An Eye For an Eye

One of the pillars of the culture around here is the principle of “an eye for an eye”. From my perspective, religion is not the chief factor in the strife that occurs around here. Like most religions, people’s secular and personal needs often trump their religion practices. Even in Christianity this applies—not every Catholic has 12 kids and more than one Southern Baptist has had a drink or two. Islam may preach peace and tolerance, but “an eye for an eye” will win out. The scale in which this is practiced over here is largely misunderstood by Americans. We tend to believe in, at most, “a lawsuit for an eye”. In the Iraqi culture, the concept is more cut and dry. If an Iraqi police officer kills a bank robber in the line of duty, then the bank robber’s brother may seek revenge against the police officer’s family. (This partly explains why you see Iraqi Army personnel and Police officers wearing ski masks.) People here, like everywhere else, divide themselves among ethnic, religious and other lines. Here, religion is the main classification, but the killing for a large part is not based because religion. If Iraq were to be all Shiite, then I have no doubt that Persian Shiites would go at it with the Arab Shiites. A side effect of “an eye for an eye” is that it can quickly spiral out of control. A car bomb goes off—a whole lot of people loose their eyes.