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Sheik Sattar: Bloody Debt Due |
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Written by JD Johannes
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Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
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Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was murdered in Ramadi by a car bomb attack.
The perpetrators of the attack obviously thought the death of the man who worked hard to organize and sustain the Anbar Awakening was a tactically wise move.
But strategically the murder of Sattar will likely fail.
The Awakening has its roots in the murder of a Sheik Abu Ali Jassim in August of 2006.
The big question: Who is the murderer or the prime suspect at the moment?
If Al Qaida, the murder of Sattar will likely lead to an even deeper blood fued between Al Qaida and the Sunni tribes of Anbar.
Edward Gibbon wrote about the Arab tradition of the blood debt in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
"In private life every man, at least every family, was the judge and avenger of his own cause. The nice sensibility of honor, which weighs the insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of the Arabs: the honor of their women, and of their beards, is most easily wounded; an indecent action, a contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of the offender...the interest and principal of the bloody debt are accumulated: the individuals of either family lead a life of malice and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled." (Gibbon, chapter 50)
I have few doubts that this blood debt will be repaid in full and the interest charges will be steep.
If it is a rival Anbar tribe, then the Awakening could be derailed as the tribes go Green on Green.
The tribes have their own ways for getting to the bottom of these things and I'm willing to bet someone does not have long to live.
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