Sam Rasouli talks about the prospects of Civil war in Iraq

Sam Rasouli talks about the prospects of Civil war in Iraq [+ favourites]

This is an interview from Baghdad, Iraq with Sam Rasouli of Muslim Peacemaker Team. He discusses the situation in Iraq and the relationships between Iraqis of various religions and ethnicities, as well as explaining the complete lack of possibility for a civil war occurring in Iraq. This video about The War and American Occupation of Iraq is being made available under a creative commons license by Alive in Baghdad.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

How do we know if he's crebile?

He brings up good points though. If the sects were really against each other, there would have been violence years and years ago. But we've got to consider the effects a war has on people.

"How can we be just in a world without mercy and merciful in a world without justice?"

http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/?p=2092

He's part of an organization that seems to be reasonably well known, so I'd say whether his opinion is biased or not, he is the real thing.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

I just had a discussion with my friend who is Iraqi about civil war. He was sayin exaclty the same thing. The conflict between sunnis and shiites does not come from within the country. As Rasouli points out, there is even kinship between the two sects in Iraq, as in the case of my friend- sunni marrying shiite. The problem comes from the countries surrounding Iraq. The majority of muslims are shiites almost 80% and they are very uneducated to the extent that a very large number of them believe that the shiite sect is a perversion of muslim law. This idea is of course is perpetuated by Al Qaida and governments even throughout the muslim world. It is not surprising that this kind of atmosphere breads extremists who would do anything to blow themselves in order to kill what they consider the disease of Islam. These insurgents come from all over, Syria, Jordan , Saudi, etc. The greatest mistake of the American strategy or lack thereof was not secure the borders in order to stop these insurgents from entering.

"thinking about doing something is just as good as actually doing it"