PHILLIP ROBERTSON. Selected Stories.

The leader of the Iraqi Cultural Gathering emerged from the courtyard to greet us, blinking in the harsh light. His name was Mohammed Shakir Mahmoud, and he was happy to see journalists because he wanted to talk about his work and there weren't any foreigners coming around to listen.

In a small, dusty office with a computer and a few chairs, Mahmoud said, "We have the idea that every aspect of Iraqi culture was damaged by the dictatorship, that's why we should rebuild the culture and bring attention back to Iraqi civilization. In the past there was a great deal of damage. We were isolated and alienated from each other. That's why we created this organization."

The organization puts out a journal of essays on democracy and Iraqi civilization, where they promote the values of a secular unified country. Mahmoud was not enthusiastic about religion as the basis of government; he thought the federalism expressed in the draft of the constitution was a simple power grab by armed factions. Four other men quietly came into the room to join the discussion, sat down on the chairs and listened while Mahmoud, who works as a newspaper editor, explained what they were trying to do.

"We organized meetings in the Shabandar of writers who had been forced to leave Iraq during Saddam's time. Our basic idea is that Iraqis should understand themselves." Mahmoud's haven in the Shabandar lasted for two meetings and that was it. After that, Hajji Mohammed told them they weren't welcome, that they were causing trouble because he'd been getting threats from insurgent groups. Mahmoud, whose group has about 120 unofficial members, discussed the Iraqi national identity over tea with his friends. Islam and its effect on civilization was the topic of the second, a subject that may have pushed Hajji Mohammed at the Shabandar over the edge. Thinkers who advocate a secular Iraq are being driven slowly underground because their ideas are a threat to the religious fundamentalists in each armed group.

Jarrar Hassan, a forthright middle-aged man who was sitting next to Mahmoud, said, "Hajji Mohammed thinks the threats have something to do with our meetings. I spoke to him and he told me what happened because we have a good relationship. He said, 'If you guys came on Fridays then someone will drop off a bomb and kill all of you. So I closed the cafe.'"

Minka said, "So you are the troublemakers."

"We are honored to be so," Mahmoud laughed. "We are still a small organization. We can't do much. We have no public membership lists and we have not been threatened individually, but as a group we have been accused of being spies for the U.S. and accused of apostasy. In the newspaper, people printed direct threats against us."

As we were leaving, Mahmoud gave us a copy of the Iraqi Cultural Gathering Journal to take with us. It was difficult to leave the men there. They looked stranded and uncertain about the future. We started to make our way out. In the hall, we passed the carefully stationed lookouts, and as we walked by, each serious young man joined the group and walked with us down to the street. Not one of them carried a gun.

The Death of Al Muntanabbi Street was originally published in Salon.com in 2005. In 2003, I was lucky to meet Hamid Al Mokhtar, an Iraqi novelist and poet who had been persecuted by the old regime. Al Mokhtar was returning to freedom after his long stretch in Abu Ghraib prison, only to find that the literary culture he loved was under threat by armed groups. Al Mokhtar took me on a tour of Al Muntanabbi street and explained what was being destroyed. Much of the story takes place in the Shabandar cafe, the center of Iraqi literary life. The book market runs along the street right outside the cafe.

The Shabandar cafe was destroyed on March 5th, 2007 when a car bomb exploded on al Muntanabbi street killing dozens and injuring as many as a hundred people. An Iraqi judge traveling through New York told me that the owner of the Shabandar had been killed in the blast.
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