When I started my blog Iraqi streets with 2 of my Iraqi bloggers friends , we agreed that I will be responsible of the blog email and of posting articles that our network of bloggers send to us from time to time , it was a very routine assignment till yesterday ,when I received an article that hold a critical review to one of the biggest shia Islamic parties in Iraq, it discuss the concept of political inheritance from father to son ,the article was very interesting and well written and represent a true point of view of Iraqi people who want their political leaders to open more space for diversion and variation of thought in there parties than to keep a close circle of family and friends to run the show ,it is a call for choice on qualifications not blood ties , I was very thrilled to find Iraqi people looking to stand for old political school in Iraq and call for more democratic new methods, as I believe that the first political mistake of middle east politics is to keep leadership positions control by small group of people
I was forced to take a hard decision of not publishing the article , a decision that came as a disappointments to my friends and to every activist that knew me ,some people accuses me of fighting for free expression in words but being coward when it came to actions
i want to say I am sorry to all those people for disappointing them ,but my reason was very simple ,I was afraid , not on my self as I have already been attack and displaced outside Iraq in the past 3 months ,but I was afraid on my friends who still inside Iraq, I am afraid that if we publish such articles some of them will be attack ,and worse will get killed
In Iraq Over the past 12 years more than 180 journalists and media staff have been killed in the line of duty. They died because someone did not like what they wrote or said, or because they were in the wrong place in the wrong time.
This week the reporter of Iraqi satellite station Albaghdadia (which became famous after it reporter al-zady hit George w. bush with the show) , was attack as they were covering the story behind the twin explosions last Sunday in Baghdad ,the reporter ask the head of explosive department in police if the TNT detecting devices in police check points really work ,which started a criticism campaign against the channel in Iraq government media channels ,they also become suddenly an Israeli agents in all the shia parties blogs on the net ,the last of this campaign was the attack on the reporters in Baghdad.
Iraqi government is trying to sensor media freedom after 2003 ,they want people to not say any criticism on the government or the Americans ()mostly on the government they really enjoy blaming all there mistakes on the poor Americans !!), the government explain that they support the free speech but media try to over look the government achievements ,the media influence terror and give a negative presentation of the Iraqi security plan, and in there logic any one do this most be a member of bath party ,loves saddam ,hates the Kurds ,hats shia (so he most be a Sunni even if he is an atheist ), it is a simple either you with me or against me , that is why journalist can not take pictures of explosions ,or cover the wounded in hospitals in case they lower the people morals , also we have few taboos in Iraq ,things if you crisis will get you killed like ( Islam religion ,Iran ,sadder movement, bader organization , al-malky , awaking councils ,any Ayot Alla ,howza in najaf, corruption ,leaders bank accounts ,leaders double nationalities , oil prices , security plan, the authenticity of leaders college degrees ,the salaries and the vacations of parliament members ,kurdistain,kirkuks Arabs and Turkmen rights) ,also you should never compare these days with saddam days and say any thing positive ,the old days were ugly bad days , in which Sunni bath vampires role the earth
That is why I deiced to ignore all my believes in freedom ,rights of expression and put in front of me not to let my friend go throw my suffering ,as I know today that the west and Europe support any intention to express freely in middle east to a certain limit ,as non of my European activist friends offer to help me when I face death ,in the contrary some people show me a face of putting there interest ahead of any human rights and human security principles ,with the exception of a couple of true believers in humanitarian principles ,unfortunately true believers’ has always very limited resources ,but there moral support was priceless gift to me ,but I can not asked my friends inside Iraq to risk there lives on moral support ,which make me stand in front of a dilemma ,if I want change in my country and middle east then I have to risk my life ,as no gain will be achieve without pain ,but in the same time it will be a waste for all of us if activists became kamakazi suicidal pilots ,
The answer to this dilemma is simple ,we all as activist must start to work through our network on building a support life line system to our fellow activist every were ,so if some one ends in jail in Iran or was beaten in Baghdad or kidnapped or killed we can be able to make his attacker pay ,by exposing them and bringing them to international justice, we must force governments to give treat activist better treatment when they leave there countries as refugees ,help them to reach safe heaven for temporary times so they can keep on fighting , you may say such attempts already exists ,I will answer yes ,but not enough ,cause I have seen in the past few months of my displacement over the world many activist sleeping on the streets and being chased by immigration police and seen many criminals and drug dealers receive VIP treatment on airports ,I have seen conferences with people being represented as brave human rights hero’s while in fact they are nothing more than thieves who had good imagination ,
I am sorry to give this dark image of reality but this is what I have seen and felt ,we all want change in Iraq ,Iran ,Syria ,Palestine ,Israel ,Egypt ,morocco, Pakistan …..etc ,we all love democracy and want to live under the protection of human rights, but if you want people to change at lest offer them the chance to stay alive to enjoy it , i want to empower all iraqi people to express them selfs and stand for the truth ,also i want to protect my friends, but i can not do this unless you help activist in Iraq and in middle east through creating life lines for them ,to creat the enviroment for changeto take place