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Attack deepens Iraq's divide 23.2.2006
By Dan Murphy
News about the Arab part of Iraq
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BAGHDAD - An
attack Wednesday that destroyed the soaring gold
dome of one of ShiiteIslam's holiest shrines is
being interpreted by most Shiites here as a direct
attack on their faith - and has sharply raised
sectarian tensions.
It's unclear if any people were killed in the
massive explosion in Samarra, about 60 miles north
of Baghdad. But the destruction of the shrine may be
the most emotionally charged of attacks on Shiite
targets thus far in the war, and could set back
already hamstrung efforts to form a government of
Shiite and Sunni unity.
As citizens deserted the streets of Baghdad in the
wake of the attack, many said they feared this could
be a seminal moment in Iraq's low-intensity civil
war.
"The war could really be on now,'' says Abu Hassan,
a Shiite street peddler who declined to give his
full name. "This is something greater and more
symbolic than attacks on people. This is a strike at
who we are."
The attack occurred shortly before 7 a.m. in the
largely Sunni city of Samarra, which has remained an
insurgent hotbed despite years of US operations
there. It was carried out by a small group of men
who somehow gained access to the usually heavily
protected Askariya shrine, set demolition
explosives, and then fled.
Though the shrine dates back 1,000 years, it has
been rebuilt numerous times. Its current dome was
built in 1905. There are no records of previous
attacks on the building or its predecessors.
"This could be a tipping point,'' says Juan Cole, a
historian of Shiite Islam at the University of
Michigan. "At some point, the Shiite street is going
to be so fed up that they're not going to listen any
more to calls for restraint."
Within hours of the attack, tens of thousands of
angry Shiites - many of them members of Shiite
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army who brandished
rifles and rocket-propelled grenades - took to the
streets in at least least a half-dozen central and
southern Iraqi cities. A spokesman at Mr. Sadr's
main office in Baghdad said the militiamen were
acting spontaneously, and had not been ordered out
onto the streets.
The Iraqi and US militaries scrambled forces in
Baghdad and other cities in an effort to protect
Sunni mosques. US soldiers cordoned off the
approaches to the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad's
Sunni- controlled Adhamiya district.
Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most
respected cleric, issued a statement forbidding
attacks on Sunni mosques and calling for seven days
of national mourning. But in a rare move, he also
called for public protests. Ayatollah Sistani has
typically called for even peaceful protesters to
stay off the streets, fearing a downward spiral into
violence.
Ayatollah Sistani "has the coolest and wisest head
in Iraq, but this has chaos written all over it,''
says Mr. Cole. "He must know the likelihood of these
protests being completely peaceful is low, so he's
got to be absolutely furious to call for people to
come out on the streets."
Eyewitnesses in at least four cities reported
attacks on Sunni mosques. Tariq al-Hashemi, leader
of the Iraqi Islamic Party, one of the biggest Sunni
groups, said at a press conference that 29 Sunni
mosques were burned across the country and demanded
that the perpetrators be brought to justice. He also
dismissed Shiite protesters as "rabble," a term
favored by Saddam Hussein to refer to Shiites.
Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who leads
the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq (SCIRI), one of the country's two most powerful
Shiite parties, and which has ties to the Shiite
Badr militia, threatened reprisals in an interview
with Sharqiya TV.
"If the government can't protect us then we will
have to do it ourselves,'' he said.
He also said US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad is
partly to blame for Wednesday's attack. The
ambassador has made a number of forceful statements
this week urging Shiite leaders to give Sunni Arabs
a bigger say in government than they won at the
ballot box, and has warned against allowing groups
like SCIRI, which he deems overly "sectarian," from
seeking to control security posts in the next
government.
Mr. Khalilzad's "statements created more pressure
and gave a green light to terrorist groups, [so] he
shares part of the responsibility," Mr. Hakim said.
Shiite leaders like Hakim frequently use the word
"terrorist" as a blanket term for Sunni political
groups that have ties to the insurgency, and which
Khalilzad would like to see join the next
government.
In much the same way that a Danish newspaper's
cartoons of the prophet Muhammad stirred violent
protest across the globe, the reaction to this
incident stems from a deep cultural identity and
religious faith that can surprise outsiders. Though
there was outrage at a bomb attack in Baghdad's
dangerous Dora neighborhood that killed 21 Shiites
on Tuesday, no attack has stirred the type of
tension created by this one in Samarra.
Samarra is not simply a Sunni city with a Shiite
shrine at its heart. It hosts a confusing welter of
tribal allegiances and rivalries that have left it
violent and unstable since the war began. About half
of its 200,000 residents have abandoned the city in
the past two years, and US soldiers built a vast
earthen berm around it last August in an effort to
keep insurgents out.
The city's history is also wound up with an age-old
Sunni-Shiite rivalry, as well as with the
apocalyptic beliefs of many Shiite clerics, like
Sadr. The shrine contains the tombs of Ali al-Hadi
and his son Hasan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th imams
of Shiite Islam who died in the 9th century. Legend
has it that Askari's son, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was
born in the city. It is one of four main Shiite
pilgrimage sites in Iraq.
Mahdi was the 12th and final of the Shiite imams.
Legend has it that he was "occulted" by God before
his death, and will return to earth to bring an era
of justice and peace, followed by the end of the
world. Sadr's militia is named for this imam.
Sadr and his followers are convinced that the time
for the Mahdi's return is close. "He disappeared
into a supernatural realm from there ... so this
will be interpreted as an attack on the imam
al-Mahdi, an attack on their guy; so for the Sadr
people it's an apocalyptic moment,'' says Cole.
"There will be reprisals."
There was also outrage in Iran, the most populous
Shiite state, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad,
is a deep believer in the looming return of the
Mahdi.
In the 19th century, the shrine became a keyseat of
Shiite learning and helped contribute to mass
conversions to Shiism in central Iraq, alarming
then-ruling Sunni Ottoman officials, who took steps
to limit the influence of Shiite clerics.
Under Mr. Hussein, the city's importance to Shiites
diminished, in part because of government measures
to limit Shiite pilgrimages to the shrine. Al-Askariya
enjoyed a brief revival after his fall before the
city was swept by violence.
p>• Located in Samarra, Askariya is one of the most
important Shiite shrines in the world, attracting
millions of pilgrims.
• Askariya contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th
imams, Ali al-Hadi and his son Hassan al-Askari.
Shiites believe that Askari's son Muhammad al-Mahdi,
the 12th imam who disappeared in 878, will return to
earth.
• The mosque, first developed in the 10th century,
has been rebuilt numerous times. Its golden dome,
which dominates the skyline, was built in 1905 and
contains some 72,000 gold pieces.
www.csmonitor.com
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