Muslim Radicals Blamed for Iraqi Cleric's Murder

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Senior Iraqi Shi'ite leaders said on Saturday that a radical Muslim group led by an ambitious young rival orchestrated the killing of cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf this week.

Khoei was hacked to death by a mob at Imam Ali Shrine, the holiest Shi'ite site, days after he returned from exile in London to help Iraq make the transition to democracy.

Iraqi Shi'ite leaders said Jimaat-e-Sadr-Thani, a splinter group led by Moqtada Sadr, the 22-year-old son of a late spiritual leader in Iraq, carried out Thursday's attack which left al-Khoei and another cleric dead.

"The attackers started shouting and swearing, and said 'Long live Moqtada', 'Death to Majid Khoei'. They had guns, knives, axes -- everything," a man who said he was an aide to Khoei and was with him during the attack told Reuters.

Confusion and looting has reigned in many Iraqi cities as President Saddam Hussein's iron rule collapsed in the face of a U.S. and British invasion launched on March 20.

Khoei's aide would only give his name as Fayad, said he was in hiding and that the mob wanted to take the people with Khoei to Moqtada's house and imprison them after the attack.

"Mobs kill anyone they like, rob anyone they like. It's a very chaotic situation," he said.

Friends and relatives say Khoei was the victim of a power struggle among Shi'ite groups for control of Najaf, a key center of Shi'ite pilgrimage and religious learning which contains the tomb of Imam Ali.

The son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, Ali is Shi'ites' first and most important leader.

"Khoei was very well connected and resourceful, and from a respectable family. His presence would have tilted the balance of power in Najaf. Many people felt threatened by him," said Mohammad Baqir Mohri, a Shi'ite cleric and scholar.

"Moqtada and his group killed him because they want to control Najaf and the holy shrine, which will be the core of the Shi'ite world in free Iraq," he said.

The Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) condemned Khoei's murder and said it held "(U.S.-led) forces responsible for the instability and insecurity dominating Iraq," Iran's news agency IRNA said.

SCIRI head Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim urged Iraqis in a statement to "refrain from taking revenge against each other," IRNA said.

Khoei, the son of Ayatollah Seyyid Abdulqasim Musawi al-Khoei, who died under arrest in the early 1990s, ran a multinational Muslim charity foundation from London.

He was seen as a rising star in post-Saddam Iraq, but some criticized his close links to the United States.

Moqtada is the son of Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, a Shi'ite Muslim spiritual leader killed along with his two other sons in 1999. Their deaths are widely blamed on the Iraqi secret service.

After the death of his relatives, Moqtada took his fight against Saddam underground, attracting a large following of religious activists from poverty-stricken areas.

The group resurfaced after Saddam's forces were routed from Najaf by U.S.-led forces earlier this month.

"These groups who have been underground for years are now reappearing to lay claim on power. They think they have been fighting for years and deserve to be in charge," said Abbas Qadiri, a Muslim scholar with close ties to Iraqi dissidents.

Iraq descended into anarchy after the central authority vanished and looting is rampant in most cities.

"Despite the power vacuum, we were hoping Najaf would be able to run itself and not become like Baghdad and Basra. Khoei was the only one who could do that," said Muslim Fakher, a cleric who spent many years in Najaf and leads Friday prayers at a Shi'ite mosque in Kuwait.

Witnesses said Khoei was shot at after he tried to prevent the mob from killing Haider Kelidar, the custodian of the shrine and accused by the mob of having links to Saddam.

Hamzah Hosseini, a Shi'ite activist, said the chaotic situation was likely to lead to more bloodshed.

"The oppression of the past decades have left a spiritual void in Iraqi holy cities. It has left the people completely disoriented," he said.

"Iraq has descended into a moral wasteland. Poverty and lack of spiritual guidance has left young Iraqis a potential prey to dangerous, hypocritical ideas."

Shi'ites make up 60 percent of Iraq's population but they have been persecuted for decades by Saddam's secular Sunni-dominated Baath party.

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3 posted on 04/12/2003 2:56:13 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)

A 'radical' Muslim accused of killing someone?

I am beginning to believe that the 'radical' Muslims are the ones who love peace.

It seems the violent ones are simply the run of the mill Muslims.

The simmering anger of the Shia Ali, the maddening historical wronged party of Islam is no doubt the most delicate of challenges for the US as they seek to bring a just peace and order in Iraq. I pray that those involved in policy know history well.

I would be willing to bet that if all the truth were to come out that (and it probably won't) that the evidence would point to and uncover Iranian Shiites behind this. They do not want the moderate, non-radical Shiites and will do anything and everything including murder and all forms of disruption to see that those like Abdul Majid al-Khoei do not prevail in Iraq because it means their downfall and loss of power in Iran. They won't let that happen.

6 posted on 04/12/2003 3:07:50 PM PDT by KriegerGeist ("The weapons of our warefare are not carnal, but mighty though God for pulling down of strongholds")

Anyone in Saddam's circle who gets found dead will be blamed on "Muslim Extremists," for the same reasons Hillary likes to blame everything on "Right Wing Extremists." An excuse to create issues that will never drive home to the point.

It should be reported that anyone who betrayed the Iraqi people by privately and publically endorsing Saddam Hussein will be targets of Iraqi justice. Especially by those citizens who were forced to watch their family members tortured under Saddam's reign. Honor was the root of the clerics demise.

8 posted on 04/12/2003 11:06:37 PM PDT by WOSG (All Hail The Free Republic of Iraq! God Bless our Troops!)

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