THE Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has addressed an open message to the Iraqi people on the fourth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq, which fell last Tuesday, 19 March 2007.
The message reads: ‘This is the fourth anniversary of the Anglo-American occupation.
‘Our country is going from bad to worse. So far, we have lost over 800,000 of our people. We have been under oppression for a long time in terms of killing and detention.
‘Our men and women, old and young, and even our children, have not been spared this iniquity.
‘Over 70 per cent of our country’s infrastructure has been destroyed. We no longer have services. In winter we die of cold and in summer we perish from oppressive heat. We collect twigs to make fire and cook our food. We are thirsty despite our huge water resources and we drink polluted water and become ill.
‘Millions of our people have emigrated.
‘Half of them are immigrants in their own homeland.
‘They have left their homes and have been living in tents or with others, suffering embarrassment and complaining to Almighty God about their bad conditions.
‘The other half emigrated to foreign countries where they suffer from estrangement and hardships.
‘We are not poor. Our country is rich but it is being looted today.
‘Our country has become the worst in the world in terms of administrative corruption, by the admission of specialised world organisations. The far and near testify to this. Yet, the occupier continues to lie, shamelessly raising his voice to say: “I have brought freedom to you and saved you from oppression”.
‘Yes, they brought us the freedom of the jungle.
‘Today, murderers in Iraq are free. There are murderers from the occupation forces and intelligence services and their criminal gangs.
‘They are killing and looting without accountability or questioning. The government security services, which the occupiers appointed, are also doing the same without accountability.
‘This is the freedom that they brought us. People have started to long for the oppression that they claimed they had freed us from because the new oppression that they have been subjected to has exceeded all forms of oppression anywhere in the world.
‘O esteemed Iraqis, we realise the size of the suffering that we are going through but this is what occupation does.
‘It practices destruction, killing, and bloodshed. In all world countries whenever the people came under occupation their option was to resist.
‘Today, we the sons of this homeland, have no other choice in facing this occupation except to resist and destroy occupation projects and teach it an unforgettable lesson; namely, that peoples cannot be conquered and the military machine is nothing compared to the will of the people who want to realise their freedom, especially the proud Muslim people of Iraq.
‘The history of the Iraqi people testifies that they are splendid people who never tolerated ignominy or accepted humiliation.
‘Gentlemen, Almighty God has endowed us with a blessed resistance, created by our people and sponsored by almighty God.
‘This resistance has made the occupiers taste bitter defeat and forced them to abandon many of their aims and ambitions. They are now in their worst condition.
‘They are under pressure from their people and politicians to leave this impasse unconditionally after the dreams that they had about the results of their invasion.
‘All of this has taken place thanks to God and to your sincere sons, the unknown soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of your freedom and for restoring security, safety, and your country’s resources.
‘These pious sons always need your backing and support to finish the task that God has honoured them with. God has promised them immortality in paradise, and that he will be satisfied with their work
‘O esteemed brothers, the occupation and its agents have spent billions of dollars in their attempts to tarnish the image of your sons in your eyes and to make their chaste resistance appear as acts of murder and terrorism.
‘Sometimes the occupation and its agents implement operations to kill innocent people and then their media claim that these were the doing of the resistance.
‘Sometimes, and after great efforts, they are able to infiltrate a group or another working within the opposition to the occupation and this group would carry out operations that serve their purpose.
‘In all cases, we would like to remind you of a statement cited by senior US intelligence officers who appeared on a programme transmitted by one of the Arab space channel television stations more than once and was called: “The Secret Wars of the CIA.”
‘These officers themselves said: “During the Vietnam war, we were ordered to kill women, children, and businessmen to send terror into the hearts of the people.”
That is the truth. Therefore, we should not fall in the trap of the occupiers and stop our indignation against them and accept their presence because that is what they want because they spent huge amounts of money to reach this objective.
‘Yet, we advise our resisting sons, and we have great trust in them, to unify their ranks and not to allow differences to start among them.
‘We advise them to direct their fire at the occupier, the first enemy of the country and the people, and to agree on a single programme that is realistic and which adheres to the principles of Islamic shari’ah.
‘They must agree to serve the rights of all true Iraqis from all components and sections of the people in order to prevent the partition of the country and the looting of its wealth as soon as they can.
‘Esteemed and beloved brothers, today we are suffering from many problems. Apart from the problems posed by the occupation and its collaborators – problems which we always talk about – there are problems posed by the politicians who agreed to join the political project of the forces of occupation and claimed that they did that in order to support the oppressed Iraqi people and alleviate their suffering.
‘These did not offer anything worth mentioning, except to save the US Administration from embarrassment in front of the world and to work for promoting its projects.
‘Whenever criticism is directed at him, the US President defends himself by saying that Iraq is witnessing a new phase where there is an elected government, parliament, and a state with institutions.
‘We will not bring back bad memories and remind you of the election, the foreign domination of the election process, and the practices of the occupation and its collaborators from the parties and the militias that determined the results of these elections.
‘You perfectly know the details and the developments of the process. However, we just want to remind you of the bad performance of these politicians and parliamentarians.
‘On the government level, it can be said that during the rule of these successive governments, the Iraqis lost tens of thousand of dead and missing at the hands of the government’s security forces – national guardsmen, police, or militias belonging to them.
‘They lost sincere men of religion, distinguished politicians, military commanders, public figures, tribal chiefs, and doctors and engineers and other distinguished men of knowledge in various specialisations.
‘So many are languishing in their jails. Each side has its own jail where people are being heavily tortured.
‘The security services of these governments and the militias that belong to them have carried out methods of torture that the devil himself would not have thought of, such as drilling holes into the victim’s body, using an iron to burn his flesh, dropping him in tubs filled with acid, nailing his hands to the wall, or crushing his head between masses of iron, in addition to the crimes of rape that were perpetrated against women and men, young and old, without any moral considerations that normal humans should have.
‘During the rule of these governments, the Iraqis were exposed to sectarian incitement, which was planned with extreme devilish cunning, compulsory displacement, the spreading of drugs and the mafia gang, trade in children, and other numerous atrocities.
‘Recently, they invented the so-called security plan, which led to the tyrannical killing or arrest of thousands of innocent people. The sectarians realised goals through this security plan that they had not been able to realise without it.
‘As for the parliament, it has been silent on all these crimes, as if this is of no concern to it. The entire parliament, with a few exceptions, are working to realise aims that have absolutely nothing to do with national interests. Instead of working to improve your living conditions, which have worsened during their parliamentary term, and instead of engaging in improving security, which has collapsed further and further, the members of this parliament devoted their efforts to serving the projects of the occupiers.
‘They passed the constitution as the occupiers wanted it and in accordance with the basic provisions that the occupiers themselves wrote.
‘They helped the occupiers pass the bill of the federation that weakens the country in a way that helps them realise their aim of controlling this parliament.
‘Today, they want this parliament to pass the Oil and Gas Law that the occupiers drafted, a law which will restore the wealth of the country to the monopoly of their companies.
‘Now what will they do? We wish that they stand against the projects of the occupiers for once and preserve the wealth of our generations, the backbone of Iraq’s power, and the resources of the future of the Iraqis.
‘Esteemed brothers we are aware that the conditions in the battlefield on our land will decide all these issues and other matters.
‘Either the occupiers will triumph and conquer the will of the people, and then implement all their projects regardless of the stand of the politicians and the parliament, or the people will triumph and their brave sons will take control.
‘In that case, then this law and other laws will have no value even if the politicians and the parliament members approve it unanimously.
‘When the occupiers leave Iraq, defeated and humiliated, all their projects, laws, and even men and collaborators will leave with them. However, what worries us is that some Iraqis, who claim that they are the sons of this homeland, are backing the occupiers of their homeland and promoting the occupation’s projects which would rob them of their resources and wealth.
‘Do these collaborators not fear the day of judgment when they stand in front of Almighty God in order to account for what they conceded in terms of their great wealth in the interest of God’s enemies? Are they not afraid that the people might question them about this?
‘Respected brothers, we are at the doors of the great victory. The great Iraqis have made great sacrifices for the sake of this victory. Today, world politicians are unanimous that the US project in Iraq has failed.
‘Therefore, let us preserve this achievement, with some patience and defiance. Let us guard against saving the occupier as he breathes his last by extending support that might rekindle his hope to remain in Iraq.
‘The greatest backing that we can extend to the enemy is to abandon our support for our resistance, allow this or that side to weaken it, or plunge it into internal troubles that prevent it from realising its sublime aim.
‘We pray to God to grant us a decisive victory and bring humiliation on our enemies. . . .’
