A Mosul book cafe raises political awareness in the run-up to Iraq elections

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Election hopefuls are using Mosul’s Book Forum cafe to reverse the trend of political apathy among the Iraqi youth. Just 4 years ago, the city served as the capital of Daesh’s brutal caliphate. (AFP)
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Updated 10 October 2021
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A Mosul book cafe raises political awareness in the run-up to Iraq elections

  • Book Forum becomes focal point for political debate before Oct. 10 parliamentary elections
  • The Khutwa Club is helping young Iraqi men and women turn their idealism into action

MOSUL, Iraq/BOGOTA, Colombia: Taking a seat at the top table in Mosul’s Book Forum cafe one evening in September, political blogger Saad Amer introduced his two guest speakers, both independent candidates running in Iraq’s Oct. 10 parliamentary elections.

This was the fifth such event organized by the Khutwa Club, a debating society that meets regularly at the northern city’s popular cafe — its foremost cultural and literary venue.

Since Mosul was retaken from Daesh extremists in 2017, the cafe has become a popular and widely celebrated hub for young activists, academics, journalists and students to share ideas.

In a country where politics is dominated by armed groups and where critics are often murdered with impunity, the Khutwa Club’s success in motivating a mostly apathetic youth is a remarkable feat in itself.

“There is a huge gap between citizens and the political system in Iraq,” Harith Yaseen Abdulqader, the Book Forum’s co-founder, told Arab News during a Khutwa Club event.

“Our goal is to help people look in-depth at the Iraqi political system and how to spread awareness among the people so that they can choose the best candidate for them, to understand the electoral program of the candidates, and understand the gaps in their programs.”

Political education is at the core of the Khutwa Club’s mission. In 2003, after decades of Baathist rule, the US and other Western powers installed a democratic system in Baghdad modelled on their own time-honored institutions.

The tenets of Western-style democracy were alien to many Iraqis, who for centuries had conducted their affairs along tribal and religious lines. Foreign powers, armed groups and corrupt individuals soon took advantage of the situation, fashioning a system that was democratic in name only.




The Khutwa Club offers independent candidates a platform to discuss their programs ahead of Iraq’s parliamentary election. (Meethak Al-Khatib for Arab News)

“The goal of this club is to educate citizens about common political terms, aspects and ideas,” Abdulqader said. “Perhaps a citizen doesn’t know what liberalism is, what civic politics is, or what political Islam is, or the difference between the ruling parties and the Islamist parties.”

There is certainly a thirst for such ideas among Iraq’s swelling ranks of jobless educated youth. Fed up with the country’s ruling elite, young Iraqis marched in their hundreds of thousands in cities across the country in October 2019, demanding the overthrow of the post-2003 order.


ALSO READIraq’s young voters ponder how to effect meaningful change


Although the protests secured the resignation of then-prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the movement soon fizzled out with the onset of the global pandemic and under savage attack by pro-government militias.

Crucially, without a defined political leadership heading the movement, Iraq’s young protesters were unable to translate their energy and idealism into an electoral force capable of making their demands a reality. 

By offering discussions on political literacy and participation, the Khutwa Club and others like it might be the very platforms to make that transition possible.




Hosted by the Book Forum cafe, the Khutwa Club offers young Iraqis lessons on political literacy and participation. (Meethak Al-Khatib for Arab News)

“Maybe what we do here will open horizons for people who want to run for election in the future,” said Abdulqader. 

“We encourage young people to engage in politics. We are trying to create new young political faces with a large support base and with an understanding of the Iraqi political process. Maybe we can be the supporters for these young people if they decided to run for election.

“For more than 17 years we have seen the same political faces. They did not offer anything new. They still made the same fake promises. We need to focus on new faces, especially the young ones. There is a difference between the mentality of a 70-year-old politician and a 35-year-old.”




Election hopeful Asil Al-Agha says independent candidates are unlikely to succeed without a party machine behind them. (Meethak Al-Khatib for Arab News)

Seated in the audience is Obadiah Muhammad, a 22-year-old law student and one of the club’s regular attendees. He is grateful for the opportunity to hear from local candidates running on an independent ticket.

“Mosul suffers from the dominance of big political parties,” Muhammad told Arab News. “I wanted to come today to support independent candidates, to hear what they have to say, to see if I agree with them or not.”

The Khutwa Club is unique in providing a platform for candidates who would otherwise be drowned out by the dominant parties.

“The club offers an environment to exchange opinions and challenges its guests,” Muhammad said. “We did not have such a place before in Mosul and I see it as something extraordinary.”

Mosul, situated in Iraq’s Sunni-majority northwest, was not always so tolerant of political expression. Between 2014 and 2017, when the city was the capital of Daesh’s self-styled caliphate, free speech and democratic participation were brutally suppressed.




Daesh militants brutally suppressed free speech and democratic participation during their three-year rule in parts of Iraq and Syria, with Mosul as their capital. (File photo)

Even before the militants seized control, the city was anything but a bastion of free speech. Saad Amer, the political blogger chairing that evening’s Khutwa Club debate, remembers only too well how dangerous speaking out could be.

“Political thought was forbidden before 2014. Mosul had been controlled by Al-Qaeda since 2009. According to my memory, no one could speak of politics, or discuss secular or liberal ideas. Everyone was afraid,” the 28-year-old told Arab News on the meeting’s fringes.

“Everyone, including me, was just trying to keep up with life here, and when election day came, we would go to vote for a party from our ethnicity to protect us and our rights.

“After 2017, there was a sort of revolution that happened in Mosul. Young people started to feel more of a sense of freedom and more space for free speech, to speak our minds and discuss our thoughts in public.”

Even now, though, the Khutwa Club and its guests face occasional intimidation from forces that thrive in Iraq’s murky political environment.




An electoral banner hangs on the wall of a damaged building in Iraq's second city of Mosul on Oct. 3, 2021, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. (AFP)

“We do sometimes receive threats from certain political parties and some armed groups, but we always find a way to get around this and solve it,” Amer said. “Some of these threats include harsh language, not only for the club but also for the political opinions we have and our criticism of political parties.”

The independent candidates on the podium make a convincing case for a cleaner, fairer and more transparent system in Iraq, doing away with corruption, armed groups and foreign interference. But without a powerful party machinery to back them up, few stand a chance of entering parliament or effecting meaningful change once there.

Asil Al-Agha, 41, is one of the few female candidates standing for election in Mosul. A former member of Nineveh’s provincial council, running on an Iraq Renaissance and Peace Bloc ticket, Al-Agha has proven her mettle as a skilled campaigner, but is all too aware that she must operate within the confines of an imperfect system.

“A big proportion of people here are suffering from poverty and lack of jobs,” she told Arab News at her office near Mosul’s university campus. “Politicians will take advantage of this, promising jobs and money to buy votes.”




An electoral banner hangs on the wall of a damaged building in Iraq's second city of Mosul  on October 3, 2021, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.(AFP)

Al-Agha added: “One of the things that people suffer with here is bureaucratic red tape and corruption in state departments, where citizens are exploited and forced to pay bribes. To say nothing about health. We do not have government hospitals that provide the necessary treatment and good care.

“Even if I made it to Baghdad, it would be very difficult to work on these issues. I have to be strong and have a powerful political alliance where they can pressure others so we can get our rights. A lonely politician can’t get anything done alone. This is why I am running with a party, not independently.”

Iraq’s 2018 election, the first since the defeat of Daesh, saw the country’s lowest-ever turnout. Given the precarious health of Iraqi democracy, change from within may be the best and only hope for educated young Iraqis disillusioned by the failures of the October 2019 revolution.

“We believe that the only way to achieve change is to enter political work and participate in the elections to choose good people to run the government,” said Amer, closing the Khutwa Club event.

“This is the only available option.”

________________________

Twitter: @meethak55 and @RobertPEdwards 


Palestinian president, Gazans call on Leo XIV to pursue late pope’s ‘peace efforts’

Updated 09 May 2025
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Palestinian president, Gazans call on Leo XIV to pursue late pope’s ‘peace efforts’

  • Gaza’s Christians confident new pope will give importance to enclave’s peace
  • Hamas also looking forward to new pope's “his continuation of the late Pope’s path”

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories/CAIRO: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, along with Gaza's Christians and Hamas leadership are calling on the new Pope Leo XIV to pursue the “peace efforts” of his predecessor Francis.
Abbas sent “best wishes for the success of Pope Leo XIV in the pursuit of his noble task and maintaining the legacy of the late Pope Francis,” said in a statement released by his office late Thursday after the Vatican announced the election of a new pope.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a little known missionary from Chicago, was elected in a surprise choice to be the new head of the Catholic Church, becoming the first US pope and taking the name Leo XIV.

Abbas highlighted the “importance of the moral, religious and political role of the Vatican in the defense of just causes,” adding that “the Palestinian people and their right to liberty and independence” should be at the top.

In Gaza, the enclave’s tiny Christian community said that they were happy about the election of a new leader of the Catholic Church. They also expressed confidence he would give importance to the war-torn enclave like his predecessor Pope Francis did.

Members of the clergy hold mass for late Pope Francis at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City on April 21, 2025.

“We are happy about the election of the Pope ... We hope that his heart will remain with Gaza like Pope Francis,” George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, told Reuters.
The late Pope Francis, who campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave, called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war.
“We appeal to the new pope to look at Gaza through the eyes of Pope Francis and to feel it with the heart of Pope Francis. At the same time, we are confident that the new pope will give importance to Gaza and its peace,” Antone added.
War in Gaza erupted when Hamas militants launched an attack against southern Israel, in which 251 people were taken hostage and some 1,200 were killed, according to Israeli tallies.
Since the abductions, Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
Hamas, in a statement, congratulated Pope Leo saying that it looked forward to “his continuation of the late Pope’s path in supporting the oppressed and rejecting the genocide in Gaza.”
The Holy Family Church compound in Gaza houses 450 Christians as well as a shelter for the elderly and children that also accommodates 30 Muslims, Antone said.
Gaza’s 2.3 million population comprises an estimated 1,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox.


UN Security Council urges halt to fighting in South Sudan

Updated 09 May 2025
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UN Security Council urges halt to fighting in South Sudan

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Thursday urged an immediate halt to the fighting in South Sudan and renewed its peacekeeping mission in the warring country for another year.
The UNSC “demands all parties to the conflict and other armed actors to immediately end the fighting throughout South Sudan and engage in political dialogue,” the resolution read.
The text, which called for an end to violence against civilians and voiced concern over the use of barrel bombs, was adopted by 12 votes in favor while Russia, China, and Pakistan abstained.
Rights groups have recently sounded the alarm over the deadly use of the improvised and unguided explosives in the north of the country.
The young and impoverished nation has been wracked for years by insecurity and political instability.
But clashes in Upper Nile State between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, have raised concerns over another civil war.
Thursday’s resolution also extended the UN’s peacekeeping mission, founded in 2011 to consolidate peace, until next April.
It also leaves open the possibility of “adjusting” the force and altering its mandate “based on security conditions on the ground.”
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the international community should use the deployment as one tool to bring the country “back from the brink.”
Shea also said it would be “irresponsible” to continue funding preparations for elections after the country’s transitional leadership postponed any ballot by two years last September.


Morocco commutes sentence of detained former minister

Updated 08 May 2025
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Morocco commutes sentence of detained former minister

  • Mohammed Ziane was convicted on ‘embezzlement and squandering of public funds’
  • His sentence has been commuted from five to three years

RABAT: A Moroccan court has commuted the prison sentence of opposition figure and former Minister Mohammed Ziane from five to three years, his lawyer said on Thursday.

The former human rights minister had been detained since 2022 and served a three-year term in a different case.

Ziane, 82, the former president of the Rabat Bar Association, was convicted on “embezzlement and squandering of public funds,” said his son and lawyer, Ali Reda Ziane.

The charges relate to funds the Moroccan Liberal Party, or PML — of which Ziane was founder and chief — received during a 2015 electoral campaign.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in July last year.

Even with the court reducing his sentence late Wednesday, “it remains heavy,” said his lawyer. 

“He deserves to be acquitted because there was no embezzlement.”

The lawyer said whether the sentences in the two cases would be served concurrently or consecutively remained unclear.

Proceedings in the initial case followed an Interior Ministry complaint on seven counts, among them contempt of public officials and the judiciary, defamation, adultery, and sexual harassment.

But Ziane has alleged that he was detained “because of (his political) opinion.”

The opposition figure had become known in recent years for statements criticizing the authorities in Morocco, particularly the intelligence services.


A US-backed group seeks to take over Gaza aid distribution in a plan similar to Israel’s

Updated 08 May 2025
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A US-backed group seeks to take over Gaza aid distribution in a plan similar to Israel’s

  • The UN and aid groups have rejected Israel’s moves to control aid distribution
  • A US official confirmed the authenticity of the proposal and said the former director of the WFP, David Beasley, is the lead choice to run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

TEL AVIV: A group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza based on plans similar to ones designed by Israel.
The Associated Press obtained a proposal from the newly created group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to implement a new aid distribution system supplanting the current one run by the UN and other international aid agencies. The UN and aid groups have rejected Israel’s moves to control aid distribution.
It was not immediately clear if the proposal from the new group, which is registered in Geneva, would ease those concerns.
Israel has blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for 10 weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians. It has said it won’t allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.
The 14-page proposal circulated this week among aid groups and UN officials lays out plans similar to ones Israel has been discussing privately for weeks with international aid groups. The proposal reveals for the first time plans to create the foundation and names the people leading it.

A UN official said last week that Israel’s plans would “weaponize aid” by placing restrictions on who is eligible to receive it.
Aid workers have also criticized the plans, which would centralize distribution at four hubs under the protection of private security contractors. They say the plans could not possibly meet the needs of Gaza’s large and desperate population, and that they would forcibly displace large numbers of Palestinians by driving them to move nearer to the aid.
Under the new group’s proposal, Palestinians would receive pre-packaged rations, potable water, hygiene kits, blankets, and other supplies at the distribution hubs. The group said it wants to partner with the UN and international aid groups in handing out their supplies.
A US official confirmed the authenticity of the proposal and said the former director of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, is the lead choice to run GHF. The proposal could still be revised and Beasley’s role is not confirmed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to detail plans that have not been made public.
Beasley, a former governor of South Carolina, didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of siphoning off large amounts of aid. The UN and aid workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the UN strictly monitors distribution.
When contacted Thursday for comment about GHF’s proposal, Israeli officials did not immediately respond.
The Trump administration supports the new group’s proposal, said a person involved in it. The person said GHF would work “within the confines” set by Israel on aid but would be “independent and committed to humanitarian principles” — a nod to UN concerns. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan not yet made public.
“This is a new approach with one focus: Get help to people. Right now,” said US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
Ahead of his first trip to the Middle East this week, US President Donald Trump said “a lot of talk” was going on about Gaza and that his administration will soon have more to say about a new proposal. This may include a new push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the release of hostages and an influx of aid to Palestinians.
Who’s involved?
GHF’s proposal names a 10-member leadership team that includes former senior American military officers, business executives and officials from aid groups. At least two of them have ties to private security companies.
Beasley is listed among them, but the proposal says his role is still “to be finalized.” Beasley is also a senior adviser to Fogbow, a private US firm that participated in the short-lived project delivering aid to Gaza by sea via a US military-built pier.
The AP contacted people listed in the proposal to confirm their participation. Only one responded, saying he was “not on the board.” The person involved in planning said the list was still in flux.

How would it work?
According to the proposal, GHF would initially set up four distribution sites, each serving 300,000 people. That would cover about half of Gaza’s population. The system would be scaled up to meet the needs of 2 million people. But the proposal does not give a timeframe. Aid workers warn that food is rapidly running out in Gaza under Israel’s blockade.
The GHF proposal said subcontractors will use armored vehicles to transport supplies from the Gaza border to distribution sites, where they will also provide security. It said the aim is to deter criminal gangs or militants from redirecting aid.
It did not specify who would provide security but said it could include personnel who previously worked in the Netzarim Corridor, an Israeli-held zone cutting off northern Gaza. A private security company, Safe Reach Solutions, has operated in the corridor.
GHF said people will get assistance based on need with no eligibility requirements. This appears to differ from proposals floated by Israel. Aid workers say Israel has said it intends to vet aid recipients and screen them using facial recognition.
What do aid groups say?
Throughout Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the UN and other humanitarian groups have been carrying out a massive aid program. They have trucked in supplies and distributed them across the territory, going as close as possible to where Palestinians were located.
What has chiefly hampered the system, aid workers have said, are Israeli military operations and restrictions on movement, as well as the low amount of aid allowed to enter even before the blockade. Convoys have also been attacked by criminal groups stealing aid, and hungry Palestinians have sometimes taken supplies from trucks.
Aid workers contacted by the AP cast doubt whether GHF would meet humanitarian requirements for neutrality and independence.
Shaina Low, communications adviser for Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the main organizations in Gaza, said aid groups are concerned the plan will be used “to advance military and political goals.”
By forcing the population to relocate around aid hubs, the system would “depopulate entire parts of Gaza” and could be used to potentially expel the population, she said.
“They are framing (the plan) to fix the problem that doesn’t really exist,” she said, referring to Israel’s contention that it must prevent Hamas from taking aid.
The use of private security companies has also alarmed humanitarian workers. While it’s common for private security firms to operate in conflict zones, they have to respect humanitarian law and at a minimum be fully vetted and monitored, said Jamie Williamson, executive director for the International Code of Conduct Association.
Tamara Alrifai, communications director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has led the aid effort it Gaza, said the plan was logistically unworkable.
She said the foundation does not appear able to match the current infrastructure needed to distribute food and address other humanitarian needs.
Alrifai called it “a very dangerous precedent” for countries to use “full siege as a tactic of war” to force the abandonment of “existing aid structures and the entire international system that exists and is recognized and start creating a new system.”


South Sudan clashes stopping aid reaching 60,000 malnourished children: UN

Updated 08 May 2025
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South Sudan clashes stopping aid reaching 60,000 malnourished children: UN

NAIROBI: Intense fighting in South Sudan has prevented desperately needed food from reaching some 60,000 malnourished children for almost a month, the UN said on Thursday.

South Sudan has been wracked for years by insecurity and political instability, but recent clashes in Upper Nile State between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, have alarmed observers.

In a joint statement, the World Food Programme and the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that escalating fighting along the White Nile river — a major transport route — has meant “no humanitarian supplies have reached the area in almost a month.”

The area in the north of the country already had “over 300,000 children affected by moderate or severe malnutrition in the past year” and was at “breaking point.”

“Every day makes a difference for a malnourished child in need of life saving treatment,” said WFP’s South Sudan representative, Mary-Ellen McGroarty.

The agencies said almost 2,000 cartons of lifesavingnutrition supplies had been stolen since the uptick in hostilities.

UNICEF representative Obia Achieng said there was an “unprecedented” break in supply lines due to the ongoing fighting, looting, and disruption of the river route.

“If this continues, we are in danger of simply running out of supplies in counties across the state by the end of May 2025, with potentially catastrophic results for the youngest, most vulnerable children,” Achieng said.

South Sudan has been unstable since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

Kiir and Machar fought a five-year civil war that cost some 400,000 lives, and was only ended by a power-sharing deal in 2018 that has almost entirely collapsed in recent months.