to celebrate.

.....http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/in...al/10DEAR.html

[Revkha]

The Iraqi people should tell the Jordanians, Syrians, Sudanese, Palestinians, etc. to get the hell out of Iraq. It is no longer Muslim against infidel. It's now Muslim against Muslim since these suicide bombers are fighting against the desires of the majority of the Iraqi people. But then again the Arab world has shown great proclivity for repressive regimes. It is understandable why it has been 1000 years since the last Arab military victory. And it was actually the Kurds who were victorious in that battle.

[elke]

I wonder how much of the Arab world's reaction is actually envy that Iraqis have a chance at normal life?

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by Revkha
The Iraqi people should tell the Jordanians, Syrians, Sudanese, Palestinians, etc. to get the hell out of Iraq. It is no longer Muslim against infidel. It's now Muslim against Muslim since these suicide bombers are fighting against the desires of the majority of the Iraqi people. But then again the Arab world has shown great proclivity for repressive regimes.

I think your wrong, I hope your right, but Im sure eventually a Aytollah will be the leader of Iraq, a shiite Aytollah.

Whenever a democratic government is selected in a muslim country, a fundamentalist government is choosen, they tried a democractic elections in Algeria, but when they found out a super radical government would be choosen the elections were canceled.

Same with Pakistan, he tried elections and a super Islamist government holds many seats.

Belive it or not many Iraqis cried when the saw the Saddam Statue fall, just like many Russians cried when Stalin died.

[Mediocrates]

And my longtime friend says "You could sleep on the streets of Madrid when Franco was alive. Problem was we had to."

[yoyo]

Originally posted by Revkha
It's now Muslim against Muslim since these suicide bombers are fighting against the desires of the majority of the Iraqi people.

In the same way Hafez El-Assad said that "the palestinian question is too important to leave it to the palestinians alone" so does the arab world with Iraq. I have serious doubt the arab world can turn democratic. Democracy cannot be impose, it was earn by our ancestor in the West with blood and the it was our culture that create the will. Border, treaties and words have no binding in the middle east, everything is a hudna.