Posted on 01/31/2004 10:08:48 PM PST by miltonim
Ireland, it has been said, has forty shades of green. Many Muslims also hold a special place in their hearts for the color green. Sunnis and Shiites probably disagree on just what shade of green is true Muslim green. President Karzai of Afghanistan seems to play it safe. He wears stylish capes and scarves of various shades of green. With his expensive European clothes, the Cary Grant of the on-going loya jirga certainly sets himself apart from the run-of-the-mill tribal leaders and warlords also attending the constitutional pow-wow in Kabul.
Press reports indicate that there is a power struggle between the urbane leader and various delegates. It seems that Karzai would like more power for his position as president. Others at the conference envision powers more equally divided between the representatives of the assembly and the man wearing the green. One issue seems to be decided, despite assurances from the United Nations and the Unites States to the outside world. Islamic law will rule. The token women delegates, sitting in a clump under the big tent, will eventually not be welcome in the Afghani halls of power. One feisty female delegate has already been placed under special U.N. protection for challenging her fellow loya jirga goers. Dhimmis, as usual, are not welcome at all. There will be no power or place at the table for them in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Hindus, Sikhs and Christians and the handful of Jews left in Afghanistan will be just what they always were before Western institutions spent billions of dollars to rebuild the country that they inhabit. They will be left as second-class citizens, without hope of ever gaining basic human rights from all those Muslims sitting in the converted beer tent so thoughtfully provided by the Germans.
Conditions for Christians and other dhimmis are not going well in another country where green is increasing the color of the oppressor. According to a report by the Christian Broadcasting Network, the newly-liberated Iraq is less safe now for non-Muslims than under the previous Hussein regime. Recently, a prominent Christian judge was killed in Mosul, bombs were found in two Christian schools and non-Muslim families in northern and southern Iraq have been warned to veil their women or expect violent repercussions. The Mandaeans, followers of John the Baptist, have had five of their houses of worship closed since Coalition forces took over Iraq. Fatwas against the Mandaeans have been issued by prominent Shiite clergy. These green lights to violence have resulted in several murders, numerous rapes, destruction of Mandaean homes and businesses and the burning of a 20,000 volume library of irreplaceable ancient texts belonging to a Mandaean priest.
The head of the Coalition Civilian Authority, Ambassador Paul Bremer, clearly knows who will rule when he leaves. In a recent interview he candidly stated that Iraq is likely to embrace some form of Islamic law, Sharia, and that the post-Hussein Iraq will not be secular or friendly to the West. Ambassador Bremer should have expanded on his candor. The “new” Iraq, dipping into green ink to write its constitution, will make certain that all non-Muslim are legally relegated to the back of the bus. Fear, violence, discrimination and denial of basic human rights will be the order of the day as another officially Islamic nation, Iraq, takes it place at the United Nations.
Green skies are usually a precursor to violent weather. Dhimmis in Afghanistan and Iraq are watching the skies….and the Western powers as they help build two more Islamic regimes bent on oppression of their non-Muslim citizens.
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