Posted on 05/08/2004 6:01:29 PM PDT by blam
Shia militiamen killed in clash with British troops
By Fakher Haider in Basra and Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 09/05/2004)
Shia gunmen clashed with British troops in Basra yesterday, ordering locals to stay at home as the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attempted to open a new front against Coalition forces.
Three British soldiers were wounded and two militiamen killed as hundreds of his Mahdi army fighters launched a series of orchestrated hit-and-run attacks, apparently aimed at taking over much of Iraq's second city.
Shi'ite militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr carry the coffin of a Mehdi militiaman.
Bursts of gunfire and explosions echoed through Basra after the fighters took to the streets at dawn and tried to storm government buildings. Armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, they roamed through residential quarters and set up roadblocks.
The unrest came a day after al-Sadr's representative in Basra urged his followers to abduct British women soldiers as concubines and put a 250,000 dinar (£10,000) bounty on the heads of coalition troops. On Friday night, instructions broadcast from cars equipped with loudspeakers advised residents to stay in their homes. Yesterday, the streets were deserted and many shops remained closed.
As the insurgency spread north to Amara, an ambush of a military convoy prompted British forces to storm the al-Sadr office there, killing three militiamen in a fierce gunbattle. Troops found arms caches and arrested senior al-Sadr lieutenants.
"There are only a few hundred Mahdi army militiamen here in a city of more than a million people," said Dominic d'Angelo, the Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in Basra. "People here don't want their strong-arm, bully boy tactics."
British commanders brought in reinforcements to keep control of Basra's centre but otherwise adopted a "softly-softly" approach, leaving local religious and tribal leaders to try to negotiate a peaceful end to the stand-off.
By nightfall, the militiamen had withdrawn from many of their makeshift blockades of burning tyres and abandoned vehicles. British troops reported that fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades had used women and children as "human shields" when they were driven off a bridge across the Shatt al-Arab river.
Al-Sadr ordered the uprising after suffering a series of military setbacks at the hands of American forces in his central Iraq strongholds and finding himself increasingly isolated by other Shia clerics and sheikhs who are critical of his tactics.
In the latest stage of the American crackdown on al-Sadr, US troops last night raided his offices in the teeming Baghdad Shia slum of Sadr City (named after the cleric's father, an ayatollah murdered on the orders of Saddam Hussein). Arabic media reported that two Iraqis had been killed in clashes and several leading al-Sadr aides had been arrested.
The firebrand cleric and his followers, who rose up against the US-led occupation a month ago, are under increasing pressure in the holy city of Najaf where he is in hiding. An arrest warrant has been issued for him over the murder of a rival cleric.
MAHDI IN ISLAM
The belief in al-Mahdi —as the embodiment of the messiah or the saviour who will appear at the end of time— is a belief in the fulfillment of God’s promise. It is a belief common to all Muslims based on the unanimously accepted sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).
Ibn Khaldun, the 14th century historian famous for his pioneering work in philosophy of history, writes in his Muqaddima:
"It has been (accepted) by all the Muslims in every epoch, that at the end of time a man from the family (of the Prophet) will, without fail, make his appearance, one who will strengthen Islam and make justice triumph. Muslims will follow him, and he will gain domination over the Muslim realm. He will be called the Mahdi."
Ibn Khaldun clearly states that Muslims in each generation have accepted the belief in the Mahdi. The unanimity of this belief among the Muslims is furthered strengthened by the fatwa issued from the General Secretariat of the World Muslim League in Mecca on the 11th of October 1976. This fatwa was written by Shaykh Muhammad al-Muntasir al-Katani and approved by a committee consisting of four other scholars.
After listing the names of twenty companions of the Prophet who have narrated the Prophet’s statements on the Mahdi, and after giving the names of the scholars who have written exclusively on al-Mahdi, the fatwa says:
"The memorizers and scholars of hadith have verified that there are reliable and acceptable reports among the ahadith on the Mahdi; the majority of them are narrated through numerous authorities. There is no doubt about their status as mutawatir and sahih reports.
"And the belief in the appearance of the Mahdi is obligatory, and that it is one of the beliefs of the people of the sunna and jama’ah; and none denies it except those who are ignorant of the sunna and innovators in doctrine."
WHO IS THE MAHDI?
In trying to identify the person who will be the Mahdi and the Saviour, the only source we have is the Prophet of Islam. According to his sayings, the basic characteristics of Mahdi are as follows:
1. He will be an Arab, from the tribe of Banû Hãshim.
2. He will be from the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima.
3. He will be the descendant of Husayn, son of Fatima and ‘Ali.
4. He will appear in Mecca.
5. Finally, one of the most interesting thing that we find in the sayings of the Prophet is that Imam al-Mahdi will be helped by Prophet Jesus.
We are told that Jesus will descend to the earth soon after the appearance of the Mahdi; he will join the Mahdi in establishing the Kingdom of God on earth; and he will pray behind Imam al-Mahdi. The true Christians will follow Jesus in accepting Imam al-Mahdi as the leader at the time and become Muslims.
Al Sadr and his "goons", the Mahdi army, are playing upon the legendary Islamic Messiah beliefs to protect their actions from interference by other Muslims..
Osama Bin Laden plays this game as well...
Although he has only "inferred" the possibility that he, Osama, is the Mahdi, he does so with a sort of plausible deniability.. ( "Oh, I know many believe I am the Mahdi, but, it is too great an honor for Allah to bestow upon a humble muslim such as I.." )
You get the idea..
Al Sadr does not, has not, proclaimed himself the Mahdi, but is more than willing to proclaim his followers as the "Army of the Messiah", and infer that he is the Mahdi, by default.. Unless of course, the True Messiah should appear, in which case he would simply say he is the "leader" of the army, and was simply awaiting the Messiah's appearance..
Long-winded, aren't I ?
No I don't imagine that set too well with our British cousins, but the gentlemen from Britain haven't totally lost their patience with these errant yahoos to date. Why is that? Well they haven't sent the SAS to take out Sadr, yet, but I daresay the clock could well be ticking...
the infowarrior
In 1874, General Gordon was appointed as Governor of Sudan and set out to eliminate slavery in that country. This didn't go down to well with the locals, so in 1881, Mohammad Ahmad, a Sufi Muslim religious leader, organised a jihad to cleanse the Sudan and the world of evil. He started with the British and called himself 'al-Mahdi', arabic for 'messiah' or 'prophet'.
Gordon was killed at Khartoum and the Mahdi ruled from Omdurman for 14 years before being toppled by Lord Kitchener in 1898 when he re-took Omdurman for the British.
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