Anthony Shadid
RSS
  • About Anthony
  • The Books
    • House of Stone
      • About the Book
      • House of Stone Reviews
    • Legacy of the Prophet
      • About the Book
      • Legacy of the Prophet: Excerpt
    • Night Draws Near
      • About the Book
      • Night Draws Near: Excerpt
      • Night Draws Near: Reviews
  • Journalism
    • Articles
    • Pulitzer Prize
      • Pulitzer Entries 2010
      • Pulitzer Entries 2004
  • In the Media

In New Iraq, Sunnis Fear a Grim Future

In Articles, Journalism, Pulitzer Entries 2004, Pulitzer Prize

BAGHDAD, Dec. 21 — The Bridge of the Imams draws together two Baghdads and divides two Iraqs.

Arching over the Tigris River, the overpass ends in Kadhimiya, a Shiite Muslim neighborhood built around the gold-domed shrine of a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. On Friday, the neighborhood pulses with promise. Pilgrims crowd its intersections, sidewalks overflow with money-changers, jewelers and kiosks brimming with hummus, cardamom and olives. Slogans written on the walls declare deposed president Saddam Hussein an infidel, and newspapers celebrate the capture of the man they call the tyrant.

At the other end of the bridge is Adhamiya, a grim Sunni Muslim neighborhood where the venerated Abu Hanifa Mosque is shielded behind eight steel barricades. Its twin minarets, clock tower and brick walls bear the scars of war. The slogans along the neighborhood’s streets, where many of the shops are shuttered, convey nostalgia and anger. “Long live Saddam,” reads one, scrawled in black. “Jihad is our way,” declares another. A dozen or so men carrying AK-47 rifles sit atop the mosque’s roof and patrol the street below, casting wary glances toward the bridge and the celebrations beyond.

“The future? What’s the future?” asked one of the guards, Ammar Abu Nour Quds. “We don’t have any future.”

Of the emotions unleashed by Hussein’s arrest, the darkest were those that gripped the country’s Sunni minority, of which Hussein was a member. As a new Iraq unfolds, with Hussein’s arrest the latest milestone, they are on the inside looking out — a community besieged, leaderless and relentless in its refusal to accept the eight-month U.S. occupation. The Sunnis’ reversal of fortune marks a spectacular shift for a group that for most of the country’s modern history, and for centuries before that, guided Iraq through colonialism and coups, dictatorship and war.

In interviews across the Sunni Triangle, which gave Hussein much of his support and suffered the most with his fall, many insist they are no longer fighting for the privilege they enjoyed in previous decades, but rather for their community’s survival in a country with a Shiite Muslim majority. Once divided and discredited clergy have stepped forward to try to end a crisis of identity, bringing a message of political Islam to a community that once embraced secular Arab nationalism and tribal traditions.

No longer kingmakers, the community’s leaders vow that they still hold the key to stability. But casting a shadow over conversations with men such as Quds is a sense of dispossession, of a minority searching for a voice in the contest to create a new state.

“The people are waiting for something, to hear something, to see something,” said Khaled Ahmed, a 23-year-old Sunni whose photo store is across the street from the Abu Hanifa Mosque. He listened for a moment to the sermon, a homily urging restraint and unity that was broadcast from loudspeakers. “They’re waiting for some kind of hope,” he said.

Read the full article>

From The 2004 Pulitzer Prize Winners for International Reporting

Tagged with: Baghdad • Iraq • Kadhimiya • Pulitzer Entries 2004 
Share →
Tweet
In Revival Of Najaf, Lessons for A New Iraq Iraq Pre-Election Overview: PBS Newshour
  • RSS Unknown Feed

  • The Books

    Play
    Prev
    Next
    10000slidenonetransparent

    House of Stone

    An unforgettable memoir of the world’s most volatile landscape and the universal yearning for home.
    10000slidenonetransparent

    Night Draws Near

    A riveting account of ordinary people caught between the struggles of nations.
    10000slidenonetransparent

    Legacy of the Prophet

    A first-person account of the transformation in the style and message of Islamic politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
  • Buy

    Amazon • Barnes & Noble • IndieBound • Powell's
  • A note from Nada Bakri

    "I do not approve of and will not be a part of any public discussion of Anthony's passing. It does nothing but sadden Anthony's children to have to endure repeated public discussion of the circumstances of their father's death."
    –Nada Bakri, wife of the late Anthony Shadid
  • Twtitter Tributes

    anna_lamadda: #lacasadipietra di #anthonyshadid è un libro DA LEGGERE. Un ottimo consiglio di @robertosaviano
    93 months ago
    beatnikjourno: Yes. RT @jessradio Remembering #MarieColvin and #AnthonyShadid today on #InternationalPressFreedomDay. Two great journalists we lost.
    94 months ago
    2imen: RT @abumuqawama: RT @Waleed_Hazbun: In memory, #AnthonyShadid last lecture at #AUB http://t.co/qkqKp0UG
    94 months ago
    v____: RT @abumuqawama: RT @Waleed_Hazbun: In memory, #AnthonyShadid last lecture at #AUB http://t.co/qkqKp0UG
    94 months ago
    ShadiElkarra: RT @camanpour: Deeply honored to receive the #AnthonyShadid award for journalism at Tuesday April 16 @AAIUSA Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards in DC.
    94 months ago
    ojsutton: RT @camanpour: Deeply honored to receive the #AnthonyShadid award for journalism at Tuesday April 16 @AAIUSA Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards in DC.
    94 months ago
  • Reviews

    • “…wise, compassionate storytelling” : Review from Annia Ciezadlo
    • House of Stone Review from Dave Eggers
    • “I was captivated, instantly”: Dave Cullen
    • Reviews for House of Stone
  • News

    • Interrogating the NY Times’ Anthony Shadid
    • Anthony Shadid’s Interview on NPR’s Fresh Air
    • Anthony Shadid on Qatar
    • Across Divide in Iraq, a Sunni Courts Shiites
    • In Assad’s Syria, There Is No Imagination
  • Pulitzer Entries

    • In Thuluyah, reverberations of a U.S. raid
    • ‘People woke up, and they were gone’
    • In Anbar, U.S.-Allied Tribal Chiefs Feel Deep Sense of Abandonment
    • Worries About Kurdish-Arab Conflict Move to Fore in Iraq
    • In the City of Cement
    • A Quite but Undeniable Cultural Legacy
    • A Journey Into the Iraq of Recollection
    • No One Values the Victims Anymore
    • New Paths to Power Emerge in Iraq
    • In Iraq, the Day After