Mosque Outrage Also Brings Solidarity

Mosque Outrage Also Brings Solidarity
*Inter Press Service*
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed

BAGHDAD, Feb 25 (IPS) - Widespread sectarian violence generated by the
recent bombing of the Shia Golden Mosque in Samarra has also brought
widespread demonstrations of solidarity between Sunnis and Shias across
Iraq.

The revered Al-Askariyya Mosque in Samarra, 135 km northwest of Baghdad,
is one of four sacred places for Shias in Iraq.

The mosque was bombed at 6:55am Feb. 22 by men who tied up the guards
and planted the explosives. This being the third attack on the Shias in
as many days, outrage was immediate, violent and widespread.

Bloody retaliatory attacks took the lives of three Sunni Imams and
scores of civilians, while over 50 Sunni mosques were attacked.

Yet the violence led also to demonstrations of solidarity after Shia and
Sunni leaders called for calm and restraint.

Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani called for "easing things
down and not attacking any Sunni mosques and shrines."

Sistani's office was quick to issue a statement: "We call upon believers
to express their protest...through peaceful means. The extent of their
sorrow and shock should not drag them into taking actions that serve the
enemies who have been working to lead Iraq into sectarian strife."

Muqtada Al-Sadr, arguably the second most influential Shia cleric in
Iraq told reporters: "It was not the Sunnis who attacked the shrine of
Imam Al-Hadi, God's peace be upon him, but rather the occupation
(forces) and Ba'athists...God damn them. We should not attack Sunni
mosques. I have ordered the Al-Mahdi Army to protect both Shia and Sunni
shrines."

Sadr returned promptly from Lebanon and called on the Iraqi parliament
to vote the departure of occupation forces from Iraq.

Sunni religious authorities called for peace and asked people to
confront those trying to generate a sectarian war.

Many Arab media outlets blamed the floundering Iraqi government for
failing to provide the security needed to prevent the attacks. But
thousands of people who joined demonstrations blamed American troops for
failing to protect the Iraqi people.

Sunnis were quick to demonstrate solidarity with the Shias in Samarra
and to condemn the mosque bombings. Demonstrations of solidarity between
Sunnis and Shias followed all over Iraq. Some of the bigger
demonstrations were held in Basra, Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Kut, and Salah
Al-Din.

Much of the Shia anger was directed at U.S. forces. In the primarily
Shia city of Kut south of Baghdad, thousands marched through the streets
burning U.S. and Israeli flags.

Thousands of Shias marched through Sadr City, the huge Shia slum area of
Baghdad, shouting anti-American slogans. Sadr City has almost half the
population of Baghdad.

Many large demonstrations were held in Baghdad outside Sadr City.

"Those shrines are very important to all Muslims, not only in Iraq but
all over the Islamic world," 40 year-old merchant Ahmed Hassan told IPS
at a demonstration in Khadamiyah area of Baghdad Feb. 23. "Every Muslim
in Iraq not only criticised and condemned this action, but everyone is
against it."

Thousands of Sunnis joined Shia demonstrations in Baghdad despite moves
by the Iraqi security forces to seal off Sunni areas.

"This is no more than an Israeli kind of act done by the American troops
using some men who were paid," a 54 year-old Shia man told IPS. "It is
not the Sunnis who are responsible, because we know the Americans and
Israelis want to divide us. The Sunnis would never bomb a Muslim mosque."

A 25-year-old woman among the demonstrators was telling everyone she
could that the attack had nothing to do with the Sunni people of Samarra.

"My husband is a Sunni from Samarra who goes to that shrine," said
Hashmia Atimim. "Of course we know it was a foreigner who did this horrible act."

Some of the sentiments at the demonstrations found unexpected if partial
echoes. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a statement that those
who attacked the Golden Mosque in Samarra "have only one motive: to
create a violent sedition between the Sunnis and the Shiites in order to
derail the Iraqi rising democracy from its path."