Iraqi liberals losing ground to Islamists
Although liberal and civil Iraqi figures have formed a new alliance to compete in upcoming parliamentary elections, they seemed to have garnered little popular support amid an increasingly sectarian atmosphere.
A group of Iraqi youth started to disseminate posts on social networking sites to promote the Civil Democratic Alliance, which comprises Iraqi civil and liberal figures running in the parliamentary elections on April 30. The majority of the alliance’s members advocate the establishment of a civil state, after political Islam took power in Iraq following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003.
The Civil Democratic Alliance created a page on Facebook to gather the youth, who make up 40% of Iraqi society. The alliance began to spread its goals and political platforms for the elections.
Observers, however, doubt that the alliance will score high in the elections, amid elevated sectarian tensions and the operations conducted by the Iraqi military in Anbar.
Yasser al-Salem, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, one of the prominent parties taking part in the alliance, said, “Competitiveness in the upcoming parliamentary elections will be higher than in any other elections.”
