[Marxism] Khamenei: No Muslim, no Shia can be calm in face of Najaf, Karbala

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3719095.stm

BBC News     16 May 2004

Iran leader condemns US 'stupidity'

Iranian Supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned what
he described as the "stupid" and "shameless" actions of US troops in the
Iraqi Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

He said the abuse of prisoners in Iraq showed that the US had merely
taken the place of Saddam Hussein, and that it was time for them to
leave the "bog of their own making".

The following are excerpts from his remarks, delivered in a speech to
theology students and broadcast by Iranian radio:

No Muslim, particularly a Shia, can remain calm in the face of the
recent events in Najaf and Karbala...

[The US soldiers] have taken their tanks and artillery and armed forces
to the holy site of Karbala. They have shown disrespect to the sacred
dome of the Lord of the Faithful. They have fired bullets at the dome.
That is not something that faithful Muslims can tolerate or accept...

The Americans have combined stupidity with shamelessness. They are
audacious and unrestrained. They are encroaching upon the people's
sanctities and what the people love...

Muslim people, particularly Shia - in our own country or in Iraq, in
various Iraqi cities or in other parts of the world - will not remain
silent at this American encroachment and audacity...

They think they can rule Iraq without any difficulty, take Iraq's oil
and humiliate the Iraqi people. What happened at Abu Ghraib prison
showed this, and recently it became clear that this has not happened
only at Abu Ghraib. It has happened at all, or at least most, American
prisons in Iraq...

The president and the gang ruling America say they did not know what was
going on. That is how they have apologised. They say they did not know
and that they have closed Saddam's torture chambers...

You have not closed Saddam's torture chambers. You have replaced
Saddam...

They say they did not know. They are lying, because the Red Cross
explicitly declared that it had informed senior army officers and
Americans of what was going on a long time ago...

It was wrong for the Americans to go into Iraq. It was wrong for them to
stay. Their treatment of the people was wrong. Imposing an American
ruler on the people was wrong. Going to Karbala and Najaf was wrong. The
things that they did recently were especially wrong. They should realise
that the Islamic world, and particularly the Shia world, will not remain
silent...

They have killed the innocent people of Najaf and Karbala. The have
killed dozens of people. The crime that they have committed is the
greatest of crimes. The Islamic world condemns it. The Iranian nation
condemns it. The world's Shia condemn it.

The Americans will fail on this path. The more they go along this path,
the more they will sink in this bog of their own making...

The Americans are trapped. There is nothing they can do. They will fail
if they continue along this path, and they will fail if they pull out.
But continuing will be the greater defeat.


BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and
translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and
the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism