Superstition and Religion Theme Analysis

In Frankenstein in Baghdad, religious practices and faith in the supernatural allow the novel’s characters to maintain a degree of agency over their lives, amidst an environment marked by death and destruction. At the same time, although some characters are open-minded and flexible with regard to religion, others are more intractable in their approach to religious rules. This divergence in religious approaches helps explain the potential danger of equating religion with politics. The desire to impose one’s beliefs on others can lead to religious intolerance and, as becomes evident in the context of war-torn Iraq, sectarian violence.

For many people, spirituality allows them to maintain a degree of control over a chaotic environment: they put their faith in religious practices and superstitious signs that reassure them about the future. More than her religious affiliation with the Church of Saint Odisho, Elishva’s strongest spiritual bond is with an image: the picture of Saint George the Martyr. The old lady believes that the saint has the power to bring about miracles. Therefore, she asks him to fulfill her deepest desires: in particular, receiving a sign from her long-lost son, Daniel. Elishva is convinced that the saint is alive and answers her demands. This relationship gives her a sense of comfort and protection. It allows her to hold onto hope, despite the escalating chaos in the country. Similarly, Elishva’s neighbor Umm Salim holds superstitious beliefs: she is convinced that Elishva has special powers, capable of protecting their Bataween neighborhood from violence. Whenever Elishva leaves the neighborhood, Umm Salim argues, bad things happen.

In both cases, some of these women’s beliefs do come true. Two bombs explode after Elishva leaves the neighborhood on two separate occasions, confirming Umm Salim’s beliefs in the old lady’s special protective powers. In turn, the Whatsitsname appears one day, after Elishva asks Saint George to make her son Daniel appear. To the old lady, this serves as proof of her son’s return and of the saint’s spiritual powers. Regardless of the actual truth of these superstitious beliefs, these episodes signal people’s need to trust in something: they need a measure of stability and hope in a world that seems to be so rapidly disintegrating all around them.

Although some people use their spiritual beliefs to promote peace and cooperation, others aggressively seek to impose religious rules on others, which leads to intolerance. Some characters have a flexible, open-minded attitude toward religion and coexist with each other peacefully. For example, even though Hadi leads a dissolute lifestyle, marked by alcoholic excess and sexual promiscuity, his friend Nahem, a devout Muslim who respects the prohibition not to drink, remains close to him. Nahem places the Throne Verse of the Quran, a sacred text, in Hadi’s home, but does not force his friend to modify his behavior. This demonstrates Nahem’s tolerance of religious diversity and proves that it is possible for characters of different creeds to get along perfectly. Similarly, despite attending the same church for many years, Elishva has a flexible, pluralistic attitude toward religion. After she meets the Whatsitsname—whom she believes is her son, Daniel—she gives thanks to God by visiting a variety of houses of worship: Muslim, Jewish, Anglican, etc. Her gratitude is not limited by religious bounds. Rather, she recognizes that all of these religions have in common one thing: the belief in a powerful God, capable of affecting human affairs for the better.

In contrast with this openness, some characters behave aggressively toward those who do not follow their same understanding of religion. For example, Faraj the realter gets angry with the fifth beggar—a man who witnessed the Whatsitsname’s murder of the four beggars—after noticing that the man is drunk. Faraj argues that people like the fifth beggar—and, more generally, people who drink—are responsible for all of Iraq’s problems. Faraj believes that religious rules, such as the Muslim prohibition to drink, should be turned into law, thus forcing everyone to obey fixed religious precepts. Faraj’s virulent speech, which instills terror in the fifth beggar, reveals that some people are intolerant of other people’s religious behaviors and seek to impose their religious views on the entire population, even if this involves the use of force.

Ultimately, the novel suggests that, for all of these characters—as religiously fluid as Elishva or as rigidly intolerant as Faraj—religious, spiritual, or superstitious convictions give stability and meaning to their lives. By providing a stable structure in the midst of anarchy, they make uncertainty and violence more bearable. At the same time, religious extremism also runs the risk of exacerbating divisions and, thus, feeding the intolerance and hatred that pits armed groups against each other. In light of the severity of sectarian violence in Iraq, Frankenstein in Baghdad warns against seeking to impose one’s own beliefs on others. The novel suggests that personal attachments to spiritual beliefs can play a positive role in people’s lives. Yet it also shows that merging religion and politics can have dangerous consequences, if this involves forcing everyone to behave according to one’s personal religious beliefs.