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| Iraq |
| Muslims Rescue Baghdadâs Jewish Community Center |
| 2003-04-14 |
| BAGHDAD, 13 April 2003 â Iraqi Muslims came to the aid of Baghdadâs tiny Jewish community yesterday, chasing out looters trying to sack its cultural center in the heart of the capital. OK, my surprise meter works. Not that Iraqi Muslims helped their Jewish neighbors, but that they even have any Jewish neighbors. âAt 3:00 a.m., I saw two men, one with a beard, on the roof of the Jewish community house and I cried out to my friend, âHossam, bring the Kalashnikovs!â said Hassam Kassam, 21. This phrase also works on door-to-door salesmen. Neither Hassan nor Hossam, who is the guard at the center, was armed at the time but the threat worked in scaring off the intruders. Two hours later, the looters returned again and Hassan Kassem used the trick once more. The center is located in a freshly painted white house on a lane off Rashid Street in Baghdadâs old town. Two days ago, amid rampant looting in the capital, neighbors removed the sign reading âSpecial Committee for the Religious Affairs of Ezra Menahem Danielâ to make the premises less conspicuous. On Friday at about 10:30 a.m., two men seized an opportunity created by the guardâs mid-morning break to try to force open the door in a first attempt to burgle the center. âWe came over right away and asked them what they wanted,â said Abdallah Nurredin, 50. They tried to explain that they wanted to talk to the guard, Nurredin said, âbut when they saw the look we were giving them, they left without saying another wordâ. Yesterday, Hossam the guard left to look for a real gun in case the persistent thieves returned. âThe Jews have always lived here, in this house, and it is only normal that we should protect them,â said Ibrahim Mohamad, 36, who works in a small undergarments factory near the center of town. Thank you, Ibrahim. Although the majority of Jews fled the country in the early 1950s, many of their Muslim tenants come each week to pay their rent to an old woman at the center, Mohamad said. He recalled that in October 1998, a Palestinian killed two Jews and two Muslims in an attack on the community center. âWe raced help to the victims, regardless of whether they were Jewish or Muslimâ. Note that it was a Palestinian. Couldn't stand the fact that Jews and Muslims were getting along. In the Batauin district near the Saddun commercial artery, the entrance of a large synagogue is blocked by an immense iron portal. The way onto the street is obstructed by trees and chairs. A self-defense militia formed Friday to fight back against bandits. âWe are defending the synagogue like all houses on the street and we will not let anyone touch it,â said Edward Benham, a 19-year-old computer science student. The young Christian said Jews normally came each Saturday but because of the lingering security problem, no one came today. Iraqâs Jewish community settled in Mesopotamia in the seventh century BC and numbered more than 100,000 before the creation of Israel in 1948. Currently, about 50 Jews live in Iraq.Let's keep the Islamic "volunteers" away, please. They'd like to make that number even lower. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 Ethel, where're my tweezers? I've got to get the needle on my surprise meter unburied... |
| Posted by: Celissa 2003-04-14 20:13:03 |
| #5 Does Ibrahim work in a factory that makes small undergarments, or is it a small factory that makes assorted sizes of undergarments? Such sloppy reporting. |
| Posted by: Brutus 2003-04-14 16:18:06 |
| #4 There is hope after all. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-04-14 15:59:55 |
| #3 Wow, I can't believe I am actually happy to read the phrase "Hossam! Bring the Kalashnikovs!" This bodes...well. My surprise meter seems to be in good condition! |
| Posted by: Crescend 2003-04-14 15:48:05 |
| #2 Hassan and Hossam, Baghdad's Dynamic Duo! |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-14 15:04:24 |
| #1 "By the Rivers of Babylon, where we sat down..." |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-04-14 14:53:04 |