Samarra: The Sequel
I posted the other day the importance of taunting in the execution of Saddam Hussein, and specifically the reference to “Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada.” The Iraqi civil war is infused with symbolism and Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement regularly exploits religious and political symbolism to secure moral and military authority in the country. The one event that sent Iraq over the cliff into full civil war was the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra in February 2006. Though nobody died in the bombing, the shrine is especially significant to Twelver Shi’ites because it is the supposed site where the Mahdi disappeared in the 9th century. Sadr’s movement is driven by millenarian belief in the return of the Mahdi; thus the shrine was symbolically potent.
I believe there are two other reasons why the shrine bombing set off a full sectarian war. First, the nation had already passed through its final and permanent set of elections, thus guaranteeing Shi’ite power over the government. No longer did Shi’ites need to abide by Ali Sistani’s calls for moderation. Sistani cautioned against sectarian reprisals for Sunni terrorism because it might jeopardize the transition to Shi’ite rule. That problem out of the way after the December 2005 elections, Shi’ites felt free to respond with violence.
The other reason the Shi’ites retaliated was that the Askariya shrine was the only major shrine guarded by the Iraqi army and not by either the Sadrist militia or SCIRI’s Badr Corps militia. As a result, Shi’ites lost faith in the government’s ability to protect their sacred symbols and turned completely to the militias for defense of lives and honor.
Either way, the Askiriya shrine was and is a critical symbolic space in the Iraqi civil war. It is therefore terrible news that in the wake of the sectarianization of Saddam Hussein’s execution, Sunnis responded in protest by desecrating the Askariya shrine again! Sunnis apparently “broke the locks off the badly damaged Shiite Golden Dome mosque and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the executed former leader.”
As Juan Cole points out, this is VERY bad news. Sunnis paraded through the Askariyah shrine with the portrait of a man who terrorized Shi’ites for years…all because some thug in the execution chamber chanted “Moqtada” at Saddam’s death.
The Iraq civil war is rife with symbolism and this event may end up as symbolically resonant as the February 2006 bombing. Again, Saddam Hussein’s execution has now become a critical moment of division, revenge and sectarianism. In this bizarre war, deaths of hundreds yield pedestrian response; murder for murder. But symbolic attacks – assaults upon the honor of a people – result in far more catastrophic responses.
8 Responses to “Samarra: The Sequel”
Elrod — I think there’s another factor: the Samarra bombing took place only about two months after the Iraqi election, which led to the fifth Iraqi government since the US invasion. The bombing showed that the new government, like its predecessors, couldn’t provide security, leading more Iraqis to turn to the Shi’a militias to provide protection.
So when are we going to punish the people who brought us this war? The people who said it would be easy, and cost about $60 Bill?
When have wars ever been easy, or played dead on command?
I’m not generally a conspiracist, but I can’t help but wonder if elements of the Shi’i govt didn’t allow the Samarra bombing precisely because it allowed their militant wing to gain power (for the reasons described by Elrod and Marc in comment above: it led the Iraqi people to turn to militias like Sad’r instead of the govt controlled security forces.) It makes sense when you think of how Sad’r has gained power since that event, and when you consider that this, the most holy site to the Shi’ites, was not being guarded by Sad’r. Perhaps the Iraqi forces that were “protecting” the site were in collusion.
As for the latest event, I agree that it doesn’t bode well but I’m not sure it matters that much anymore. It just doesn’t seem that the sectarian strife can be ratcheted any higher than it already has been.
The execution resembled a lynch mob, and this is the reaction. Elrod is spot on, the symbolism is there and both sides are reacting. For me the way to measure the depth of the reaction will be to follow the reintegration of Baathists back into the military, if the program is halted then the majority Shiites will have signaled their intention to deal with the Sunnis through the militias. There will be a surge in troops, perhaps even be accelerated if the situation in Baghdad deteriorates quickly. The neighborhoods are becoming more predominantly Shiite or Sunni, that might keep tensions lower in that it is now easier to separate the parties. But with power, water, and other city services being reduced for Sunni areas the tensions will still be there waiting to surface as soon as we leave.
Good post but one issue.
Sadr’s movement is driven by millenarian belief in the return of the Mahdi; thus the shrine was symbolically potent.
By millenarian belief, you mean once every 1000 years correct? By the Muslim calander 2006 was the year 1427. Unless millenarian means somethings else, a correction may be wise.
Profbacon,
The term “millenarian” originally referred to the return of Jesus and the heralding of the 1000 year reign. Many religious movements developed in early 19th century America that claimed the precise moment when Jesus would return. The Seventh Day Adventists predicted in 1831 that the Millenium would arrive on October 13, 1843.
In Shi’ite Islam the term “millenerian” does not technically refer to 1000 years but it does resemble the notion that some revered figure will return from the dead and will herald the beginning of peace on earth followed by the apocolypse. For twelver Shi’ites, Mahdi is the man to return.
What did anyone expect when the Iraqi’s were carrying out the execution? There wasn’t anything surprising about it at all, in fact I thought it much more restrained than I thought it would be. The society over there is essentially a mob waiting for the biggest religous thug to rise to the top and claim power. Its what they want. Efforts to reform Iraq into some modern style democracy that somehow keeps the religious extremists out of the loop strike me as wishful thinking at its worst.
Thank you Elrod. However, “millenerian� has the Latin root mill, or thousand.
`the notion that some revered figure will return from the dead and will herald the beginning of peace on earth followed by the apocolypse` does have a word, MESSIANIC.
It makes sense, Islam is a spin off of Judism and Christianity. They have their own Messiah beliefs, and in troubling times those beliefs tend to form the bedrock of a people. After September 11, Church attendance spiked in America. I can only imagine the state of Religion in todays Iraq.