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An apocalyptic day in Iraq
Iran Blames Bush - Sunni Shiite Clashes
By Juan Cole
02/22/06 "ICH"
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Shiites came out in the thousands all over the Shiite south on
Wednesday to protest the bombing of the Askariiyah shrine in
Samarra. A Sunni mosque was set afire. and a Sunni clergyman was
assassinated.
The hardline Shiite Mahdi Army has come out of Sadr City and is
all over Baghdad. They are clashing with Sunnis in Basra.
Sunni leader Tariq al- Hashimi threatened reprisals for reprisal
killings.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim blamed the US for holding back the Badr
Corps.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani called for nonviolent street protests
that he must know won't be nonviolent.
Iran is blaming Bush.
The threat of terrorism and attacks on Americans just went way
up.
Shiite protests Roil Iraq
Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally
exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics
are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will
miss.
The day started out with a protest by ten thousand people in the
Shiite holy city of Karbala, against the Danish caricatures of
the Prophet Muhammad. These days, Shiites are weeping, mourning
and flagellating in commemoration of the martyrdom of the
Prophet's grandson, Imam Husayn. So it is an emotional time in
the ritual calendar. when feelings can easily be whipped up
about issues like insults to the Prophet. An anti-Danish
demonstration in Karbala is a surrogate for anti-American and
anti-occupation sentiment. The US won't be able to stay in Iraq
withiut increasing trouble of this sort.
Then guerrillas set off a huge bomb in a Shiite corner of the
mostly Sunni Arab Dura quarter of Baghdad, killing 22 and
wounding 28. Another 9 were killed in other violence around
Iraq. These attacks are manifestations of an unconventional
civil war.
Then real disaster struck. The guerriillas blew up the domed
Askariyah shrine in Samarra. The shrine, sacred to Shiiites,
honors 3 Imams or holy descendants of the Prophet. They are Ali
al-Hadi, Hasan al-Askari, and his disappeared son Muhammad al-Mahdi.
Thousands of Shiiites demonnstrated in Samarra and in East
Baghdad, against this desecration.
The Twelfh Imam or Mahdi is believed by Shiites to have
disappeared into a supernatural realm (just as Christians
believe in the ascension of Christ) from which he will someday
return.
Some Shiites think his second coming is imminent. Muqtada all-Sadr
and his followers are among them. They are livid about this
attack on the shrine of the Mahdi's father.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also a firm believer in
the imminent coming of the Mahdi. I worry that Iranian anger
will boil over as a result of this bombing of a Shiite
millenarian symbol.
Both Sunnis and Americans will be blamed. Very bad
Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan.
Visit his website
www.juancole.com
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