Karbala Demonstration Against Terrorism

From the blogsite 'An Iraqi's thoughts' (http://iraqithoughts.blogspot.com/) comes this report of a 1000-strong demonstration in Karbala against Terrorism. The demonstrators "gathered around the provincial headquarters and they represented political, religious and tribal groups and they carried many slogans with some of the ones worth mentioning, being ‘defending terrorism is a philosophy for destruction.’ ‘No to terrorism, no to violence and no to killing.’ ‘We will not allow the terrorists to stop Iraq’s path towards democracy and peace.’ "

Today’s news you have probably all read but I came across this article in an Arabic web site and thought it made me smile, so why not translate and show that despite the hardships that Iraq is going there is a distant hope for a good futre. Here is the original article: Karbala Demonstration

Demonstrations in Karabala:

" A demonstration comprising of about 1000 people demonstrated today in the city of Karabala, south of Baghdad asking the Iraqi government to capture the terrorists and especially in the triangle of death that is in the south western parts of Baghdad.

Those present distributed a statement talking about the grave dangers to our people from these terrorist acts that compromise killing, kidnapping, suicide bombs that even target children, and these terrorists trying to create friction between all the groups in Iraq.

They added that after witnessing the escalating violence especially in the areas of Al Yusifiya, Al Latifiyah and al Mahmoudiya that we ask the government to stand firmly against these terrorists and capture them.

The American and Iraqi forces conducted an operation 10 days ago in the north of the Babil province where these areas lie because of the increase in killing and kidnapping in these areas.

The demonstrators gathered around the provincial headquarters and they represented political, religious and tribal groups and they carried many slogans with some of the ones worth mentioning, being ‘defending terrorism is a philosophy for destruction.’ ‘No to terrorism, no to violence and no to killing.’ ‘We will not allow the terrorists to stop Iraq’s path towards democracy and peace.’ "

I mention this even the though the number is small, because to me this is a positive development. I wish more and more Iraqis would come out and do the same but you have to understand it is very difficult and I can understand why most stay at home because of all the violence taking place. All it takes is a few criminal thugs to attend such demonstrations and target those who attend, hence I view all these people as heroes because they put their lives on the line in order to get their voices heard. Granted not all Iraqis would agree with my assessment of this situation but it’s good to see that there are Iraqis demanding the government to be firm.

The people of Karabla are nearly all from the Shi’ite sect of Islam and the stance of these protesters is to be admired. One can only speculate on how many people feel this way, but this reminds me of other demonstrations promoting peace occurring in Najaf about a month ago. The violent minority is trying so hard to intimidate the majority into silence the same way Saddam used to. They want people to praise the ‘resistance’ and the heroes the same way Saddam used to force the people into praising him. You are still afraid of who might hear you and this is what saddens me. I was one of those gullible Iraqis who believed the fall of Saddam will see a return of freedoms but instead you are faced with so many more faceless enemies. In Saddam’s time most people knew who to be careful of but now nobody knows the enemy and their motives. The general consensus is these barbaric acts are the work of a foreign force with Iraqis who for some reason or another are opposed to seeing a peaceful Iraq. I can not generalise and say they are all former regime members but I truly believe that most of it is financially motivated. In Third World countries you can do a lot by paying people large amounts of money. These are my opinions and maybe I believe this because deep down I really hope it’s true. I hope that most Iraqis feel the same way I feel. The next few months will see if I am wrong or right.