Imam returns from Iraq

When commenting on his recent visit to Iraq, Imam Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini repeatedly refers to the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and economy — sighing with a thousand-yard stare as he reflects on the “heartbreaking” conditions he witnessed first-hand.

The violence is bad, he says, but is limited to a few pockets of resistance around Baghdad and other regions.

He identifies the country’s real crisis — the one that stands to pull it apart — as its rapid economic nose dive, coupled with corruption and failure to reverse the trend.

“What’s really remarkable is the deteriorating condition of the community,” he said. “Services provided are still deteriorating, and that is shocking five years after the invasion. There is an energy problem, a trash collection problem, the sewage system is very bad, and there are no reliable decent health clinics.

“We hear about multibillion-dollar contracts, but you go [to Iraq] and there is practically nothing,” he added. “You hear it in the news, along with stories of plundering, theft and fraud. Unfortunately, it seems financial corruption has overwhelmed the country.”

Al-Qazwini, who runs the Islamic Education Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa, has made numerous trips to Iraq with the Development and Relief foundation, a group founded in the United States but dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to the imam’s birthplace of Karbala, Iraq.

So far, the group has developed a cardiac wing in the city’s children’s hospital, an orphanage housing 200 of the country’s 5 million orphans, and a vocational school for local students.

Another project is underway to build an eight- or nine-story hospital for the city’s 1.2 million residents, who must make do with only one under-equipped hospital, he said.

But, for all of the imam’s efforts, Karbala’s students will still need many more schools to meet the needs of all of its residents.

For now, the city’s strained educational system works on a staggered schedule, bringing students in for short three-hour shifts throughout the day. The imam says these conditions — adversely affecting some of the most vulnerable residents of Iraq — are unacceptable, especially when the cost of a barrel of oil has surpassed $120.

“There is no reflection of that on the daily life of the ordinary Iraqi,” he said, noting that many Iraqis wait in five-hour lines for gas, despite visible oil stacks operating on the horizon. “There are many speculations about where all the money is going — ordinary people don’t get it … the perception of the average Iraqi citizen is that America is exploiting [them], not helping [them]. They ask, ‘Where is the oil money? I don’t see it in my community, my house, my job, my school, my roads, my services. So where is it?’”

Al-Qazwini is clearly angered, disturbed and upset by what he has seen in Iraq, though he insists his faith in the American people and country has not been shaken.

“There is a perception about Muslims; that they always criticize,” he said. “I am an American citizen, and I love this country as much as I love Iraq. Iraq is my birthplace and America is my home, the home of my kids and grandchildren, and I care about this country.”

“When something is wrong, you cannot be silent — you have to say something or do something, as a conscious citizen.”

Those interested in donating to the Development and Relief foundation can contact the imam’s office at (714) 432-0060.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chris.caesar@latimes.com.