Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

New York Times ^ | 3/04/08 | Sabrina Tavernise

[LibWhacker]

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied. Fingers caught in the act of smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its wearer. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.

[WOSG]

“The young people, they think that is Islam,” he said. “So Islam is a failure, not only in the students’ minds, but also in the community.”

When we destroy the ideology, the collapse of the organization will soon follow.

[Southerngl]

HALLELULAH!!!

I know of an Iraqi woman married to a Palestinian living in Canada. She is aware of the brutality of the Arab states, but still thinks US is bad. This has got to be brought to everyone’s attention!

[ikka]

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Sounds like JimRob needs to set up a Farsi-language FreeRepublic.iq site.

[The_Media_never_lie]

“Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Sounds like some of the leaders are real winners.

[Defiant]

This is why Islamic extremism is so frantic at this moment in history. They know they cannot survive globalization because their religion is so patently false and riddled with inconsistencies, lies and just plain irrational thought. Not to mention that as a practical matter, it impoverishes those who follow it.

They have to destroy civilization, or civilization will make them extinct. And at some level of consciousness, they understand that. That is why the US, as the purveyor of civilization and a developing global culture is the Great Satan. It proves their Koran wrong just by existing.

[SolidWood]

Sounds like JimRob needs to set up a Farsi-language FreeRepublic.iq site.

I think an Arabic language FR would make more sense in Iraq. ;)

I'm sure the Iranian youth will highly appreciate an Farsi one though.

[imintrouble]

The Iraqi woman was probably influenced greatly by the broad anti-American sentiment popular in Canada these days.

Brutality exists in the middle east but animosity exists in Canada. It seems the fashion to hate the USA - in defining one’s nationality in Canada: ‘not to be American’.