The Reversal in Basra

Basra was once a stronghold for the Shiite militias backed by Iran. Non-Shiites were persecuted, alcohol was banned, women dressing too Western were attacked, and a mini-theocracy had emerged.

Then, al-Maliki took on these militias and the surge happened. Contrast this report with this one. MEMRI’s report is posted in full here:

The absence of censorship over the sale of books, magazines, DVDs and CDs in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, and across Iraq in general, has allowed bookstores to offer their customers all titles.

Recently, secular and even pornographic books are selling at a more rapid pace than the religious Shi’a books published in Iran and Beirut, some of which advocate hatred and violence.

The book by Sheikh ‘Abbas Abd Al-Nur (Egyptian) titled “My Ordeal with the Koran and Allah’s Ordeal in the Koran” which is banned in Cairo, Damascus and most Arab countries is selling in Basra “like ice cream in the summer.” Freedom is unlimited.

The provincial governor has permitted the sale of alcoholic beverages because denying their sale will violate individual freedoms guaranteed under the constitution.

Source: Sotiliraq, December 1, 2009

What’s important to notice is that armed extremists weren’t just defeated–their ideology was. This isn’t just a stunning turn-around in terms of security, but of culture and society.

Word Threats

Hitmen charge $100 a victim as Basra honour killings rise

Fathers and husbands who openly hire assassins on the streets of the city are going unpunished

By Afif Sarhan

Authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have admitted they are powerless to prevent 'honour killings' in the city following a 70 per cent increase in religious murders during the past year.

There has been no improvement in conviction rates for these killings. So far this year, 81 women in the city have been murdered for allegedly bringing shame on their families. Only five people have been convicted. Read more ...

Source: Guardian

Cleaning up of Jewish cemetery in Basra

By Abed Battat

Municipal authorities in the southern city of Basra have mounted a campaign to clean up the Jewish cemetery there.

The cemetery is seen as one of Basra’s ‘cultural landmarks’ and the authorities want to keep it clean and tidy, said Ahmad al-Yasseri who heads the cleaning-up campaign.

There are no Jews left in the city which used to house a sizeable Jewish community of tens of thousands before the creation of Israel in 1948.

They were the finest goldsmiths and the most adventurous traders of Basra, known as the Venice of the Middle East.

The lived in one of the city’s smartest quarters with spacious villas adorned with palm trees and oranges.

Yasseri said in the tumultuous post-Saddam period, 62 houses were built on the cemetery grounds illegally.

“This cemetery is one of the cultural landmarks of Basra and we are determined to remove the illegal dwellings,” he said.

Source: Azzaman
H/T: Gramfan / Gateway Pundit

Iraqi artists and singers flee amid crackdown on forbidden culture

By Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies

Iraqi singers, actors and artists are fleeing the country after dozens have been killed by Islamic radicals determined to eradicate all culture associated with the West.

Cinemas, art galleries, theatres, and concert halls are being destroyed in grenade and mortar attacks in Basra and Baghdad. Read more ...

Source: The Observer

What Happened in Basra

By Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan

On March 24, 2008, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) under Lieutenant General Mohan al-Fireji launched a series of attacks against illegal Shia militias and criminal elements in the city of Basra.

The attack appears to have resulted from an impulsive order by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who had gone down to Basra to see the preparations for a more deliberate operation then being planned. The militias, which included elements of the Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) nominally under the control of Moktada al-Sadr as well as the Special Groups--secret cells organized by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps--were well dug-in and fought back.

Iraqi forces in Basra, supported by American advisers and air support, pressed the attack and sent reinforcements. Special Groups and elements of JAM attacked the ISF throughout Shia Iraq in what appears to have been an attempt to ignite widespread fighting in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Kut, Nasiriya, and Diwaniya. Iraqi forces repulsed these attacks with very little assistance in the area between Baghdad and Basra, and coalition forces worked closely with the ISF to contain the violence in Baghdad. Read more ...

Source: The Weekly Standard

Iraqi PM Vows to Fight Militas in Basra

Mahdi Army fighters stand in Basra, Iraq, Thursday, March 27, 2008. Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki defiantly vowed to keep up the fight against Shiite militias in
Basra Thursday despite protests by tens of thousands of followers of a radical
cleric and deadly clashes across Baghdad and the oil-rich south. (AP Photo)

By Robert H. Reid

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged "no retreat" Thursday in the fight against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as thousands of protesters demanded he resign over the crackdown and extremists fired rockets into the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called Thursday for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mahdi Army militia to halt attacks on the Green Zone or stop fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

In a sign of the deteriorating security, gunmen in Baghdad seized a high-profile government spokesman from his home in a Shiite neighborhood, killing three of his bodyguards and torching his house. In a bid to curb the violence, Iraq's military ordered vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of the capital until Sunday morning.

As Americans and Iraqis scrambled to cope with a newly violent Iraq, the State Department ordered all personnel at the U.S. Embassy not to leave reinforced structures because of continued incoming rocket or mortar fire from suspected Shiite extremists angry over the Basra crackdown. Read more ...

Source: AP