Rotting bodies spoil Baghdad's taste for river fish

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - River fish are off the menu in Baghdad.

Dead bodies frequently pulled from the River Tigris have dulled the Iraqi capital's appetite for Masqouf, its popular dish of grilled carp, after clerics reportedly warned that the fish dined on rotting corpses.

"They spread rumors about the fish, that they eat the bodies of drowned people, but this is just a rumor," said Hussein Ahmed, a 62-year-old fisherman, after setting his nets within sight of the heavily fortified Green Zone compound on the banks of the Tigris.

Scores of corpses turn up every week in Baghdad, victims of unrelenting violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs that is pushing Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.

Many are dumped in the Tigris, which flows through the heart of the city and was once lined with restaurants specializing in the Masqouf that people loved to eat on a Friday night.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBUL01883120070710?sp=true

chow down.

for his glorious liberation. When the average Joe 'Murkin starts tuning in to what we have allowed to be done to that country in our name, we are going to be going through something similar to what Germany went through after WWII -- at least I hope so because this country needs to take a look inside and stop responding to something besides fear, fear, fear.