SHIA WANTS TO KILL ALL SUNNI NAMED OMAR

[jimmoyer]

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

Omars new targets in Iraq's sectarian war

By Aqeel Hussein
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Published April 3, 2006



BAGHDAD -- For police in Baghdad's Al Adil neighborhood, the 14 corpses looked like the products of just another night's work in Iraq's sectarian war.

All were young Sunni men, all had been killed with a bullet to the head, and all were found tossed into a garbage dump.



Only when they noticed their identity cards -- carefully placed on the victims' chests -- did officers realize what else they had in common.


All shared the same first name: Omar. The victims' only crime, it seemed, was to be namesakes of Imam Omar, a prominent historical figure in the Sunni religious tradition.


The discovery of the bodies a week ago came as the Iraqi government disclosed that more than 30,000 people had fled their homes to escape Sunni-Shi'ite violence after February's bombing of the Golden Shrine, a Shi'ite holy site in the city of Samarra. Morgue officials estimate that up to 1,500 have been killed since then, prompting an exodus of people from mixed Sunni-Shi'ite areas.

The men found on the rubbish dump fitted the pattern exactly -- they were all Sunni residents of two predominantly Shi'ite neighborhoods in the capital, Al Shaab and New Baghdad, said Capt. Hussam al Bayaati, of Al Adil police station.

"We think they were kidnapped from these two neighborhoods and then killed," he said. "When we discovered them on the rubbish dump, they all had their IDs placed on their chests.

"They seem to have been targeted because they were called Omar. Some of them had already received messages delivered to their homes telling them to change their names."

The fact that the men were driven across town to be dumped in Al Adil seems to have been no coincidence. The neighborhood is known across Baghdad as one of the staunchest strongholds of the Sunni insurgency. It was from here that the American reporter, Jill Carroll, was abducted three months ago before being freed last week and near here that a passing busload of 20 Shi'ite pilgrims was killed last month.



Capt. al Bayaati said the garbage dump was close to where the bus was attacked, suggesting that whoever put the bodies there wanted to deliver a warning.
"It looks like some kind of revenge attack, although I am not saying that the Shia people did it."


The theory that the killings were the work of Shi'ite hit men is bolstered by the fact that Imam Omar has long been seen as an enemy of the Shi'ite faith. He is said to have quarreled with the Shi'ite idol, Imam Ali, over who should assume the leadership of the Muslim community, a dispute that led to his being blamed for the death of Ali's wife, Fatima, about 1,500 years ago.

 

[jimmoyer]

The theory that the killings were the work of Shi'ite hit men is bolstered by the fact that Imam Omar has long been seen as an enemy of the Shi'ite faith. He is said to have quarreled with the Shi'ite idol, Imam Ali, over who should assume the leadership of the Muslim community, a dispute that led to his being blamed for the death of Ali's wife, Fatima, about 1,500 years ago.

And thus begins the genocide of any Sunni named
Omar.

Is your name Omar ???

 

[Jay]

Who, me?

 

[jimmoyer]

Oooh yeah, that's definitely an Omar.

Definitely not Shia.

Any other Omars out there ???

 

[jimmoyer]

Check this out all of you Westerner intellectuals.

Some of the Shia have figured out an excellent way to kill a real Sunni.

No Shi-ite will ever have the name of Omar.

But Sunni muslims will.

Only Sunni will don the name of Omar.

There's a reason.

It is in the Muslim split.

It is in their history.

If you don't know why, then read the last paragraph
of the first post of this thread.

I didn't ask any of you if you care, but if you want
to know why, well that's a horse of a different color.

 

[jimmoyer]

Killed for the sake of a name
By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman
(Filed: 02/04/2006)

For police in Baghdad's Al Adil neighbourhood, the 14 corpses looked like the products of just another night's work in Iraq's sectarian war. All were young Sunni men, all had been killed with a bullet to the head and all were found dumped at a tip.

Only when they noticed their identity cards - carefully placed on the victims' chests - did officers realise what else they had in common. All shared the same first name: Omar.


Men lift the coffin of a slain relative outside Yarmouk Hospital
The victims' only crime, it seemed, was to be namesakes of Imam Omar, a prominent historical figure in the Sunni religious tradition. Until recently, it would have been no more a statement of faith than a Christian being called John, Peter or Paul.

But in Iraq's increasingly polarised religious climate, their name alone seems to have been enough to earn them a death sentence - either from Shia extremists bent on avenging sectarian murders by Sunnis, or from foreign terrorists intent on fomenting civil unrest.

Whoever the culprits, the murders marked another appalling low in the random, tit-for-tat violence that threatens to edge the country into a full-scale civil war.

The discovery of the bodies last Sunday came as the Iraqi government disclosed that more than 30,000 people had fled their homes to escape Sunni-Shia violence after February's bombing of the Golden Shrine, a Shia holy site in the city of Samarra.

Morgue officials estimate that up to 1,500 have been killed since then, prompting an exodus of people from mixed Sunni-Shia areas. The violence continued yesterday as gunmen killed six Shias travelling in a minibus north of Baghdad.

The men found on the rubbish dump fitted the pattern exactly - they were all Sunni residents of two predominantly Shia neighbourhoods in the capital, Al Shaab and New Baghdad, said Capt Hussam al Bayaati, of Al Adil police station.



"We think they were kidnapped from these two neighbourhoods and then killed," he said. "When we discovered them on the rubbish dump they all had their IDs placed on their chests.

"They seem to have been targeted because they were called Omar. Some of them had already received messages delivered to their homes telling them to change their names."

The fact that the men were driven across town to be dumped in Al Adil seems to have been no coincidence: the neighbourhood is known across Baghdad as one of the staunchest strongholds of the Sunni insurgency.

It was from here that the American reporter, Jill Carroll, was abducted three months ago before being freed last week, and here that a passing coachload of 20 Shia pilgrims was massacred last month.

Capt al Bayaati said the rubbish tip was close to where the coach was attacked, suggesting that whoever put the bodies there wanted to deliver a warning. "It looks like some kind of revenge attack, although I am not saying that the Shia people did it."

The theory that the killings were the work of Shia hitmen is bolstered by the fact that Imam Omar has long been seen as an enemy of the Shia faith.

He is said to have quarrelled with the Shia idol, Imam Ali, over who should assume the leadership of the Muslim community, a row that led to his being blamed for the death of Ali's wife, Fatima, about 1,500 years ago.

The bodies were taken to Baghdad's Al Yarmouk Hospital, where they were examined by Dr Yasser Ammar. "They were all killed by the same way - a bullet in the head," he said.

Ahmed al Kafaji, a senior member of the Al Dawa movement, a Shia political party, insisted Shia militias were not to blame. "I think it is just the same terrorists who blew up the shrine at Samarra to make a civil war," he said.

But his denials are dismissed by local Sunni politicians, who say Shia militias are now showing the same indiscriminate bloodthirstiness as the Sunni Salafists, the extremist strain of their own faith.

Salman al Jumaili, a spokesman for the Al Tuwafaq (Agreement) Party, said: "This crime was the work of the new Shia Salafists who want to make a civil war. They put the bodies in the same place where 20 Shias were killed, but that was the work of the terrorists, not the Sunni people. We invite all people to stay calm."

In the meantime, other Omars are living in fear. Omar Sittar, 23, a student at Baghdad University, said: "I will make two IDs: one with the name Ali for visiting Shia areas, and one with Omar for when I am at home."


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© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

 

[jimmoyer]

Schools in Iraq
Isam Rasheed Abdul-Rahman, Isam Rasheed Abdul-Rahman



March 24, 2006

Today we write about schools in Iraq, and how occupation affects them.



I tried to get close to teachers, to find out how they work now, and what kind of problems they face in schools at present.



The first teacher I spoke to was Mohammed Akram, 36 years old, who works in Al-Karama primary school. "I’ve been teaching for eight years," he said, "and I regret to say the schools in Iraq have deteriorated. The situation inside the schools became very bad, due to bribery, and there is not enough control from the Iraqi government on schools. Some students don’t respect teachers inside the classroom. It was better before the war because had power to control students."



"Some teachers are sectarian and treat students badly according to name (some names, like Omar, are used mainly by Sunnis, while others, like Abdul Hussain, are mainly use by Shias).

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21871

 

[#juan]

Is Omar Sharrif still around? Omar Bradley died before they could get to him. :roll:

Personally, I don't much like guys called Herman, but I rarely kill them.

 

[jimmoyer]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Display...l/focusoniraq_April87.xml&section=focusoniraq


www.khaleejtimes.com

Khaleej Times
Iraqis hope new name will save them from carnage
13 April 2006



BAGHDAD - Some flee the country. Others buy weapons. But Iraqis lining up at a state registry say the best protection against sectarian violence is a new name.


“I changed my name to Abdullah because it is a neutral name. It could be Sunni or Shia. My life is more precious than my name,” said Omar Sami, an Arab Sunni university student.

In Baghdad, where both communities live side by side and people are often challenged at checkpoints or randomly by armed men, some choose the safest option of adopting neutral names like Ahmed or Mohammad, used by both Shias and Sunnis.

Ayman Al Azzawi, an Arab Sunni taxi driver....
“I’m here to try to change my surname or even to omit it completely from my civil status card,” he said. “I live in Baghdad Al Jadeeda, where many were killed for just being Sunnis or Shias.”

The last names of Iraqis are tribal. So anyone who wants a new name must first get permission from a new tribe and then go through the registry office, a small room overflowing with files.

“Forty Per cent of the people who come here change their names for sectarian reasons,” said the registry clerk, who declined to give his name.

Iraqis say changing names was all but impossible under former President Saddam Hussein, whose pervasive intelligence agencies immediately became suspicious of such requests.

These days it’s much easier. The process of registering a new name, which is then passed along to passport offices and the traffic department, takes about a month.

Iraqis’ concerns about being killed for their sect have deepened since the February bombing of a Shia shrine pushed the country to the brink of an all-out sectarian conflict.

 

[Canadian with a hyphen]

Jimmoyer... i am impressed ..don't ask me why... I just am


rcahelle-