The session has started. Join us with your questions.
Answer
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Name
Bob
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Profession
Question
Baghdad seems to be in a confusing situation. The presence of US forces angers Iraqis and sparks insurgency. And the lack of US forces would lead to a civil war among Iraqi factions. Is there a way out?
Answer
This is not right, and not realistic, and doesn’t represent the real situation in Baghdad, or in Iraq. There are terrorist operations that kill Iraqis, while all Iraqis reject the occupation, but there are peaceful ways that we must use first, especially that the General Council allowed the occupation forces to stay in Iraq, based on a request from the Iraqi government. The new elected government that will be elected next year will represent the Iraqi people. It will decide on whether or not the US forces are to stay in Iraq.
Name
Herbert
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Profession
Question
Can Baghdadi kids and university students go to school regularly and normally? How is the security situation affecting education in Baghdad?
Answer
Life in Baghdad is not as you see on some TV channels. We have some problems with terrorists and criminals in some areas in Iraq, and we should know that Iraq has more than 100 cities with a population of more than 100,000, and about 2000 villages and small cities. These problems are only in three or four cities, and they don’t reflect the opinion of most of the people in these few cities too.
So life is normal in Baghdad universities, even though there are some terrorist attacks every now and then—but this doesn’t affect the schedules and courses.
Name
Nancy
- Australia
Profession
Question
What is the situation for Iraqi women in Baghdad now?
Answer
Women constitute about 25% of the members of parliament, and I think that this percentage is higher than any other country in the world. We have female doctors, engineers, teachers, and others working in so many fields. Also women are participating effectively in all NGOs. But there is an opposition to the progress of the status of women from some backward people who say that they represent Islam actually respects women. In Islamic history, Muslim women participated in all aspects of life, and were in the high positions.
Iraq is very developed, even in respect to women. We had the first Iraqi female minister in 1959, and she is the first female minister in the Middle East, and now we have six female ministers in the Iraqi government.
Name
Lisa
- Australia
Profession
Freelance writer
Question
Hello Dr. Al-Tamimi,
My question is: Do you think the elections should be held in January? That might be too soon.
Answer
I think that the elections are late already. The US occupation in Iraq has been here for over 20 months, and elections should have been done one year earlier. Thus, holding elections in January is very important and necessary so that Iraqis have their say and make their stance clear in front of the world. Concerning those who say that elections shouldn’t be held on time—in January, that’s because they are afraid of the results of the elections, because they know that they don’t represent the people. Voting centers will expose how weak their relationship with the people is.
Those who want Iraq to stay in chaos are the criminals who use the weakness of the government to launch armed robberies and kidnapping, or some extremists who say that they are Muslims, and most of them are form outside Iraq—they are supported by neighboring countries that are afraid from a democratic, free, peaceful Iraq.
Holding the election on the time specified for it—which will result in a legal, legitimate government—will give Iraqis the ability to talk with the occupation forces clearly to decide their presence or departure after a certain period in accordance with the interests of Iraq.
Name
alauddin
- Malaysia
Profession
student
Question
Why don't Islamic countries, especially in West Asia, gather to stop the war in Iraq?
Answer
The US-led war on Iraq was welcomed by most of the Iraqi people, because it removed a dictator. Americans entered Iraq in an operation dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom, and they really librated us from Saddam. But we don’t accept to replace the dictatorship with the occupation of Iraq by Americans; therefore, the Iraqi government worked on making the Security Council issue a resolution to keep the coalition forces in Iraq untill the security situation improves and a legitimate government is elected—the elected government is to decide on the matter of the occupation forces’ presence in or pulling out of Iraq.
The Islamic countries in West Asia that you referred to are afraid of a free, democratic Iraq, because most of them are living under undemocratic governments, and it is in their interest that problems in Iraq persist, because once Iraq is ruled by a freely elected government, it will influence its neighbors, and the people of the region will look forward to have the same thing in their countries. This scares those governments because they know that they don’t represent the will of the people.
Name
Rebacca
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Profession
Question
Dear Dr. Al-Tamimi,
It must be a tough job to be responsible for probably the most tense city in the world. What are your plans, Mr. Mayor, to improve the situation?
Answer
First off, Baghdad is my city and I belong to it, and in the tough times, you can know what men are made of. Helping the people in these tough situations and providing the basic needs for them is the real jihad. So in spite of the difficulties of my job, I am happy to be in this position, to serve the people of Baghdad, who suffered a lot. Baghdad is a city where 6 000 000 people live; 25% of them don’t have water or sewage networks; Baghdad needs about 1,000,000 cubic meters of water daily, and we dispose in the river about 600,000 cubic meters of sewage water with no treatment, so you can imagine the size of the problem in Baghdad.
Some terrorists and criminals, who claim to be resistance fighters, wantto stop our work in these fields in which we serve the people. They sabotage the electricity network that provides the water treatment plants, to prevent pure water from reaching the people; they bomb some sewage treatment plants, so we have to throw over 2,000,000 cubic meters of waste water directly in the river, which leads to an environmental disaster. But inshaAllah (God willing), I will do my best to serve the people of this city, because I am one of them. My belief in my job is part of my belief in Islam, which obliges me to serve the people in these tough times.
Name
Majeed
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Profession
construction worker
Question
Assalam alaykom,
Don't you think Dr. that the present goverment is in a spot that it can very easly be called a puppet goverment, and the resistance is legitimate?
Answer
Your information is not correct or realistic. The resistance that you talk about kills on a daily basis—kills more Iraqis than Americans. It targets the Iraqi police that protect Iraqis from criminals. It targets hospitals and doctors, and it bombs hospitals; they put bombs in children's schools, and they attack oil pipes, which constitute the primary resource for Iraq. They attack electricity to stop life, while American soldiers and their humvees roam the streets freely.
I, as an Iraqi, don’t wish to see violence at this stage, but if there are other Iraqi attacks against Americans, based on the fact that they are occupation forces, I understand the attackers’ stance as they attack occupation forces, and I don’t deny them their right; although I disagree with them, I respect them. But those who attack hospitals and schools, sabotage oil pumps and electricity plants, and kidnap children are criminals and terrorists; they don’t deserver respect.
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Host: We apologize that Dr. Alaa Al-Tamimi, the Mayor of Baghdad, couldn't answer all the questions we received due to time limitation.
