Big Think

Question: How interested is the average Iraqi in democracy?

Fassihi:    You know, I think that the Iraqis, the average Iraqis, their foremost concern is having security.  I think that’s what they want.  I think democracy and a free parliament and free elections are kind of, you know, not very tangible if you don’t have, you don’t know if you’re going to be alive or if you don’t have water and you don’t have work and you don’t have money in.  So, I think, you know…   And also their vision of democracy, every time there was an election, the results were extremely divided along sectarian lines, so you see that most people are loyal to their sects and to the political parties that represent their ethnicity or their sect.  So, I think, in that sense, there’s a great deal of division and a sense of self interest among the different parties and among different Iraqi people.