Let\u2019s stand up for the Bahraini Shiites
\nTuesday, April 26, 2011
\nT\u00dcL\u0130N DALO\u011eLU <\/p>\n
[excerpt]
\n“When asked about the Bahraini government\u2019s approach to the protesters, which moved from a \u201csevere crackdown\u201d to \u201cvindictive,\u201d \u0130hsano\u011flu blamed the U.S. invasion and American policies in Iraq for creating sectarian conflict. \u201cPrior to that, Saddam Hussein treated everyone badly,\u201d he said. \u201cYet Shiites and Kurds and all others worked in his government. They were all equally mistreated.\u201d When I reminded him that the Iraqis came to Washington separated as Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Shiites to lobby for a regime change, \u0130hsano\u011flu said, \u201cUp until the (2003) intervention, Iraqis thought of themselves first as Iraqis and then as Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds or Turkmens. But it was never their primary identity. Their sectarian and ethnic differences came as their second and even third identity. Yet the ones who lobbied here used those differences, and when the U.S. put a new system in place they built it on those differences. What the French did in Lebanon 90 years ago, the U.S. did in Iraq eight years ago.
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\n\u0130hsano\u011flu did not claim that the U.S. invented the sectarian conflict, but he did argue that the Bush administration consciously pushed for it. And he explained the OIC\u2019s efforts to reconcile Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. \u201cIn 2006, we succeeded in bringing together Sunni and Shiite leaders while sectarian violence was at its peak,\u201d he said. \u201cWe made them sign on a 10-point agreement. We brought an end to claims such as, \u2018I\u2019m a Shiite, therefore I\u2019m right,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m a Sunni, therefore I\u2019m right.\u2019 That conflict came to an end religiously \u2026 Yet the Iraqis are now politically divided just like in Lebanon.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n