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| Iran |
| Iranian Students Ready to Defend Iraqi Shrines |
| 2003-04-06 |
| A group of Iranian theological students have called on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to allow them to go to Iraq to safeguard holy Shi'ite Muslim shrines, a newspaper said on Sunday. Shi'ite Muslim Iran has given repeated warnings to U.S. and British forces not to damage sites in the southern Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Najaf which are home to some of the most sacred shrines for their branch of Islam. "Basij (volunteer) clerics are ready to take your orders to protect with their lives their Muslim brothers and sisters and the holy sites in Iraq if needed," the hard-line Kayhan newspaper quoted the letter as saying. And so begin the first steps of the aftermath... The letter was written to Khamenei by religious students in the northwestern city of Tabriz. Kayhan said Iran's religious seminaries would abandon classes on Monday to stage nationwide demonstrations against the war in neighboring Iraq. "The Islamic world will not tolerate any aggression or disrespect to Iraqi holy shrines and attacks on Iraqi civilians," it quoted a statement by an unnamed seminary school in the city of Qom, where most of Iran's religious schools are based. Eager to minimize U.S. accusations of interference in the war, Iran has closed its border with Iraq and said it will not allow Iranians or Iraqi exiles to cross over and join the fighting. But this is different, of course... But damage to holy sites, such as the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad, in the heart of Najaf, would enrage Iran's Shi'ite clerical establishment. So would most other things, of course. And we all know that no Muslim is able to control his rage whenever it arises... In a letter to the British embassy in Tehran, a group calling itself the Islamic Society of Students also warned U.S. and British forces to respect the Shi'ite shrines in Iraq. Should they be damaged, "we will even sacrifice our lives to put in danger all the interests and sites of the American and British aggressor governments," the letter said, according to the hard-line Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper. Sounds exactly like a threat to me. I'm really getting tired of half-wits, cheap politicians, and holy men feeling free to threaten the U.S. and Britain. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #6 Hey, if they want to send some (real) religious students over to help fix up the shrines, what's the harm? I'd say let them. If they try to stir up trouble, plenty of time to correct things. I don't think the Iraqis will be putting up with much "Kill the Americans" talk... |
| Posted by: Reed 2003-04-06 23:23:08 |
| #5 Someone: the problem is, the argument about not caring what your neighbour's beliefs are, plays into their argument that we are in fact infidels since we tolerate other religions besides Allah's and Mohamed's. Therefore to them it is about Islam. |
| Posted by: RW 2003-04-06 22:23:17 |
| #4 When are these mentally retarded idiots going to get it through there thick heads it is not about Islam. Most people in the "West" could are less what your religious beliefs are( the Jehovahs Witnesses withstanding )Christian, Muslim, Budhist, bay at the fucking moon. As long as you do not interefer with your neighbor most of us us dont care. But when you try to impose yours on anyone else, we get very highly pissed. The US and Britian learned the hard way about attacking "holy sites" in Italy during WWII. Aree any of these idiots familiar with Monte Casino? |
| Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-04-06 21:50:23 |
| #3 once again.. what is with this constant sabre rattling and useless prattle... fight or shut up... if we damage something, get upset - until then sit in the corner of your rotting third world backwater hellhole and be quiet - we have work to do... |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-06 18:43:00 |
| #2 Ya think that maybe they would want to pick up their dead and bring them back while they're in Iraq? I'm sure the Brits would be willing to hand back Iranian war dead that they stumbled upon yesterday..... Look on the bright side, though....at least they'll be taking a day off from school. No hate lessons tomorrow, for a change. |
| Posted by: Former Russian Major 2003-04-06 13:15:25 |
| #1 Let 'em all go into the gauntlet. If it escalates, all these countries are going down. Goodbye Damascus, Goodbye Tehran, basically anyone who throws in their chips. Take care of it all at once. Islamofascist psycho hard boys ready to go horizontal. |
| Posted by: George 2003-04-06 12:26:18 |