Shi'ite Iraqi Leader Calls For United Resistance With Sunnis

by Aws al-Sharqy

The policy shift -- as Shiites had previously opted for peaceful resistance of occupation -- comes after mounting confrontations between occupation forces and Shiite, particularly the latest clashes between U.S. soldiers and followers of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, which left several Shiites dead and injured.

"The injustices done to us during the era of Saddam Hussein and the religious discrimination we suffered over 35 years of his iron-fisted rule were enough for Shiites not to resist the U.S. forces, who ridded (Shiites) of him," Shiite imam Haidar Abbas al-Husseini told IslamOnline.net.

"Now that the real intentions of the occupation authorities have surfaced -- notably after they have announced that they would stay in Iraq until 2006 and tend to exploit the country's sources -- Shiites and Sunnis must act in unison to drive the occupiers out of the country and break the yoke of colonialism," he told IslamOnline.net.

Shiite scholar Sheikh Mohammad Ali al-Muzaffar said Shiites' position towards the U.S.-led occupation is not different "in essence" from that held by the Sunnis.

"Shiite authority Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim had called for showing self-restraint to put the intentions of the occupiers to the test and to figure out whether or not they came to liberate Iraq," Muzaffar said.

"But as days went by, we found out that the occupation authorities have put on the shelf the idea of liberation and replaced it with a permanent occupation; hence, we felt it incumbent on us to take action and stand up to their plans," he asserted.

Sheik Muzaffar warned the occupation authorities that Iraqis were running out of patience.

"Iraqis of every stripe will not stand the humiliation (of the U.S. occupation forces) We tell the occupiers: 'You should pull out of Iraq, otherwise Sunni and Shiite fighters would wage a ferocious battle to liberate Iraq of your desecration,'" he said.

The Shiite scholar further said that the Shiites became furious at the U.S. insistence on disarming Shiite fighters, who played a pivotal role in guarding holy mausoleums and mosques after the failure of occupation forces to do so.

"These (occupation) forces have put their oar in everything and started pitting Sunnis and Shiites against each other. Many observers opined that the series of deadly bombings and assassinations targeting Shiites were the brainchild of the Americans and their allies the Britons," the Shiite scholar charged.

On August 29, a car bomb explosion killed at least 82 people, including Hakim, and wounded 229 others outside one of Shiites' holiest shrines in the central Iraqi city of An-Najaf.

Mortada Ga'far al-Mousawi, a commander in Sadr's Al-Mahdi Army, said their fighters were assembled to guard Shiite authorities and holy places in An-Najaf and Karbala.

"But just like other occupiers in history, the U.S. forces proved Shiites into desecrating their holy places, insulting people, throwing scores into detention camps worse than the ones set up by the ousted president," Mousawi said.

"They further cracked down hard on Al-Mahdi army, unjustifiably killed a number of its members and desecrated An-Najaf and Karbala That's why we opted now for resisting them and expelling them from our land," he stressed.

Mousawi was further quick to deny that Shiites supported the occupation, citing that they spearheaded the resistance against the British occupation in the 1920s.

"We had made the ultimate sacrifices for our country," he added.

Anti-U.S. fervor has run high over the past few weeks among Shiites, who started losing faith in the U.S. promises of a democratic Iraq.

Addressing hundreds of Shiites earlier in the month, Sadr called on Shiites and Iraqis to demonstrate peacefully if they agreed to a shadow cabinet, which was rival to the U.S.-sanctioned Governing Council.