As you are no doubt aware, the Bush (mis)administration has linked success in Iraq to the Hydrocarbon Law, aka the "Oil Law." The Iraqi people have consistently opposed this blantant robbery and another shoe dropped yesterday. The highest Sunni religious authority, the Council of the Ulema, issued a fatwa yesterday on the dead duck Oil Law. The Iraqi oil workers have opposed this law attempt to rob the the Iraqi people blind from the beginning.
More after the jump....
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Baghdad, 4 July (AKI) - Iraq's Council of the Ulema, a group of senior Sunni Muslim clerics led by Sheikh Harith al-Darri, has emitted a fatwa (religious edict) forbidding members of parliament from ratifying a draft law on oil and gas which has already been approved by the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. The crucial oil law that the United States is pressing Baghdad to pass to boost reconciliation between the country's Sunnis and Shiites now goes to parliament for debate.
The council which is the leading Sunni religious authority in Iraq said in a statement Wednesday that "the approval by members of the government of this terrible law is forbidden and null, and anyone who does [vote for it] will be probed and called to account [for this]."
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The fatwa states that anyone who expresses their opinion on the law, let alone approves it, "will incur the wrath of God in that the consequences of the connivance with the enemy in defrauding public wealth will fall on those who commit this crime, which is a betrayal of God, of his Prophet and of all Muslims."
I had the opportunity to meet and converse with Hassan Juma'a Awad of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra about two years ago. This is a man who suffered brutal oppression under Saddam Hussein for his illegal union activity. He was jailed numerous times. It didn't stop him. The Coalition Provisional Authority, upon assuming control in Baghdad, immediately reaffirmed Saddam's 1987 law outlawing trade unions. (Proving, I suppose, that even murderous dictators pass a good law once in a while.) It didn't stop him. Hassan recently led a strike in Iraq -- resulting in warrants for his arrest being issued by the government -- that was barely reported on here. It didn't stop him.
From the oil workers:
Peace be upon you and greetings to you all,
We wish to clarify certain matters relating to events in Iraq for our friends among the members of the US Congress. It is common knowledge that the occupation spared neither the old nor the young, and that Iraq is passing through the most difficult of times because all and sundry are hounding it and covet a share of its riches. We see no good reason for linking the passing of the feeble Iraqi oil law to the withdrawal of the occupation troops from Iraq.
Everyone knows that the oil law does not serve the Iraqi people, and that it serves Bush, his supporters and the foreign companies at the expense of the Iraqi people who have been wronged and deprived of their right to their oil despite enduring all difficulties.
We ask our friends not to link withdrawal with the oil law, especially since the USA claimed that it came to Iraq as a liberator and not in order to control Iraq’s resources.
The general public in Iraq is totally convinced that Bush wants to rush the promulgation of the oil law so as to be leaving Iraq with a victory of sorts, because his project is failing every day and the occupation is collapsing in all parts of Iraq.
We wish to see you take a true stance for the children of Iraq, and we always say that history will remember those who advance peace over war.
With my regards,
Hassan Jum’a Awwad
Head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
The people of Iraq will defeat the Hydrocarbon Law.