The War Becomes More Unholy

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and 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."