Posted on 02/23/2006 4:46:27 AM PST by Racehorse
Reflecting the seriousness of the crisis, the reclusive Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani allowed himself to be shown on television, meeting with other religious authorities in the holy city of Najaf in his first public appearance since the Shiite uprising there in August 2004.
Sistani later issued a statement calling on Shiites to stage peaceful demonstrations, and "not to be dragged into committing acts that would only please the enemies, namely, the sectarian sedition."
But Sistani also warned that if government security forces prove unable to halt attacks against Shiite targets, "then the believers themselves are able to do this, with God's help."
Iraq's Shiite majority has long heeded Sistani's calls for restraint in the face of terrorist attacks against Shiite targets, but fears are mounting that this attack will prompt many to take matters into their own hands.
The leaders of the three main armed Shiite groups, the Badr Organization, the Sadr movement and the Fadhila Party, called on their followers to gather in the Baghdad district of Kadhamiya on Thursday to march on Samarra, an insurgent stronghold and mostly Sunni city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Only the instructions of the marjeya, or religious authorities, are stopping Shiites from exacting their own revenge against Sunnis, warned Shiite legislator Khudair al Khuzaie.
"If the marjeya lift their hands, we will see a civil war that never ends," he told Iraq's al-Sharqiya television.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
In Zayouni, men jumped out of a black car and fired a rocket at the Tiba mosque, slightly damaging the dome, said Abdul Wahhab al Wazzak, 63, who lives near the mosque.
Standing in his driveway, he vowed, however, that Iraqis would not be provoked into fighting each other.
"I am a Sunni, this neighbor is Shiite, that one is Kurdish," he said, gesturing around the street. "There are people looking to create civil war, but they will not succeed."
The result will be generations before such men and women are are found again...if ever..
We must stay the course...
imo
The real problem is that if the Shiia and Sunni start killing each other..then the Kurds walk away..
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