Posted on 01/02/2004 6:32:38 PM PST by blam
US soldiers ransack Sunni mosque
Iraq's minority faith targeted in hunt for weapons
Luke Harding in Baghdad
Saturday January 3, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
Surrounded by upturned chairs and an abandoned turban, Sabah Al-Kaisey surveyed his ransacked office yesterday. The American troops who burst into his mosque on Thursday morning had smashed down the front gate, broken the air conditioners and ripped up the carpets. They had also thrown several Korans on the floor and allegedly punched the man giving the call to prayer in the face.
"They even took our nuts," said Mr Kaisey yesterday, opening the door of the mosque's empty fridge.
The troops who raided the Ibn Taymiyah mosque, used by Baghdad's Sunnis, appear to have been looking for weapons used by Iraq's resistance. They recovered a couple of AK-47s, hand grenades and an anti-aircraft missile, US military officials said.
Abdul Sattar, the mosque's imam, said the weapons were used by its guards. "They were there to protect ourselves," he told the Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera, which showed images of the damaged Korans.
The raid has served to increase the anger and frustration of Iraq's Sunnis, who feel marginalised and discriminated against in post-Saddam Iraq.
Yesterday, hundreds of worshippers demonstrated against the raid and US occupation.
"This is not the behaviour of liberators but occupiers," Mr Kaisey said, pointing to the metal collection box which had been smashed open by US troops.
They had taken the money which was supposed to go to the poor and also the mosque's computers, used to produce a bi-weekly newsletter, he said.
"Americans might have the latest technology, but they make little effort to understand people's souls," he said.
Since the fall of Baghdad nine months ago, Shias, who make up 60% of Iraq's population, have organised themselves into well-defined political and religious parties.
They have a leading presence on the governing council, the US-picked body which is to take power from the coalition in July.
But the Sunnis, who have traditionally formed Iraq's ruling elite, have been divided. Last week Sunni elders from across the country announced they were setting up a leadership council or shura to increase their influence on Iraq's political process. The council includes representatives from all major Sunni religious groups, the Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jama'a al Islamia, as well as Kurds and Turkomans.
The challenge for the coalition is to ensure that the Sunnis feel part of the process, a point made by Tony Blair in a recent speech.
So far the results are not encouraging. During Thursday's raid US troops arrested 34 people, including several leading members of the shura, before a meeting of the body in Baghdad today.
US military officials said several of those arrested were suspected foreign militants, a claim which the mosque disputed.
"They blindfolded all the worshippers and took them away. You don't see Muslims attacking the holy places of other people," Abu Hassan, a worshipper at the mosque, said.
Mr Kaisey acknowledged that most of the resistance was being directed by disgruntled Sunnis but pointed out that Shias were involved as well.The coalition also failed to appreciate that Sunnis had suffered under Saddam, he said.
"All of us on the shura council have spent time in prison," he said. "We suffered under Saddam. But at the end of the day this is our country.
"If someone invaded Britain what would you do? You would probably go and fight."
· The US military said that an observation helicopter which crashed in central Iraq yesterday had been shot down by guerrillas. One pilot was killed and another injured.
But the point is: contraband weapons were found at both sites -- the only difference was scale. The Guardian, though, chose to minimize the weapons, so as to focus on the American "mistreatment" of the "innocent" natives. AFP, confronted with a much larger trove of weaponry, chose to play it straight.
Had the Guardian and AFP swapped event coverage, I suspect both reports would have used to propagandize against the American effort (the Guardian having no sense of proportion).
Now the world can see what Muslims really worship.
Really?! Then, this bears repeating.
They are the same mosque. One reports using the old name that has been the name of the mosque for decades, the other uses the new name. But they are the same
So it does.
Poor Sunnis.
They treated the Shiites and the Kurds like animals and killed and raped them for decades and now they are .....sniff .....gulp ......sob ......"marginalized".
Oh, the humanity!
"After zee end of zee Second Weltkrieg, we vas marginalised and discriminated against too. But, in 1945, nobody gave a flying wienerschitzel."
((Ko_Kyi jumps up and down saying "ME! PICK ME! ME?"))
ALL YOUR NUTS ARE BELONG TO US
Why when the Christian church in Bagdad gets ransack The Guardian does not raise the stink?
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