By Debbie Schlussel
Right before America’s first Black President is inaugurated, and while we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it’s important to contrast how America treats its minorities versus how Blacks are treated in Iraq. Yes, this is yet another example of how Bush’s dream of democracy in Islamic countries doesn’t really change repression–it just puts it in the hands of extremists who happen to be elected extremists.
Blacks in Iraq aren’t treated much better than they are throughout the rest of the Islamic world, which represses them and calls them “abed” (slave), from the streets of Baghdad and Riyadh and Gaza City to the streets of Dearbornistan:

For many years, the black residents of Zubayr [DS: Iraq] say, they have lived a second-class existence in Basra province, an area where Africans were first brought as slaves about 1,500 years ago. They hold no political office, often live in crippling poverty and are still sometimes referred to as “slaves” by other Iraqis.

Yet, taking inspiration from Obama’s campaign, a slate of black Iraqis who call themselves the Free Iraqi Movement is making a long-shot run in the elections for provincial legislatures Jan. 31.
“We heard Obama’s message of change,” said Jalal Chijeel, secretary of the political party. “Iraq needs change in how they see their own black-skinned people. We need our brothers to accept us.”

Dream on, Al-Dude.

He said other Iraqis initially “laughed at us for thinking we should be leaders.”
There are no reliable data on how many Iraqis are of African descent. Chijeel said they may account for as few as 300,000 of Iraq’s 28 million people.
The history of discrimination is clearly visible: Many black Iraqis in Zubayr live in stone and mud huts that are little changed since they were built three centuries ago.
Chijeel and others here complain that black Iraqis are denied good jobs, which means many can’t afford to pay for uniforms or books so their children can go to school.
Even the relatively affluent face problems. Khalid Majid, 39, said he took his 6-year-old daughter out of school because she suffered constant harassment from classmates who called her abd, the Arabic word for slave, and other derogatory names.
“It is my wish that she will read and write, but I cannot let her have these . . . problems,” Majid said.
On Tuesday, the Free Iraqi Movement will host some of the 2,500 black Iraqis who live in the neighborhood to watch Obama’s inauguration speech.
They’ll have a feast where candidates will mingle with potential voters, and they plan to perform a traditional dance they inherited from their East African ancestors.
Shihab Musat, 57, will be among those celebrating Obama’s inauguration and voting for the black candidates.
Musat said he remains skeptical that Iraq is ready to accept blacks as equals.
“I don’t know this Obama well, but I hope he will push Iraq’s leaders to treat the black people with respect,” Musat said as he stood outside a one-room house he shares with 14 family members. “My life has not been very different than my father’s. I do not expect my sons’ lives to be much better.”

I suppose they should be thanking their lucky stars (or moongod) that, at least, they’re not being tortured, gang-raped, and hacked to death as the Muslim government of Sudan does to its Blacks.
But it’s important to see the contrast. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. They have extreme. They have Islam a/k/a Jim Crow laws on steroids.