Issawi Crisis Signals More Iraqi Sectarian Violence
After Iraqi Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi’s bodyguard was arrested, sectarian tensions have resurfaced, threatening the Iraqi political scene, writes Ali Abdel Sadah.
When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s security personnel arrested the bodyguard of the prominent Sunni political leader and Minister of Finance Rafi al-Issawi, sectarian rhetoric was quick to return to the surface, and in its wake emerged conflicting interpretations of the Iraqi political scene. To Iraqis, the arrest of and repeated accusations against prominent members of the al-Iraqiya List — led by Ayad Allawi — is reminiscent of the sectarian fighting of 2005 and 2007.
Is Iraq preparing to descend into a new cycle of sectarian violence?
In 2003, omens began appearing to Iraqi Sunnis portending that their golden era had come to an end. Not least of these was when Sunni army officers were discharged by order of the US commander in Iraq, Paul Bremer, and were later prosecuted by Iraqi courts as part of the de-Baathification process.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraq began to gravitate toward the Lebanese model, which bases its democratic foundation on representation along sectarian and ethnic delineations.
