Whether the participants, as a population, are irrelligious or very religious cannot be answered without more detailed information. Also, framing the question an "either irreligious or very religious" is to put forth a false dichotomy. Nevertheless, the participanting population surely were in some meaningful sense Muslim. Therefore, understanding the desecration of corpses as an expression of hatred for Americans even at the cost of disgracing oneself before God must be understood as a reasonable interpretation of the recent events in Faluja.
Ummm - the fact that they were waving banners of their local Imam and the head Imam for the whole region probably gives clues.
I gather that the footage wasn't shown very much in the USA, but what our late night news showed made me want to turn the place to glass...
They made a big deal of their Islamic conviction during the whole thing, including holding up small books that I took to be copies of the Koran over their heads as they yelled slogans to the effect that only their holy leader had any jurisdiction in Iraq.
Changed my whole political views on the middle east in 2 minutes.
Russell C.
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