Shiites protest Fartusi’s arrest

ABU DHABI , April 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - American methods of torture and humiliation were "worse" than those employed by the regime of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric charged Wednesday, April 23, saying he was detained and beaten by U.S. forces.

"Our arrest by the Americans was worse than the arrests that Saddam ordered against our students," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartusi as telling Abu Dhabi television.

"We were beaten and spent a night with our hands tied behind our backs," Fartusi said.

"It was disgusting. Despite that none of our young men has pointed a weapon against America ... but next time, God alone knows what popular anger could lead to."

Fartusi, who was detained Sunday, April 20, by U.S. troops along with five other Shiites, reappeared in Baghdad Tuesday, April 22, to cheers from hundreds of supporters who had held protests for two days and forced the U.S. troops to release him.

The reported arrest threatened to become a major source of friction between the Americans and the Shiites, who account for 60 per cent of Iraq's 25 million people.

Karbala Rituals Reach Climax

Some one million of Shiite Muslims crowded Karbala

Meanwhile, some one million of Shiite Muslims have crowded the holy city of Karbala Wednesday for a ritual banned under Saddam Hussein.

In rituals marking the death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein Ibn Ali, the worshippers beat their heads and their chests and also flogged their backs with chains, while some entered a golden-domed shrine on all fours in a sign of humility.

Some of the "pilgrims" shouted anti-U.S. slogans amid growing discontent among Iraqis over U.S. occupation of the country and the failure to restore basic services.

"If America stays, it will suffer," angry worshippers shouted as they marched in front of Palestine Hotel which houses foreign reporters. "No to colonialism, no to occupation."

"O (Imam) Hussein, you have won, Saddam the despicable is gone," chanted another crowd as it marched around the mausoleum under the blazing sun.

U.S. troops were not present in Karbala, located 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south of Baghdad, and kept a low profile on the road linking the two cities to avoid provoking further anti-U.S. sentiment over their presence in Iraq.

The Shiite "pilgrimage" to Karbala , made by many from Baghdad on foot, comes at a tense point in relations between U.S. forces and Iraqi Shiites, who protested in the capital for the second straight day against the arrest of Sheikh al-Fartusi.