Posted on 09/12/2019 8:51:16 AM PDT by Cronos
Iraqis are asking questions that challenge the assumed, self-granted legitimacy that emboldens those in power to claim a monopoly on religion.
Atheists in Iraq are a growing minority no longer on the political sidelines and increasingly under the state’s radar. As their numbers grow, a critical debate is flourishing: Who might they be? What do they represent? Out of what conditions did they hatch?
The growing prevalence of atheism is not entirely disconnected from the political misdeeds of political and religious figures, warned Iraqi thinker Izzat Shahbandar.
The ruling political class, carefully propped up by religious institutions, regularly occupies television slots to downplay the uptick. The increasing prevalence of atheism and agnosticism signals a tidal public opinion change.
Defences rolled out by religious parties and government advocates, have done little to restore public faith in a class that “increasingly represents the corruption of morals, irreligion and the politicisation of religious life,” said an atheist from southern Iraq, who did not wish to be identified.
Ammar al-Hakim, head of the National Wisdom Movement, was among the first to speak out against the phenomenon in 2017, threatening to strike atheism “with an iron fist” and quash it through “rational thought.”
Iraqi writer Alaa al-Khatib noted that the office of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was equally perturbed.
A damning report by CNBC in April said that “unbelievers,” irrespective of their religious denomination, are “forced underground.”
Mohammad Jamil al-Mayahi, a member of parliament for Al-Muwatin coalition, told Al Ghad television: “Yes, there are several cases [of atheism] that have not but might grow into a wider trend… There is no place for these ‘foreign’ ideas in Iraqi society.
“It would be irrational to claim that it’s a reaction to Islamic rule… We’re an Islamic society, not an Islamic state.”
The Iraqi street has made its position clear as popular slogans during mass protests attacked the ruling class over official abuse of religious and political authority.
The population is seething with religious entities and armed groups — claiming divinity — for having superimposed themselves onto political life.
“They overuse and misuse God’s name, police human bodies, prohibit extramarital sex and police the bodies of women,” said Fadhil, 30-year-old from Basra.
The “Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism” listed Iraq as one of six countries as having the lowest rate of atheism in 2013. After six years, the situation is fast changing as the tide of religiosity recedes.
Religious figures have come to represent all that’s inherently wrong in Iraqi politics and its wider society, Iraqi writer Gaith al-Tamimi said. Old and young, Tamimi said, seek to escape the imposition of dangerous religious dogmas in pursuit of their own freedom. “The philosophical debate has long been active but Iraqis are questioning the role religion serves today,” he said.
Tamimi identifies three key drivers: The extravaganza of violence perpetrated by the likes of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State; religious dogma that pits various groups against each other; and banal religious slogans and the failure of religious institutions to act against corruption.
Since 2003, the political order banished secular and democratic spaces, including those of civil society, while militias carried out assassination campaigns against “non-believers” coded as “deviants” as far as their religious philosophy teaches.
The phenomenon is global as internet access exposes people to materials that pierce the veil of legitimacy that religious institutions hide behind. In 2013, a Gallup Poll stated that 13%, of the global population identified as atheist.
In Iraq, however, vocalising belief in atheism or disbelief in Islam can be a death sentence. An increasing number of female testimonies are appearing online as women brave censorship on the topic.
Iraqi biologist Worood Zuhair, 31, from Karbala, was beaten by her brothers for having expressed doubts about her faith, Deutsche Welle reported. Zuhair was placed under police protection and, while her wounds have healed, the trauma remains virulent.
“The sense of betrayal that prevails,” said Tamimi, has suppressed the nation’s appetite for religion, a nation where religion is weaponised to gag, restrict, maim and inhibit the wider population.
Disillusionment is an expected and inevitable outcome. Godless Iraqis who have fled the country have spoken freely but those inside are subjected to violence or death at the hands of militias.
Bookkeeper Ihsan Mousa was arrested during a police raid on his library in late 2018. An official statement by the Directorate of Intelligence stated that the charge facing Mousa “is the attempt to promote and spread atheism.”
The community in the southern province of Nasriiya, where the incident took place, rallied behind Mousa. Iraqi writer Ahmad al-Saadawi criticised the arrest and the evolving saga “as trivial and stupid,” adding that “authorities are trying to build legitimacy under the imposition of a culture of prevention and control.”
Iraq’s climate of censorship, as the case of Mousa underscores, explains the existence of a sprawling, freethinking, online network of atheists. Whether online or on the ground, atheists do not seek to mirror the ignorance of Iraqi rulers by spreading hate.
Corruption and lack of civic rights or protection have bred an air of discontent or anger that security forces cannot sweep away.
Iraqis are asking questions that challenge the assumed, self-granted legitimacy that emboldens those in power to claim a monopoly on religion. State-initiated attacks on atheists are increasing but there is not a single piece of legislation that criminalises atheism or agnosticism.
Iraq’s constitution safeguards religious freedom and expression. “Just words on paper as far as I see” Abdulwaheed from Basra said when asked about constitutional protections. He described conversion as “a political reaction as the reality of life turns from bad to worse.”
The mobilising force behind the godless movement is not simply disdain for religion but a legitimate response to the corruptibility of politics and politicisation in Islam.
Here’s another headline to consider (just a few months ago):
Iran Admits Christianity Is Growing Despite Repression
(EXCERPT)
The Iranian Intelligence Minister has publically admitted for the first time that Christianity is spreading throughout Iran.
During a speech to several Shia Muslim clerics, Mahmoud Alavi said that “Christianity is spreading in parts of Iran”, but tried to dismiss the converts because they were ordinary Iranians “whose jobs are selling sandwiches or similar things”.
He then told the clerics to end their infighting if they wanted to stop Iranians from converting to Christianity, noting that several converts had listed that among their reasons for converting.
He said: “We had no choice but to summon them to ask them why they were converting. Some of them said they were looking for a religion that gives them peace. We told them that Islam is the religion of brotherhood and peace. They responded by saying that: ‘All the time we see Muslim clerics and those who preach from the pulpit talk against each other. If Islam is the religion of cordiality, then before anything else, there must be cordiality and peace among the clerics themselves.”
He added: “It is not the job of the intelligence community to find the roots of these conversions from Islam. But it’s happening right before our eyes.”
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Aren’t all atheists peripheral?
They’re on the outside.
One of the most under reported stories out there is the growth of Christianity in the muslim world. And perhaps that’s a good thing. More publicity would probably just increase the repression.
Years ago I had a study partner in NYC who was from Iraq. She once made a unthinkable comment to me when she said “Everyone over here in America is so religious ..... I don’t know anyone who is religious at home in Iraq”.
Choice 1. Believe in Satan. You live
Choice 2. Believe in the redeemer You die
Choice 3. Decline to state ( they may not kill you )
I don’t know if her only was to pray as a muslim or die, I can understand why she was that way. If that was the only religion she was exposed to, she would, naturally I think, assume that all others were the same or at least very similar.
Your exactly right. When your government is enmeshed in your religion, then when your faith in your government diminishes .... your faith in your religion also dies.
Seems to me that both Muslims and Mormons who renounce their religion are more likely to turn to atheism than to embrace Christianity.
That could be due to the fantastical and unreal nature of the god they are taught to worship, along with a long list of forced rules for every detail of their lives.
Therefore it is hard to reach them with the message of a loving God Who wants them to be saved and sent His Son to atone for their sins and lead them to salvation.
and if atheism can destroy Islam I am all for it. The enemy of my enemy if my friend.
“One of the most under reported stories out there is the growth of Christianity in the muslim World”
Also underreported: how US invasion of Iraq and support for Islamic rebels in Syria triggered massacres of Christians in both countries.
A visitor from mars, looking at America’s Mideast wars, would assume were a rabidly antiChristian country
We should have left Iraq,Libya,and Syria alone. If the best thing to happen to Iraq because of the invasion was to destabilize the country and region with Atheism as a by product, it was not worth any American blood,treasure and reputation. The driving force more so now is the Koran running governments no matter what people think or feel.
Atheists are very much on the *inside* in Washington now. One thing they all share is foolishness. Just b/c you reject following the dead, child-raping “prophet” Moooohammed, it doesn’t mean that there is no god.
I guess inside/outside is relative to what.
Yeah, I can see them being inside washington, but outside life itself.
It is reported that Christianity is growing in China and the Middle East. Is there any evidence of it?
Once the Third World has converted to Christianity, the beg job begins: converting the Europeans and Americans.
Let's accompany all those atheists, islamists, homos, adulterers, satanists, abortionists, et. al., on their own individual journeys down the road to perdition.
Unconditional mercy is the name of Bergoglio's game.
Even in Iran there are large, large numbers of irreligious - that’s what happens when you have
1. a theocratic state that is
2. badly managed and corrupt and impoverishes millions
3. WITH a highly educated population
4. who have access to the internet and to the errors in their religion
in China there is evidence. The Chinese state to an extent doesn’t mind Christianity if the Christians don’t cause problems for the party
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