Najaf: "A Terrible Beauty is Born" (pro-Sadr op ed)

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6773.htm


Since most of us are pretty woefully ill-informed about Iraqi politics, Islam, Shi'ism, etc., we should at least have another perspective to counter-balance the knee-jerk Sadr-bashing. So, take a minute to read the brief op-ed piece linked above.

Islamism has its atrocious sides (at least in its Saudi fascist form, very much created in tandem with the US). But it also has a lot of positives, primarily when it comes to social welfare. Sadr is fighting for his religion, to be sure, but he is fighting against neo-con free-market anti-labor corporate fascism, Bush and Bremer style. (see my post in this forum "CORPWATCH: IRAQ: Labor Upsurge Wins Support from U.S. UNIONS)

Read Sayyid Qutb's "Social Justice in Islam" (amazon.com). He's the intellectual father of "radical Islam"--and it is not by chance that he moved in this direction after spending several years as a grad student in the US. He does engage in some naive West-bashing, but he does present an attractive vision of Islamic society. It's not about the tyranny of the clergy, but about providing for the poor and helpless.

P.S., Juan Cole is undoubtedly an authority, but politically (despite his commendable Bush-bashing) he is moderate. If he thinks that Sadr is "radical," he probably would think the same about many DUers.

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1. agree

and he's a fundamentalist. So what. He believes something different than we do. We've got the right to tell him or his people what to think? We've got the right to tell him how to run his country? We've got the right to take away his self-determination?

Where did we get that right?