Iraqis protest the arrest of Shiite cleric

By Imam Elliethi, IOL Baghdad Correspondent

BAGHDAD, April 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims took the media and the U.S. military completely by surprise, when they converged from the north and south on the Palestine Hotel late Monday afternoon, denouncing the U.S. detention of a leading cleric.

The crowds called for the immediate release of the cleric - Sheikh Muhammad al-Fartusi - who is the representative in Baghdad of the powerful Hawza Council of Ulema, which is based in Najaf.

Outside the Palestine Hotel other chants included "No to colonialism" - a reference to fears of U.S. intentions in Iraq - and "Release Fartusi or else".

In a statement to the media, Sheikh Hussein al-Assadi, a student of Sheikh Fartusi, warned that, since U.S. forces had set foot in Iraq, they should be aware of Muslim sensibilities, "otherwise there will be an explosion".

"We suffered under Saddam, we don't want to suffer under the Americans, too," he said.

The demonstrators accused the U.S. of being “another ugly face of Saddam”, and vowed “not to let the Americans deprive them of their freedom”.

Then they called for Islamic unity between the Shiite and their Sunni Muslim brothers; “Not Shiite, not Sunni, one Islamic nation”.

Then, with a word from one of the organizing clerics, held shoulder-high among the crowd as they beat their chest in the traditional Shiite fashion, the demonstrators marched away north up Saddun Street.

The anti-U.S. slogans continued Tuesday, April 22, demanding the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as the rituals of a massive pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbla got underway.

"No to America, no to Saddam, no to tyranny," they chanted in Arabic, marching behind black flags.

U.S. forces were not present in the city during the pilgrimage organized by Shiite religious leaders.

Hundreds of thousands have flocked from across Iraq to the shrine of Imam Hussein to commemorate Tuesday and Wednesday the 40th day after his decapitation in 680 AD by an Umayyad caliph, a pivotal event in Shiite history.

Shiite religious leaders have expressed fear that Washington might use Iraq to promote not only its own interests but also those of Israel, at the expense of Arab or Muslim states such as Iran and Syria.

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Meanwhile, the U.S. military said a key member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, one of 55 Iraqi officials most wanted by the United States, had been taken into custody by U.S. troops.

The arrest of Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi came after Iraq's postwar U.S. administrator, retired general Jay Garner, completed his first day on the job in Baghdad, vowing to restore basic services but admitting it would not happen overnight.

Zubaidi, a former member of the Revolutionary Command Council, the central decision-making body of Saddam's regime, was the queen of spades in the "most wanted" deck of cards issued by the U.S. military.

The arrest, announced by the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, brought to eight the number of fugitive Iraqi officials seized since the fall of Saddam's regime.

Earlier, a member of the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) said Zubaidi had been apprehended by member of the Free Iraqi Forces in Hilla, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, and turned over to U.S. troops.