Beer and recordings in Basra
by Scoop Shachtman, 13 April 2008
Interesting stuff about Basra, via Mudville Gazette via Instapundit.
After the Iraqi Army set up checkpoints and the militia disappeared from the streets, I decided to start selling alcohol,” Luay Hanna, a 46-year-old liquor store owner, said. His shop was burnt down by fundamentalist militiamen three years ago, and many of his colleagues were butchered.
“Many of the alcohol sellers reopened their shops. We always sell near the Iraqi army checkpoints to be safe - not like before when the militia killed and kidnapped people right in front of the police’s eyes.”
Qaldoon Nuri, who runs a CD shop, was forced to stop selling pop songs for fear of the zealous gunmen four years ago. One of his friends was murdered for refusing to heed the ban. He was forced to sell religious songs, many of them praising al-Sadr, as well as lectures on tenets of the Shiite faith.
“The militia forced us to follow a fanatic Islamic code. They forced us to put up pictures of the imams,” he said. “Now after the militias have been defeated by government forces, we started to put some songs on CD and are looking for what’s new in the arts - what people actually like.”
One of his neighbors, Saleh Muhammad, has been badgered in his phone shop by customers demanding new pop ringtones and pictures of female singers to download. “I think it’s freedom from the fear,” he said.
Sunday 13 April 2008 at 23:52
This link may have been posted already: there seem to be encouraging signs that secularism and anti-clericalism is growing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/middleeast/04youth.html
“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”
Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”
Monday 14 April 2008 at 11:37
Back in 2004, I remember being on a checkpoint (VCP) searching vehicles moving from Az Zubayr into Basra proper. We stopped one car, and I was the designated searcher. I noticed that the driver and passenger (both male) were behaving in a shifty manner, and told my mate to keep an eye on them while I went through the car.
I found an object wrapped up in cloth, and looked at the two Iraqis, who were starting to look really nervous. I unwrapped it, only to find that it was whisky - very cheap, very skanky, and when I opened the top (to check it wasn’t a Molotov) I thought it was a long way from Glennfiddich.
I put the bottle back in its place, and the two Iraqis started to relax and smile. Once I completed the search (nothing found) I thanked them and said they were free to go.
I couldn’t help wondering what the Madhi Army would have done to those guys if they had been running the checkpoint.