Sectarian Contradictions

When I look at sectarian violence in Iraq I don’t see it under a religious context any more. Sects have become a source of ethnic identity and religion doesn’t seem to play much of a role at all. Sects are merely a way to identify people and it’s historically now the easiest way to do so in Iraq. I don’t imagine the militia men and death squads actually practice Islam at all. I say this because I can’t fathom that a group of men would grab a girl off the street and rape her because she wasn’t wearing a hijab or because she belonged to another sect. It’s the equivalent of saying one plus one equals forty three point two. That’s how much sense that makes. Similarly I can’t fathom that a group of “religious” men would grab a boy off the street and force him to convert at gun point. Or make a little boy of another faith jump into a bonfire. It doesn’t make sense that a people who claim to be religious would use the one religion that says you can’t force people into it, to do exactly that. Usually I would say “what’s next..?” but I can’t think of anything worse than raping someone because of what’s not on their head or forcing another to convert; mumbling the shahada with the barrel of a gun in his mouth.

It just doesn’t make sense to me.

These are all such obvious and disgusting contradictions that I can no longer see sects as Islamic but more ethnic, more local. They seem to be fighting for dominance, control and vengeance, all the while dragging Islam along with them like a dead animal.