LAT: World's Shiites Warn That US Is Treading on Sensitive Ground (Najaf)

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
World's Shiites Warn That U.S. Is Treading on Sensitive Ground

By Henry Chu and Teresa Watanabe, Times Staff Writers


BAGHDAD — With its twin minarets and glinting gold dome, the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf has been a beacon for the Muslim faithful for more than a thousand years. But with fighting raging around the Iraqi shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam is reprising a different historical role: rallying point against foreign forces....

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With U.S. military officials saying they have received permission from Najaf's governor to strike the mosque if necessary, religious and political leaders from Iran to Los Angeles are voicing grave warnings that an American assault on the shrine could be catastrophic to the U.S. image in Iraq and the Muslim world.

"The United States is slaughtering the people of one of the holiest Islamic cities, and the Muslim world and the Iraqi nation will not stand by," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of neighboring Iran, said in an address on Iranian state television.

Three major American Muslim organizations also issued statements Wednesday calling for negotiations to end the conflict.

"Illegal under the Geneva Conventions, any fighting or destruction to the mosque would result in incalculable damage to the image and interests of the United States and would be widely condemned across the world," the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council said....

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Although the governor of Najaf, Adnan Zurfi, reportedly gave U.S. troops permission to fire on the mosque if necessary, (Imam Moustafa Al-Qazwini, a prominent Shiite leader in Southern California) said that few Shiites regard his word as authoritative. They say he was chosen for the post by U.S. officials, not elected, only recently returning to Iraq after a decade in the Detroit area....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-mosque12aug12,1,392409.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Adnan Zurfi is as much a traitor as Vidkin Quisling, the Nazi-appointed leader of Occupied Norway during World War II.

Personally, anything that gets our butts kicked out of the Middle East (or Latin America) is a good thing! America has seldom been an agent for good in the world, and Iraq is no exception. We have been raping Iraq for decades, after all, we are the ones that put Saddam's party in power in a coup to contain Marxist influence in the region.

If this offensive isn't successful - even for a reason as trivial as US ground forces running out of ammo to blow up the cemetary with - it's going to boomerang hard.

will think it just dandy if we go in and destroy one of the holiest shrines in Islam. Anti-Islamic messages from Gen. Boykin and Ann Coulter have been sent around the world, and are excellent recruiting tools for those who wish to expand fundamentalist Islam and terrorism.

They're crazy. They whip themselves in those religious marches they do. Suffering is something has religious value. -- At least according to him.

Gee what a great idea it is to try to crack down on them!

Their founder, Imam Ali was murdered by his enemies.

never messed with those guys like that.

Why would the geniuses in charge think that really pissing of the Shiites, with Iran right next door, would be a good idea?

Could they figure that kicking Iran's ass would be as easy as Iraq's?

A country much larger, more unified, and with a government they're actually rather fond of?

He was just more um, competent about his crackdowns.

That's not the point.

As secular as he was and as Sunni as he became, he was "one of them". The closest comparison to the US assault is um... the Mongols.

We shouldn't want to be compared to the Mongols.

Seriously...

the BFEE will make even more $$$$ off killing people for fun and profit.

What the hell are we even doing over there? Support our troops? We can do that by imprisoning the bu$h administration for war crimes and crimes against humanity...

Annajaf & Karbala` were bombed then too, though I don't recall if the domes of Imam Ali(pbuh) in Najaf or Hasan(A) & Husayn(RA) in Karbala` were ever hit. There's a reason he was quite despised on those parts, this being but one of them. Now, as for why the crusader command sees fit to emulate him, I cannot imagine the reason for that.

We know damn well what's going to happen when we land the first round in that shrine, yet we are proceeding.

Goddess help our young men and women who are about to be sacrificed on the Altar of Halliburton.

May the true rewards of this war be on the heads of all who caused it!

:nuke:
dbt

would we not be just as outraged as the Shiites?