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Iraqis blame US and UK for rise in extremism

BAGHDAD: Iraqis, who face suicide bombings on a daily basis, on Friday condemned the terrorist attacks in London saying they go against Islamic teachings, but many also blamed US and British policies for the rise in extremism worldwide.

“(US President George W) Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair say Iraq is the battleground in the fight against terrorism, and they say they need to fight here to stop violence from spreading to their own homes,” said Soad Mohammed, a 40-year-old teacher in a Sunni district of Baghdad.

“But it’s precisely because of what they’re doing in Iraq that they now face violence at home,” she said.

“They are reaping the fruit of what they sowed,” she added.

Khaled Yassin, a 30-year-old taxi driver, said: “Yesterday I was amazed when I got home from work to hear about bombings at the top of the news which, for once, weren’t in Baghdad,” adding that he even joked with his wife that the terrorists had moved to London because the day had been relatively quiet in the Iraqi capital.

Attacks in Baghdad currently average about 20 a day, including both bombings and shootings, while car bombs average eight a week, down 50 percent from last month, according to a senior US military officer. For Karrar Mohsen, 33, shopping in the Shiite Al-Shuala district of town, the London attacks prove that if Westerners “think they can escape terrorism, they are very much mistaken,” he said.

“Seeing innocent people on their way to work being killed makes me sad,” but “they are now drinking from the same bitter cup as we,” he said.

“It’s US and British policy towards the Arab world and towards Iraq which is to blame for the attack in London,” said Mustafa Mohammed, 45, selling furniture in the Sunni district of Al-Adhamiyah. “If you live in a glass house you shouldn’t be throwing stones,” he added. “The West must alter its policies or the whole world will be engulfed in violence,” said Nabil Mohammed, a professor of international relations at Baghdad university.

“In Iraq people have been subject to attacks for over two years all because of the occupation of the country” by foreign forces, he added.

Speaking in the southern city of Basra, Hassan Fadhel, a 35-year-old railway employee, said terrorists in London aimed to sully the image of Islam.

“They are targeting Islam,” he said, adding that such attacks should be condemned “whether they happen in London, Basra or anywhere else in the world”.

“But at the same time, I also blame America and Bush because we must not forget that Bush supported (Osama) bin Laden,” leader of the Al-Qaeda extremist network during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he added.

On Thursday, in the wake of the deadly explosions in London’s public transportation system, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani said this offered proof that “what is happening in Iraq can happen in any country”. “I’m telling my Arab brothers that terrorism today in Iraq will tomorrow affect other Arab countries, as has already happened in Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” he warned. afp

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