Iraq's leading advocate for democratic values
Mithal Al-Alusi is a very brave man indeed. One of the bravest of the brave.
Despite witnessing his two sons being killed in a carefully-planned ambush, he is determined to continue on the road to Iraqi-Israeli peace that brought the extremists - "fascists", as he calls them in an interview with the Jewish News today - to his doorstep.
Al-Alusi is a friend of Israel in the true sense of the word. He has lost his flesh and blood because he was willing to stare down the haters and travel to the country. He divides his time between Baghdad's "safe" Green Zone and the Kurdish town of Irbil. But nothing appears to deter this modest man from continuing his quest for peace. The odds are stacked against him.
He had to flee Saddam Hussein's Iraq because of a death sentence in absentia. The Iranians and their cronies, who are currently filling the vacuum left by the Americans, are after his blood. Al-Qaeda has already proved how deadly it is in killing his sons. Yet he has become Iraq's chief advocate for liberal values.
He supports a free market, free press, religious pluralism, co-operation among democracies in fighting terror and supporting human rights. If anyone deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, it's Mithal al-Alusi.
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