[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [uslaw_educationworker_taskforce] Iraq's tensions spill onto campus

[Alfred Kagan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "U.S. Labor Against the War" <uslaw at igc.org>
> Date: May 27, 2005 2:57:35 PM CDT
> To: uslaw_educationworkers at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [uslaw_educationworker_taskforce] Iraq's tensions spill onto  
> campus
> Reply-To: uslaw_educationworkers at lists.riseup.net, "U.S. Labor Against  
> the War" <uslaw at igc.org>
>
> May 27, 2005 edition -  
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0527/p06s03-woiq.html
>
> Iraq's tensions spill onto campus
>
> Up to 50 professors have been killed, UN reports. But rebuilding  
> includes 4,000 new staff at 20 universities.
>  By Neil MacDonald | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
>
>  BAGHDAD - When Iraq's new government officially took power earlier  
> this month, Shiite students at Baghdad University celebrated. But  
> after the jubilation ended, the main organizer of the festivities,  
> Dawa party activist Masar Sarhan, was killed.
>
>  Mr. Sarhan, a pharmacy student, was shot on his way home and is  
> apparently one of the latest casualties of tensions between Sunni and  
> Shiite students at Iraq's 20 universities and 47 technical colleges.
>
>  According to a recent United Nations report, nearly 50 academics have  
> been assassinated in Iraq over the past two years. A US official says  
> the number is closer to 100, but added that the pattern of the  
> killings is not clear, with "terrorism, general thuggery, pay back,  
> and de-Baathification" all playing a role.
>
>  Thursday, professor Moussa Salum, a deputy dean at Baghdad's  
> Mustansiriya University, was killed along with three of his  
> bodyguards, Reuters reported.
>
>  But while the steady violence on campuses has been a constant worry  
> for students and faculty alike, there are signs that Iraqis are making  
> strides to reclaim the country's "long, proud tradition of  
> distinguished universities," according to Jairam Reddy, the author of  
> the UN report, who lives in Amman, Jordan.
>
>  According to the UN report, the total enrollment at Iraqi  
> universities is more than 250,000, 42 percent of whom are female  
> students. Forty percent of the country's learning institutions are now  
> under construction - many suffered looting in the wake of the US-led  
> invasion.
>
>  The Ministry of Finance has upped its allocation for higher education  
> from $40 million in 2003 to nearly $70 million this year, according to  
> the report. Backed by UN agencies and the World Bank, Iraqi  
> universities have hired more than 4,000 new staff.
>
>  Although salaries are low by international standards, many professors  
> who left under the old regime have returned to Iraq's universities, in  
> some cases bringing much needed foreign expertise.
>
>  With help from foreign donors, universities are gradually rebuilding  
> their labs and libraries, which were neglected for years. Groups of  
> students, meanwhile, are gaining exposure to the outside world through  
> American-funded study trips to the United States and other countries.
>
>  But while welcoming academic freedoms, some professors say that too  
> many student groups are taking advantage of the country's new "free  
> expression" as an excuse for politicized provocations.
>
>  With professors already feeling threatened, a new sense of Shiite  
> ascendancy after the Jan. 30 elections raised the temperature between  
> Shiite students and their Sunni counterparts, some of whom still  
> express affection for Saddam Hussein and his former Baath regime.
>
>  "The university as a whole should be kept out of political  
> struggles," says Baghdad University professor Nabil Mohammed. "It's  
> not a place to put pictures calling for this party or that."
>
>  Professor Mohammed says he was never fond of Baathist apparatchiks  
> either, but the campus was always safe under the old regime. "I can't  
> remember dangerous incidents at that time," he says. "There were  
> strong rules, and no demonstrations."
>
>  According to some professors and students, Sarhan's overtly sectarian  
> style of activism was a slap in the face to all Sunnis at the  
> university, Baathist or otherwise. In the new Iraq, one man's  
> religious devotion can be another man's insult.
>
>  Pharmacy dean Mustafa Hitti, who is blamed by the Shiite students who  
> rioted after Sarhan's death, fled from the campus during the rioting,  
> with Shiite students alleging they had seen Hitti's bodyguards in an  
> argument with Sarhan just before his murder. The dean, a Sunni, had  
> asked the students not to hold a political gathering on campus, but  
> Sarhan insisted on their "right to free expression," students say.
>
>  When the campus reopened several days later, some staff members still  
> stayed away, complaining about the lack of adequate security. Several  
> department heads "still refused to be on campus because they are  
> afraid of some of students," Mohammed says.
>
>  An ideological shift is visible in the university's curriculum. While  
> science courses are practically unchanged, humanities colleges have  
> deleted "some subjects dealing with the former regime," Professor  
> Mussawi says. Baathist studies seminars have given way to "new courses  
> dealing with human rights, democracy, and globalization," he says.
>
>  Even science textbooks used to sometimes include sentences praising  
> Saddam and the Baath Party. Students say their professors now tell  
> them to tear these pages out.
>
>  Ali al-Adib, a member of parliament from the Shiite-led majority  
> bloc, says new textbooks are on the way. He blamed the former regime  
> for "creating ethnic divisions" and said that most of today's  
> university administrators are "still infused with "Baathist culture."
>
>  Mr. Adib, who sits on a newly formed parliamentary committee for  
> higher education, says he is confident that Iraqi education can once  
> again be the best in the region. First, however, university curricula  
> must be revised to reflect a "federal, democratic vision of Iraq," he  
> says.
>
>  Over the next few months, as Iraq's politicians come to grips with  
> drafting a permanent constitution, the definition of federalism is  
> sure to be hotly debated. For some Shiite parties in the new  
> government, "democratic federalism" is an old slogan that also means  
> following Islamic law.
>
>  A Western adviser to the Ministry of Higher Education says that the  
> most important step is to overcome the terrorist threat, which drains  
> almost every kind of "productive investment" in Iraq. "If the country  
> regained a sense of peace and normalcy, the fact that it would be a  
> democracy would help it to regain stature in higher education," he  
> says. "If there was no terrorism, the sky would be the limit."
>
> www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science Monitor.
>  ////////  
> \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 
> \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\   
> \\\\\\\\
>
> U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
>  \\\\\\\\  
> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
> //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  
> ////////
> www.uslaboragainstwar.org
> Email: <info at uslaboragainstwar.org>
>  {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
> PMB 153
>  1718 "M" Street, NW
>  Washington, D.C. 20036
>  {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
>
> Co-convenors:  Gene Bruskin, Maria Guillen, Fred Mason,
>                           Bob Muehlenkamp, and Nancy Wohlforth
> Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer & Website Coordinator
> Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Have you checked out the USLAW website lately?  New material is posted  
> daily.  The News section is one of the most comprehensive archives of  
> information about labor in Iraq and U.S. policy regarding Iraq  
> available on the Internet.
> http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
> ~~~
> <b>                 HOW DO I UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST?
>
> The easiest way is to unsubscribe is to send email to
> uslaw_educationworkers-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net.</b>
>
> If this doesn't work, then almost certainly the problem is that you  
> sent the 'unsubscribe' email from an different address then the  
> address which is subscribed to the list.
>
> Your mail client probably allows you to look and the full headers of  
> an email. If you check these full headers of a list email, you should  
> be able to tell what address is subscribed to the list.
>
> If you are logged in, you can click the "Your subscriptions" link near  
> the top of the screen. This will show you all the lists you are  
> subscribed to. Click on the listname. On the page for the list info,  
> there is a link to unsubscribe.
>


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 11996 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/peace-discuss/attachments/20050527/c1cb984f/attachment.bin