On
April 9, 2005, we mark our entry into the third year of the fall
of Baghdad. The implications of the fall of this most ancient
Arab capital still continue to unfold today. True enough; it
ended the regime of just one of the region's many
tyrants—indeed the worst, by any stretch of the imagination.
But in so doing it claimed as "collateral damage" the
lives of an estimated 100,000 Iraqis, and brought that proud
nation under the yoke of a foreign occupier, an occupier who has
thus far displayed the same contempt for our lives and values as
we have come to expect from our long familiarity with the evils
of colonialism.
The
fall of Baghdad was a profound event for Muslims around the
world. Reflecting on the loss, some point to the city's
historical place as a capital of the Muslim world, a city that
hearkened back to the heyday of the Ummah. The invasion has
therefore signaled the irrevocable loss of a major aspect of the
Ummah's common heritage. But was this the first fall of Baghdad?
Had not Baghdad's place as a symbol of Islamic power long been
lost, trodden underfoot by decades of rule by the Baath?
The
importance of the event is more real, more immediate. It lies in
the continuing, often violent, foreign encroachment—the
bastard offspring of colonialism—on the Muslim world, and the
concurrent erasure of our values, our beliefs, our culture—and
the devaluation of human life.
There
is, as yet, no light at the end of this tunnel; the seeds of
terror have been sown. The occupation of Iraq now pours a steady
stream of fuel onto the flames which forge a new generation of
militants. We can only hope that we will be spared from the
inevitable conflagration which looms on the horizon.
For
more than two years IslamOnline.net's Muslim Affairs section has
been covering the situation inside Iraq: beginning with a
special focus on Iraq under UN sanctions in its Spotlight
on Iraq special page, and moving to Iraq during and
after the war in its acclaimed Iraq
in Transition page.
With
occupied Iraq now a new reality, and upon the closing of Iraq
in Transition, which for the past two years produced
groundbreaking material on the invasion and occupation of Iraq,
we leave you now with a selection of some of our most important
articles, posted since the fall of Baghdad. Muslim Affairs will
continue to observe and cover the situation in Iraq through its
regular features.
