Dean's World

Welcome to the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the best posts from Iraqi bloggers. This week we've got devil-worshippers, reactions to the events of the week in Syria and Egypt, the power of blogs, a blogger taking a break, and a new blogger starting out.

Abu Khaleel of Glimpse of Iraq fills us in on the Yazidis, a minority religious sect in Iraq. The Yazidis are popularly considered devil-worshippers (which the Yazidis themselves vehemently deny). Don't bother applying—they don't accept converts.

Najma of A Star From Mosul updates us on her school, Syria, and Lebanon.

Husayn of Democracy in Iraq (is here) gives us his thoughts on Syria, Iran, and Egypt. He has some advice:

For this reason, I ask you all to keep an eye open to the peoples voices in the Middle East. Do not entirely rely on what the news tells you, I have learned that no matter where you are in the world, the news only looks for something that catches your eye. It is for us to be smarter than them. Understand that people all over the Middle East want democracy and freedom, not just Iranians, and try to support them in whatever way you can.

I seem to recall American bloggers making very similar observations. How did that come out, anyway?

You must have read this by now but if not make sure you check out Mohammed of Iraq the Model's essay Blogging vs. Terror. Here's a sample:

Most of the terror activities are run from bases in Syria and a few other places outside Iraq but the future blogs will be here right on the event spot itself. The people will have the ability to show their activities and thoughts and publish them faster and more often than the idiotic terrorists and this way the people (the freedom lovers) will feel stronger and more united and this can make them even more determined to confront the threats.

We've already seen this happening in a limited manner through the number of blogs that are linked to by the friends of democracy website; they were able to get the news to the readers way faster than the media did. One blog has exposed a few aspects of the crimes of the Syrian regime against the Kurds in Syria and today, one blogger from Najaf was the 1st source to publish pictures for some terrorists trying to enter the Iraqi lands from Saudi Arabia.

The blogs can be a powerful weapon in the face of terror and we will have our network which will be for sure stronger than the terrorists'. There is just a few of them while we are the majority and this was seen clearly on the great elections day. All we have to do is to organize ourselves using what modern technology has offered us.

Oft said but still true: read the whole thing.

Kurdo is hanging it up for a while.

Ali of Iraqi Liberal has a worthwhile post about the ongoing activities of Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Raed Jarrar doesn't like making Saturday the second day of the weekend in Iraq.

It is more regular, and culturally appropriate, to make Friday as THE holiday, and Thursday as an additional weekend day or at least a half working day, so that people can leave work early and get ready for the Thursday's eve.

The Bush administration decided to make Saturday as the day off, they didn't even wait until the fake Iraqi "elected" government started functioning!

There's a new Iraqi blogger posting: A Free Writer who posts in Arabic and, less frequently, in English (hat tip: Live From Dallas). Check him out.

Dave Schuler posts regularly to his own weblog, The Glittering Eye. The Carnival was originally conceived by Ryan Boots.