- BAGHDAD (IPS) - Widespread sectarian violence generated by the recent
bombing of the Shia Golden Mosque in Samarra has also brought widespread
demonstrations of solidarity between Sunnis and Shias across Iraq.
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- The revered Al-Askariyya Mosque in Samarra,
135 km northwest of Baghdad, is one of four sacred places for Shias in
Iraq.
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- The mosque was bombed at 6:55am Feb.
22 by men who tied up the guards and planted the explosives. This being
the third attack on the Shias in as many days, outrage was immediate, violent
and widespread.
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- Bloody retaliatory attacks took the lives
of three Sunni Imams and scores of civilians, while over 50 Sunni mosques
were attacked.
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- Yet the violence led also to demonstrations
of solidarity after Shia and Sunni leaders called for calm and restraint.
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- Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani
called for "easing things down and not attacking any Sunni mosques
and shrines."
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- Sistani's office was quick to issue a
statement: "We call upon believers to express their protest...through
peaceful means. The extent of their sorrow and shock should not drag them
into taking actions that serve the enemies who have been working to lead
Iraq into sectarian strife."
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- Muqtada Al-Sadr, arguably the second
most influential Shia cleric in Iraq told reporters: "It was not the
Sunnis who attacked the shrine of Imam Al-Hadi, God's peace be upon him,
but rather the occupation (forces) and Ba'athists...God damn them. We should
not attack Sunni mosques. I have ordered the Al-Mahdi Army to protect both
Shia and Sunni shrines."
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- Sadr returned promptly from Lebanon and
called on the Iraqi parliament to vote the departure of occupation forces
from Iraq.
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- Sunni religious authorities called for
peace and asked people to confront those trying to generate a sectarian
war.
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- Many Arab media outlets blamed the floundering
Iraqi government for failing to provide the security needed to prevent
the attacks. But thousands of people who joined demonstrations blamed American
troops for failing to protect the Iraqi people.
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- Sunnis were quick to demonstrate solidarity
with the Shias in Samarra and to condemn the mosque bombings. Demonstrations
of solidarity between Sunnis and Shias followed all over Iraq. Some of
the bigger demonstrations were held in Basra, Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Kut,
and Salah Al-Din.
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- Much of the Shia anger was directed at
U.S. forces. In the primarily Shia city of Kut south of Baghdad, thousands
marched through the streets burning U.S. and Israeli flags.
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- Thousands of Shias marched through Sadr
City, the huge Shia slum area of Baghdad, shouting anti-American slogans.
Sadr City has almost half the population of Baghdad.
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- Many large demonstrations were held in
Baghdad outside Sadr City.
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- "Those shrines are very important
to all Muslims, not only in Iraq but all over the Islamic world,"
40 year-old merchant Ahmed Hassan told IPS at a demonstration in Khadamiyah
area of Baghdad Feb. 23. "Every Muslim in Iraq not only criticised
and condemned this action, but everyone is against it."
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- Thousands of Sunnis joined Shia demonstrations
in Baghdad despite moves by the Iraqi security forces to seal off Sunni
areas.
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- "This is no more than an Israeli
kind of act done by the American troops using some men who were paid,"
a 54 year-old Shia man told IPS. "It is not the Sunnis who are responsible,
because we know the Americans and Israelis want to divide us. The Sunnis
would never bomb a Muslim mosque."
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- A 25-year-old woman among the demonstrators
was telling everyone she could that the attack had nothing to do with the
Sunni people of Samarra.
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- "My husband is a Sunni from Samarra
who goes to that shrine," said Hashmia Atimim. "Of course we
know it was a foreigner who did this horrible act."
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- Some of the sentiments at the demonstrations
found unexpected if partial echoes. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said
in a statement that those who attacked the Golden Mosque in Samarra "have
only one motive: to create a violent sedition between the Sunnis and the
Shiites in order to derail the Iraqi rising democracy from its path."
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