This means that for many Shi’ites, humanitarian concerns are much more important than sectarianism. I mean help them by any means necessary.” Sources in Baghdad confirm that followers of Muqtada living near Fallujah, in such places as Hilla for instance, have been mobilized to take care of refugees from Fallujah. Sheikh Ahmed al-Misser, leader of Muqtada’s office in Sadr City in Baghdad, has stated publicly that “if the Fallujah people asked for help of any kind, our followers are to help them in any way they can. But the real reason for the sheikh’s arrest is that he had been preaching armed struggle against the occupation.įret not, Aussies: US Navy still far superior to China’sĬompare Sistani’s non-reaction to Muqtada al-Sadr’s. Many Sunnis will inevitably interpret this development as a direct result of the alliance between Sistani and the Americans. The US response was predictable: they raided the Ibn Taymiyah mosque and arrested Sheikh al-Sumaydi. The talk in Baghdad is of Sistani’s silence being widely interpreted by Sunnis as a Shi’ite endorsement of the US attack. Top Sunni clerics such as Sheikh Mehdi al-Sumaydi – the leader of the Salafis in Iraq – are very much aware of the incendiary consequences of Shi’ite – and Kurdish – soldiers fighting in the so-called “Allawi’s army” against Sunnis in Fallujah. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani – Iraq’s top Shi’ite religious authority – has not uttered a single syllable about it. It’s crucial to check how Iraqi Shi’ites are interpreting this “necessity” of reducing Sunni Fallujah into rubble. Whenever a neo-colonial power – or a puppet politician like interim Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi – orders the widespread bombing of civilian areas, as in Fallujah, the rationale invoked is “regrettable necessity.” What is never mentioned is the real objective: collective punishment. – October 14 letter sent by the Fallujah shura (council) to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan We appeal to you to urge the UN the new massacre which the Americans and the puppet government are planning to start soon in Fallujah, as well as many parts of the country.” Almost a year has elapsed since they created this new pretext and whenever they destroy houses, mosques, restaurants, and kill children and women, they said: ‘We have launched a successful operation against al-Zarqawi.’ The people of Fallujah assure you that this person, if he exists, is not in Fallujah … and we have no links to any groups supporting such inhuman behavior. “In Fallujah, have created a new vague target: al-Zarqawi.

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