Iraqi Sunni leaders try to take a stand
Gilbert Achcar has generously sent over his translation into English of an intriguing piece in yesterday's Hayat that gives some great details about the efforts of some Sunni parties in Iraq to isolate and incapacitate the inflammatory extremists in their community like those led by Abu Musaeb al-Zarkawi.
The piece is titled: The Association of Muslim Scholars: We Are Now Waging Two Battles: Against 'the Occupation' and Against 'the Terrorists'; Sunni Clans Take the Initiative of Launching a Campaign to Expel Zarqawi's Followers and 'Foreigners and Intruders'
You can find it here.
It seems like a tough job these Sunni leaders have-- trying to deal with both the Americans (as much as they can do, through political means), and the nothing-left-to-lose extremists, whom they call takfiris.
Huge thanks for sending this, Gilbert!
My own theory about fighting terrorism has always been that the trick to success is to be able to find political ways to persuade the condoners of the terrorists to stop their condoning... You'll find a lot about that in this article.
Obviously, in the case of the extremely violent Sunni extremists in Iraq, the very best-placed people to undertake this campaign are the leaders of the Sunni community itself. But-- and this is a big but-- those leaders also need to be able to win significant satisfaction of thier own legitiimate political demands, if they are to be effective-- or even, to survive...
(The same thing that Israel and the Bushies notably refused to give to Abu Mazen, in Palestine.)
Let's see if the powers-that-be in Iraq can be smarter than the administrators of the Israeli occupation in Palestine...