Opinion Editorials, June 2007
June 2007 Opinion Editorial Links
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Destruction of Iraqi Mosques
By Mohammed Khaku
ccun.org, June 17, 2007
A bomb explosion at the Golden Mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Wednesday damage the two minarets that were left standing after the last bomb attack in February 2006. The Al-Askari Mosque, also known as the Golden Mosque is one of the four major Shi'i shrines in Iraq. Samarra 65 miles north of Baghdad has mausoleum to 10th and 11th Shia Imams, Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874. Shiites believe that the son of Hassan Al-Askari, the 12th imam, Imam Mehdi, known as “hidden imam” will reemerge with prophet Jesus one day, which will signal the beginning of the end of the world. The great Samarra mosque, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture completed in 1905 was built in 848-852 AD. It is one of the largest mosques of Islam with striking features of the winding minaret (Al-Malwiyya) and the largest golden dome in the Islamic history.
The logical question I ask is who are trying to provoke the civil war? And who benefits from such a vicious attack on the foundation of Islamic identity and culture? Neo-cons and the editorials will say its Al-Qaeda or Sunni insurgents. However, bombing of the Golden Domed Mosques twice within eighteen months is the work of specialist and highly trained saboteurs and bomb-expert that were executing destruction to incite sectarian violence. The blast bears all the characteristics of a covert intelligence-agency operation. It reminds me of French OAS in Algeria in 1962, setting off bombs among France’s Muslim community in an effort to set Muslims against Muslims, Arabs against Arabs which led to half million civilian dead.
The truth is that has never been a civil war in Iraq. Iraq is not a sectarian society, but a tribal society with Shi'is and Sunnis marrying each other. I have never experienced any animosity during my visits to Middle East between Shi'is and Sunnis. The notion that Iraq is in the throes of civil war is rarely challenged in the western media despite the fact that Iraq has no history of sectarian violence, which is now ripping the country apart. I ask myself why the Neo-cons and media are rubbing this Sunni-Shi'i difference when there is no theological or spiritual dispute between the Shi'a and Sunna schools. Sunnis and Shi’is are considered by most to be brethren in faith. In fact, most Muslims do not distinguish themselves by claiming relationship to any particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply “Muslims”. How can Shi'is and Sunnis kill each other when they fought side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder together for eight years against Iran? Surely, someone wants a civil war in Iraq. There is something going wrong. Iraqis are not suicidal people they don’t go around blowing up mosques, it’s not natural and it has never happened in the history of Iraq. Shi'is and Sunnis have built mosques together and prayed together. The irony is that the Imam Al-Askari himself said before he died “ my shrine in Samarra will be refuge for both Shi'is and Sunnis”. Actually the shrine is run by the Sunnis and Samarra is a unique case in the Iraq’s history, where there are Sunnis in Samarra that claim that they are from the family of the grandsons of the prophet Muhammad and they call themselves “Sayyid”. Hence Sunnis can never threatened the shrine at all.
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