Fallujah Emerging As Islamic Mini-State (posted 5/25/2004)

AP ^ | Tue, May 25, 2004 | HAMZA HENDAWI

[Eurotwit]

FALLUJAH, Iraq - With U.S. Marines gone and central government authority virtually nonexistent, Fallujah resembles an Islamic mini-state — anyone caught selling alcohol is flogged and paraded in the city. Men are encouraged to grow beards and barbers are warned against giving "Western" hair cuts.

"After all the blood that was shed, and the lives that were lost, we shall only accept God's law in Fallujah," said cleric Abdul-Qader al-Aloussi, offering a glimpse of what a future Iraq (news - web sites) may look like as the U.S.-led occupation draws to a close. "We must capitalize on our victory over the Americans and implement Islamic sharia laws."

The departure of the Marines under an agreement that ended the three-week siege last month has enabled hard-line Islamic leaders to assert their power in this once-restive city 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Some were active in defending the city against the Marines and have profited by a perception — both here and elsewhere in Iraq — that the mujahedeen, or Islamic holy warriors, defeated a superpower.

Under the agreement, the Marines handed security in the city to a new Fallujah Brigade made up largely of local residents and commanded by officers of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s former army.

With the departure of the Marines, the position of the U.S.-appointed civil administration has been weakened in favor of the clerics and the mujahedeen who resisted the U.S. occupation. That is a pattern that could be repeated elsewhere in Iraq after the occupation ends June 30, unless other legitimate leaders come forward to replace those tainted by association with the occupation.

Fallujah, which calls itself the "City of Mosques," provides the religious fundamentalists with fertile ground for wielding power. The city's estimated 300,000 residents are known for their religious piety.

Women rarely appear in public and when they do, they are covered from head to toe in accordance with Islam's strict dress code for women. The lives of men revolve around Islam's tradition of praying five times a day.

Unlike other Iraqi cities, Fallujah has never allowed liquor stores. Its famous kebab restaurants have prayer rooms, an unusual feature in most Muslim nations. Many of its adult male population wear beards, a hallmark of religious piety.

However, steps taken by the mujahedeen over the past month have gone beyond simply encouraging piety.

On Sunday, for example, scores of masked mujahedeen, shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," paraded four men stripped down to their underpants atop the back of a pickup truck that drove through the city. Their bare backs were bleeding from 80 lashes they had received as punishment for selling alcohol. They were taken to a hospital where they were treated and released.

Residents said a man found intoxicated last week was flogged, held overnight and released the next day.

Fallujah's women hair stylists shut down their shops several months ago after repeated attacks blamed on Muslim militants.

On Tuesday, the mujahedeen expanded their "clean up" campaign. About 80 masked, armed men, accompanied by local police, forced hundreds of street hawkers at gun point to clear out from the streets and confine their businesses to designated areas.

The masked men later moved to the city's used car market and "persuaded" dealers to move away from the city center because they were blocking traffic. In both cases, the police stood by without intervening.

According to residents, barbers have been instructed not to give "Western" haircuts — short on the back and sides and full on top — or to remove facial hair. Four youths with long hair were stopped at a market by mujahedeen on Sunday and marched to a public market where they were shorn.

"Are we Muslims, or not?" asked Abdul-Rahman Mahmoud, a 40-year-old father of three. "We are. So, we must apply God's laws. The mujahedeen's word is heard and respected, and the same goes for our clerics."

There is little sign of opposition to the mujahedeen, though it could be that some people are simply afraid of confronting armed men.

Sheik Omar Said of the Fallujah branch of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Baghdad-based organization created last year to defend the rights of the Sunni Arab minority, insists that nearly everyone in Fallujah really wants Islamic law.

However, he hinted that perhaps in some cases, the mujahedeen have gone too far.

"This will only come after educating society in religious matters first and then moving on to applying Islamic punishments," he said.

However, the mujahedeen are clearly profiting from the hero status they acquired during the April battles against the Marines.

There is even talk of building a museum dedicated to the "struggle" against the American occupation. Money has been collected in recent weeks to help the families of those who died in the fighting, said by the locals to number 1,000 "martyrs."

[elfman2]

"let them live in their own little world."

I think the world’s to small for that.

[elfman2]

"And a couple of Marines in Falluja died for this yesterday?"

Many. I think it’s a betrayal.

[elfman2]

"Like father like son?"

Bingo!

[elfman2]

"When you kill all the enemies who will fight and destroy lots of their toys you HAVE WON and no amount of RATmedia distortion can change that. If they want more the Marines will be happy to provide it."

Just like our Vietnamese victory, it’s about as politically plausible that we can send our Marines back in at any time

[ought-six]

Fallujah is the Taliban writ small. But it will become the Taliban writ large very, very shortly. I have said before, and I say it here again: Mohammedans are not capable of self-government; they subscribe to totalitariansim, and they are comfortable with it. Freedom and self-determination scares the $hit out of them.

[Theo]

That's because they're *expected* to be savages, and we're *expected* to be civilized. Talk about racist, hm?

[TexKat]

Ping

[TexKat]

Armed residents of Fallujah parade two bare-chested and blindfolded men who were caught selling alcohol in the city in the back of a pick up truck. The men were whipped with hosepipes and taken through the streets as an example to those who violate th laws of Islam(AFP/Ahmed Faddam)

An Iraqi Civil Defense Corps ( ICDC ) soldier rests in an Iraqi Police station in Kharma, near Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, May 19, 2004. The police station, which is defended by the U.S. Marines 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, and ICDC soldiers, was attacked Tuesday night by militiamen using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and small arms. There were no casualties. (AP Photo/Jim MacMillan)

Residents of Fallujah celebrate as they ride on a pick up truck through the streets of the restive city, 50 kms west of Baghdad. Both Iraqi police and masked insurgents shot off rounds and people flooded the streets, waving Iraqi national flags and honking their car horns in jubilation over what they mistakenly believed was a deal between the marines and the city's leaders to scale back the US presence in Fallujah.(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)

A member of the Iraqi Civil defense Corps (ICDC) prays at a joint checkpoint as US soldiers look on at the entrance of Fallujah. heavy machine gun fire erupted in Fallujah after more than a dozen US Marines' armoured vehicles entered the Sunni Muslim bastion on a symbolic tour of the city rocked last month by the deadliest fighting in Iraq since last year's US invasion(AFP/File/Antonio Scorza)

[Eurotwit]

Thanks for the pictures.

[Hank Rearden]

Once W is re-elected it will be time get the can opener out and unleash that whoop-a$$ that they have coming.

Yeah. Sure.

You know what's going to happen if "dubya" is reelected? More "free" pill scams and bigger deficits.

If he doesn't have the motivation to restrain government when his job is on the line, what do you suppose he'll do when freed of all such considerations?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Is this from the Kerry campaign? More stagmire crap.

Obviously those who are paying attention know there is nothing like Vietnam going on in Iraq.

[Eurotwit]

Hah..

It did happen :-)

I know you probably is not going to read this, but I just could not resist.

Cheers.

[swarthyguy]

What happened?

Democracy? or what?

You think Falluja Iraq are successes.

Okay.

[InterceptPoint]

AP: Consider the source.

[Eurotwit]

Hey!

Good to see you posting.

I am not ready to pass judgement on this project yet. As you might remember I think in this in terms of generations.

However, it has certainly been a rougher ride than I had expected.

I also have to admit that I have increasing doubts that any sort of enlightened democratic society can exists along side with islam. If it is possible, the world has certainly never seen it yet. This, I must admit, had made me increasingly worried about the islamic minority in Norway (and other western European countries).

Nice to hear from you.

Cheers,

Euro.

[swarthyguy]

Well, the fatal flaw in Bush's Great Emancipation Strategy is the following.

The democratic impulse is a significant minority, especially in the Arab world, if not the greater Muslim world.

The dirty not so secret is that given the opportunity, many, at least half, would prefer a theocratic society rather than any form of secularism.

The Civil War in Iraq has just begun. The jihadi moths strategy is attracting worldwide jihadis but the question, how many dead soldiers is the USA going to tolerate.

Plus, all our rhetoric reeks of hypocrisy when the US wholeheartedly supports totalitarian monarchies like the Sauds, endorse the dismissing of legislatures as in Jordan, a sham election endorsing Musharraf in Pakistan, and similar window dressing in Egypt.

Either we go whole hog for secularism even with StrongMen or end up endorsing a virtual Shia state, as we have in Southern Iraq.