Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims converged on a mosque in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf Friday, July 25, to hear nutbag firebrand Imam Moqtada Sadr demand U.S. forces leave the city and abolish the Governing Council it named.
| Ummm... Lemme think. No. Piss off. |
Sadr, the upstart son of a revered Shiite scholar, told masses of followers after prayers at the city's main mosque: "We criticize the occupation force for laying siege to the city of Najaf. This is a terrorist act, and we demand that U.S. forces leave Najaf," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "You should dissolve this Governing Council and end the occupation," he told the crowd, referring to the 25-member U.S.-appointed Iraqi body responsible for a transition to an independent government. "Your presence here is the best support and the best way to fight the occupation and the siege of the city."
| Unfortunate accident... Unknown assailants... Coincidence, those pictures of him making love to a goat should surface... Probably forgeries... |
Hundreds of trucks and buses had transported the faithful to Najaf from the capital and 18 other provinces to hear Sadr's weekly rant spew emission of vitriol sermon. Thousands packed into the mosque and the surrounding streets, organized in a disciplined manner and refraining from the heavily anti-American chanting that punctuated last week's gathering. Sadr, scion of an illustrious family of ayatollahs who resisted Saddam Hussein's rule, electrified Najaf last week with a fiery speech blasting the U.S. occupation. His challenge to the delicate balance of power led to a tense standoff between the U.S. military and the imam and his followers, who are part of the 15-million Shiite majority who — until now — have reportedly welcomed U.S. intervention in Iraq.
| So far it's only his followers... |
The influential scholar said U.S. troops besieged his home last Saturday, a claim hotly denied by U.S. commanders in the region. On Friday he reiterated his call to establish his private militia, called the "Mehdi Army", for which recruitment began last Saturday in the Baghdad Shiite suburb of Sadr City. "The Mehdi Army is the army of Iraq. This army will protect Iraq," Sadr said.
| They had video on the terriblevision last week of the clerics writing down the names of the voluteers. On paper... Making a record. Heh... |
"I am pleased by your actions against the United States, to prove that you are protecting your religion and the Hawza (the supreme Shiite authority in Iraq based in Najaf) and your belief in God." He also charged that Americans had repeatedly "crossed the line" in Najaf by searching religious schools and arresting religious figures. Sadr has emerged as a prominent figure in post-war Iraq, but he is still ranked by many in his hometown as a young upstart who has not entered the hallowed ground of a scholar like Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the preeminent Shiite thinker in Iraq.
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