-/- A Red Line -/-

Never had I fathomed, not even in my remotest imagination, that a day will come when God's houses will be attacked and destroyed. The way they are today, in Iraq...Never.

This was and remains the most unthinkable, unacceptable act to me and to countless others...
This Red Line is now crossed...Crossed, transgressed, trespassed into blasphemy...

In fact, this Red Line was first crossed when the American brave boys started blowing up minarets...The first in Fallujah.

The Red Line was crossed when they desecrated the sacred places, ransacking them, setting them on fire, tearing, spitting and urinating on the Holy Book, painting crucifixes on the walls, stealing Mosques treasuries....And above all, killing people in them.

Worshipers in prayers...Prostrated, curved, curbed upon themselves, bent, rounded up, wrapped upon themselves like in a cocoon, like an infant in an embryo...
In instants of total surrender... Defenseless, vulnerable, fragile...at the Mercy...and killed...

Yes, that day, the Red Line was crossed...

The first act, the one who had cast the first stone, transgressed all red lines.
And since that day , we are witnessing more of the same, spreading like a wild satanic fire, embracing all God's houses, Muslim, Christian...temples, any sanctified corner...Anything remotely sacred.

The rape of the Sacred...The rape of The Sacred, touching the most intimate connection, the closest belief , the "One closer than your jugular vein" of a people... whatever their creed.

I am not even sure you realize what a serious, grave act this is...but then maybe you do. But, I guess your boys are absolved because they are, yet another breed of a chosen people. A bit like your president and your administration, above God - maybe!

And like God, they have their "angels", executing their orders...the new Pharisees of the 21st century.
The "clash of civilizations" you said...so you said...and "Be" and it was...and "Be" and it became...so it became - in Iraq.

Destroy the Temple within and destroy the Temple without...
Destroy the body, destroy the soul. Destroy the "sacred and the profane"...

Never, I would have never thought this to be possible. Iraq has never known anything like that and that despite Her being bloodily invaded before by barbarians...
But never that way, never like this... Never.

I am even too sad to write...What is there to say?
I find myself strangulated by grief, silenced beyond words, sliding into consternation and disbelief...
I find myself torn inside as if a thousand daggers have transpierced me...
I wonder what God feels...I want to tell Him, Her, It...

Dear One, I am so sorry. They have not only destroyed our homes, but they have destroyed Yours as well...
Where are we to go now Dear One? Which refuge? Which direction? Where do we turn? What are we to face?
The roofs have fallen and the skies are uncovered...
And we are like fugitives, running...Looking behind us, in front of us, above us with a sky wide open over our heads and an earth ready to swallow us any moment...

Is there anywhere at all where a Red Line has not been crossed?

We run and run and there are no lines we have not crossed. No borders, no frontiers...
We run and run and they follow us everywhere...Right into our temple within, our temple without, into our beds, into our sleep, into our dreams...into our prayers...

Not a minaret, not a dome, not a church door...Nothing has been left untouched...

We stand, raise our hands to the sky and we receive fire bombs falling into our arms, against our chests, crushing us...
We bow down and repeat the sacred name and arrows pierce our backs in a ritual ablution of blood...
We prostrate down and touch the earth with our foreheads and mines explode in our faces...

Is there anywhere Dear One, that is no Red Line - Anywhere at all?


Painting: Iraqi artist, Thameer Dawood.