Sectarianism prevails

Imam Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini, leader of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County who recently returned from a trip to Iraq, said there are two things on the mind of every Iraqi.

“One, electricity. Two, security,” said the Iraqi native, adding that summer temperatures reach 130 degrees. “People don’t know what to do with this excessive heat and you also can’t go outside because you are fearful of a car bomb or a traffic jam.”

Al-Qazwini returns to Iraq often to see family, though with each passing month, there are fewer and fewer people to visit. He has lost several relatives since the war started in 2003, including a cousin who died in a car bombing in April. Several family members fortunate enough to have a passport and sufficient money have fled to neighboring countries.

“There are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees fleeing the country in all sorts of directions,” he said. “Even people who have a lot of tolerance and fortitude — in the end, things were so miserable, they could not take it anymore.”

In June, Al-Qazwini sent an open letter to President Bush, expressing his concerns about the escalating violence and the destruction of holy sites in Iraq, adding the “country has become a magnet for insurgents, terrorist organizations and religious fanatics.”

He urged Bush to remember his promise to rid Iraq of terrorist insurgents and rebuild the country, a pledge Al-Qazwini hopes the president will keep in mind when he addresses Congress on the state of the war this month.

“When we look at Iraq, we suffer here although we are far,” Al-Qazwini said. “I feel morally obligated to convey their pain to the American government.”

According to a report released this week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office — the investigative arm of Congress — the Iraqi government failed to meet 11 of 18 legislative, security and economic benchmarks it set as goals.

The report summary states it is unclear whether or not sectarian violence has diminished in Iraq.

Al-Qazwini said it clearly has not. Sectarianism prevails in every facet of life in Iraq, he said.

“They created it and we created it,” he said. “The seeds were there, but we nurtured those seeds and we galvanized this sectarianism.”

Though he does not claim to have the answer, Al-Qazwini would like to see American troops substituted by well-organized and well-equipped Iraqi soldiers. He steadfastly opposes the idea of partitioning the country because it would create more conflict and potentially “spill over to other countries,” he said.

“Pulling out the troops sends a message to terrorists, especially Al Qaeda and the Baath regime, that America has finally been defeated in Iraq,” he said. “On the other hand, staying in Iraq longer is going to entail a hefty price and the longer America stays, the stronger the resistance and defiance is going to be.”

In times of such tough questions, Al-Qazwini looks to his faith for guidance, and he hopes the president will do the same.

“I think now we have to go back to God and seek a solution for a peaceful end to this crisis,” Al-Qazwini said. “Bush is in deep trouble, and as someone who believes in God, I think he should be more spiritual, not more political.”