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Anti-US cleric rallies recruits for Islamic army
EFL
Around 10,000 young men have come forward to join an "Islamic army" in the holy city of Najaf, according to Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who is trying to become the unchallengeable leader of Shia opposition. Mr Sadr has denounced the country’s US-appointed governing council as a puppet. Opposition to the Americans in the Shia south remains largely peaceful, although volatile, but hints of potential trouble are growing.
(gleefully writes the al-Guardian)
Few cities welcomed the fall of Saddam Hussein more enthusiastically than Najaf, and few of its powerful clerical dynasties were more delighted than the Sadrs - Saddam had killed two of their ayatollahs. It is in this devout environment that the 30-year-old Muqtada al-Sadr is taking advantage of the reputation of his father, Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999 along with one of Mr Sadr’s older brothers.
Riding his dad’s coat tails.
Mr Sadr has been putting pressure on the Americans using the Shia tradition of mass demonstrations, of the kind which helped to bring down the Shah of Iran in 1979. In a recent sermon, held in the nearby mosque of Kufa, he urged volunteers to come forward and join an Islamic army. He called it the "army of al-Mahdi", the so-called "hidden imam" who disappeared in AD874 and is expected to return one day, like a messiah, to save the world.
So does that mean it’s a "hidden" army?
In the following week’s sermon, according to Mr Sadr’s spokesman, Sheikh Aws al-Khafaji, the cleric was able to thank the 10,000 volunteers who had come forward.
So did they all show up at once, or did they sign up one at a time? Anybody seen them? Oh, I forgot, it’s a "hidden" army.
Exactly what kind of force Mr Sadr has in mind remains obscure, since he is wary of courting arrest by US forces. "I can’t say what weapons the army will have," Mr Khafaji said. "It will not fight with sticks, and it is not just a large crowd of protesters. It is an army."
"Trust me, I’m a cleric."
As a crowd of young men, many in Shia turbans, milled about in an anteroom, the spokesman added: "Muqtada wants them to get out of the cities, but not out of Iraq now. Having troops in the cities frightens people. For the time being Muqtada is not considering calling for jihad against the US occupation. We want to prove we are peaceful if they are peaceful."
We’re very peaceful. You’re still breathing, aren’t you?
At the US marine base on the edge of Najaf, Colonel Christopher Conlin said Mr Sadr was "an immature kid, manipulated by others". He pointed out that there have been no fatal attacks on US troops in Najaf or any cities in the Shia south. He is also happy that the protests which racked Najaf last week have died down. Nearly two weeks ago, several thousand people gathered in the city in response to a call from Mr Sadr on local TV claiming the Americans had surrounded his house and were about to arrest him. Col Conlin said there had been more US troops on the streets only because of an unannounced visit by the US deputy secretary of state for defence, Paul Wolfowitz. He subsequently sacked the TV director for incitement and broadcasting untruths.
"There were no protests this weekend," the colonel added. "It was because the city’s respected citizens and the town council told people not to do it. The last thing the other clerics want is having people create trouble." Col Conlin said many people who attended protests last week were from the poor and largely Shia areas of Baghdad where Mr Sadr’s father set up extensive mosque-based welfare systems in the 1990s, as Iraq was suffering from sanctions. They also included Sunnis bussed in from Falluja, Mosul and Tikrit.
Bussing in protestors from out of town, huh. Wonder where they learned that?
Mr Sadr’s murky relationship with Iran is also causing the US concern. He was given a high-level welcome in Tehran three weeks ago, although the Iranian authorities say they are trying to restrain him.
Sure you are.
In the streets around the Imam Ali shrine, opinions of Mr Sadr are divided. Some deplore the splits in the Shia community.
"Most demonstrators are not from here," said Thu-al-fiqar Mohammed, who runs a mobile phone shop. "They see we have stability and order and are just trying to sow confusion."
Can’t have stability and order without holy men in turbans running things, it sez so in the book.
Posted by: Steve 2003-07-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=17126