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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Sistani aide sez Sadr has to hang it up |
| 2004-05-11 |
| Tribal elders and supporters of Iraqâs highest Shia Muslim authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned on Monday of a foreign plot to sow chaos in this holy city by aggravating the standoff between radical militants and US forces. Sistani follower and influential moderate cleric Sadreddin al-Kubbanji, convened a meeting of Najafâs tribal elders and repeated his earlier calls for the militia of firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to leave the city. Speaking to an emotional crowd of Sistani supporters, Kubbanji called for a demonstration on Friday, the Muslim holy day, to protest âchaos, lies and occupationâ and warned of a âtreacherous plot being hatched in the name of fighting the US-led occupation." In a veiled criticism of Sadrâs Mehdi Army militia, which has effectively taken over the area around the cityâs holiest shrine, Kubbanji accused âoutside elementsâ of stoking the insurgency in order to suck the Americans into the heart of the sensitive Shia city. Kubbanji said loyalists of jailed former president Saddam Hussein and Wahabis, radical Sunni Muslims such as followers of Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, were behind the conspiracy. âThe occupation was far away from Najaf and the city was calm, but when they (Sadrâs militia) hit them with stones they were forced to come here,â said Kubbanji, in reference to the thousands of Sadrâs young guerrillas who took over Najaf after launching a failed uprising last month. He praised the âgood intentionsâ of Sadrâs fighters, who have come from Baghdad and other cities to âdefend Najaf,â but said they had been âsucked into this conspiracyâ and repeated calls for them to them to leave the city. Kubbanji is also the local leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq party (SCIRI), a major Shia party which is represented on the US-appointed Governing Council. As he spoke his audience cheered in support of Sistani and the Najaf-based religious authority. âWe would die for Sistani,â shouted some of the men, while black-veiled women in the back row chanted: âWe follow our religious authority and our learned ones." Sistani has called for a peaceful resolution to the Sadr crisis and the respect of Najafâs sanctity while steering away from endorsing the young cleric or issuing a religious edict to wage jihad (holy war) against the Americans. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |