The demonstrators call for an end of U.S. crackdown on Shiite scholars

By Ali Halani, IOL Iraq Correspondent

BAGHDAD, May 29 (IslamOnline.net) – Hundreds of students from Iraq’s influential Hawza Shiite seminary protested here Thursday, May 29, at the U.S. storming of some Hawza offices and mosques in the southern Iraqi city of An-Najaf, the seat of the Hawza, and arresting some Shiite scholars.

Coming in droves and waving banners of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hussein al-Sarakhi (senior Shiites), the demonstrators denounced U.S. crackdown on Shiite scholars.

The marchers got united in Al-Zhor (noon) prayer and shortly afterwards they carried white coffins expressing their willingness to pay the ultimate price to defend their motherland and veteran much-respected scholars.

Sheikh Abu al-Hassan al-Hadi al-Mousoui read a statement sealed by the Hawza, asserting the U.S. troops in Iraq “have crowned its crimes with a most heinous one that uncovered the evil intentions aimed at undermining the bedrock of Islam and put the knife into the heart of Islam representing in the struggling holy Hawza.”

The statement said the “terrorist” U.S. troops and those “who jumped on the bandwagon” stormed and ransacked An-Najaf and the town of Hilla where they said that many Shiite scholars were arrested.

It added that the U.S. troops further attacked women, children and the elderly.

The strongly-worded statement called on the U.S. administration in Iraq to “release the detainees, return the residents their properties, make an apology for the residents and compensate them and pledge not to repeat such a barbaric and terrorist act in the future.”

‘Fake Paradise’

Praying

The statement also said that the U.S. troops fell short of honoring their pledges of “an Iraqi paradise” once the war came to end, asserting that they saw nothing so far but “lies and deception” and that the U.S. was just paying lip service.

“There is no water, electricity, medicine, work, health or security,” it said.

“We denounce and reject the U.S. deeds, words and crimes as well. We hereby warn the U.S. and their cronies of a repetition of such crimes, which could unnerve the Iraqi people, who are willing to turn their bodies into deadly bombs to detonate the tanks and vehicles of the aggressors,” it vowed.

Asked about their reaction if the U.S. failed to meet their demands, Mousoui sufficed to say, “we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Amir al-Ta’ai, a Hawza student, told IslamOnline.net that thrusting into the homes of Hawza scholars is an aggression on religion and “therefore we will defend our school (Hawza) till we breathe our last.”

“The American stripped Iraq of everything and we will never allow them to down-tread the dignity of our scholars and sacred places,” he said.

Shiites make up about 60 percent of the Iraqi population. The Hawza has become a rising political and social power in post-war Iraq.

The Iraqi resistance, in effect, has gained momentum over the past few days.

Four soldiers were wounded Monday, May 26, when an unknown Iraqi threw a bag packed with an explosive device in front of a convoy of U.S. troops on a major highway leading to Baghdad airport.

U.S. soldiers also on Sunday, May 25, shot dead an Iraqi woman carrying two hand grenades in Baqubah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baghdad.