-Caveat Lector- This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Same old story: families will fight until someone steps in; then they'll fight off the "do-gooder' then go back to fighting amongst themselves. Kinda like the Dems and Reps around the time they voted in the PATRIOT Act. A<:>E<:>R [EMAIL PROTECTED] Iraq Courts Its Kurds With an Anti-U.S. Islamic Edict December 24, 2002 By NEIL MacFARQUHAR KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec. 23 - The Iraqi government unleashed a salvo in the struggle for the hearts and minds of its Kurdish citizens today, gathering hundreds of Muslim clerics in this northern provincial capital to issue a religious fiat saying it was time to fight the Americans even as they prepare for war. The assembly in this somewhat drab city, known more for its vast oil reserves than for any Islamic bent, was a kind of pep rally for prayer leaders, seminary students and other devotees. Each speaker brought much the same message, exhorting the Kurdish clerics to spread the word that anyone who cooperated with the Americans and their designs on Iraq would be considered an apostate. Coming after recent reports that American intelligence officials have been recruiting for a possible invasion force in the autonomous Kurdish region, about 90 miles northeast of here, Iraq is apparently accenting the bond of religion to try to sway its often estranged Kurdish minority toward Baghdad. Organizers said that about 530 of the 600 clerics who showed up were from within the northern area, which Iraq has not controlled since the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. "The Americans have prepared everything to occupy the land of Islam, to occupy Iraq in order to loot its wealth and to license all that God has forbidden," read the fiat, or fatwa. "Fighting them has already become an obligation. We should not stand still and wait and not fight them, as we know very well what they have already done and what they are doing to Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan and elsewhere." >From a vantage point inside Iraq, it was difficult to evaluate what impact the fatwa might have. Given that it reflects official policy, no one was likely to stand up and condemn it. Indeed, each spontaneous outburst from the floor was more volcanic than the next in denouncing the American administration and Israel. One speaker suggested that the clerics deploy their minarets - a reference to the loudspeakers used to broadcast sermons - to "light a fire that will burn the face of the enemy." Furthermore, although fatwas are in theory binding on all Muslims, the force of any individual edict largely boils down to the degree of esteem in which the faithful hold the scholar who issues it. Organizers from the Baghdad-based Popular Islamic Conference Organization said this one was issued by Abdel Karim al-Mudarris, a venerable Sunni cleric of Kurdish origin, said to be 110 years old, whose frail health confines him to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The most noted clerics in Iraq, both Shiite and Sunni, issued similar rulings three months ago, saying it was a religious duty to fight American invaders. Apart from its target audience of Kurds, the fatwa issued today was much the same, giving anyone who opposes the presence of American troops or advisers in northern Iraq religious license to attack them. At least one participant said he left convinced that the fatwa was just and that it would put a religious spin on any future conflict. "This is the real thing, but it will not be applied unless they attack us," said Ali Ahmed Khuduk, a 23-year-old cleric from Sulaimaniya in the autonomous zone. "It will possibly be a religious war." Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, said in a speech in Baghdad today that the American military buildup was aimed at the whole Arab world. "It is a strategic buildup for a war at the level of a world war, which is at this stage targeting the entire Arab nation," he said. Iraq for some time has been seeking to put an Islamic tint on its differences with Washington, so as to rally Muslim support to its side. Religion is a strictly state-controlled affair here, with Saddam Hussein's government denying any links to terrorist figures like Osama bin Laden, despite attempts by Washington to make the connection. At the conference, though, clerics unleashed the kind of vitriolic oratory against the United States and its Israeli allies that has become increasingly common. "Damn the Americans and the Zionists," said Sheik Omar Hussein al-Sangawi, the head of the organization's Kirkuk office, in his sermon. "They want to destroy us, to destroy our people, with their missiles and dangerous weapons, and to impose on us their evil decisions." The cleric said he had gone onto the Internet and discovered to his horror a speech attributed to President Bush in which he boasted of shaving the beards of the faithful in Afghanistan and tearing the burkas off the women, while introducing every manner of moral corruption. He said that the same dismal fate awaited Iraq if the clerics did not get the word out that it was time for jihad. Speaker after speaker suggested that America sought to divide Iraq, and that it was the duty of all Iraqis - whether Kurds or Arabs - to resist. Baghdad's relations with the Kurds soured in the past two decades over various issues, especially the chemical weapons attack on the town of Halabja and what human rights and Kurdish organizations say is a campaign of resettling Kurds away from vital oil reserves. Iraq says it treats all its citizens equally. Virtually every speaker invoked the name of Salah al-Din, or Saladin in English, the Kurdish Muslim warrior who took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders in 1187. Abdel Latif Hayeem, who heads the organization that arranged the conference, said that while he hoped war could be avoided, he equally hoped the fatwa would persuade the Kurds to kill any American invaders - from house to house, street to street and city to city. "The people who came here today are the real Kurdish people, not those who are signing deals with the Americans in the north," he said. "They are traitors." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/24/international/middleeast/24BAGH.html?ex=1041806250&ei=1&en=d8f3d1d98fabf70d HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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