Posted on 08/04/2006 10:37:56 AM PDT by jamese777
Shiites march in Baghdad for pro-Hezbollah rally The Associated Press
Published: August 4, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle against Israel.
The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since Israel launched its attacks against the guerrillas in Lebanon on July 12. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.
Demonstrators, wearing white shrouds symbolizing willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the guerrillas' yellow banner and chanted slogans in support of their leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, which has attained a cult status in the Arab world for its defiance of Israeli military power.
"Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah," the crowd chanted.
"Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one, let them confront us if they dare," the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq. Many walked with umbrellas in the searing afternoon sun. Volunteers sprayed them with water.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
"We have the same attitudes here in the US on the left."
If there was an equivalent type thing going on here in the US, 2% of the population at a rally... that's 6,000,000. I think that might get noticed.
2% of a countries population demonstrating is huge.
And if not much choice in the matter, they may have been given food or the like. Saddam, like all dictators, could always turn out a crow. Al Sadr is a dictator wanna be. He knows the importance of the images, and he knows they create the illusion of power, just as the NAZIS did.
Not neccessarily. Unlike the days of Saddam regime, the Iraqis now have certain freedom of speech rights. I'm sure the US gov't would approve such a demonstration in the US, and I'm equally sure there would be plenty of DemoRats and Isolationists who would join in!
LOL! Sad, but true.
I didn't say it was a "few." But relative to Iraq's overall Shiite population and much more there general population, this doesn't in any way prove a majority sentiment. It was 2% of Iraq's population, less than 5% of Iraq's Shiite population. And I'd put money that many of them were shipped in from Iraq.
And we don't want to forget that fully 33% of Americans are Democrats, and we don't condemn ourselves, or flee our own country over it.
As they don't have the military capability to directly confront the US, Iran resorts to proxies, i.e. terrorists, and propaganda to weaken the resolve of the West.
That's not the point. The point is this isn't reflective of some general sentiment sweeping Iraq. And if it was, you'd see more than just a few dozen American soldiers dying each month. We'd have 100s dead each moneth.
"He knows the importance of the images, and he knows they create the illusion of power, just as the NAZIS did."
The Nazi's didn't just have the illusion of power, they had the power.
We probably will have at least that many if not more demonstrating here in the United States.
Geeze, they were all out in the open and we didn't take advantage.
That's nice. But their actions are still despicable, and should at the very least put us on notice: winning hearts and minds is going to be difficult, if not impossible. Islamics will stand up for Islamics, if push comes to shove.
That's only how many actually showed up to protest. It does not give us an indication of how many feel this way. Islam is such that Muslims will not abide a foreigner-infidel to conquer land once held by the Caliphate (excepting Spain, and they have never given up the goal of reclaiming that).
Heard that the Minister of Defense encouraged this protesting. Sounds like he needs to be replaced.
Shipped in from Iran I meant.
"I didn't say it was a "few." But relative to Iraq's overall Shiite population and much more there general population, this doesn't in any way prove a majority sentiment. It was 2% of Iraq's population, less than 5% of Iraq's Shiite population. And I'd put money that many of them were shipped in from Iraq."
I think you meant "shipped in from Iran."
But you are forgetting that the Iraqi government gave official sanction to this "half a million Shiite" march. Remember that the government is controlled by the Islamic Dawa Party which is a Shiite religious party founded by Muqtada al-Sadr's father-in-law.
It was Muqtada al-Sadr who called for this anti-American and anti-Israel/pro-Hezbollah protest.
While there may be a hundred or perhaps even a thousand marching in Baghdad chanting "Death to America" I seriously doubt that there were Hundreds of thousands of people chanting "Death to America."
This is just another example of the liberal media conspiring to hurt the American mission of Freedom in Iraq. I look forward to the day when the media reports on hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marching in the streets chanting "Thank You America."
The MSM will never report that.
Moderate Sistani would turn on a nonmuslim in a heartbeat. After all, according to his belief system, we are najis, unclean. Only the ummah counts.
Oh, and by the way, moderate Sistani favors killing gays in the "worst way possible".
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