Bizarre tale of Shia messianic cult plot

BBC ^ | 1/30/07 | Roger Hardy

[TexKat]

More details have emerged about the shadowy cult whose followers fought Iraqi and US forces in a day-long battle in southern Iraq on Sunday. Iraqi officials say 200 members of the group - which calls itself the Soldiers of Heaven - were killed in fierce fighting near the Shia holy city of Najaf.

A well-armed group, a charismatic leader and an audacious plot to attack a holy city and kill its religious leaders.

If a novelist had invented the story of the Soldiers of Heaven, it might have been dismissed as a dark fantasy.

But an account of the bizarre drama in southern Iraq, albeit with puzzles and inconsistencies, has now emerged from Iraqi officials and eyewitness accounts.

[geopyg]

There's a group of women at my Presbyterian church that have a "book club". And sometimes, gasp - they aren't even religous books - shudder!

[geopyg]

"Just like the TET Offensive, but on a much smaller scale."

Also like TET, a bunch of bad guys die and the attack was a failure - but the Americans "can't win".

[lepton]

Organized religion of any type is starting to give me the creeps! They all seem to have cults.

LOL! That's funny.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I don't see atheists or scientists DEMANDING I believe what they believe or try to proseltyze their views.

I also don't see atheist or scientist "cults" running around blowing up stuff and killing each other. Your comment is so out of context to make the word "cult " meaningless.

[MirrorField]

"There must be an as yet undetected brain disease in these islamic countries."
DNA. We must find the code.

No. It's memetic, not genetic. A terribly virulent and dangerous memeplex known as "Radical Islam".

[Dajjal]

Mahdi bump

[SuziQ]

I'm firmly convinced that the entire religion of Islam is a Death Cult! At least it sure seems that way in it's most 'devout' adherents.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"I don't see atheists or scientists DEMANDING I believe what they believe or try to proseltyze their views."

You don't eh? Dr Heidi Cullen of the Weather Channel has joined the campaign to silence opposition to the idea of man-made global warming. She's a meteorologist, a scientist and called for the American Society of Meteorologists to de-certified any TV meteorologists who disagree with her opinion. The latest UN report on Global Warming also call for all opposition to the fantasy of man-made climate change to stop. That group was made up of scientists from 113 countries.

Atheists have been notorious for shutting down prayer and public displays of religious ideas for decades. Or just question evolution if you really want to watch the heads of scientists explode. Let's see what else I can think of...oh yeah, question the lethality of second hand smoke or alar or silicon breast implants or recycling or the public health case for gun control.

There are loads and loads of scientists promoting junk science and demanding we believe them and to one degree or another, they are numerous attempts to silence opponents.

Oh, btw, I didn't know setting off bombs or executing people was a necessary identification of a cult.