"Watanjiya"

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Sheikh Mustafa Al-Ansari asked us to "be ashamed" of ourselves, and before we could ask the Sheikh why, he answered: How do you expect to hold the Gulf Championship in Iraq, while Shiites in Gulf countries are being slaughtered, imprisoned, and chased in the streets? The Sheikh, known for his penchant for making "striking" statements, once told us that Iraq does not exist on the map of the world and that it is an artificial entity, then he returned to threaten the government if it dared to establish economic relations with the Americans. Amid the Sheikh's enthusiasm and his statements urging us to be ashamed of ourselves, he failed to search on Google, where he would find a surprise waiting for him: a Gulf state the size of Saudi Arabia has placed Engineer Amin Nasser, who is from the city of Qatif and belongs to the Shiite sect that Sheikh Al-Ansari mourns, at the top of the largest oil institution in the world, namely "Aramco." Every day we see some Sheikhs speaking in a decisive, conclusive, and affirming manner about the fates of Iraqis. Of course, I am not an expert in the intentions of Sheikh Mustafa Al-Ansari, but I have read in the biography of Sheikh Muhammad Rida Al-Shabibi, a revered scholar, that he never uttered a sectarian word in the face of those who politically disagreed with him, and that the scholar Sayyid Hibat al-Din al-Shahrastani enriched this country with a magazine called "Science," and al-Shahrastani was a man of knowledge, science, and politics, surrounded by prominent figures from all sects and orientations in his magazine. However, some of the Sheikhs of this era, from both Sunni and Shiite branches, are loyal to an upbringing that has made them cogs in the machinery of sectarianism, as they all see those who differ from them as a type of sin that must be fought. Many of our officials and some preachers believe that the land of the two rivers they currently govern was living in the age of ignorance, and that God has destined men to bring it back to the right path, and therefore it is not important to provide development, prosperity, education, and health for the people, as these are transient things that should not occupy our attention. Our mission today is a sacred one: to defeat all forces calling for the establishment of a civil state. Did Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani not once declare that they came to defeat civilians and secularists, and that they triumphed over them? Some appear before us speaking about injustice and the people's right to security and welfare, but in the end, they turn into contractors distributing gifts, donations, and contracts to relatives, friends, and loved ones. Regis Debray writes in his book "The Thinker Facing the Tribes" that: "People are well aware that opportunistic political discourse leans on the virtue of forgetfulness that characterizes humans," so the truth is that forgetfulness has forgiven many of our officials for their crimes, which were classified as unintentional mistakes. Gentlemen: How long will we continue to listen to politicians and preachers who believe that Iraq is a marginal country and that its history is artificial, and that we must eliminate the term homeland from our vocabulary so that they do not call us "nationalists"?