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Hope for Sunni/Shia reconciliation?
 Part of channel(s): Iraq (current event)

From the website "Alive in Baghdad".
Lot of good vids there. Not always terribly flattering towards the U.S., but it's free of the hysterical rantings of left leaning media outlets, and the "nothing to see here, move along" attitudes of right wing ones. Just a lot of vids of little covered aspects of daily life for the citizens of Baghdad.

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Iraq’s Al-Aimma Bridge, A Memory Against Sectarianism - 09.03.2007

This week we look back at a tragedy that claimed more than 1000 lives. In 2005, Sunnis from the Adhamiya district saved dozens of Shi’a pilgrims from drowning in the Tigris. As the Iraq conflict is further cast in terms of civil war, it is important to remember the instances of unity among Iraqis.

Although recently a bombing killed more than 500 people in an area dominated by Yezidis, a little known religious group in northern Iraq, the Al-Aimma bridge tragedy has been the worst single event in the war. Last year we brought you a story from Sami Rasouli, who told about Othman Ali Al-Obeidi, who is famous in Iraq because he had a Sunni name, but his father’s name, Ali, is traditionally a Shi’a name. Othman was on the Iraqi swimteam and died saving Shi’a pilgrims from drowning in the Tigris. The second anniversary of the tragedy has just passed, so we are again remembering Othman and the other brave Iraqis who stood against sectarianism.

Other media agencies are falling over themselves to discuss the onset of a civil war in Iraq. It is important to take these discussions with a grain of salt. That is not to say sectarian violence, ethnic cleansing, and general chaos, insecurity, and disorder are a daily experience in Baghdad, they are. But the violence may be more organized than now discussed. Just over a year ago, Der Spiegel reported on the experience of another man living near the Al-Aimma Bridge. He made it clear that the violence is not the crazed killings of madmen, but organized political violence.

Othman Ali and many other Sunnis and Shi’as alike banded together to save their fellows. In just over one week General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will be brought before the US Congree for testimony about the progress of the “Surge.” The journalists, pundits, politicians, and arm-chair diplomats have already decided what to say about Iraq. The country has descended into civil war and reconciliation among parties is unthinkable. But perhaps they don’t know so much about Iraq. Glimpse of Iraq has very clearly demonstrated why Othman Ali Al-Obeidi provides such an important yet simple insight into the Iraqi experience.

We’ll be bringing you more stories from the other side of the Iraqi experience, in our own response to the Surge report, throughout the month of September. Please consider making a donation or becoming a monthly subscriber to support the important work of the Iraqi journalists who make Alive in Baghdad happen.

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Added: Sep-3-2007 
By: RabidMarsupial
In:
Iraq, Middle East
Tags: Sunni, Shia, Hope
Marked as: approved
Views: 52185 | Comments: 8 | Votes: 5 | Favorites: 2 | Shared: 0 | Updates: 1 | Times used in channels: 2
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  • I remember hearing that in the news. Anyways this doesn't fly as a patch or band-aid to the civil war that has displaced and killed thousands of civilians for WMDs, the Iraq war supporters have caused.

    Posted Sep-3-2007 By 

    (0)

  • Comment of user 'humf' has been deleted by moderator!
  • Good video. I enjoyed it. Another viewpoint without the raw propaganda so many of us are used to. Tragedy sometimes brings people together.

    Posted Sep-3-2007 By 

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  • humf: "Keeping it 'on topic' -

    What caused so many people to be pushing and shoving each other on the bridge to cause those getting crushed to jump in the first place?

    (serious question)

    "
    someone had said there were suicide bombers in the crowd and you had an example of saying "fire" in a theatre, or like a few years back dance club

    Posted Sep-3-2007 By 

    (0)

  • Alive in Baghdad have videos on other sites also. Some more recent ones. Every time one sect or the other group together there are usually suicide bombers there. I think I read recently that like 51 Shiites were killed by other Shiites because they thought suicide bombers were in the crowd. I think they were on a Pilgrimage.

    Posted Sep-3-2007 By 

    (0)

  • So I guess the only reason that anyone helped was because they were Muslims in need? I guess if they were Christians, or Buddists, or any other religion, they would have stood by and watched them die. They should have helped them because they were HUMANS in need.

    Posted Sep-4-2007 By 

    (0)

  • This is the kind of IRAQI NATIONALISM we need to have to glue Iraq together. However, U.S. troop presence, Iranian Nationalism and Expansionism, and Saudi influence are TEARING Iraq a part. LEAVE THE IRAQIS ALONE. It is their nation. Give power to the faction that promotes IRAQI NATIONALISM instead of giving it to Shias who will sell Iraq to Iran and giving it to Sunnis who will see Iraq to Saudi Arabia. IRAQ IS FOR IRAQIS ONLY. THEIR OIL IS THEIRS GIVEN BY HEAVENLY FATHER FOR THEM TO FEED THEIR More..

    Posted Sep-5-2007 By 

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  • ryk: "This is the kind of IRAQI NATIONALISM we need to have to glue Iraq together. However, U.S. troop presence, Iranian Nationalism and Expansionism, and Saudi influence are TEARING Iraq a part. LEAVE THE IRAQIS ALONE. It is their nation. Give power to the faction that promotes IRAQI NATIONALISM instead of giving it to Shias who will sell Iraq to Iran and giving it to Sunnis who will see Iraq to Saudi Arabia. IRAQ IS FOR IRAQIS ONLY. THEIR OIL IS THEIRS GIVEN BY HEAVENLY FATHER FOR THEM TO FEED THEIR CHILDREN. EVERYBODY BACK OFF. I hope our Democrats can enforce that. I hope Barak Obama a More..
    (sigh)
    We are not there to steal Iraqi oil.
    Never have been.
    Never will be.

    No matter how many times the "Haters" tell you that we are, it is still not true.
    If we wanted to do so, believe me, we would have already split up the country, put the oil fields under U.S. control, and walled off the rest of Iraq.
    We are just hoping that the Iraqis come to their senses and build a nation before we get so disgusted with sectarian violence that we leave you to your own devices. If we are forced into that by the indifference to suffering of our own liberal left, ALL iraqis will lose. And you will only have yourselves to blame........

    Posted Sep-6-2007 By 

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