Baghdad residents hope for peaceful Ramadan

The holy month has been marred by violence since 2003.

Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD — Car bombings and killings have cast a shadow on Ramadan here since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But now, with a decline in the bloodshed, ordinary Iraqis are hoping Islam’s holiest month will be reminiscent of calmer times.

This year, people are looking forward to more relaxed nights with family and friends. A total of 430 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police nationwide were killed last month, compared with 1,860 during the same period last year.

Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset in Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar calendar. The faithful mark the period when the Prophet Mohammed is said to have received the first revelation of the Quran by asking forgiveness for their sins, performing good deeds and helping the poor. The holiday began Monday for the country’s Sunni Arabs and Tuesday for the Shiite majority, based on when each sect’s senior clerics received reports of the sighting of the crescent moon.

“This Ramadan, we have confidence in our government,” said Akram Nouri, a political-science professor at Baghdad University. “We feel they are capable of managing any riot that may occur. There are many changes. The displaced are returning to their homes.” Qassim Mohamed, who owns a clothing shop in Baghdad’s Karada district, said that, although he was happy with the drop in violence, he still wished for a steady supply of electricity, because blackouts and reliance on generators in the unbearable heat made it difficult to fast.

“Of course this makes Ramadan even harder for us,” he said. “We want better services and, most importantly, electricity.”

Muqdad Hammed, 23, said he would never have thought of going out last year during Ramadan. Now, he is eager for the nightly breaking of the fast. “We hang around in alleyways as late as 1 a.m. playing the traditional games,” he said. In Baghdad’s eastern neighborhood of Shaab, Ali Mohammad, 24, said that, despite high food prices, he wanted to take his family out to celebrate in parks and restaurants.

“There will be no bloody explosions and killing. I’m optimistic that Ramadan will be full of prosperity and peace for all,” Mohammed said. “Nothing bothers me in Ramadan; just the heat.”

A palpable desire for better governance and improved services was voiced in quieter parts of the country, including the Shiite Muslim shrine city of Najaf.

“Traveling to the capital was a problem a year ago, but not anymore,” said Dr. Ahmed Jaafar, reflecting on attacks that once targeted Shiites heading to Najaf.

But improved security is not enough, he said.

“There is the unsolved dilemma of electricity, which we don’t see a solution for in the horizon,” he warned. “There is also the problem of administrative corruption and the political problems.”

Tuesday was not free of violence. Four civilians and a soldier were killed in three bombings around the capital.

In the northern Iraq city of Mosul, a truck bomb targeting an Iraqi army convoy claimed the lives of four civilians. A second car bomb in the afternoon killed a soldier in the city.

Late Monday, a teenage suicide bomber, posing as a perfume seller, attacked a leader of the U.S.-funded Sunni paramilitary groups, called Sons of Iraq, in Tarmiya, outside Baghdad.

The bomber killed one Sunni fighter and wounded the Sunni paramilitary commander, Emad Said Jassim, whose leg, riddled with shrapnel, had to be amputated.

Four of Jassim’s fighters and three civilians were injured.

The U.S. military reported the death of a U.S. soldier in a non-combat-related incident Tuesday, raising American troop fatalities here to 4,152 since the 2003 invasion.