[Marxism] Shia funeral hit by bombing was for leader of Sadr forces in Mosul

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Note the position of the Association of Muslim Scholars, which seems to
be representing the more advanced thinking about unity in the Sunni wing
of the resistance.
Fred

>From Juan Cole's website Informed Comment



Friday, March 11, 2005

posted by Juan @ 3/11/2005 02:16:00 PM

Sadrist Funeral Targeted

The funeral targeted by a bombing that killed 47 and wounded 84 in Mosul
was for "Hisham al-Araji, the Mosul representative for radical Shiite
leader Moqtada Sadr." The bombing might have just been targeting
Shiites, or it might specifically have aimed at the Sadr movement, which
has some support in northern Iraq among transplanted Arabs and Shiite
Turkmen.

The Shiite religious parties and the Kurds reaffirmed that they had
reached an accord on forming a new government, and that both were
committed to the Transitional Administrative Law.


Saturday, March 12, 2005


Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called Friday "unity and solidarity among
all Iraqis despite the attacks targeting the innocent." He was referring
to the horrific bombing of a Shiite funeral in Mosul. Weeping relatives
held small family wakes for the dead, avoiding a large mass funeral that
might again be targeted by a suicide bomber. The Shiite mosque, near
which the original attack occured, took mortar fire on Friday, according
to al-Hayat. The same source says that Sistani's statement called on the
security apparatus in Iraq "to shoulder their responsibilities with
regard to safeguarding the innocent in all Iraq's cities."

The Sunni preacher at the Abu Hanifa Mosque in Baghdad, Shaikh Ahmad
Hasan Taha, condemned the suicide bombing. He said, "Last week, we were
deploring the massacre in the city of Hilla of our Iraqi brethren, and
today terrorists undertook this attack, which is even a worse crime and
a more awful scandal." He blamed the attacks in part on a hidden foreign
hand.

Likewise, the Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the bombing, but
tried to use it to discredit the Americans and interim prime minister
Iyad Allawi, whom the AMS considers responsible for the lack of security
in the country: ' "We strongly denounce the bombings and assassinations
that killed innocent people," Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidei, a member of the
influential Association of Muslim Scholars, told worshippers. "Both the
occupation and the Iraqi government shoulder the responsibility of this
blood." ' Al-Hayat says that al-Sumaidei said the Mosul bombing was part
of a conspiracy that began with the American occupation to marginalize
one religious community at the expense of another." He condemned the
suicide bombing, along with the practice of some Muslims declaring the
others infidels, or purging other Muslims, or assassinating them."

Al-Hayat reports that two Friday prayers preachers from the Sadr
movement called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq "immediately
and unconditionally," just as American calls for Syria to depart
Lebanon.

Michael Schwartz's analysis of the guerrilla resistance in Iraq is well
worth reading. He concludes that by now it is primarily made up of loose
cells consisting of local Arab nationalists who object to the US
military presence, and that the Baath and foreign jihadi elements are
less important than the local irregulars. I think he underestimates the
continued role of Baath military intelligence, but his picture is
generally plausible, and certainly closer to reality than the things we
hear from the Department of Defense.



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