Iraq's Sunnis felt that the agreements arranged between Shiite and Kurdish leaders in the Iraqi opposition conferences before 2003, and the state administration’s arrangements after this date, were targeting them and that the so called Shiite-Kurdish alliance led to their marginalization in their own country.
Surely, there are several reasons preventing Sunnis from taking their natural position in the political process. These positions are to be filled by politicians, and some Sunni clerics issued fatwas during different periods prohibiting [Sunnis] from involvement in the political process and preventing their peers from enlistng in the military and the police forces, or participating in and running for elections under the slogan of “resistance to the American Occupation.”
Yet all this does not exempt the current Iraqi political class from its obligation to find a common ground for all the Iraqi parties, which must not suggest the exclusion of any of them.
This does not mean neglecting the specificity of the historical relationship between Kurds and Shiites and their common interests throughout their opposition to the former regime and also in the leadership of the country after the fall of the regime.
Furthermore, the Iraqi people deserve forward-looking agreements, which set the foundation for a lasting social peace, well-established citizenship and a sophisticated political movement.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi is an Iraqi writer specializing in defense of democracy. He has extensive experience in documenting testimony and archiving documentaries associated with repressive practices.
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