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For many Iraqis safety is more precious than homes. (Reuters) |
BAGHDAD – United in distress, Iraqi Sunni and Shiite families are trading their homes to escape a deadly sectarian violence, cherishing the hope of returning to their neck of the woods.
"It really breaks my heart to be approached by families terrorized by sectarian violence to find them homes in safer environment," Tawhid Al-Bahadli, a real estate broker, told IslamOnline.net on Wednesday, September 13.
Bahadli and his colleagues have been approached over the few past months by families to swap their homes.
"Forced by militias and death squads to relocate, Sunnis and Shiites come to us looking for people ready to trade their homes with others in neighborhoods where their sect is in majority," he added.
"They agree to swap their homes temporarily until the doors of sectarian hell are shut down once and for all."
Iraq's most revered Shiite scholar Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani has admitted his inability to prevent a civil war, lamenting that he no longer has an influence on Shiites who have switched allegiance to militant groups and death squads.
In a report issued on September 1, the US Defense Department said sectarian attacks in Iraq rose by 24 percent to 792 per week.
Heartbreaking
But with a mood of deepening pessimism about national unity having over the country, some families are resolved not to return to their original neighborhoods.
"After receiving a death threat, I traded my home with a Shiite family under a legally binding contract through a broker," Sunni Abdul Rahman Al-Dulaimi said, letting out a sigh of relief.
Dulaimi's cousin Hussein, a civil servant, had no option.
"I left my home after Mehdi militants threatened us," the father of seven told IOL.
"We ran for our lives and no sooner had we left our home than a Shiite family occupied it."
The family told Hussein that the home was granted to them by the office of Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr.
"They told me that I can go to Al-Sadr office and collect the rent," he said, adding that no Sunni can approach the Sadr office for fear of being killed or detained.
Hussein said the Mehdi army has seized eight Sunni mosques in Al-Shula and turned them into Shiite mosques.
"No Sunni mosque has been left in the district," he said with a heavy heart.
Abu Taghrid, who was forced to leave his home in western Baghdad, had more luck.
"I was really relieved by my Shiite neighbor, who reassured me that he and his sons will protect the home until I return," he said.
"I owe him my life after he and his sons protected me from Shiite militants who raided my home." |
