[lbo-talk] Sadrism, in qualified defence of

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 8/31/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> On Aug 31, 2006, at 12:22 PM, Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> > A colleague of mine in the accounting department is a Christian
> > Iraqi with lots of
> > family there.  He has no love for Iraqi fundamentalism but
> > considers Sadr to be
> > honest and the only politician possibly capable of keeping the
> > country from
> > fragmenting into separate pieces.
>
> But now we read that his own movement is fragmenting. Yoshie hopes he
> could overcome his anti-Baathist "sectarianism" - but how can the
> leader of a sect overcome sectarianism, esp when he's under fire for
> not being radical enough? How can someone whose base is poor Shiites
> unify such a diverse country?

Well, it's hard to bring about a national liberation front in Iraq,
and by no means do I believe that Sadr will necessarily succeed.

But diversity in itself is not an insurmountable obstacle.  Iraq is
less ethnically diverse than Iran and less religiously diverse than
Lebanon.

Iraq:
Demographic information from the 2006 edition of the CIA's The World
Factbook [16]:
* Ethnic groups: Arab, 75–80%; Kurdish, 15-20%; Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%.
* Religions: Muslim, 97% (Shi'ite, 60-65%; Sunni 32-37%); Christian or
other, 3%.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq#Demographics>

Iran:
The major ethnic groups and minorities include the Persians (51%),
Azeris (24%), Gilaki and Mazandarani (8%), Kurds (7%), Arabs (3%),
Baluchi (2%), Lurs (2%), Turkmens (2%), Qashqai, Armenians, Persian
Jews, Georgians, Assyrians, Circassians, Tats, Pashtuns and others
(1%). . . . Most Iranians are Muslims; 90% belong to the Shi'a branch
of Islam the official state religion, and about 9% belong to the Sunni
branch (many of them are Kurds). The remainder are non-Muslim
religious minorities, mainly Bahá'ís, Mandeans, Zoroastrians,
Jews,Hindus and Christians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Demographics>

Lebanon:
No official census has been taken since 1932, reflecting the political
sensitivity in Lebanon over confessional (religious) balance. It is
estimated that about 40% are Christians, 30% are Shia Muslims, 25% are
Sunni Muslims and 5% are Druze[15] There used to be a small minority
of Jews, mostly living in central Beirut. Also, a small community
(less than 1%) of Kurds (also known as Mhallamis or Mardins) live in
Lebanon. . . . 360,000 Palestinian refugees have registered in Lebanon
with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) since 1948,
estimates of those remaining range between 180,000 and 250,000.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon#Demographics>
-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>