Soccer Dad

Islamic brotherhood week

Have you noticed that there's been a growing intolerance in the Islamic world?

It's not always healthy to give someone an unapproved haircut.

Consider the barbers of Baghdad. Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite Muslim extremists have imposed their own sets of rules for the cutting of hair. In recent months, barbers have been killed, threatened or forced to close their shops after being accused of giving haircuts that were considered un-Islamic or too Western.

Nor is it a good idea to belong to the wrong religion or the wrong sect.

"It is like Russian roulette," said Omar al-Azzawi, 33, a tall, broad-shouldered Sunni computer technician, who curled his fingers into the shape of a gun and pressed it against his temple. "I like my country, I like my people. But these days things are really different. To be in Iraq is to tempt fate."

Azzawi said Shiite militiamen abducted his aunt at a checkpoint in July in Baghdad's Shula neighborhood. Three days later, police found her body dumped on a street. Since then, Azzawi has taken measures to protect himself.

From his brown wallet, he pulled out a fake press credential from an Arabic-language newspaper. It cost him $35. On the red and white badge, Omar, a common Sunni name, became Amar, a common Shiite name.

Whenever he enters a Shiite neighborhood, Azzawi slips on a large silver ring worn by many Shiites, especially those considered to be descendants of Muhammad. He also carries a torba , a round piece of clay Shiites use to place their foreheads upon when they bow in prayer.

At work, Azzawi said, he often surfs Web sites to learn more about Shiites and their practices. For instance, he's been learning to recite the 12 imams of the Shiites, in perfect succession. He's heard that Shiite militiamen at checkpoints often use this as a test.

But it's good to know that in these times of extreme divisiveness some things bring people together.

Sayed's new step across the dividing line between the two main sects of Islam had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the polarizing state of political affairs in the Middle East and the world, he said: The white-collar worker from Aleppo was seized with a heartfelt desire to pay homage to Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, whose Shiite militia has been seen by many Muslims around the world as having humiliated both the Israeli military and its U.S. ally in Lebanon this summer.

"I'm Sunni, but I belong to Hasan Nasrallah," the gray-haired Sayed, smiling slightly, said that evening over tea as he and older Sunni and Shiite men, wearing a mix of Western clothes and Arab robes and headdresses, lounged on cushions in a Damascus meeting hall. Damascus, like the rest of the Islamic world, was in the second week of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. The city's people were gripped in the insomniac rhythm of fasting by day and gathering by night for languid hours of meals, water pipes and conversation.

How heartwarming. Hatred of Israel and hatred of the West. That's what unifying Muslims.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 9, 2006 1:03 PM