Iraq Sunnis Host Sadr Followers in Show of Support

Iraq Sunnis Host Sadr Followers in Show of Support
By Joseph Logan

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of rebel Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr prayed in Sunni mosques in Iraq Friday, in what local leaders called a show of religious unity in the face of Iraq's occupiers.

The gesture was the latest display of solidarity among Iraq's Muslims since U.S. forces besieged the Sunni town of Falluja west of Baghdad and faced off with Sadr's militia in the Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala to the south.

Sadr's popularity among Shi'ites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, seems to have soared since his uprising began a month ago, particularly among the young and the poor.

Busloads of Sadr's followers carrying portraits of the young cleric and wearing the insignia of his Mehdi Army militia trooped to the staunchly Sunni Baghdad neighborhood of Aadhamiya to pray in the Abu Hanifa mosque, named for a pre-eminent scholar and thinker of Sunni Islam.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=3&u=/nm/20040507/wl_nm/iraq_sadr_sunnis_dc_1

The US press is really downplaying Sadr's appeal among the general Shiite population. Looks like he has found some new friends. This is scary folks. I think it is way past time to get the hell out of Dodge.

:scared:

for Iraqis it is excellent news and highly symbolic; Abu Hanifa himself studied under the Shia Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.

For the occupation it is obviously bad news, which would be good, as it wrecks that whole "divide and rule" game they've been playing.

Getting Shi'ites and Sunnis to pray together. Isn't that nice.

While I don't believe in prayer myself it is great to see
these good people coming together.

with torches, with pitchforks, with RPGs, with Sam 7s, with RPDs anything else handy

Thanks a lot CHIMPY to be signed by the next Gold Star Mother

...be traveling between Najaf and other cities with the Americans looking for him. She said the media had no problem finding him and that his personal guards carry SAMs everywhere he goes.

Don

a good move on his part, to go along nicely with the bipartisan moves made in Baghdad. It also contrasts well against the backdrop of the collaborators too afraid to challenge the occupation that would rather serve the invaders than stand beside one of their own.

Never mind the body armor now. Every American in uniform over there is now wearing a target courtesy of Halliburton.

:scared:
dbt

Hopefully they can fully unite and rebuild a sovereign Iraq. Hopefully fundamentalism can be kept at bay and Islamic democrats can unite with those of other faiths as well. In Iran, there certainly were forces like this in the 1979 revolution, but the Khomeneists smashed them.

and in other news, more deaths in iraq of soldiers fighting for your freedom. we'll be right back after this message from cialis.

ever wonder why the super bowl had so many ads for penis enhancement?