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| Iraq |
| In Shiite Heartland of Iraq, Volunteers Get Set for a 'Defensive Jihad' |
| 2014-06-22 |
| [NY Times] All factions in the city have started mobilizing, preparing, as they call it, "for war." But, almost everybody here says, the war is against the "terrorists" — the jihadists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who have seized broad stretches of northern territory — and not against Sunnis. This reluctance to lump together the Sunnis of ISIS with the Sunnis of Iraq could suggest that some Shiites, the majority sect in the country, are heeding the call of Ayatollah Sistani and other holy mans to embrace a national identity instead of a religious one, despite months of fierce sectarian battles across Iraq that preceded the ISIS invasion two weeks ago. Several ayatollahs have issued fatwas against anyone feeding the fire of sectarianism. On Friday, a front man for Ayatollah Sistani warned that if ISIS was not "fought and expelled from Iraq, everyone will regret it tomorrow, when regret has no meaning." That day, as the sun was setting, Najaf and the adjacent city of Kufa were bustling with activity to heed that call. In neighborhoods, on soccer pitches and in parades on the main highway that splits the city in half, cheerful Iraqis brandished machine guns, denouncing the "terrorists." Sheikh Foad al-Torfa, a round-bellied man of God, trained on a dusty field in Kufa in military fatigues, a white turban the only reminder of his life as a Shiite Moslem holy man. All around him groups of black-clad men marched in formation. "Who are you fighting for?" a self-appointed drill sergeant shouted. "For Iraq, for Iraq," the men thundered in reply. "When I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt proud, and powerful," said Mr. Torfa, wiping sweat from his forehead. An Iraqi Army belt was strapped around his waist, and every now and then he touched the pistol hanging from it. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Volksstrum redux - prob with same results. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2014-06-22 14:38 |
| #1 There are the jihad-ers and the jihad-ees. Pass the popcorn. |
| Posted by: Squinty 2014-06-22 11:05 |