No freedom if sectarianism alive

Iraqis in Jordan are worried about the fall of Mosul, within the next few weeks, as announced by Baghdad.

The majority of Iraqis here are Shiites; they heard about the atrocities committed by Shiite militias against Sunni families in Fallujah and Tikrit following the liberation of villages from Daesh. 

Living in a Sunni ambience in Jordan, Iraqi Shiites issued statements on May 23, 2016, against the rape and pillaging of Fallujah Sunni women by one Shiite militia called Saraya Ansar Al Aqeeda (Supporters of the Creed), led by Jalal All Din Al Saghir, who is member of Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units, allowed by the Iraqi prime minister to be led by Qassem Suleimani, the notorious Iranian general who commands the Quds Brigades within the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The Mosul liberation battle will create nearly 1 million refugees, as well as new cases of rape and pillage by the Hashd Shaabi, which does not abide by the discipline of regular army officers.

The ghost of the atrocities in Fallujah against Sunnis haunts these days the Iraqis in Amman who will feel the stigma of shame talking to their Sunni hosts.

Following the fall of Mosul to Daesh in June 2014, and the sudden surrender of four Iraqi army divisions, the supreme spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiites in Najaf, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, endorsed the formation of militias to guard holy places and protect Karbala shrines.

They total roughly 60,000 fighters distributed among Hizbollah-Iraq, Liwa Al Muntazar, Saraya Ashuraa and Saraya Ansar Al Aqeeda, which is the most vicious of all militias.

Its leader disobeyed Ayatollah Sistani and sent some of his fighters to the civil war in Syria to support Lebanon’s Hizbollah there.

As a mosque preacher, Saghir managed to issue many religious edicts (fatwa) to his followers to challenge the traditional hierarchy of clerics like Muqtada Al Sadr or Ammar Al Hikim of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. 

A defeat of Daesh in Mosul will be welcome news for many Jordanians and Iraqis. This stigma had marred our religion for centuries to come.

But rabid sectarianism will dominate Iraq and adjacent regions if a repeat of what was committed in Fallujah against Sunnis last year at the hands of the Popular Mobilisation Units militias is allowed to happen now by the revenge-hungry Ansar Al Aqeeda, who want to have a second foray of pillage, plunder and torture of Sunnis.