a look at the intellectual, cultural and legal bases of the political and social project of blacks...

7/31/2019 A Look at the Intellectual, Cultural and Legal Bases of the Political and Social Project of Blacks in Iraq

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Ansar Al-Hureya Humanity Association

A Look at the Intellectual, Cultural and Legal Bases of

the Political and Social Project of Blacks in Iraq

Arabic literature and written works have failed to include a

product of scientific value or intellectual content on the

suffering of blacks in Iraq, the social and economic

oppression they suffered, the terrible conditions they lived

in, and the grievances that still cast their dark shadows on

their living conditions. Iraqi writers, except Dr. Faisal al-

Samir, refrained from writing on the issue. Dr. al-Samir wrote

a book entitled The Revolution of the Negros in which he

dealt with the ordeal of blacks through the Umayyad and

Abbasid Eras and the reasons that stood behind their rise

against the Abbasid Caliphate in a mass revolution, as

described by some writers who wrote on Muhammad bin Ali,or The Companion of Negros as he is called. Our writers in

general failed to look into this issue and they neglected it

despite its harshness and heavy impact on these people who

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are still called slaves in an age that witnessed the collapse

of the strongest edifices of slavery in the world.

I dont intend to review here the reasons that stood behind

not bringing forth the issue of blacks and the disastrous

conditions they suffered throughout the history and not

presenting it as a subject for social and political research

and investigation. This is an issue we might deal with in

another paper. What is important here is to bring this issue

under consideration raising its many facets that have never

been the subjects of the interest intellectuals nor politicians

in a country called The Cradle of Civilizations.

Writing about blacks in Iraq is a historical review of pains,

troubles, grievances and many pictures of the mans

oppression of his brother and his use and exploitation of him

the way he uses an inanimate tool or an animal. So we will

not deal with the ordeals these people suffered because of

their colour since Dr. al-Samir has extensively dealt with the

issue in his book mentioned above. What interests me and

interests a large group of my fellows today is to remind the

others who have not yet paid heed to the rights we have

similar to those enjoyed by the minorities and communities

of the Iraqi society, those minorities who at least gained

some of their rights or took a promise to meet their

demands, consider them or understand them. I am also

concerned here in reviewing the theoretical foundation of

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the idea of letting blacks raise their voice demanding their

consideration as a constituent of the Iraqi community calling

at the same time for their inclusion with whatever the other

have gained of different privileges.

First of all, I say that the most outstanding of these

difficulties is the social discrimination they collectively face

which has been very detrimental to their social value and

instrumental in alienating their civil rights.

This issue, despite not being projected to the public in a way

that renders it a tangible issue by all, still exists and

negatively influences the communal spirit of this group of

people. This alone gives them the right to spare no efforts in

fighting and eliminating this discrimination as a negative

thing deep-rooted in history, i.e. the days when blacks were

displayed in the markets just like any cheep merchandise

with its own tradesmen who took their profession trading

with human dignity without observing any rights for these

people. All this backed by superstitions, myths and obsolete

notions lacking objectivity and the feeling of the right of

each man to live free as he was created.

Some might object by saying that slavery markets did not

trade in blacks only since there were many races. Even

women who gave birth to some of the outstanding figures of

history may have been displayed on slavery markets just like

the sons of the black race. Though I dont find this argument

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illogical, I believe that it will eventually find itself obliged to

accept the premises on which we built our first idea: this

issue has historic roots that have had and still has influence

on the mindset of human communities and their relations

with this group or that. And if we follow the influence of

slavery markets on the social status of women and their

relations to men, we will find that the values and ideas that

governed those markets are still casting their shadows on

the relation between men and women to the extent that

annihilate the humanity of women, rendering them intogoods similar to other goods without their awareness of the

negative influences this relation reflects on their status as

human beings on their own.

We can say that the dowry paid by men to women is a

residue of trading with the other sex on slavery markets. And

it seems that the Prophet of God (PBUH) was aware of the

social implications of exaggerating in the value of dowry

taken from men when he said: Find yourself even a ring of

iron to give as dowry. He wanted to draw our attention to

the idea that the less a womans dowry is, the higher her

honour and the more valuable her humanity. The opposite is

true when a woman becomes like any merchandise or goodstraded by people.

Slavery markets and their transactions have failed any

notion of the notions of liberty in the mind of a woman. Calls

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that set her free and broke some of her shackles have not

come but from free writers who were early aware of the

serious impacts of this unbalanced relation between men

and women on the humanity of human society with its two

halves.

Therefore, the great German thinker Nietzsche says:

Women are only liberated by those who are fully liberated.

The existence of men lacking conceptual and practical

freedom cannot help in liberating women of the shackles

they still suffer.

This is also true for the effect of social relations not

established on fair human foundations on the conditions of

those who have thought, and still think, that they are slaves.

I might find it forbidden to go into this issue which would

lead me to carry my hammer to bring down a lot of idols still

being worshiped by our society, idols enjoying their sanctity

and place unsusceptible to change before the advent of that

very far era when believe in the freedom of thinking

becomes a sacred religion for the society. So I will just point

to the effect of the continuation of some relations in

consolidating certain values long abandoned by liberated

peoples of the world, stressing that social and political

communities established on the basis of civilized awareness

of their historical suffering are the most capable of ensuring

a bright future for the country. True democracies were not

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built on any other basis than the feeling of persecution

practiced by political, social and intellectual systems on

humans. Voltaire, who was one of the enlightenment

philosophers who set the foundations for French democracy,

say: Everything in this universe is persecuting me, even the

things not yet born. Voltaire here points at the reality of the

existence of humans as a creature suffering and will

continuously suffer like this as far as they are governed by

relations formed prior to their existence and as far as there

are institutions forcing them to abide by these relations andact accordingly. Such awareness liberate humans at least

intellectually from the inevitable course of history that found

its theoretical peak in the ideas of Hegel the idealist and the

economic theory of Carl Marx and establish the

infrastructure of the democratic system which believes in

the absolute freedom of humans in selecting the type of

political system they opt for.

From here we can say that the rise of the black jinni out of

the bottle of its awareness of its ordeal in history will be a

new sign among the sings of development of the Iraqi

society and will be at the same time a strong condemnation

and practical too of all forms of political maneuvers ondemocracy as a way of thinking, course of action and form of

attitude. Empowering this component to achieve its aspired

liberation will be a daunting test for the credibility of all

democratic visions and ideas promulgated by others. And

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this will also apply to the attainment of Iraqi women of their

goal in acquiring their human status in its full form which

would be another proof for the realization of the credibility of

democratic political thinking in Iraq.

From here we will also realize that our call is not a racist call

and it does not stand on a racist consideration. Blacks do not

represent one race much more than they express their

attitude as partners in one unified suffering and destiny.

Throughout the political and social history of Iraq, blacks

were slaves and the notion of slavery has been inevitably

linked to the colour black. This extremely backward notion

has been supported by categorically baseless myths, ideas

and novels.

Blacks has been genealogically attributed to their ancestor

Ham, one of the sons of Noah, whose father invoked Allah

against him for his misbehavior and laughing at his father

while lying stark naked and over-drunk, according to the

Jewish myth. It seems that the laymen have been

communicating this awkward episode as an unrefutable

truth thus building into their heads the theory they uphold

today on the religious basis for ostracizing blacks and

downgrading them to the lowest grades of inferiority as a

form of punishment for what their ancestor did to his

drunken father.

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The echoes of this fabricated episode have not stopped at

certain limits but rather used as a basis for further influential

episodes one of which is the fallacy on the mean organic

composition of blacks, which lead some to believe in the

inferiority of blacks and their biological subordination to

whites. So often, some writers try to attribute to the peoples

who took the lead in the Americas, after their discovery and

bringing large numbers of blacks through piracy and other

means, some of what we think as their own ideas, such as

the idea that squalid blood runs through the veins of blacksand it is other than the blood that runs through the veins of

the whites. People forget that these ideas are not new but

belong to ancient times. These ideas are nowhere vividly

depicted than in the verse of the poet Al-Mutanabbi in which

he satirized Kafoor:

Dont buy a slave but with a rod

slaves are defile and sour

Who would teach the negro black a virtue

his white people or his hunter

ancestors?

This verse full of racist visions and ideas, still taught at Iraqi

schools as a masterpiece of poetry and typical satire, is a

clear and true expression of the attitude of the society

towards this component. Blacks are slaves by birth,

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according to Al-Mutanabbi, the poet and wise man. A critic

once described him, Abi Tammam and Al-Buhtori as: The

poet is Al-Buhtori. Al-Mutanabbi and Abi Tammam are wise

men. So when we agree with this critic who distinguished Al-

Mutannabi as a wise man, we find that our critic has ignored

such a harsh judgment rendered by the wise poet on blacks

describing them as defile and sour, telling us that we will

never be able to deal with them unless we lash their backs

with rods.

This unfair, even extremely racist, idea hides the reality of

what the society has held and taken as for granted and

refrained from debating it. A proof of this came from the

critic who failed to re-consider the idea and outline it as one

of the defects of the wisdom or literary message of Al-

Mutanabbi.

Each man of letter has a message. This message should

have its cultural influences based on developed awareness.

But if the poet re-shapes common ideas in carefully worded

linguistic expressions, the literary work will be degraded and

suffer from blatant defects. Though no one could demand Al-

Mutanabbi or others of his contemporaries to adopt truly

liberated ideas, free of the shackles of common concepts at

that time, we cannot now relieve these poets, who best

represented the culture of their time, of their responsibility

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in establishing better developed cultural values. Or else,

what is the value of their works other than that?

We can say that Islam, as an intellectual message, has

paved the way for the birth of such intellectual attitudes. We

find evidence for that in many sayings some of which

attributed to the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

and some attributed to the wise caliphs, of which are the

second caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab and the Imam Ali bin Abi

Talib, (may Allah be pleased with them). The second caliph

said: Since when you enslaved people who were born

free?. As for Imam Ali, it is said that a white woman

objected to equalizing her with a black women. The Imam

took two handfuls of sand in his palms and said: I swear to

Allah I dont know if any of these handfuls is better than the

other. All of you are the descendents of Adam, and Adam is

created of sand.

With these two sayings, we can say that Islam took the lead

in establishing sound human values that lay the pillars of

free human thinking that takes equality among human races

as one of its crucial and most serious issues.

However, the tyrannical control of Bani Umayyad over the

people, the dignitaries and the nobles, in particular,

encouraged them to leave these attitudes called upon by the

two caliphs behind since equality does not produce the

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necessary support for the despotic ruler by those who think

that they are superior to others and that the ruler should not

care about them.

This was the reasoning of the caliphs of Umayyad and

Abbasid upon which they built their disregard of equality

among the people and the categorization of people into

nobles and ordinary people and masters and slaves. This

produced a lot of principles unrelated to Islamic thinking

such as the principle of social fitness some Islamic scholars

have talked about in these two eras which later became the

basis for practices and concepts adopted by others who

disagree with those scholars on many basic issues. The

people of Iraq, for instance, held that it is religiously illegal

for a layman (of the general public who are not the

descendents of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) to marry an

Alawiyyah woman (a descendent of the prophet); also, it is

illegal for some craftsmen, blacksmiths and farmers who

grow vegetables, for example, to marry the daughters of

farmers who grow wheat, barley and rice.

Consequently, the principle of not marrying a black man

from a white woman came out on the basis of the inferiority

of his ancestry and unfitness as a human to marry a woman

who is a descendent of a better race with noble blood

running into her veins. This idea had its deep impact in

consolidating the feeling of human inferiority in the minds of

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blacks that it became something for granted. This resulted in

many negative effects that have impeded any human

activity aiming at improving the reality of this aggrieved

component of society.

The idea of social inferiority that came out of legitimizing the

principle of social fitness and taking it as an unchallenged

divine ordinance created a wide cognitive vacuum. At that

time, humanity did not have knowledge of concepts we know

today such as the ones related to justice, equality and

human rights, which paved the way to backward ideas to fill

this vacuum till believe in the existence of human

differences and the existence of a race or a class that is

better than the other was consolidated.

Consequently, blacks were put at the bottom of the social

hierarchy and they came to be known as slaves, which

means servility, ignominy, absolute obedience, alienable will,

mean origin and ancestry, lost freedom, etc., all of which

excludes humans out of the circle of persons fit to play a

major role in life or occupy a senior post in the government

or society.

Psychologists, sociologists, and people who specialize in

psychological and social studies realize more than others

what nomenclatures used by the society to characterize its

people mean and any effects of them on their various

activities. They also realize the extent to which conditions of

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a society can influence the kind of nomenclature chosen to

this or that.

Nomenclatures chosen by a society for one of its

components or classes create an intellectual and scientific

attitude toward that component or class at the same time

and outline the political and social framework within which

all other dealings come to light. Jean Paul Sartre , in his book

The Jewish Question, writes: To merely look at Jews as

Jews gives them the right to have their own national entity in

which they exercise their existence in this world.

Though we have reservations on this idea that gave

intellectual and logical legitimacy on an entity made in the

corridors of strategic interests of colonialist and imperialist

powers, it still has its power to accurately explain many

attitudes.

Our look at others as people different from us with regard to

the essential characteristics of their political or social

existence is a process of identification and demarcation of

the boundaries of this existence. And as long as the attitude

is always like that, we should grant them the right to

practice their freedom and express their will within the limits

of natural and constitutional rights given to other classes

and groups that do not differ from them with regard to

general characterization of their existence within the society.

Thus, and since the effective Iraqi Constitution that has the

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approval of the people through referendum, as supporters of

this Constitution claim, there should be no obstacle on the

way of anyone to get its rights. And since the Constitution

grants Kurds their rights in enjoying their independent

national entity, other minorities have rights similar in form

and kind.

We dealt above with the political and social premises of our

Association in that it takes its legitimacy from practical

necessities of the world of reality.

Here we will try to address some of the ideas and attitudes

related to the personality and identity of the Association and

see if they carry a racist tendency, as some have claimed

and charged without verification or scrutiny.

First of all, I reiterate time and time again that history alone

is enough to support the legitimacy of establishing thisAssociation. Nevertheless, it also finds additional justification

in the political reality of Iraq.

In Iraq today, political formations, parties and movements

are often divided into religious ones that take religious sects

as their imprint, such as the Daawa Islamic Party, the

Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution and its affiliatedfactions, and the Sadrist Trend, all of which are Shiite

political groups in their precepts and tendencies. On the

other side, we find Sunni political groups that take Al-

Tawafuq Front as their wide banner, and they are generally

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sectarian parties that take their legitimacy from the Sunni

sect.

Against sectarian political parties and groups, we find

nationalistic parties. Kurdish parties collectively can be

considered nationalistic since they address and defend

Kurdish issues, and they are nationalistic groups that exist

independently from other nationalistic groups in Iraq.

Besides Kurdish parties, there are parties and movements

that represent Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis, and Christians.

These in fact have racist or nationalistic precepts, if so to

speak.

If we count the number of MPs who represent these

sectarian and nationalistic parties and blocks, we will find

that they are more than two thirds of the Parliament.

This means that the government which runs the country is

built on a sectarian and nationalistic basis. So it becomes

inevitable for the other groups that have similar political and

social existence to enjoy the right of having their

representatives who express their wills in this way or that,

and to have their parties, movements and organizations that

care for their interests. The Islamic Daawa Party, a Shiiteparty, was formed out of the feeling and awareness of its

original founders of the ordeal and grievance suffered by

Shiites in Iraq while religious scholars of the Sunnis were

advocating and supporting the tyrant and his attitudes;

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moreover, they were legitimizing all his behavoiurs and

practices. This is also true of the establishment of the

Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution when necessity called

for the unification of the fighting struggle against the tyrant

and the formation of military factions capable of confronting

the military machinery in the position of the regime, so the

Badr Brigade appeared in which all Shiite military formations

that took the marshes as a battle ground to fight the

dictatorship were included.

As for the Sunni groups, the Islamic Party, for example, was

considered a natural extension of the Muslim Brotherhood

Movement. It was formed in the early 1950s when Muslim

Brotherhood realized that will no longer be capable of

continuing their activity under this name. The activity of this

party remained limited now, and maybe gradually subsided

till it was no longer mentioned, and it did not re-appear until

after the fall of the regime of Saddam Husein.

By the same token, the other factions that were formed and

included in Al-Tawafuq Front immediately saw the light, i.e.

after the fall of the regime, out of the necessity of the

confrontation with the growing Shiite trend.

As for Kurdish parties, we said that though they were formed

since long time ago, they retained their nationalistic and

even separatist tendency, as it shows in the attitudes of their

leaders from time to time.

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Therefore, we can say that the existence of these parties

and their ability to take control of the country do not give

the others who are marginalized the right they demand in

not only having their voice but stress on their other right

which is to take rights by force if necessary. Logic and justice

do not give something to someone and deprive the other of

it. All Iraqis are partners in this country and what is

legitimate for this person is legitimate for the other without

the need to explain whether its tendencies are legitimate or

not. If it is correct for this country to be governed bysectarian and nationalistic parties, which is what we witness

now, without the opposition or denouncement required for

the country to come out of its serious ordeal, confronting the

blacks or denying them their right in forming into parties,

movements and societies will be an act against justice and

common sense. Blacks are not a nationality or race. They are

rather an oppressed class, and I think that no one in

unaware of the size of this oppression. They also do not

adhere to a racist tendency since they are among its victims.

The tragic conditions in which blacks lived throughout the

past centuries, which still has its effect on their lives, were

the result of the feeling of Arab tribes of their superiority

over the blacks and the inferiority of blacks to these tribes.

On that basis, Ansar Al Hureya Humanity Association,

which was the practical response for the aspirations of

blacks in Iraq on the social and political levels, was not a

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racist Association, as accused by some. Racism, as seen by

political scientists, is the theory that justifies social variation,

exploitation and wars on the pretext of the belonging of

peoples to various races. This theory attributes human social

dispositions to their biological features and classifies races

into superior and inferior races. Racism was the

characteristic feature of Nazi thinking in Germany and with it

Hitler was able to justify his aggressive wars against peoples

and to carry out genocides. Racism is the religion of peoples

and movements that claim they to belong to superior anddistinguished races. Jews can be described as racists since

they say they are the people chosen by God. Blacks in Iraq

and some Arab countries, on the other hand, lived through

the centuries at the bottom of the social hierarchy. So, how

come they feel superior to others? Can they adhere to a

concept they themselves were its victims throughout the

history?

Thus, accusing our Association, which seeks to break the last

shackles and free its oppressed people, of racism would

count as a trying to kill the ambitions on which we built the

legitimacy of our initiative in seeking a better future in which

blacks will never be mean slaves or marginalized humanbeings without any role in this life.

Ansar Al Hureya Humanity Association is an association with

democratic precepts. It believes in political dialogue as a

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sole method to achieve its goals. It is a national association

which believes in the unity of Iraq and seeks to consolidate

the foundations of its effective cultural existence. It is a

secularist institution with no affiliation to any religious sect.

It believes that people are free to choose what they believe

in and what to practice of religious ceremonies as far as

theses practices dont cause harm to others or impede the

human being from building its bright future.

Stressing on that, I believe it is necessary to say that the

Association is a scientific one, so it believes in scientific

achievements and strongly believes that scientific

knowledge is the way the leads peoples to development and

prosperity. Thus, it renounces any trend that does not

believe in science such as racism that was one of the

outcomes of backwardness and ignorance that were

characteristic of the ancient ages and was a direct cause for

the spread of backward ideas and theories such as racism.

Most of the researchers of the factors of development of the

peoples firmly realize that humans deprived of basic rights

related to its life, human dignity, honour, and safety cannot

be instrumental and creative for a distinctive civilization.

Creativity hinges on freedom with all its senses. Blacks will

never be able to be effective human beings if they still

believe they are slaves. Also, those who are free among

blacks, i.e. who believe in their freedom and their equality to

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other races, cannot go far in expressing this feeling in a

society that puts a lot of hurdles that limit their initiative and

their progress.

Blacks still live like strangers in their countries. They cannot

aspire to anything that common norms in the society do not

allow, and these norms do not allow blacks to take over

senior posts. There are certain limits for blacks to stop at

and not to chase far ambitions, which is something

unacceptable according to these norms.

This feeling was consolidated by the feeling of the blacks of

their inferiority to others which negatively influenced its role

in effectively taking part in political and social fields in

particular. Thus, the political history of Iraq does not record

that a black took the initiative to establish a party, a political

movement, or a humanitarian organization since s/he thinks

that he will not find support or acceptance of her/his leading

of this organization. The society thinks that a black is

deficient and incapable of achieving her/his goals due to

her/his cognitive and professional limitations.

Thus, politicians found no necessity in resorting to any black

to chose or designate as a leader since they feel in advance

that this choice will be faced with strong opposition that

move others away from supporting this politician.

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The General Secretariat

of Ansar Al Hureya Humanity Association

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a look at the intellectual, cultural and legal bases of the political and social project of blacks...

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