Written by Arkan Radeef / Translated by Shermeen Yousif
Iraq has experienced the most violent wave in its history to liquidate and attack Iraqi competencies of a secular civic character in Iraq, whose civilization has been perverted by the barbarism of militias and sectarian Shia and Sunni parties that have destroyed everything. When the Iraqi people had green hopes for the fall of the Baath dictatorship, their dreams became a mirage. Since the war’s end, hundreds of talents and scientific abilities have been extinguished by unknown parties since the war’s end. In addition to thousands of scholars fleeing to other countries to save their lives, the movement of scientific life in Iraq has slowed and the wheel of learning has come to a halt. What is happening in Iraq today is a reenactment of the Iranian extremist Islamic experience. Since the accursed Khomeini came to power, he has killed and tortured many Iranian scholars in order to settle scores and spread terror among the Iranian people, as well as to silence any voice that rises above the alleged Wilayat Al-Faqih. Khomeini unleashed the creation of bloodthirsty militias to eliminate free thought. The same thing is repeated in Iraq today by backward religious authorities, sectarian parties, and hateful militias that have allowed the killing, torturing, and kidnapping of scholars, talents, and civil and political activists to spread ignorance, corruption, and injustice in the country.
Talent assassination displacement from Iraq has several goals and motives, including political, national, material, clan, or sectarian ones. In recent days, the Iraqi people have awoken to the assassination of Basra protest icon Reham Yaqoub, a local protest movement activist who has led many women’s marches since 2018. The reason for targeting Yaqoub was that she publicly criticized the corrupted parties, and she was also accused of dealings with the American Consulate in Basra. Hisham Al-Hashemi, an expert on security and armed organizations, was assassinated by Iranian-backed militias. One of the reasons for assassinating Al-Hashemi was his constant criticism of militia activities and his call to deal with some of the Shia militias as terrorist groups. Al-Hashemi urged the Iraqi government to charge these militias with terrorism under Article 4 of Iraqi law, and he warned the government on a regular basis about the dangers of militias controlling the entire country. Today, the killers (state parties and militias) are now known, but the failed and infiltrated Iraqi government wants to delay and conceal the facts, either out of fear of the militias or in support of them.
The wave of assassinations and threats was not limited to political activists, journalists, or brilliant individuals; activists on social media were also targeted. Assassinations are committed by Islamic extremist groups under the guise of repelling infidel Western attacks, as these audacious militias claim. The murders of artists, media stars, and social media users were not motivated by hostility or personal interests between the victim and the killers, nor were they motivated by property robbery. However, it was the foundation of radical and backward thinking, and evidence suggests that Karar Noshi was kidnapped after video recordings of him with his long yellow hair and attractive face were shared on Facebook. For this reason, his body was dismembered before being murdered. Tara Fares, for example, had nothing stolen from her during the killing, as her car, phone, and money were all still there. The situation was also similar to that of Muhammad Al-Mutairi, a young football player who was killed by a knife that tore his intestines and continued to suffer in front of the perpetrator’s camera.
The backwardness and extremism of the parties and militias are what drove them to kill activists on social media. They believe that the model, as Fares, is supported by foreigners to discredit Islamic values in Iraqi society and the consolidation of Western concepts in the minds of Muslim women. As for considering Karar Noshi, they considered him gay, as did Muhammad Al-Mutairi, who was also killed by a militant on charges of homosexuality. As a result, they use an extreme religious purpose to combat the different and the distinctive. Extremist groups have not only terrorized Iraqis by committing a series of crimes against celebrities, but they have also threatened and distorted the image of media professionals and activists by creating fake web pages on social media.
Iraq has turned into a battleground for religious extremists. Religiously motivated killings and assassinations are neither unheard of nor surprising. With the founding of the “Mahdi Army” in the cities of central and southern Iraq by the Sadrist movement’s leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, radical religious influence began to emerge, and the rise of al-Qaeda in the northern and western regions was followed by the formation of other extreme movements such as ISIS, Shia militias, and the Popular Mobilization, all of which sought premeditated retribution on Iraq’s notable figures.
For example, social security is not available in Iraq, and the country has one of the highest rates of organized crime, and bereaved families do not say their sons and daughters were assassinated on religious grounds for fear of causing societal embarrassment as well as fear of the militias. As a result, they attribute the murders and kidnappings to unknown gangs, which comforts security officials who do not want to get involved with Shia militias. The Iraqi government, the Ministry of Interior, security agencies, and investigative committees, as well as their members, are all affiliated with religious extremist parties, making it impossible for the government to apprehend the perpetrators if they are discovered. These parties own and control the militias, and these militias are in charge of carrying out operations known as snake cleansing or beheading.
Whoever murdered Reham and Al-Hashemi, as well as the other activists, journalists, scholars, and talents who came before them, sent a message that the voice of arms is more powerful than any sensible national voice. A criminal or religious extremist armed with a silencer pistol, a rifle, or a hand grenade is more powerful than a scholar, a writer, a poet, an artist, an engineer, a doctor, a journalist, or an activist. The assassinate wants us to throw away our pens, say goodbye to our dreams, squander our liberties, and accept ignorant religious turban-wearers and corrupt political parties as our leaders. These murderers have forgotten or forgotten that whoever rose up in October and gave his life in rebellion against the guardianship that extremists, illiterate people, and turban-wearers wanted to impose on Iraqis, was ready to ignite the revolution against the murderers and corrupt at any time.