Samarrah Mosque Bombing
Reuters‘ reporter in Baghdad, Alistair Macdonald, is reporting that tensions are running high after the bombing of a major Shia mosque. Here’s some details from the article:
In the bloodiest apparent reprisal for the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, men in police uniform seized a dozen Sunni rebel suspects, including two Egyptians, from a prison in the mainly Shi’ite city of Basra and killed 11 of them. Gunmen fired on dozens of Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere.
President Jalal Talabani summoned leaders of all sides to a summit early on Thursday after the bloodless but symbolic dawn bombing provoked outrage among majority Shi’ites that surpassed the anger caused by the thousands of killings by Sunni militants since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago.
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The Shi’ites’ reclusive and aging senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made a rare, if silent, television appearance that underlined the gravity of the crisis. He called in a statement for protests but restraint as protesters outside his office in Najaf chanted: “Rise up Shi’ites! Take revenge!”
Sistani has alot of sway in Iraq so his calls for peaceful protests is a step in the right direction. Talabani’s summit might go a long way toward lowering the temperature, too. I suspect it will.
It’s worth remembering that a tiny minority of people are the troublemakers and that alot of restraint has already been shown. I suspect that that’s what Talabani will stress and what Sistani is stressing.
UPDATE: Iraq the Model has some important information. Here’s a portion of that information:
Ayatollah Sistani reacted quickly to the escalating anger by issuing a fatwa that forbids his followers from “Taking any action against Sunni sites” obviously to discourage his followers from carrying out retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques. Sistani has also demanded a 7 day mourning and to consider it a week off but the government so far has announced only a 3 day official mourning.
and:
I believe there are foreign terror groups behind this attack and I don’t think local insurgent would do such a thing, simply because this particular shrine had been in Sunni territory for a thousand years and the residents of Samarra had always benefited from the movement of religious tourism and pilgrimage.
First of all, if ITM is doing the reporting, then I’ll trust that it’s accurate. Secondly, if Sistani issued a fatwa, then his followers will lower their ‘temperature’ accordingly.
Sidenote: Sistani has been a real leader through all of this, keeping the Shi’ites from making unreasonable demands. They’ve been more than fair.
Here’s the rest of the update:
It seems that I have no choice but to point out a few important updates that I found from the local media as well as my personal observations:
- President Talabani promises to make rebuilding the shrine his personal responsibility and to donate the required money from his own.
- Head of the Sunni endowment sheikh Ahmed al-Samarra’I announces that he will allocate 2 billion dinars (~1.4 million $) for the rebuilding of the shrine from the treasury of the Sunni endowment.
- Huge demonstrations in many of Iraq’s provinces including Samarra and Mosul where thousands of people condemned the attack.
- The top 4 Shia Ayatollahs hold a meeting at Sistani’s home to discuss the situation.
- The Association of Muslim scholars and the Islamic Party condemn the “criminal act”.
- Retaliatory attacks on reportedly 29 Sunni mosques and the Accord Front warns from the consequences of such violent reactions.
- Jafari in a press conference calls for national unity and the leaders of the UIA hold a meeting. A press release is expected to come soon.
- The Iraqi TV opened the phone lines to receive the reactions of the audience to the attack and hosts Sunni clerics and politicians in an attempt to relieve the tension.
- Baghdad is in undeclared emergency situation, shops closed and streets nearly empty.
- Tight security around the shrine of Abu Haneefa in Aazamiya district of Baghdad, this is considered the top shrine/mosque for Sunni Muslims in Iraq.
- Masked gunmen attack Shia protestors in at least one neighborhood in western Baghdad and armed clashes in Ghazaliya and Hay al-A’amil.
- People exchange phones calls with their relatives and friends to check on them and discourage them from leaving their homes.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing