[Marxism] US raids clerics' houses for opposing collaboration

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

Bringing democracy to the Middle East (sic). I'm almost glad this happened: 
without killing anyone the US has hammered another nail in its occupation.

By the way, neither wing of the WPI has to worry about this happening to them; 
even the "Left" faction still has a plague on both your houses line.
----------------------------

US Troops Raid Baghdad Mosque, Sunni Group's Homes
Thu Nov 11, 2004 11:27 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led troops stormed a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad on 
Thursday and arrested its radical preacher who has urged Iraqi forces not to 
fight alongside Americans attacking the rebel city of Falluja.
"American forces and Iraqi National Guards raided Ibn Taymiya mosque and 
detained several people including Sheikh Mehdi al-Sumaid'i," said Aala 
Mohammed, an official on Sumaid'i's Higher Committee for Islamic Guidance and 
Edict.

U.S. troops also raided the homes of senior officials of an influential Sunni 
group that has urged Iraqis to boycott elections in protest over the assault on 
Falluja.

"American occupation forces raided at dawn today the house of Muslim Clerics' 
Association Secretary-General Harith al-Dhari in Abu Ghraib and the house of 
public affairs officer Abdul Salam al-Kobeisi," the group said in a statement.

U.S. forces searched the two houses and took some of their contents away, it 
said, without specifying what was taken.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

Sumaid'i, who leads the purist Salafi movement of Sunni Islam in Iraq, 
condemned the assault on Falluja this week after a meeting of clerics at Ibn 
Taymiya mosque.

He told the pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper on Thursday Iraq's minority Sunnis 
believed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was waging war on them and 
threatened a "general call to arms."

Sumaid'i accused top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of 
complicity in the attack, which began on Monday, through his silence.

The Muslim Clerics' Association, a nationwide group with thousands of members, 
called on Iraqis on Tuesday to boycott the January poll in protest against the 
Falluja offensive.

U.S.-led forces are fighting to take full control of the Sunni city after the 
interim government vowed to root out foreign Islamic militants and Saddam 
Hussein loyalists it says are entrenched there.

The government has vowed to crush an insurgency ahead of the poll, but clerics 
opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq say the military assault is inflicting 
heavy civilian casualties.



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