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Clerics warn US troops not to damage shrines in Iraq
The US is the most hated nation on earth today, and what goes around comes around.
Clerics warn US troops not to damage shrines in Iraq
TEHRAN: Iran’s former president warned American soldiers on Friday that if they harm any Muslim Shiite shrines in Iraq, it will provoke an attack on the US government.
“They (Americans) may damage shrines, but for every brick suffering damage there, more damage will be inflicted on the White House,” Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a sermon in the Iranian capital that was repeatedly interrupted by chants of “Death to America!”
Allied troops operating south of Baghdad are trying to root out Iraqi fighters in the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala without damaging their sacred buildings. The coalition has declared the holy sites to be “no target” zones where troops can only fire in self-defence, according to US Central Command.
In Lebanon – where Shiites are the largest sect and about 30 per cent of the estimated population of 4 million – a leading Shiite cleric also used the Friday prayers’ sermon to warn the allies not to touch the shrines of Najaf and Karbala.
Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said: “We strongly warn the American and British forces – which are causing a tragedy in the region with their military, political and economic massacres – against attacking the Islamic holy sites because they are related to the spiritual values of sacred personalities sanctified by Muslims.”
In last week’s sermon, Fadlallah urged Iraqis to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom he once described as “the worst beast in human history.” But in this week’s sermon, Fadlallah told his audience of more than 2,000 worshippers in a south Beirut mosque that the United States would seek to replace Saddam with “another tyrant.”
He urged people to oppose the allied invasion. “We call on Muslims, and all free people in the world, to strongly stand against this crime, seriously confront the entire occupation (of Iraq) and not to believe all their (American and British) slogans that their war is for liberation,” Fadlallah said.
In Madina, Saudi Arabia, the cleric who gave the sermon that was broadcast on state television also urged the faithful to stand up against the war. “We, Muslims, call for its immediate halt and we denounce it strongly … (It’s) a war of aggression that has killed children, old men and women and aims at destroying the people of Iraq and the control of its natural resources,” said Sheik Ali al-Hureiji.
However, for Washington, the silver lining in the cloud of hostile sermons on Friday was that Iran’s Rafsanjani hinted his country could reconcile with the United States. “We always accepted to sit with Americans as an equal party and talk, provided they gave up their colonialist and anti-Islamic policies. But they failed to accept this condition,” Rafsanjani said. “Still we think we can work with the United States.”
The US handled the situation very well and retreated peacefully. The people do not mind the presence of American troops in Najaf, they just don't want them near the masjid.
Hmmm...this shows that the Shia's of Iraq will assert their religious and cultural rights in Iraq, and any American plans to keep them marginalised are doomed.