International Relations and Security Network ISN - Security Watch
Sectarian divisions after Falluja
Beyond the innumerable expressions of defiance at the loss to the insurgents of Falluja, some expressions of pessimism have crept into jihadist forums - always a useful barometer of mujahideen morale. The fall of the city is of great significance "since it was considered the citadel of the Sunnis who were counting on its persistence as a military force to support their political policy and guarantee them against marginalization", as one thoughtful contributor to the alsakifah.org forum put it. However, he went on to note what he felt was the more ominous development, "the beginning of the empowerment of the Shi’ites".
The search for scapegoats has received a boost, and it is taking the form of exacerbated sectarian tension. The leader of the Salafi Movement in Iraq, Sheikh Mahdi As-Sumaidai, in a November 11 interview to the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, (http://www.alhayat.com), openly accused Shiite forces of "seeking and inciting the option of war against Falluja and other Sunni areas", and called upon the Shi’ite ulema (scholars) and hawza (Central authority) to issue a fatwa banning the participation of Shi’ite soldiers in the fighting. The fact that there were Shi’ite Iraqis at all in the ranks of the National Guard fighting in collaboration with the coalition forces has been a point of considerable tension. On 19 November, Mufakkirat al-Islam (http://www.islammemo.cc/news) reported with outrage the sight of the black flags of the Shi'ite Hawza in Falluja, and the presence of National Guard bearing "an image of what the Shiites call ‘Imam Ali' and ‘Imam al-Husayn' (the two major religious figures in Shi’ite Islam). Some of the pictures bear the inscription, "With the blessings of our Master Ali we are entering Falluja!" There followed reports of "massacres of unarmed civilians … the mutilation of corpses" and the conclusion that the Shiite soldiers were "motivated by sectarian hatred fed by declarations and fatwas from the religious figures of the Shi'ite Hawza at Najaf".
The reported ‘silence' of the supreme Shiite authority, Ayatollah Ali as-Sistani, on events in Falluja have fed Sunni convictions of a conspiracy against the community, a sentiment shared by nationalist authors outside the country. On 22 November, Osama Saraya commented in the Cairo daily al-Ahram (http://www.ahram.org.eg): "The suspicious silence and double standards of the [Iraqi Shiite] religious marja'iyyahs … have raised many doubts" which led him to deduce that "the US occupation is now trying to plant the seeds of sedition between the Arabs and the Iranians who have immigrated to Iraq under Shi’ite pretenses"
[...]
The extremist author then openly declared the Shi’ites "more worthy of death than the Crusaders" and quoted, as justification, a Hadith by which the Prophet Muhammad is to have said: "There shall come a people called ‘al-Rafida' [deserters; often used as a derogatory term for Shiites]; if you meet them, kill them for they are polytheists". The most graphic manifestation of this position is what Iraqis term the "Muthallath al-Mawt" the "Triangle of Death", an area lying between Baghdad and the Shi'ite centers to the south, and bounded by the cities of Yusufiyyah to the northwest, Iskandariyya to the south and Mahmudiyya to the east. Here, alongside Americans and members of the Iraqi security services, Shiites as such, especially since the end of Ramadan, are finding themselves targeted for killing. The karbalanews.net site ran a feature outlining the dangers of the zone, noting the inscription on walls at the entrance to the most perilous town in the Triangle, Latifiyyah: "Be a Sunni and then you won't have to fear the Opels" (referring to the make of cars used in the bombings). Across the city, the report continues, notices have appeared saying that the rebels are offering bounties of between one to two thousand dollars for the killing of police and members of the National Guard. Other accounts speak of one thousand dollars for the death of Shi’ites, pure and simple.
The Brigades of Anger
The hatred appears to have become visceral. Ad hoc checkpoints weed out Shiite travelers, "some forced to utter blasphemies against [Shi’ite patriarch] Imam Ali, on pain of death", under threat from those obeying an extremist doctrine that, "If you kill a Shi’ite you will go to heaven". According to the UN-funded ReliefWeb organization, about 500 Shi’ite families have fled the Latifiyyah area. A Shi’ite response is also taking shape. Originally intended as a protection force for visitors to the holy city of Najaf, a unit called Kata'ib al-Ghadb (‘Brigades of Anger') now vows to defend Shi’ites from any group they consider to constitute a threat. The spokesman for the Brigades, Dheya al-Mahdi, has openly demanded that prominent Sunni clerics, both in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia, issue an edict calling off the Sunni extremists. Otherwise, he warned, the Brigades are to start hunting down Sunni insurgent fighters. Although the motivation and authorship of the targeting has not been fully established, the killings on 22-23 November of two leading Sunni clerics - both members of the Sunni Arab Association of Muslim Scholars which has taken the lead in inciting resistance to the elections - appear to encapsulate the next stage of the struggle for Iraq.
Sectarian divisions after Falluja
Beyond the innumerable expressions of defiance at the loss to the insurgents of Falluja, some expressions of pessimism have crept into jihadist forums - always a useful barometer of mujahideen morale. The fall of the city is of great significance "since it was considered the citadel of the Sunnis who were counting on its persistence as a military force to support their political policy and guarantee them against marginalization", as one thoughtful contributor to the alsakifah.org forum put it. However, he went on to note what he felt was the more ominous development, "the beginning of the empowerment of the Shi’ites".
The search for scapegoats has received a boost, and it is taking the form of exacerbated sectarian tension. The leader of the Salafi Movement in Iraq, Sheikh Mahdi As-Sumaidai, in a November 11 interview to the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, (http://www.alhayat.com), openly accused Shiite forces of "seeking and inciting the option of war against Falluja and other Sunni areas", and called upon the Shi’ite ulema (scholars) and hawza (Central authority) to issue a fatwa banning the participation of Shi’ite soldiers in the fighting. The fact that there were Shi’ite Iraqis at all in the ranks of the National Guard fighting in collaboration with the coalition forces has been a point of considerable tension. On 19 November, Mufakkirat al-Islam (http://www.islammemo.cc/news) reported with outrage the sight of the black flags of the Shi'ite Hawza in Falluja, and the presence of National Guard bearing "an image of what the Shiites call ‘Imam Ali' and ‘Imam al-Husayn' (the two major religious figures in Shi’ite Islam). Some of the pictures bear the inscription, "With the blessings of our Master Ali we are entering Falluja!" There followed reports of "massacres of unarmed civilians … the mutilation of corpses" and the conclusion that the Shiite soldiers were "motivated by sectarian hatred fed by declarations and fatwas from the religious figures of the Shi'ite Hawza at Najaf".
The reported ‘silence' of the supreme Shiite authority, Ayatollah Ali as-Sistani, on events in Falluja have fed Sunni convictions of a conspiracy against the community, a sentiment shared by nationalist authors outside the country. On 22 November, Osama Saraya commented in the Cairo daily al-Ahram (http://www.ahram.org.eg): "The suspicious silence and double standards of the [Iraqi Shiite] religious marja'iyyahs … have raised many doubts" which led him to deduce that "the US occupation is now trying to plant the seeds of sedition between the Arabs and the Iranians who have immigrated to Iraq under Shi’ite pretenses"
[...]
The extremist author then openly declared the Shi’ites "more worthy of death than the Crusaders" and quoted, as justification, a Hadith by which the Prophet Muhammad is to have said: "There shall come a people called ‘al-Rafida' [deserters; often used as a derogatory term for Shiites]; if you meet them, kill them for they are polytheists". The most graphic manifestation of this position is what Iraqis term the "Muthallath al-Mawt" the "Triangle of Death", an area lying between Baghdad and the Shi'ite centers to the south, and bounded by the cities of Yusufiyyah to the northwest, Iskandariyya to the south and Mahmudiyya to the east. Here, alongside Americans and members of the Iraqi security services, Shiites as such, especially since the end of Ramadan, are finding themselves targeted for killing. The karbalanews.net site ran a feature outlining the dangers of the zone, noting the inscription on walls at the entrance to the most perilous town in the Triangle, Latifiyyah: "Be a Sunni and then you won't have to fear the Opels" (referring to the make of cars used in the bombings). Across the city, the report continues, notices have appeared saying that the rebels are offering bounties of between one to two thousand dollars for the killing of police and members of the National Guard. Other accounts speak of one thousand dollars for the death of Shi’ites, pure and simple.
The Brigades of Anger
The hatred appears to have become visceral. Ad hoc checkpoints weed out Shiite travelers, "some forced to utter blasphemies against [Shi’ite patriarch] Imam Ali, on pain of death", under threat from those obeying an extremist doctrine that, "If you kill a Shi’ite you will go to heaven". According to the UN-funded ReliefWeb organization, about 500 Shi’ite families have fled the Latifiyyah area. A Shi’ite response is also taking shape. Originally intended as a protection force for visitors to the holy city of Najaf, a unit called Kata'ib al-Ghadb (‘Brigades of Anger') now vows to defend Shi’ites from any group they consider to constitute a threat. The spokesman for the Brigades, Dheya al-Mahdi, has openly demanded that prominent Sunni clerics, both in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia, issue an edict calling off the Sunni extremists. Otherwise, he warned, the Brigades are to start hunting down Sunni insurgent fighters. Although the motivation and authorship of the targeting has not been fully established, the killings on 22-23 November of two leading Sunni clerics - both members of the Sunni Arab Association of Muslim Scholars which has taken the lead in inciting resistance to the elections - appear to encapsulate the next stage of the struggle for Iraq.
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