Clergy Power is not only in Iraq but in Egypt too

Iraq was attacked severely in a very barbaric way last week in an attempt to cause a civil war. It has been noticed lately that the number of explosions and suicide attacks in Iraq have declined in comparison to last year. Suicide attacks have been considered a big obstacle towards democracy in Iraq. Their decline meant a lot to the Iraqis and international community, and particularly the US. However, enemies of freedom and democracy could not take it. They just had to plan an attack to hurt and wound the very core of the Iraqi society. Those enemies of freedom could have never had a better choice than attacking a Shiite Holy Shrine. They knew how important those shrines are to all Muslims especially Shiites and that reprisal attacks will destabilize the fledging democracy of Iraq.

First, rumors in the Middle Eastern neighboring countries accused Israel and the United States for being the main perpetrators behind the attacks on the Holy Golden Dome Shrine. The Zionist conspiracy theme does not stop pumping smart ideas as usual. The notion of freedom is not yet established in the Middle East countries. So many cannot see that many countries in the western world including the U.S. realized that peace the Middle East cannot be achieved without democratic governments and that the world will not be safe from the evils of terrorism without peoples enjoying the fruits of democracy and freedom.

The clergy power emerged as the sole mediator to calm down the Iraqi people. The state or the Iraqi politicians are still enjoying a fragile position. Of course, enemies of freedom know this very well. They placed a very timely attack on the Holy Shrine, believing that the new national unity government is weak to contain the anger over such an attack. The Iraqi politicians still need time to prove themselves and win credibility among Iraqis. That will take sometime.

When I look to Egypt, where the current regime has been in power for more than 25 years, I find that the government is also seeking the Sheikhs (men of the cloth) for guidance of people. That only shows that time did not make a difference for the Egyptian regime to influence the people to trust the regime. The government is seeking the Sheikhs in the mosques to give advice to the people and raise awareness on the Bird Flu calamity during Friday prayers. This proves that the government is definitely acknowledging the power of the Sheikhs and conceding its failure to advice people directly, due to a lack of credibility.

I do understand the clergy power in Iraq. It is a fledging government, and politicians need time to prove themselves, however there is no for the excuse of the Egyptian government to resort to Sheikhs to talk to the people.