Iraqis… united by sport
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The culture of Iraqi society is based on useful and enriching diversity, and it is reflected in the behavior and character of Iraqis in a clear and noticeable way. Iraqi society, with its Arabs, Kurds, and all its sects, sects, and components, was coexistent and harmonious with itself before the year 2003, but after that, its balances regulating its harmony and historical coexistence were damaged, and the Iraqis divided into different ways.
The Iraqi historian and social scientist, Dr. Ali al-Wardi (1935-1995), who adopted Enlightenment social theories and combined clarity of thought with simplicity of style, described the character of Iraqi society in the best way, and diagnosed its intellectual and moral effects in a very precise manner. He moved the inhabitants with his sharp criticism of this society, Especially when he analyzed the type and style of the Iraqi personality in his book “A Study in the Nature of Iraqi Society,” published in 1965, when he described this personality, saying that it differs from any other personality in the world.
Al-Wardi saw that the Iraqi was extremist in everything, in his courage and lack thereof, in his generosity and miserliness, in his patriotism and his abandonment of it, in his religiosity and shamelessness… He was also very emotional, but violent to the point of bloodiness… and so on. Or, very briefly, they are characters in one character! In this regard, Al-Wardi says in a criticism that is not devoid of harshness and exaggeration: “Iraqi society suffers from duality in a concentrated and deep-seated way. The Iraqi is very obsessed with ideals in his speeches and writings, but at the same time he is one of the most A deviation from it!
The Iraqi people, when their national team wins over their opponent in a sports game, fill the squares, cities and streets with their joy and unite with all their regions, governorates, nationalities, religions, sources and sects… and rally as one behind their sports team, supporting them strongly, inside and outside Iraq, and excelling in encouragement, whether with national anthems or Popular songs, or encouraging sports phrases… The celebration turns into a carnival performed by one national band in the colors of the Iraqi spectrum, under the one Iraqi flag, with a unified voice to encourage their qualified team, which includes players from different nationalities, sects and regions.
In this context, I once met, several years ago, a former Peshmerga fighter, who was over eighty years old, and he told me: We were fighting against the Iraqi army fiercely in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, but when the Iraqi team played with another country’s team, we would stop. We stop fighting and devote ourselves to watching the Iraqi team, and when they win, we fire bullets in the air, rejoicing and rejoicing over the victory, then we return to fighting relentlessly! In politics, Iraqis are divided and quarreling, at home and abroad, over most national issues and political and sectarian matters, and their country is still suffering from sectarian quotas, sectarian tension and tribal strife. So far, they have not succeeded in electing a president for Parliament after its president’s membership was revoked.
If the Iraqis rally around their national institutions, as they rally around their team's coach and players… they will unite on the path and approach of their country, away from the urgent national, sectarian and sectarian differences that divide and destroy nations!
*Saudi writer
#Iraqis.. #united #sport