Is that report correct? It states "major Sunni university" which sort of implies that its students (and hence victims) are Sunni students. I thought that university was dominated by Shia students, it must be.
I was wondering the same thing. Both Sunni and Shia students attend that university.
I've read reports saying that the university had a Sunni majority and others saying it had a Shia one. Either way this is really fucked up. No other way to describe it.
That would be kinda funny if only Sunni students are allowed at Mustansariya. It is a public university - all Iraqis are allowed I'm sure. Maybe more Sunni than Shia students attend, because in Iraq I think in general Sunni Arabs are better educated than the Shia.
I think Mustansyria is to Sunni as Al Azhar is to Ismaili. Maybe in the past it was Sunni, but today it is Shia.
If it is true, that the report was wrong, then this is just another example of how Sunni groups can manipulate the media and appear as the victims. In the past, they even posted on Iraqi Rabita pictures of victims of suicide bombings in Kufa and Najaf, and had the audacity to claim that they were victims of Shiite militias!!
I'm not sure the exact incidence your referring too, but Shi'a militia do kill Shi'as. They kill eachother all the time. The major Shi'a groups are vying for power, over which group will dominate Iraq once the American, and the Sunni resistance are gone. So it's not an impossible that pictures of dead people in Najaf were victims if Shi'a militias.
madtom, save the rhetoric.
New update: majority of those killed were female students (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?
storyid=2007-01-
16T152334Z_01_PAR652176_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-CARBOMB-
TOLL.xml&type=worldNews&WTmodLoc=World-C3-More-2)
As you know the Ansar al Sunnah posted up flyers at universities saying 2007-2008 is cancelled and those that attend will be killed. This is also a group that has prided itself in killing females civilians in the past, including one of Moqtada Al Sadr's female cousins and sent female suicide bombers, or men disguised as females, to the Buratha masjid.
This is only the SECOND case of accidental misleading/manipulative reports.
A Shiite neighborhood was also attacked, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, all Shiites at a motorcycle market. But AP mentions "but also was near the Sheik al-Gailani shrine, one of the holiest Sunni locations in the capital" was near the bombing...as if to purposefully confuse or mislead the reader to think Sunnis again were the victim.
http://www.arkcity.net/stories/0.../
com_0005.shtml
I hope the 109 righteous families seek justice for these heinous crimes...
That was not rhetoric, but the facts. You can believe me or not, that's up to you. But I am curious why you would think it impossible, or why you think the media has a sunni bias? Those are two new concepts for me, and I would like to see your reasoning behind them.
As far as the bias is concerned, it is not media bias, but journalists doing a bad job. Maybe its too dangerous for them, so they rely on 3rd party witnesses with no information on their background, but the 2 news posts I just showed earlier reflect that there is misleading reports.
Regarding militias fighting with each other, first of all, the pictures were posted on a Sunni Baathist website (iraqirabita.org), of victims of a suicide bombing in Kufa and Najaf near shrines. Militias do not do that, and it is a confessional/sectarian attack. Second, clashes between militant groups are rare, and if they do happen, they are between armed groups...usually between government forces (dominated by one militia) vs. another milita, or involve ransacking the others offices. Nothing like car bombings or attacking rival masjids.
And I didn't say it was impossible, I said shut the hell up with the rhetoric.
Hopefully this story will empower Arab students everywhere and they'll recognize the voice they have and how they can engineer their futures.
There's a good story about media bias in Iraq on the UAE students blog.
All I know is that if the U.S. will be taking in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refuges after the war,as the MSM has been suggesting lately,we should be building concrete barriers around everything but individual homes now.
All I know is that if the U.S. will be taking in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refuges after the war,as the MSM has been suggesting lately,we should be building concrete barriers around everything but individual homes now.
Maury | 01.17.07 - 6:48 am | #
And why should we do that? Racist asshole. Are you Israeli? Thanks!
"And why should we do that? Racist asshole."
I'm a racist because Iraqi's are blown up every single day? Or do you just consider everyone except yourself racist?
"Are you Israeli? Thanks!"
No,I'm American. Israeli's already have blast walls around everything,due to their close proximity to Arabs......racist asshole.
I heard last night that's part of the new plan: to wall off Baghdad neighborhoods if they find it necessary. I say it's about fucking time! They should have made Baghdad one big Green Zone a long, long time ago.
I find it fascinating that just now, just recently, people have become angry about the 'sectarian' violence in Iraq! They did not seem as concerned when Ansar al Sunna, Al Qaeda, and the Baathi retards were mass murdering Iraqi Shia between 2003 and 2005.
I agree too, Bagdad, all Iraq should have a Chinese wall from the Kuwaiti border, far far in the desert, parallele to the Saudi - Jordan - Syrian border.
And we shouldn't forget: Bagdad had a long time ago a wall: al sedeh al hindiya (the Indian wall), built by an Abassid caliph. It was destroyed in the 70's. So the problem about terrorists isn't so new.
AfghanShia | 01.17.07 - 3:14 am
Well seen AS. The first part of your post.
In fact i went to the source from which our mojo took the info. It says "IraqSlogger, insights, scoops & BLUNDERS!" So i wonder if with 'blunders' the site refers to itself when it publishes a piece of news WITHOUT referring to the SOURCE from which it came. Otherwise what is this shit of "major Sunni University"!?!!!
I think the sentence "bad reporting" here is incomplete. The word DELIBERATELY in capital letters should have been added before ....
---
IA,
That is a beautiful university. I wonder what courses are thought there. Did your father go to this university?
And making walls wont solve any problem, it would reduce the symptoms of the problem, but the problem would still be there. I dont know, maybe it would help.
Z, my dad got his BS in engineering from an English school, and after that he got his law degree from Baghdad University.
Yeah I saw 'build a wall' when I am angry. You're right - it probably will not solve the problems in the long term.
"IraqSlogger, insights, scoops & BLUNDERS!" ?? I got it from iraqslogger.com last night.
For those of u who r interested in unbiased info on the war on Iraq, this below may be a good reference,
The Profits Escalation- Why the US is Not Leaving Iraq? By: ISMAEL HOSSEIN ZADEH, 13 January,2007.
Ismael Hossein-zadeh is a professor of economics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. He is the author of the newly published book, The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism His Web page is http://www.cbpa.drake.edu/hossein-zadeh
---
"just recently, people have become angry about the 'sectarian' violence in Iraq!"
You should read through the archives at ITM Iraqi American. Most of us were just as concerned then as now. Maybe more,because Muqwaq was killing as many U.S. soldiers as the other terrorists were.
The photo shown under the article is that of the historic Al-Madrasa Al-Mustansiriyya. The building dates back to the years 1200-1300. It was built by one of the latest Abbasid Caliphs, Al-Mustansir Billah.
The more recent University (Aljami'a Al-Mustansiriyya) was established in 1965 i think.
---
"And making walls wont solve any problem, it would reduce the symptoms of the problem, but the problem would still be there. I dont know, maybe it would help."
YoU're probably right, but it will give Iraq time to solve the internal problems of Iraqis and so Iraq would be strong enough, not to get the prey of its neighbours.
"The Profits Escalation- Why the US is Not Leaving Iraq?"
LOL! This trillion dollar boondoggle might leave U.S. companies a few billion in profits. What's that, .3 cents on the dollar? That's almost as silly as the argument we went for the oil. Sadman sold oil cheaper than anyone. Americans enjoyed .99 gas before Sadman was booted. It's been 2-3 times higher ever since.
Iraqi American | Homepage | 01.17.07 - 2:21 pm |
So your dad didn't go to this university. Baghdad is the best universtity in Iraq - right? Also my Iraqi friend (ex-friend 
) told me that Saddam did alot in terms of improving and modernising the education system and also for women.
exile - iraqi / gilgamesh X | 01.17.07 - 3:34 pm |
You are probably right. And that is what I meant to say when I said "maybe it would help". But I was too lazy to make the sentence longer.
You should read through the archives at ITM Iraqi American. Most of us were just as concerned then as now.
Or perhaps Zeyad's archives. The only people who weren't complaining about the sectarian violence were Bruno, An Italian and the other western leftists, because they were encouraging it. And the majority of Iraqi bloggers, who were busy pretending that there weren't any sectarian issues in Iraq, that it was all just American propaganda. "We're all just Iraqis" and such.
[Craig]""We're all just Iraqis" and such."
It seems to me u didn't get it, Ya abul-Gargari!!! They meant to say that if it comes to them they don't believe in that sectarian violence, will NEVER be pulled to it nor will they encourage it.
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your photo is of the historical mustansariya school, which was built by the abbasids in the 13th century. it's not the same as the mustansariya university which was built in the 70s (by the baathist regime) and is in a different area of baghdad at palestine street. most of its students are from sadr city and it has become a stronghold for the mahdi army and the sadr movement which is probably the reason it was attacked. posters of sadr fill that university and female students are forced not just to wear the hijab but an abaya as well. most sunni students and professors there have been kidnapped and killed by student unions inside the university, but are nothing more than members of mahdi militias.
also, exile iraqi, sadat il hindiya is not a wall and it has nothing to do with indians. it's a dam over the furat river at an area called hindiya (or tuwayrij) between hilla and karbala. it was built by the british in 1911 and was rebuilt several times after that by the monarcy and by the baathists. get your facts straight before some people visiting here fall for your nonsense.
Thanks for the info, fed up iraqi.
Saad:
Your citation to the writings of a Marxist Iranian economics professor, Dr. ISMAEL HOSSEIN ZADEH, as a source of "unbiased" information regarding the U.S. role in Iraq is a bit rich. Like most academics schooled in Marxist thought, the good doctor places an inordinate emphasis on the economics of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. If his theory is indeed correct, that the U.S. government has been hijacked by the military-industrial complex (which seeks perpetual war to enrich itself at the expense of the rest of the country), then Americans are doomed to a future of dictatorial control by such forces. Further, if military-industrial complex ("MIC") has the kind of power that Dr. Zadeh suggests, then the Democratic party is on its plan since the Democrats were allowed to take control of Congress and have not yet insisted on cutting off funding for the war in Iraq. One logical conclusion of Dr. Zadeh's theory would be that the MIC could force the U.S. government to declare martial law if Congress threatened to cut off funding for the Iraq war. Does the good doctor have an explanation for why this didn't occur at the end of the Vietnam War? Perhaps, it is because the amount of government control that he posits for the MIC is a figament of his imagination.
While it is indisputable that the MIC has influence in U.S. government circles, the Clintonian, post-cold war shrinking of the U.S. military, amply illustrates that MIC does not have anywhere near the level of government control that Dr. Zadeh ascribes to it.
"also, exile iraqi, sadat il hindiya is not a wall and it has nothing to do with indians. it's a dam over the furat river at an area called hindiya (or tuwayrij) between hilla and karbala. it was built by the british in 1911 and was rebuilt several times after that by the monarcy and by the baathists. get your facts straight before some people visiting here fall for your nonsense."
I just asked and you're mostly right. My grandfather worked there in 1908. It was a dam, on the initiative of an Indian princess !
And before blaming me for not getting the facts right, fed up Iraqi, I hint on you that the Brits came 1917 to Iraq and surely the Turcs wouldn't have allowed such project to be built by the Turcs. We shouldn't forget that the Germans built the so called Bagdad Bahn.
But now my father isn't all sure if this dam and some bridges maybe built in the 20's.
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