Knowledge can be deadly sometimes; let the stupidity continue…
BAGHDAD — Mohammed Shakir has been selling newspapers from his stall on the right bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad for 20 years.
He used to offer a selection from all of Iraq’s political movements and parties – but no more. In his majority Sunni neighborhood that has proved simply too dangerous.
Two months ago a group of masked men showed up at his stall and ordered Shakir to stop selling papers printed by Shiite groups or government officials, saying that he would be killed if he did not comply.“They even threatened people who buy these papers in the neighborhood,” said Shakir, who took the threat seriously and closed down because most papers he carried dealt with Shiites and Shiite issues.
And it appears that these were not idle threats. Two paper sellers were killed in the last two months in Baghdad’s Adhamiya neighborhood, a Sunni area. Another three lost their lives in Dora, a district south of the capital that used to be mixed but is rapidly becoming purely Sunni. [read]
one guy in this article says it all I think…
Saif Muhsin, a 33-year-old government employee, who lives in the Adhamiya neighborhood, is dismayed at the situation.
“I never expected that the country would reach this low point of freedom where people get killed for reading or even carrying this or that paper,” he said, adding, “If only the government and the security forces granted citizens as much freedom to read different opinions as militias have to roam the streets.”
“But the government sits safely in the Green Zone and the militants rule the streets,” he said.
Actually when you hear these stories, you like to think they are isolated incidents, or it’s all fake or something.
The sad truth is that this is happening.
5 days ago, a friend of mine,told me that his uncle who is the only Sunni who lived in his neighborhood for decades has been officially asked by some gunmen to leave after they have kidnapped him. He just arrived to Amman yesterday,needless to say, he got bruises all over his body.
Let Iraq’s freedom shines!