And another report from Baghdad

This one from Melik Kaylan in today's Wall Street Journal:

Among the agonies imposed on Baghdad by tormentors in the guise of self-appointed religious enforcers is the proscription of fun. Novelty, convenience, any kind of post-Quranic ease from hardship infuriates them. Ice cream is an abomination, as is mechanized garbage collection, because such delights didn't exist in the time of the prophet. A story is told that last year, on a road overtaken by jihadis, a DVD purveyor was ordered to close because DVDs didn't exist in the time of the prophet. "Neither did the BMW you drove up in," he responded. "When you come back and tell me again on a camel, then I'll listen." They shot him some days later, for his insolence.

Having set the scene, Malik then goes on to tell of his tour of Baghdad's few art galleries. Here is an excerpt:

Salam opened his [art] gallery in 2004 and closed it in fear, in early 2006, after two employees were killed. It hasn't reopened since. "I invested everything," Salam says. The place remains pristine, perfectly curated with sculptures and paintings in several rooms untouched and unshown for eight months. "This street, there's no embassy; the terrorists run around," he says. "I am just a private project. I wait every day. The terrorists don't like art."

Looks like now there is a full-blown insurgency raging against Al Qaeda's occupation of Iraq...

More and more Iraqis seem to be taking up arms in order to prevent Al Qaeda from turning their homeland into their version of hell, I mean, Islamic paradise on earth. From the Associated Press:

A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

Members of al-Qaida, who consider the district part of their so-called Islamic State of Iraq, were preventing students from attending final exams, shooting randomly and forcing residents to stay in their homes, the councilman said.

Let's hope the residents of the Swat Valley in Pakistan draw strength from this news too. See posts below if you don't know what I'm talking about here.

Baghdad

Here's another vision of Baghdad, direct from Baghdad Artist:

Baghdad, moments in time, mystical, mythical, lost but never forgotten. Captured beauty, confined within, seeking to break from tragedy, to be revealed again.