Since the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, Iraqi politics and society have been interpreted through the lens of sectarian division and strife. Iraq under occupation has been beset by sectarian violence; however, contrary to standard belief, this sectarian violence has no significant precedent in Iraqi history, the politicized sectarianism that now dominates Iraq is argued to be the intended result of a deliberate Anglo-American occupation policy that has had at its foundation, the goal to carve Iraq into sectarian enclaves and to engineer a weak, pliable, state. The purpose of this article is thus two-fold: first, this article delineates social -folkloric -forms of sectarianism in Iraq from the militarized sectarianism that now constitutes Iraqi political culture. This, centred on folk practices, is argued to have been mitigated through a long process of state-building and social secularization. Today's political sectarianism, as reflected in militia activity and religious chauvinism, is presented in terms of Anglo-American occupation strategy, including: the empowering of sectarian militia parties which had no natural constituency in Iraq; the stripping and destruction of Iraq's national symbols; and the imposition of an American-written constitution drained of any national content that only reinforced sectarian division in Iraq. Second, against this backdrop of politicized sectarianism, outposts of genuine Iraqi nationalism are considered, with a particular focus on the populist S . adrist current. This current, an Iraqi national force informed by Islamic notions, represents an uneven but nevertheless genuine resistance movement, who might portend the emergence of further national movements in occupied Iraq.
Ismael, is a work that examines the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) from its founding at the beginning of 1930s until now. The volume recognizes the role of the Iraqi intelligentsia in its creation and its role in liberating Iraq from the domination of the British imperialism. The author believes that because of excessive oppression of the ICP, specifically after the Ba'ath Party coups in 1963 and 1968, the party leadership became "dependent on and subservient to the Soviet Union." Ismael incorrectly states that the party fragmented in the mid-1970s. Further, the author labels the current leadership of the ICP as "old guard," but later criticizes it because of changes in its "conventional" policy. It appears from the beginning that the author holds certain views about the ICP, and examines it from these pre-conceived notions, which makes the volume less academic.The volume is divided into seven chapters including the concluding chapter. In the preface, the author begins with his account of his experience as a child passing by some bodies of ICP leaders who were hanged and then displayed by the pro-British government in Iraq in 1949. Then, in Chapter One, "The Communist Party of Iraq: Origins and Foundation," he gives his account of the introduction of Marxism to Iraq and credits Husain al-Rahhal's role, the influence of the publications of the Communist Party of Britain, the French Communist newspaper, and Donald M. McKenzie, a Scotsman who opened a bookshop in Baghdad in 1925.The author also summarizes the history of modern Iraq, tracing it back to 1749 when the Ottoman Sultan appointed Suleiman Agha as wali (governor) of Baghdad, followed by Daud Pasha and Midhat Pasha, and their reforms. He also reports the Iraqi officers' involve-
Chinese involvement in Africa may be conveniently dated from the Bandung conference of April 1955, which marked the initiation of a policy of Chinese Communist co-operation with the states of Afro-Asia. Inasmuch as the movement in Africa which resulted in the independence of many states in the next decade had hardly begun at that time, the most significant African contact made by China at Bandung was with President Nasser. The development of contacts between the two states led Egypt in May 1956 to become the first African country to give its official recognition to the Chinese People's Republic (C.P.R.). Thereafter the Suez crisis served to bring the two countries still closer together.
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