'Sunni & Shia' Rock Group Formed
Dec. 21, 2006
Two Iraqi youngsters from rival Sunni and Shia sects of Islam announced they were launching a musical career.
Samir Bahja, is 19, a Sunni and the male member of the pair, said they were inspired by “Sonny & Cher”—a husband and wife rock and roll act popular in the 1960s. “There is so much violence in our country, we are hoping to bring people together with music,” Bahja said. “Shadiya has a beautiful voice and I’m working on writing the songs. It’s just like how the original Sonny & Cher started.”
Shadiya Labib, is 17, a Shia and the female member of the singing duo, agreed. “Samir is not such a good singer, but he is very clever and funny,” Labib said. “The songs he has written are quite humorous.”
Bahja says he’s written three songs thus far. “The first song I wrote was ‘I Gut You Badr,’” he said. “It is an ironic song of revenge gone awry. The second song I wrote was ‘The Bleat Goes On,’ It’s about the lonely nights of a shepherd. The last song I’ve completed so far is ‘Baba Don't Go.’ In this one a girl pleads with her boyfriend to give up his plan for a suicide bombing.”
Naturally, the duo plans to perform as “Sunni & Shia.”
Mullah Muqtada al-Sadr, a leader of a Shia faction has already pronounced a fatwa on the two. “Music is the devil’s work,” Sadr said. “We will slice the heads from the bodies of these blasphemers.”
Al-Qaeda is also displeased with this development. “These miscreants mock the holiness of our struggle against the unbelievers and the Shia apostates,” said Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq. “We will cut their throats, spill their blood, and burn the ground underneath them.”
In related news, Sadr said he is considering a one-month unilateral cease-fire. “We are out of bullets,” Sadr observed. “It will take at least 30 days to resupply our fighters. We’d rather not have to do this under fire.” Sadr confirmed that his Mahdi army will continue to use traditional weapons to kill the unarmed in the interim.
read more...
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm
Al-Qaeda offers US troops safe passage out of Iraq
The head of an Al-Qaeda-dominated organization in Iraq has offered to give US troops a month to pull out free of attack.
The offer was made in an audiotape posted on the internet and demanded an answer within two weeks.
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is the leader of a self-proclaimed Islamic emirate in western and north-central Iraq that is dominated by supporters of Al-Qaeda.
It comes as the U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers in Iraq and Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended a visit aimed at finding a new strategy to curb violence and allow U.S. troops to withdraw.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1817742.htm