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The ALLAWI REGIME
U.S. Installed, Financed,
Armed and Controlled
Muktadr al-Sadr
Like Joan of Arc, hero in life, martyr if killed
Like Joan of Arc, hero in life, martyr if killed
Mid-East Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 18 August 2004: Whatever now happens in these historic days in historic Najaf, and indeed in the historic heart of the Arab and Muslim worlds now known as the country of Iraq, the modern world will not be as it was before. Major political, theological, and economic forces are now in collission; all fighting through a combination of military, ideological, religious, and monetary weapons.
Many Muslim establishment groups and personalities around the world, including in the U.S. and Canada, feel the U.S. and Israel are the real villain's in today's Middle East, that Muqtada Al-Sadr is a courageous and sincere Iraqi and Muslim struggling to free his country and region from American occupation, that Iyad Allawi is a brute corrupt CIA-puppet or worse.
But you won't find such persons interviewed on popular TV programs or appearing on the Op Ed pages of major newspapers, even if they have been professional and 'establishment' people all their lives, even if they hold representative offices.
It's not only that they are not 'politically correct' at the moment and nearly totally pushed aside by the traditional corporate media that is so closely intertwined with government and big business.
It's also that their ideas and information are dangerous to those who hold power and are now so intent on creating a 'New World Order' and a 'New Middle East'; and thus such persons, such ideas, such information, must be repressed and silenced as much as they can manage.
Here then are two such voices speaking out, crying out, at this critical time. The first an American who was Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, the very venue in fact President Bush choose to visit soon after 9/11. The second is a Canadian who is President of the Canadian Islamic Congress. -MER
Allawi
- 'A Traitor To Islam,
Iraq And The Arab World'
He Must Be Tried For War Crimes
By Dr. Sam Hamod
Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC (retired)
"The Shrine of Ali in the Holy City of Najaf
to the Shi'a is analogous to the Vatican
for the Catholics, the Wailing Wall to the
Jews and Mecca to Muslims in general.
This American assault, under the call of
Allawi, is a sin of the first order..."
Iraq And The Arab World'
He Must Be Tried For War Crimes
By Dr. Sam Hamod
Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC (retired)
"The Shrine of Ali in the Holy City of Najaf
to the Shi'a is analogous to the Vatican
for the Catholics, the Wailing Wall to the
Jews and Mecca to Muslims in general.
This American assault, under the call of
Allawi, is a sin of the first order..."
8-15-2004: The American puppet, the Vichy/Nazi style pseudo prime minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, is a traitor to Islam, to the Shi,a, to Iraq and to the Arab and Muslim worlds.
There is no doubt that Mr. Allawi is a known criminal who is known to have shot innocent prisoners recently in Iraq; this was seen by many witnesses. His Nazi like behavior and his calling for an assault on the Holy Site of Najaf, even on the Shrine of Ali, shows the man is an animal, a non-Muslim, a munafik (a hypocrite who claims to be a Muslim), and he is man who must be put on trial for war crimes and for the deaths that occurred on the assault on Najaf.
As the former Director of The Islamic Center of Washington, DC, the official voice of Muslims in America, and under the hand of the Muslim Ambassadors assigned to Washington, DC, I call upon all Muslims to denounce him and to ask for punishment of Mr. Allawi and those who support him. If Mr. Negroponte, the present U.S. Ambassador in Iraq is part of this scheme, then he too should be tried for war crimes and punished. Perhaps Mr. Negroponte is already being punished because he is trapped in his embassy in the Green Zone and shivers with thoughts of even going out of this "safe area.
The Shrine of Ali in the Holy City of Najaf to the Shi'a is analogous to the Vatican for the Catholics, the Wailing Wall to the Jews and Mecca to Muslims in general. This American assault, under the call of Allawi, is a sin of the first order and must be punished for its brazen assault on Islam. For Allawi and his allies to even consider this to be something that should be allowed, with his justification that his own puppet appointed governor of Najaf and mayor of Najaf allegedly calling for attacks on Najaf and the Shrine of Ali"the lies and evil of Mr. Allawi and his allies is clear for the Muslim and for even the Western World to see.
It is time for all the leaders in the Arab and the Muslim world to put an end to Allawi and his puppet government in Iraq, even if it means sending armies in to dethrone him.
America must also be made to understand that all Arab and Muslim countries will not tolerate this offensive for another day. Bush must be awakened, as well as Kerry. If not, then Muslim and Arab countries must break their alliances with America and let it be known that America cannot insult and attack Muslims and their Holy Sites in the world.
Yes, I am an American citizen, but I am also a human being who wants justice in the world. This type of American barbarism, aiding and abetting a devil like Allawi and his minions, must stop. If not, then this sinfulness will be on the head of America and those puppets like Allawi in this world and the next.
_____
Dr. Sam Hamod writes on world affairs,
especially the Middle East
and Islam; he is a former advisor to the State Department; editor of
3rd World News; Director of The Islamic CenterLike Joan of Arc, Al-Sadr is a soldier and a saint
by Mohamed Elmasry*
"The Al-Sadr militia does not pose any
threat to the U.S. forces. But Al-Sadr
made it clear that the Americans have
to leave soon. His supporters are also
becoming more popular, providing needed
social services in the Shi'a cities of Najaf,
Kufa and Karbala in the south and at the
Al-Sadr city, a suburb of Baghdad."
by Mohamed Elmasry*
"The Al-Sadr militia does not pose any
threat to the U.S. forces. But Al-Sadr
made it clear that the Americans have
to leave soon. His supporters are also
becoming more popular, providing needed
social services in the Shi'a cities of Najaf,
Kufa and Karbala in the south and at the
Al-Sadr city, a suburb of Baghdad."
8-17-2004: Last Saturday (Aug 14) negotiations to end the fighting in the Iraqi city of Najaf broke down, threatening to spark a resurgence of the fierce clashes between the followers of the Shi'a religious leader Moqtada Al-Sadr and a combined U.S.-Iraqi force that has plagued this holy city for more than a week.
The collapse of talks will likely negatively impact Iraq's National Conference, which started Sunday (Aug 15), gathering some 1,300 delegates from all over Iraq.
Al-Sadr along with Sunni religious leaders refused to attend the Conference, saying that any political gathering of the type while Iraq is an occupied country does not represent the free will of Iraqis, and thus it is null and void.
Moreover in an extraordinary show of unity, religious leaders of both Sunni and Shi'a issued a religious ruling (fatwa) to say that it is treason, both religiously and nationally, for any Iraqi to collaborate with the occupiers.
Thus the Iraqi resistance, both politically and militarily is taking a new dimension, causing serious headaches to the Bush administration.
And on the ground in a show of unity the Sunni city of Falluja, under siege itself by the Americans in central Iraq, is supplying the Shi'a city of Najaf in the south with needed food and water.
But who is this young religious leader who is challenging the occupation forces of the most powerful military in the world? Who is this man, who was offered a leading government Minister job by the Americans, but turned it down?
To Iraqis, the young man, in his thirties is a hero in life and a martyr if killed or assassinated.
The young Al-Sadr is the fourth son of Mohammed Sadeq Al-Sadr, a pre-eminent Iraqi religious scholar. The young Al-Sadr, at age 25, saw his two elder brothers assassinated by the Iraqi regime along with his father in 1999.
Earlier in 1980 the young Al-Sadr as a child saw his father taking delivery of the corpses of his cousins, Imam Al-Sayyid Baqir Al-Sadr and his sister, after they had been executed by Saddam Hussein.
The young Al-Sadr found himself responsible for a family of widows and orphans -- his mother, his brothers' wives, his sister whose husband was also assassinated, and a large number of nieces and nephews.
This gave the young Al-Sadr a sense of power to change what came out of Iraq, and he pledged to speak out against oppression, aggression, and injustices committed either by fellow Iraqis like Saddam Hussein or later by the occupation forces.
He became a father, not only for his devastated family but for the people of Iraq who have been orphaned – first by Saddam Hussein, then by brutal years of sanctions and finally by aggressive invasion and oppressive occupation.
Although the young Al-Sadr has not attained the position of a Marja' (spiritual leader) among the Iraqi Shia religious hierarchy, following the American occupation he has found himself the spiritual leader of thousands of young Iraqis who resist the occupation.
The young Al-Sadr was and still is critical of religious leaders who do not speak out against injustice. Since 1997 Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who remained secluded in his home until he went to London last week for surgery, was most criticized by the young cleric.
Al-Sadr called Sistani's Hawza (seminary) "the silent seminary" while he advocated a different type of seminary, Al-Hawza Al-Natiqa "the vocal seminary" which speaks for the people of Iraq, the orphaned.
The Al-Sadr militia does not pose any threat to the U.S. forces. But Al-Sadr made it clear that the Americans have to leave soon. His supporters are also becoming more popular, providing needed social services in the Shi'a cities of Najaf, Kufa and Karbala in the south and at the Al-Sadr city, a suburb of Baghdad.
And this goes against the Bush Administration's desire for total domination in Iraq.
Listening to the young religious leader speak to his supporters or to the press, you cannot help but believe that this young man is telling the truth – liberation, peace and justice for his people are his deepest aspiration.
Like Joan of Arc, Al-Sadr is a soldier and a saint.
* Mohamed Elmasry is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo and national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
