Lessons for the Islamic movement seven years after the invasion of Iraq

"This month marks the seventh anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The invasion was no surprise of course; it was preceded by months of international politicking as the neo-con Bush administration tried to build international consensus for the war. Before that too, the US had been waging a soft war against Iraq for over a decade, and many commentators had predicted that the US would use the attacks on New York and the Pentagon in September 2001 as the pretext for finally invading.

"Muslims have watched subsequent events unfolding in Iraq with horror. While most attention worldwide has been US-centric, focussing on the political problems of the Bush administration, Muslims have paid more attention to the problems of Iraq’s long-suffering people. On the one hand, they have faced the ruthlessness with which the US dealt with all resistance to their occupation, symbolised by the near-genocidal assault on Fallujah in 2004... On the other has been the total failure of Islamic movements and leaders in the country — Sunni and Shi‘i alike — to provide the sort of wise and principled leadership required in the difficult situation created by the US invasion."