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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
The War Becomes More Unholy
by <http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/>Dahr Jamail
with Ali al-Fadhily
FALLUJAH A stepped up military offensive that targets mosques, religious
leaders and Islamic customs is leading many Iraqis to believe that the
US-led invasion really was a "holy war."
Photographs are being circulated of black crosses painted on mosque walls
and on copies of the Quran, and of soldiers dumping their waste inside
mosques. New stories appear frequently of raids on mosques and brutal
treatment of Islamic clerics, leading many Iraqis to ask if the invasion
and occupation was a war against Islam.
Many Iraqis now recall remarks by US President George W. Bush shortly after
the events of Sep. 11, 2001 when he told reporters that "this crusade, this
war on terrorism, is going to take a while."
"Bush's tongue 'slipped' more than once when he spoke of 'fascist
Islamists' and used other similar expressions that touched the very nerve
of Muslims around the world," Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubayssi of the
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), a leading Sunni group, told IPS in
Baghdad. "We wish they were just mere slips, but what is going on
repeatedly makes one think of crusades over and over."
Occupation forces claim that mosque raids are being conducted because holy
places are being used by resistance fighters.
A leaflet distributed in Fallujah by US forces late November said mosques
were being used by "insurgents" to conduct attacks against "Multinational
Forces," and that this would lead to "taking proper procedures against
those mosques."
The statement referred to daily sniper attacks against occupation forces in
Fallujah in which many US soldiers have been killed.
Local people refute these claims made by coalition forces.
"Fighters never used mosques for attacking Americans because they realize
the consequences and reactions from the military," a member of the local
municipality council of Fallujah told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"Nonetheless, US soldiers always targeted our mosques and their minarets."
During Operation Phantom Fury of November 2004, scores of mosques in
Fallujah were damaged or destroyed completely. Fallujah is known as the
city of mosques because it has so many.
Many of these are Sunni mosques. AMS leaders are now enemy number one for
US occupation forces as well as the Shi'ite-dominated government.
Through continuous arrests of its members and the raids against mosques all
over the Sunni areas of the country, including their headquarters on the
outskirts of Baghdad, the AMS has often expressed feelings of persecution.
On the other hand, the occupation forces have been supportive of clerics
who took part in the political structure that the US coalition created in
Iraq. These include Shi'ite clerics and political leaders like current
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of the Dawa Party. Maliki has called AMS
leader Dr. Harith al-Dhari a "terrorist leader" and a murderer.
Many Sunnis who are more secular also feel persecuted by the occupation.
"I am not a follower of al-Dhari or any other leader," Prof. Malik al-Rawi
of the National Institute for Scientific Research of Baghdad told IPS. "In
fact most Sunnis do not literally follow any leader for religious reasons.
Yet after we found Americans targeting our religious symbols, we had to
stand together around the man who did not sell us to the occupation."
Dr. Rawi, avowedly a secular Sunni, told IPS that the number of Iraqis who
believe the occupation is waging a "religious war" increased dramatically
after the 2004 attacks on Fallujah.
"Those sieges, along with all the events that followed in Samarra,
al-Qa'im, Haditha and now Siniya have led people to think of the crusades,"
he added. "Americans do hate us for some reason and we do not find any
reason but religion."
It is not just Sunni Iraqis who claim that their mosques are not respected
by occupation forces. The mostly Shi'ite city of Najaf was exposed to
massive US military assaults during August 2004. Many attacks came
dangerously close to the sacred Imam Ali shrine, damaging its outer walls.
Other US raids on Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad have infuriated Iraq's Shi'ite
population.
Some Iraqi analysts say the perceived religious conflict seems to have
expanded as the occupation has progressed.
"The world must be aware that this US administration is pushing the
situation to the black hole of a new religious conflict by giving the green
light to their soldiers to attack mosques and arrest clerics whenever they
feel like it," Kassim Jabbar, an Iraqi political analyst from Baghdad
University told IPS.
"Even people with the highest education standards are wondering why US
leaders have not restricted attacks upon religious symbols in our country."
Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist
writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been
covering the Middle East for several years.
source:
http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=10347
===
-muslim voice-
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