HW 31 "Al-Hakim Assassination"

When reading the past assigned reading in Baghdad Burning, I found a name that seemed to be significant to me and decided to research it. On Monday September 1st, 2003 when Riverbend discusses Al-Hakim in her blog(Page 43), she talks about him and about how his assassination was very significant. In the book they discuss how his assassination “was used as an excuse for vendettas, faction fighting, and more violence between Shi’a and Shi’a and Sunnis and Shi’a.” Since his assassination in Baghdad, they are blaiming all Americans and holding them responsible for the amount of security in this country. Since I knew the effects of Al-Hakim from what Riverbend discusses, I thought I would actually look him up and see what his background was. Ammar Al-Hakim had an uncle who died from legitimate security in Iraq. "Just as martyr Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim stressed in his last Friday sermon, [there is a] need to involve effective popular and political forces in preserving security and contributing to bring about security and stability in Iraq. This is because the truth of the matter is that these forces are more capable of knowing who the enemies are and who the friends are, most interested in preserving and bringing about security in Iraq, and closer to people. This, in turn, will make people have great confidence in these forces, give them information, and help them hunt down criminals and aggressors so as to bring about security."( “Leading SHI'A Comment On Al-Hakim’s Assassination”). What Al-Hakim is basically saying here is they need strong security in Iraq. After reading this article and getting a better idea of the type of people in this book that Riverbend discusses, I am able to get a feeling as to what is occurring around her and the awful events that are taking place.

http://www.rferl.org/specials/IraqCrisis/shia-comment.asp