The Iraqis' Stories: Sunnis change names to avoid Shia death squads

Lurking in the small ads on page 10 of Al Taakhi newspaper was an announcement that Umar Salman wished henceforth to be known as Samir Salman. It was among many similar notices of submissions to the office of national identity requesting name changes.

The reason is not fashion or whim; it is because in Iraq these days your name can bring death. How dangerous a name Umar has become was revealed in April when Baghdad police discovered 14 corpses of young men, killed and dumped by the death squads. All were Sunnis shot with a single bullet to the head and left on a garbage heap.

One other thing united them in life as in death: their first names were Umar. And now other Umars are fearful.

In the same half page of small ads, Salman Aggal indicated that he wanted to change his daughter's name. She is called Aisha, also a Sunni name. Abdul Karim al'Ithawi announced his intention to change his Sunni tribal name from Ithawi into the neutral al'Barri. A Christian man announced his intention to change his son's first name, from Michael to Ali.

Behind the mundane notices is a shift in Iraqi society towards a world of concealed identities, religious affiliations and family histories. The name-changes on passports, ID cards, school registers and workplace payrolls are only one subterfuge being employed by Sunnis to protect themselves from the rampant Shia death squads, particularly in Baghdad.

Sunni families in Shia areas of Baghdad that are strongholds of the Jaish al-Mahdi, the militia loyal to the firebrand cleric Moqtadr al-Sadr, have placed Shia religious images on their walls. Sunni drivers in Baghdad, fearful of police and militia checkpoints that may mean abduction and death, have taken to hanging Shia symbols in their cars or playing Shia religious music.

Abu Amir, a Sunni who lives in a Shia neighbourhood in Baghdad, runs a small shop near his house. Most of his neighbours and his customers are Shia. He began by avoiding the local Sunni mosque. Now he and his family have forged national identification cards that suggest they are Shia. The family's real ID is buried away from his house for fear that if a death squad comes they might be found.

"I don't even feel comfortable hiding the original IDs at home," he told the Guardian. "My neighbours know that I am Sunni. But I won't risk being stopped at any Iraqi checkpoint whether it is being manned by forces from the ministry of the interior or the Iraqi army. And that is not to mention an illegal Jaish al-Mahdi checkpoint. It is too risky."

Read the rest at the Guardian