Dia Azzawi (b. 1939)

Source- http://theculturetrip.com/middle-east/iraq/articles/10-contemporary-artists-from-iraq-you-should-know/

Dia Azzawl is the most recognized, celebrated, living Iraqi artist. He first came to London in 1976, where he stayed and continued to develop his unique style that Idenifiable as his own. He's one of the most influentual artist working todauy who was born in time to witness the avant-garde artistic community in Iraq crumble. He wrote the manifesto Towards a New Vision. He seeks inspiration from numerous sources which include Sumerian sculpture, archaeology, Picasso, and the most important one is the political tension of the Middle East. His most famous works is Sabra and Chatila Massacre (1982-1983). "His response to
the carnage in the refugee camps in Beirut leaves a distinct quality that is
hard to match; on the huge three-metre long canvas, there is no heroism and no
hope, only bloated, distorted and grotesque figures. Simply put, Azzawi’s
ability to completely open the power of cruel conflicts exudes itself on his
most extraordinary painting."

Sunny Day, 2009, Acrylic on wood

 My reaction to this was eye opening because it was kinda cool to see where he got his inspiration for his painting. And also that he was the most infuentual artist working today. Lastly the coolest thing I thought was cool was that he develop his unique style that is idenifiable as his own.

Christian Population in Iraq in Danger of Being Eradicated in 5 Years

Source-http://www. christian post.com/news/christian-population-in-Iraq-in-danger-of-being-eradicated-in-5-years-147947/

In five year the Christian population will be in jeopardy of being extinct in Iraq. In 2002 there were over a million Christian but present day there are only about 300,000 Christians.  The Aid to the Church in Need said that 120,000 Christian are begin forced to convert to Islam or die. It is said that the Christian population could eradicate if ISIS is not stop. In a report which is titled "Persecuted and Forgotten," Aid to the Church in Need documents the persecution of Christians in Iraq from 2013 up to the present. The UK-based charity enumerates 10 countries in which Christians suffer the worst persecution and Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, and Syria topped the list."  The remaining Christians in Iraq are struggling to make a decision weather to convert to Islam or stay faithful to their religion. Most of the people who are facing this question have fled to other countries because of danger that ISIS poses. This is just sad that reporters have said "every year the Christian population reduces by 60,000-100,000."

I know that this is a short summary but the article wasn't that long but I thought it was important to me because it is just sad how many Christian are getting persecuted for their faith. I hope this is a message to everyone we must stop ISIS because they are harming innocent people everyday. And its so hard for me to hear this since I am a Christian and knowing my brothers and sisters in Christ are in fear of dying everyday but a lot of them aren"t afraid to stand up for there faith. "Never be afraid to raise your voce for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. if people all over the world would do this, it would change the Earth."-William Faulkner

NEWS OCT 18 2015, 2:44 PM ET Miss Iraq Beauty Pageant to Be Held for 1st Time Since 1972

Source- http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/miss-iraq-beauty-pageant-be-held-1st-time-1972-n445771

Women in Iraq are ignoring the death threats from religious extremists to become the first Miss Iraq in almost four decades. In the pageant there are over 150 women that applied which the people running the

pageant says its a chance to "create life in Iraq and revive our country after years of bloodshed and 

internal chaos." Its very sad to say but 15 of the women who had applied had to drop out because of death threats from hardliners and even also barrage of criticism. One the women Shaima Qassem Abdulrahman, said that the controversy didn't keep her from being in the contest. Freshman told NBC news that "Our people are badly in need of such cultural activities. After all we have been through, we need to do something new that would reform our society." Even Abdulrahman and other Iraqis had been directly affected by violence brought to her country by ISIS. She also told NBC News "Two of her cousins were members of Iraq's federal police until they were killed while fighting the militants."  Last year Abdulrahman said five of her fellow women who applied for the pageant had to find new homes because ISIS overran the northern city of Mosul. Abdulrahman explained her decision said that "Such activities can rebuild what has been destroyed." Beauty pageants in Iraq has a long record of history and in the 1930s women applied and competed in monthly events which included "Miss Baghdad" and Baghdad Queen of Beauty. There point to get to the people was that "Our message is to show the world.... That we are a civilized Country." This year when the organizers hold the pageant contest it will hopefully offer a more clam, and fun loving side to their troubled country. The organizers aren't just looking for a beautiful women but a "women who is going to carry the message to the world that we love life.......... She will talk about how great Iraq and Iraqis are, and how Iraqis are struggling to stay alive." Even though we know pageant contest can not solve Iraq security problem, Al-Obaidi said "It could give Iraq a much needed PR overhaul, letting the world know that there's more to the country than strife. For some reason some people think the Middle East is where all the terrorist live and all the wars are but Iraq is trying to change the picture by holding beauty contest. All the women who applied to be in the pageant came from different parts of Iraq so they had all different religion but Kamel said "We do not care what religion they are."  Abdulrahman, had to figure out a way to convince her parents to let her enter the beauty pageant after they tried to banned her from participating. Abdulraham must keep this involvement quiet to some of the neighbors in her neighbors but she said "confident that I am doing the right thing for myself." Also Abdulraham said "the contest is far more significant than most beauty pageants; it could be crucial part of modernizing Iraq. Miss Iraq could enlighten the thinking of Iraqis, especially those who live a life of hundreds of years ago, who do not want to witness a life that is developed and improved."

My reaction to is wow this is very eye opening to see that these women who applied for these beauty pageants in Iraq it more than beauty it could be a chance to tell the world how they and there fellow Iraqis are struggling to stay alive and that Iraq is not connected to all war and terrorism. Even though so of the women who have applied in the pageant have received criticism and death threats some of the women still participate even though they could get killed. And last year some of the contestants had to find new homes because ISIS overran the northern city of Mosul. In conclusion the main thing that I thought stuck to me is the reason why they do the pageants and they do the pageants because they want a chance "to create life in Iraq and revive our country after years of blood and internal chaos."   

ISIL haunts 9/11 anniversary: Our view

Source- http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/09/10/isil-iraq-syria-beheading-terrorism-editorials-debates/71529888/

 Fourteen years go  Sept. 11, 2001 the United States suffered a surprise attack that cost 3,000 american lives by a Islamic extremist group based 7,000 miles away in Taliban. Since 9/11 happen the U.S. invasion chased al-Qaeda out of its most senior leaders, but the most common one we know that they killed was Osama bin Laden in 2011. Well everyone know the group ISIL or ISIS, declared them self by carefully publicizing a video of them beheading captive westerns and burning alive a Jordanian pilot inside a cage. I hate to right this but people don't think this is a enough, ISIS has establish the rape and sexual  slavery of women and girls. And they also"justifying the brutality with twisted readings of the Quran. ISIL even issued a guide with 27 answers to militants’ questions, noting that the females’ “unbelief” makes it legal to enslave them." Just last month ISIS attacked citizen and rival insurgents with mustard gas. And this is crazy to think about but six months before 9/11 ISIS destroy religious structures of Palmyra, and they also decapitated an 83-year-old retired director of antiquities there, which ISIS actions echoed the Taliban's " destruction of giant Buddha statues." Today in are modern world we consider ISIS a representation of evil. Therefore we must not let it take the foothold from which to plot attacks against the United States. But the U.S. is trying in all ways to ultimately defeat ISIS. More than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, People in the U.S have become more understandably alert of sending women and men to fight in the Middle East and its conflicts. Even this has made the President to engross ISIS on the ground expect through proxies such as the Iraqi army and trained fighters in Syria.They ask the U.S and allied airstrikes for patience has the allies painstakingly rebuilding effective Iraqi war. Its scary to say but the tide will turn in indeed and metrics hint at progress.  The administration says "ISIL's movements have been effectively limited in nearly a third of the areas in Iraq it used to control." The U.S. has "assembled a coalition of 62 nations and international organizations to counter ISIL, almost double the 34 nations that rallied behind then-President George H.W. Bush to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1991." Even though we want the struggle against ISIL to be short but its likely to be long and also it will not be won by driving the group out out of its territory that its claim as its caliphate and "by countering the ideology that has brought the group so many followers despite its depravity. Unless the current approach starts to show better results soon, America should prepare to take more aggressive actions, including the use of Apache helicopter gunships to assist ground fights, and deployment of U.S. forces to act as spotters for airstrikes and to bolster Iraqi units."And I must say there's a point to this article and the point is "If there’s one lesson the nation should have learned from that awful day 14 years ago, it’s that the United States cannot afford to ignore a rabidly anti-American terrorist group that has established a haven in a faraway place."

 My reaction to this article really open my eyes to just how wicked ISIS really is and they could of had a part in 9/11. And it makes me sick that people don't think beheading people was enough to them to make ISIS a threat. I believe that one of these days are nation and its allied in the Middle East that we could defeat ISIS and put everyone to rest in the Middle East. To know that don't need to be in fear of getting raped, beheaded, or shot. But most of I would really like the people who read the article to get this one lesson and the lesson is "it’s that the United States cannot afford to ignore a rabidly anti-American terrorist group that has established a haven in a faraway place."

UN report: 15,000 civilians killed in Iraq

Source: Iraq War claimed half a million lives

The number of deaths in Iraq caused by the Iraq war has intense by an controversy, as politics,and a clamor for public awareness has intersected in a heat of debate of conflicting interests. The latest and perhaps the most accurate survey, which was released Tuesday, puts the figure at close to 500,000. Furthermore, a collaboration of researchers in the U.S., said "Canada and Iraq appearing in the journal PLoS Medicine — included a survey of 2,000 Iraqi households in 100 geographic regions in Iraq. Researchers used two surveys, one involving the household and another asking residents about their siblings, in an attempt to demonstrate the accuracy of the data they were collecting." After collecting this data from the surveys, the researchers concluded about 405,000 deaths, also another 55,800 projected deaths from an extensive migration in and emigration from Iraq occurring from an result of war. They estimated that 60% of the deaths were violent, with the other 40% occurring of health-infrastructure issues that arose of an result of the invasion. The point the researchers emphasized in discussing their research is "since the figure is higher than those found in previous studies."

My reaction to this article is its pretty amazing to see that these figures of studies is higher than those found in previous studies. And I must say that war must stop its claiming thousands of lives of innocent men, women, and children. They are being rip from there houses and being killed. It just doesn't make sense why they want to kill people that aren't involved with the war. They are just trying to escape the war so they can live a better life where they aren't in fear of dying.

Truck bomb kills scores at market in Baghdad's Sadr City

Source-http://www.france24.com/en/20150813-truck-bomb-kills-scores-market-baghdad-sadr-city

It happen on a Thursday morning in a popular Baghdad food market killing at least 67 people. The "police officials said, in on of the deadliest single blasts in the Iraqi capital in years". Also nearly 152 people were wounded at the market which was the main centre for food and produce sales in Baghdad. Right after the accident residents of the Shiite community rush to the scene of the accident carrying the dead people in trash bags and sending the wounded people to the closest hospital. The truck that caused the explosion was a refrigeration truck, so it was hard to distinguish it from the other trucks that were delivering produce to the market. At first no one step forward to claim that it was them who did it "but Islamic State militants commonly target military checkpoints or predominantly Shiite neighborhoods such as Sadr City, with the goal of sending a message to the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad."

My reaction to this horrific scene is just why would somebody want to harm innocent people. Its so crazy just to see how many people were injured and killed, 67 people died and 152 were injured. And this article makes you think it could have been children who got killed, women, and men. Also the market place was a main centre for food and produce sales in Baghdad, where will they go to get food for the week because its says in the article "The blast incinerated much of the market, leaving charred wooden market stalls and scattering fruits and vegetables far around it." Further more, in the article one of the officers said "On Thursdays the market is especially crowded because people come from the other provinces to stock up on food for the weekend." I just wondered what was going on in the person mind when he set the explosion off.