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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Shia businessmen resurgent |
| 2004-02-14 |
| Edited for brevity. Room 1503 at the Ishtar Sheraton hotel in downtown Baghdad was a bit of a mess. But the mess had promise not seen in any Iraqi hotel since the 1970s. Italian marble tiles lay piled in the center of the room on a recent morning. Next to them was a stylish white bathtub. On the balcony, workers stood on newly laid terracotta tiles, preparing to install dark wood shutters. The room would have a minibar, its designers said, German designer bathroom fixtures, an electronic safe and a keycard door. It would look just like a business hotel room anywhere else in the world. But it would be a first for Baghdad. Room 1503 is a model put together by International Trade Investment (ITI), an Iraqi company bidding for the $7-million contract to renovate the high-rise hotel, which looks like it hasn’t been painted for a couple of decades. ITI is owned and run mainly by Izzat al-Shahbandar, a Shia Muslim businessman who left Iraq in 1981 and only returned after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime last year. Shahbandar, who wears well-fitted suits and smokes cigars with a studied relaxation, is among a new wave of Shia businessmen achieving success here. As Iraq’s Shia majority grows in political and religious power, long-suppressed Shia business owners also are quietly taking advantage of enormous new opportunities for making money in Iraq. Many, like Shahbandar, have returned to Iraq after years overseas accumulating experience and contacts; others languished under Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated regime cut Shias out of profitable businesses. "It will lead the Shia to become more powerful in Iraq," said Shahbandar’s nephew, Ahmed Shahbandar, 29, director of ITI’s commercial section. "The political power of the Shia must be supported by the strong economic power of the Shia in order to be secure." Ahmed’s friend and business partner, Mahmoud Khozai, 40, explained that the Shia business community must rely on good relations with leaders of the sect’s religious hierarchy. "The businessman needs the religious powers to support him," said Khozai, who is starting work on setting up an airline for ITI. "They need the ayatollahs. For people to trust these business people they need good relations with the ayatollahs." Iraq’s powerful Shia clergy have something to gain from the businessmen, too: Shia tradition holds that a man must give 20 percent of his income to the poor, usually through the clergy. ...who will ensure that the poor see about five percent after administrative costs according to the universal practice. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #1 Let's all get together and make money in peace. Yeah! If you want to do a double tithe... mo power to ya. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-14 11:20:37 AM |