Sheikhy Ground By Donnel Jones, May 6, 2003

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or celebrate in response to this sermon given by Sheikh Jamal Shakir Al-Nazzal at the Great Mosque in Falouja, Iraq, this past Friday.

On the one hand the Sheikh admits that it was Marxism and not America that hurt the Iraqi people. While I'm glad to hear that, I also can't help but think Osama bin Laden would agree with half of that statement since he, too, was/is a hater of that most destructive of political poisons to come from the West.

Then, in a sign of hope, the good Sheikh asks that America bring democracy to Iraq.

We say in honesty that if the [previous] ruling gang was corrupt and oppressing, you [Americans] must not act with corruption and oppression. If the previous ruling gang plundered the rights of the people, you must not plunder our rights. If the previous government was unjust, come cooperate with us and bring freedom and democracy, as you claim, so that the Iraqi people will live in security and comfort and will elect a good government that will give rights to every human being

Just when I thought I was hearing a Muslim version of Tom Paine, things turn a little sour about the Americans:

If it is written in it that you must oppress the wretched, then let's talk about it. But if it is written that you must act justly, then we appeal to the American forces that entered [Falouja], and quote the words of Jesus to them: 'If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the left cheek.' Wonder of wonders. America, the invading forces, struck us first, with uncalled-for and unacceptable force, in Baghdad and in other places. In our city, they struck us on the right cheek and on the left cheek and from above, from the front, and from behind, and their planes hover above our city, verily, above the houses. The tanks and armored personnel vehicles drive through the streets and aim their weapons at people. They say that America does not act with terror. By Allah, this is the gravest terror.

So much for short-term memory. What ever happened to not blaming America first? I thought Saddam was the true terror. The good Sheikh then calls for America to leave Falouja and, by extension, all of Iraq because there are no weapons of mass destruction to be found. Well, Mr. Sheikh, I'm afraid that's not possible now. Would you rather prefer Hans Blix come in and look for them. At least he won't be carrying weapons.

When all hope seems lost that maybe America is not entirely despised, we get a little snippet for gratitude once again.

We call on America to draw strength from its humanity and not from its power… We appreciate the things that America and its president have done for us. First of all, the removal of the siege on Iraq – for this we must thank them. Second, for not harming the Iraqi people for what the deposed rulers did.

He ends with this hilarious tag: And third – Allah knows, there is a third good thing that they did [but I forgot]

How easily one forgets America's favors. Not even Allah can vouchsafe gratitude.

It would be nice for a Daniel Pipes or a Bernard Lewis to parse this sermon. It is both encouraging and ominous. My two cents comes to the conclusion that the Middle East in general is, at the very least, deeply ambivalent about America. For now, this is the most we can hope for in place of deep hatred of the "infidel." The people of India and Japan, further east from us than the Iraqis, know us a lot better although they, too, have no love for us. The Middle East, however, is a true backwater, isolated from the rest of the world.

The sermon reflects an almost child-like view of America as "good" parent/ "bad" parent. In light of that, any ambiguity on the part of America's occupation will presage disaster. We must be prepared to be the parent who wields the rod with righteous wrath, if necessary.

Any other tactic will inspire their contempt.