Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim: The Events that Followed the Liberation of Tikrit Were Planned in Advance and the Popular Crowd is an Essential Player in Iraq’s Defense Strategy
Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, affirmed that the popular crowd is an essential player in Iraq’s defense strategy, warning against insinuated attempts to distort the image of the crowd and the media’s response to some mistakes and transgressions if any. His eminence considered that what happened in Tikrit has made clear the theory of the single country where no difference between Shia and Sunni blood or between Shia and Sunni land, indicating that mistakes and transgressions do not represent the army, the popular, the popular crowd, the noble tribes and their values and ethics, but are made by tucked and deviant elements. He explained that the events that followed the liberation of Tikrit were planned in advance, describing the burning of some houses and stores and the creation of chaos as a destructive culture whose owners are well known. His eminence recalled the invasion of Kuwait and the blessed 1991 uprisings (Sha’aban intifada), and what happened in Baghdad the night the dictator was toppled when the popular crowd wasn’t born yet. He mentioned that arsonists master vandalism, distortion, burning cities and robbing private and public property and the Farhud. His eminence considered that the contribution of some media channels pretending impartiality in calling the popular crowd a militia is a continuation of the distortion process and an attempt to fit the popular crowd into the category of groups carrying weapons outside the context of the state, while the Iraqi government declares that the crowd’s leader is the general commander of the Iraqi armed forces and the legitimate Iraqi Prime Minister. He also expressed his regret for seeing the attempts of some to consider that the popular crowd is the problem, not the terrorism of ISIS, while we consider it a significant part of the solution to end and vanquish terrorism. He assured that the distortion attempts will eventually be unveiled unmasking those responsible for it.
This came at the weekly cultural forum held at his eminence’s office on Wednesday, 15/4/2015.
Al Shuhadaa Institution is for All the Martyrs of Iraq in the Past, Present and Future
His eminence called to make Al Shuhadaa institution for all the martyrs of Iraq in the past, present and future, urging the parliament to avoid double standards and to work with the spirit of a unified Iraq with all its sacrifices and eras. He pointed out that it is not right or logical to have a martyrs’ institution only dedicated to the martyrs of the former regime, wondering: What about the martyrs of the terrorist attacks, of the popular crowd and of the other security forces? Are we now at a time when martyrdom is divided on different institutions?! His eminence added that it is not right to limit the work of Al Shuhadaa institution to the previous phase, nor logical to establish other martyrs’ institutions, increase bureaucracy and complicate things. Furthermore, he called to include the martyrs of Speicher and of the terrorist attacks, counting those who died for the sake of voting on the constitution, and the martyrs of the popular crowd and the security forces in the institution’s work program. He also insisted on making the institution for all the martyrs of Iraq at all times, based on the belief in one Iraq and in one Iraqi martyr.
The Responsibility of the Media is to Raise Awareness not Encourage Chaos
His eminence called on the governor of Basra to cede his right and drop the lawsuit filed against one journalist, explaining that the Martyr of the Niche movement does not prefer to prosecute journalists even if they committed a mistake against it, adding that the movement holds a project and a message and has to bare the price of this project. He addressed the journalists telling them to set an example in action and reaction and to choose the right, civilized means to the express rejection, protestation or angry, wondering what message the journalists and the civil, social and political activists would convey when they use repulsive, unsuitable expressions, attack and harm the reputation of officials in public and utter hatred-inciting words. He said he is against the idea of posting photos for officials in the streets, because according to him, it is the performance and the success that must speak loud, but it would have been more appropriate to choose more civilized, more mature and more conscious means to express opinions because the duty of the journalists is to create awareness, not to trigger chaos. Moreover, he considered the media as a responsibility, and not only one of the means of spreading rumors, resorting to the miscarriage policy, and defaming, and that building the media credibility is a big responsibility, affirming that he follows what the media say. Here he said he was sorry to know that a key medium has been spreading rumors, publishing fabricated images and launching calls before making sure of the content of the materials they publish. His Eminence added, “when the presenter of a service political program addresses a call to Ammar al-Hakim saying to him, “where are your responsibilities towards your men?”, Ammar al-Hakim hears the call and issues orders to follow up the matter and to open an investigation, but when the call is made upon fabricated images and information aimed at miscarriage and the political conflicts are unfortunately behind such matter, we will doubt the reliability of this or that channel because its work team didn’t thoroughly examine the material they were presenting”, hoping that the independent media be more independent and credible.
Calling on the Officials to Adopt the Dialogue and Deliberation Style between the Administrative Officials and the Citizens
His Eminence requested the Minister of Transport to hold a meeting with the customs clearance companies and to listen to their problems and viewpoints, considering the communication between officials and citizens as very important, especially as far as a law or a procedure that concerns the relations between both parties is involved, calling on the officials to adopt the dialogue and deliberation style between the administrative officials and the beneficiary citizens before taking any procedural step; the step may be correct but unclear or ambiguous, and with dialogue, it becomes complete and useful.
Cancelling the Exemption Will Turn the Education Process into a Monotone One and Kills Distinction
Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim stressed the urgent need to push the students to be distinctive and to give them sufficient space to compete for distinction, describing their exemption as something that narrows such space and turns the education process into a monotone one where all are equal with no incentive that motivates the student to make more efforts all the year since he/she is certain that all the results will be similar and that all the students will be in the same exam room, and their only concern would be to only pass the exams and cross the stages, without being distinct, reminding that the distinction is an Islamic human concept and the mistakes would not be corrected by cancelling the right idea. He also warned that such method doesn’t build the education process which is the foundation of the future society, considering the exemption as the reward of the distinctive ones, unlike success, kindly requesting the ministry of education to reconsider such procedure and set it right, and to keep the distinction space because it fosters the excellence spirit with the students.
The Burning by Holder of Diplomas of their Theses Are a Worrisome Message We Warn Against
His Eminence expressed his pain at seeing the holders of postgraduate degrees burning their diplomas and study papers because it is not easy for a person to burn the most valuable production he has in this life, which is the scientific production. His Eminence wondered what is going on, and about the decrease in the degradation situation!? Did we become unable to absorb a few hundred of high studies graduates in doctoral and master’s degrees to make them burn their degrees publicly and tear their graduation researches, asking the government to necessarily pay attention to this disturbing message, and calling on them to find solutions and spread hope and faith in the future.
Congratulating Yazidis on their New Year
His Eminence congratulated the Yazidis on the occasion of their new year, wishing them happiness, success and bliss and that displaced people return their regions and cities. He also hoped that abducted Yazidi women be released from their suffering, return to their families and live in their country with dignity and pride.
Cleanness, the Base of Refined Taste and Culture of Consumption Is Important for Society Evolution
The head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq has called for an awareness campaign for a clean community, urging the television and radio channels, newspapers and civil society organizations from different orientations to fulfill their duty in educating the community of the importance of cleanness and making them fully aware on the environmental scale, stressing that the community is able to make their streets and cities cleaner and more beautiful by following simple steps; and therefore help the government raising the level of the services it provides, so the citizens will turn from critics to active participants. His Eminence recalled that cleanness is part of faith and a main factor in bringing psychological and moral comfort to communities. It also make people more peaceful and quiet, he added, and raises the level of public taste, expressing regret for the mess in the exhibited articles that surpass the areas specified for pedestrians. In addition to the trash thrown by shops in front of their facades, stressing the need to the culture of consumption in food, water and electricity, and warning of the failure of regularity in the production of electricity and water for a long term in the absence of the culture of consumption. His Eminence noted that the average of water and electricity consumed by Iraqis surpasses neighboring countries, although electricity and water supplies in Iraq are irregular, calling on the community to fulfill their duty and change their consumption patterns as cleanness is the base of refined taste and conscious community.
The Middle East Is a Common Area of Influence that Can’t Be Burned
His Eminence described the Middle East as a fire ball that rolls towards the unknown. The battles are on all fronts and countries and there are new countries that may enter the club of political instability, adding that no mature initiative was made to stop Yemen crisis, reiterating that a peaceful solution to the problems is the only and certain solution that does good to the region’s peoples, as confirmed by the recent decision of the UN Security Council. His Eminence noted that we cannot impose military solutions on a region with the importance of the Middle East, recalling the experience of large countries for military solutions, but they failed and responded to the logic of understanding and dialogue in the end. He declared that the region is a common area of influence and interfering interests, it is as well the convergence of international trade points that are not allowed to burn or to enter the unknown, expressing worry that some might be involved in the Yemeni crisis, pointing out that the Middle East will not be settled unless all the region’s countries are satisfied that they have common security and common geopolitical destiny in addition to the respect of the tracts of influence which is the best and only solution.
