Frankenstein in Baghdad describes the dynamics of sectarian violence—conflict between different religious groups—in Baghdad, in the period preceding the Iraqi Civil War (2006-2008). After the U.S. invades Iraq in 2003, causing the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, different armed groups fight for control in the country. Three groups vie for power in Baghdad: the Islamist Iraqi government, allied with the U.S. military, against Shiite and Sunni militias. In light of this political context, Frankenstein in Baghdad illustrates the ease with which people can turn against each other on the basis of group identity. As the Whatsitsname experiences after eliciting a group following, it is easy to foster divisions among social groups, to the point of sparking armed violence. In this context, although some people succeed in taking advantage of chaos for personal gain, the novel suggests that most people are victims: innocent citizens whose lives are ruled by fear and hatred. The only solution to such severe divisions, the novel suggests, is for people to overcome fear of the other and to recognize the value of their common heritage, in its full, religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity.
The Whatsitsname’s experiences highlight how easily people can turn against each other, moved by fear and hatred for people who are different from them. The creature’s first contact with humans takes place through his interaction with the four beggars. One night, after seeing how ugly the Whatsitsname’s face is, four drunk beggars decide to attack him. They intend to kill him because he is “the Other”: instead of showing empathy for this strange creature, they resort to violence because they are terrified by someone with such an unusual appearance. These men’s brutal reaction serves as an illustration of the evil forces that can be unleashed when humans come into contact with someone who is radically different from them.
These reactions also help explain the emergence of sectarian violence. After the Whatsitsname acquires a group of followers, these followers divide into three different groups, each with a different interpretation of the Whatsitsname’s purpose on earth. These divisions soon turn into armed conflict: a small “civil war” erupts among these three factions, each of which wants to impose its interpretation on the others. This event symbolizes the sectarian conflict taking place in Iraq, where three different groups are busy killing each other because of divergences in religious and political beliefs.
At the same time, some people take advantage of this situation of lawlessness, turning chaos into personal profit. Some characters, like Faraj the realter, capitalize on the political instability for their own economic gain. Faraj appropriates houses that people have abandoned after fleeing violence. Over time, Faraj increasingly takes on role of a gang leader: he intimidates others—such as the members of a state-sponsored NGO who want to buy Elishva’s house—in order to defend his territory. The absence of the rule of law benefits him, allowing him to pursue his own interests without worrying about legal sanctions.
In turn, people such as Brigadier Majid and the editor Saidi modify their political and religious allegiances as a function of changing circumstances. Despite being a member the former Baathist regime, Brigadier Majid is now allied with the Americans. Similarly, Saidi maintains a large network of contacts, including American officials, despite claiming to be opposed to the American presence in Iraq. Neither man is committed to stable ideological principles. Rather, they are willing to collaborate with anyone currently in power—whether the Baathist, the Americans, or a future Iraqi government—in order to promote their personal career.
In addition, some groups not only benefit from lawlessness, but also promote it. According to Saidi, the American military in Iraq seeks to create enough chaos among Shia and Sunni militias to hold onto power. Maintaining an “equilibrium of violence” among rival groups gives the Americans a position of authority, allowing them to defend their own interests in this foreign country.
In this context of political and economic rivalries, putting an end to these divisions involves eradicating fear and celebrating cultural diversity as a common heritage, a source of strength instead of hatred. One day, dozens of people die on the Imams Bridge because rumors about the presence of a suicide bomber caused people to panic. Commenting on this tragic event, journalist Farid Shawwaf argues that the root of violence in Iraq is fear. Only by eradicating fear—for example, the fear and hatred that leads people to kill those who do not agree with their vision of religion or politics—will it be possible to build a new, more peaceful country.
Some symbolic events provide a ray of hope in this bleak environment, highlighting the possibility of peaceful coexistence. In Hadi’s house, different symbols of religious affiliation hide behind each other: on the wall, the Throne Verse of the Quran covers the statue of the Virgin Mary, which, in turn, is placed on top of the representation of a Jewish candelabra. This combination of multiple religious symbols in the junk dealer’s house serves as a symbolic representation of peaceful coexistence: it is possible for people to live among a variety of religious faiths. In addition, after a car bombing destroys Hadi’s home, people discover an important archeological ruin hidden beneath the house. This series of events can be understood as a symbolic representation of the current state of Iraq: Iraqis’ true, communal sense of belonging is hidden away behind a proliferation of religious creeds. Beneath religious differences and violent conflict lies a common heritage, buried under the violent divisions destroying the country.
The novel thus suggests that Iraqi citizens should reclaim their common heritage and seek to live in harmony with each other, regardless of their religious identity. However, it also concludes that this is unlikely to happen any time soon, because everyone is too busy protecting themselves from bloodshed and destruction.
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Power, Authority, and Social Divisions Quotes in Frankenstein in Baghdad
The shock of Nahem’s death changed Hadi. He became aggressive. He swore and cursed and threw stones after the American Hummers or the vehicles of the police and the National Guard. He got into arguments with anyone who mentioned Nahem and what had happened to him. He kept to himself for a while, and then went back to his old self, laughing and telling extraordinary stories, but now he seemed to have two faces, or two masks—as soon as he was alone he was gloomy and despondent in a way he hadn’t been before.
If the argument was interrupted, Elishva would argue with herself instead or grab hold of one of the women in the church to listen to her fiery sermon about how she refused to leave her home and move to a place she knew nothing about. Father Josiah encouraged her to stay, because he saw it as a religious obligation. It wasn’t good that everyone should leave the country. Things had been just as bad for the Assyrians in previous centuries, but they had stayed in Iraq and had survived. None of us should think only of ourselves. That’s what he said in his sermon sometimes.
Although he had clout in the neighborhood, he was still frightened by the Americans. He knew they operated with considerable independence and no one could hold them to account for what they did. As suddenly as the wind could shift, they could throw you down a dark hole.
But there were two fronts now, Mahmoud said to himself— the Americans and the government on one side, the terrorists and the various antigovernment militias on the other. In fact “terrorist” was the term used for everyone who was against the government and the Americans.
Honestly, I think everyone was responsible in one way or another. I’d go further and say that all the security incidents and the tragedies we’re seeing stem from one thing—fear. The people on the bridge died because they were frightened of dying. Every day we’re dying from the same fear of dying. The groups that have given shelter and support to al-Qaeda have done so because they are frightened of another group, and this other group has created and mobilized militias to protect itself from al-Qaeda. It has created a death machine working in the other direction because it’s afraid of the Other. And we’re going to see more and more death because of fear. The government and the occupation forces have to eliminate fear. They must put a stop to it if they really want this cycle of killing to end.
“It was the Sudanese suicide bomber who caused his death,” Hadi said confidently, trying to exploit the situation to his own advantage.
“Yes, but he’s dead. How can I kill someone who’s already dead?”
“The hotel management, then. The company that ran the hotel.”
“Yes, maybe. But I have to find the real killer of Hasib Mohamed Jaafar so his soul can find rest,” said the Whatsitsname, pulling up a wooden crate and sitting on it.
The Whatsitsname talked about the night he met the drunk beggars. He said he tried to avoid them, but they were aggressive and charged toward him to kill him. His horrible face was an incentive for them to attack him. They didn’t know anything about him, but they were driven by that latent hatred that can suddenly come to the surface when people meet someone who doesn’t fit in.
The young madman thinks I’m the model citizen that the Iraqi State has failed to produce, at least since the days of King Faisal I.
Because I’m made up of body parts of people from diverse backgrounds—ethnicities, tribes, races, and social classes—I represent the impossible mix that never was achieved in the past. I’m the first true Iraqi citizen, he thinks.
He turned to Mahmoud and said, “Brigadier Majid is one of the people you’ll have to get used to dealing with.”
Mahmoud said nothing but waited for further explanation because he didn’t plan to see Brigadier Majid and would try as far as possible to make sure that kind of meeting didn’t happen again.
“There are people like him in our world,” said Saidi, “and we have to learn how to deal with them tactfully, how to get along with them, how to accept that they exist.”
Yes, for a year or more he’s been carrying out the policy of the American ambassador to create an equilibrium of violence on the streets between the Sunni and Shiite militias, so there’ll be a balance later at the negotiating table to make new political arrangements in Iraq. The American army is unable or unwilling to stop the violence, so at least a balance or an equivalence of violence has to be created. Without it, there won’t be a successful political process.
Anyway, the best way to protect yourself from evil is to keep close to it. I humor him so he doesn’t stand in the way of my political ambitions, and so he doesn’t put a bullet in the back of my head, fired by one of those fat guys with shaved heads, in response to an order from the Americans.
There were people who had returned from long journeys with new names and new identities […]. There were people who had survived many deaths in the time of the dictatorship only to find themselves face-to-face with a pointless death in the age of “democracy”—when, for example, a motorbike ran into them in the middle of the road. Believers lost their faith when those who had shared their beliefs and their struggles betrayed them and their principles. Nonbelievers had become believers when they saw the “merits” and benefits of faith. The strange things that had come to light in the past three years were too many to count. So that Daniel Tadros Moshe, the lanky guitarist, had come back to his old mother’s house wasn’t so hard to believe.
Some claimed it was part of the wall of Abbasid Baghdad and was the most important discovery in Islamic archaeology in Baghdad for many decades. Others ventured to speak, rather boldly, about the “advantages of terrorism,” which had enabled this important discovery. But the Baghdad city authorities ignored all this and took everyone by surprise by filling the large hole with soil. The spokesman for the city authorities said, “We do not take half measures. We’re going to preserve these remains for future generations, and they can judge for themselves how to deal with them. If they decide to demolish the whole Bataween district, that’s their business, but for now we have to repave the street.”
But what if one percent of his story were true? Isn’t life a blend of things that are plausible and others that are hard to believe? Isn’t it possible that Saidi reaching out to Mahmoud was one of those hard-to-believe things?
That’s why Mahmoud didn’t send a hostile response to Saidi’s message, or any other kind of response. He left things in a gray area, like the sky that day, trying to use Saidi’s own style against him, leaving him uncertain.
