Frisking women by foreign men is very provocative for Muslims

FALLUJA, Iraq, June 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Qassem Hasnawi watches the U.S. soldiers roaring through Fallujah day after day with their armoured vehicles and machine guns and only thinks about one thing - how to end their presence two months after the invasion and make ends meet.

"Imagine how an Iraqi man feels when he sees a foreigner touching his sister," he said in the brutal summer heat of his roadside stand, where he works 16 hours a day selling local cigarettes.

"We can never accept it. I swear to God, I want to kill them all," Hasnawi thundered, echoing mounting sentiments that the occupation forces are not respecting customs of this conservative Sunni Muslim town with incessant house-to-house searches and females frisking.

About an hour west of Baghdad, the town is filthy, run-down and desolate, with children, shoeless and unwashed, begging in the streets or hustling drivers for a handout to "guard" their parked cars, Agence France-Presse (AFP) described the situation In Falluja.

Old men dressed in rags kneel on the pavement in diagonal lines, just to keep in the thin shadow cast by the electricity poles.

Furious

But in addition to the despair, Falluja is simmering with rage two months into the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.

The hatred of the occupation was manifested in two deadly attacks in the last two weeks, the latest on Thursday, June 5, when an attacker fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an American military convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding five.

But residents here did not feel regretful, as they still remember when 19 innocent civilians were gunned down by the U.S. forces during a demonstration for an end of occupation last April. Since then, many vowed revenge.

In many ways, the city has become emblematic of the complex tangle of problems facing the U.S.-led occupation.

American patrols come under regular fire from Iraqis armed with weapons available since Saddam Hussein was toppled under promises of a better life in the horizon.

This in turn has left the American soldiers edgy and much less friendly with the Iraqis.

While the U.S. forces say they want to let Iraqis run their own affairs as soon as possible, they have poured more than 1,000 extra troops in and around the city in the past few days to try to curb anti-occupation attacks.

Much to the anger and skepticism of locals, the U.S. administration also decided to scrap an Iraqi national conference to form the new government to fill the power vacuum and planned in place to appoint a 25-member council to run the oil-rich country.

And although the U.S. forces said they are launching a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi public, Falluja residents angrily insist that peace would only be restored once the occupation troops have packed up and left.

"They wave their guns in our faces and they insult us," says Uday Beldi Edan, a wizened 52-year-old shouting to be heard above the crowd of people voicing their rage.

"The Americans are humiliating us on purpose. They touch and search our women. We should resist them, and we will."

For the Americans, frisking women during house-to-house searches for weapons and attackers is a normal part of the security job. For the people of Falluja, it is a horror beyond description.

The word on the street is that U.S. forces fly helicopters over the city at night just to spy on the women sleeping on rooftops to beat the heat indoors, and that they use binoculars to gaze at them inside their houses.

Residents also say U.S. soldiers sometimes urinate in full view of women, mocking Islamic sensitivities.

Far Beyond

Humiliated by U.S. forces, Falluja residents determined to see an end to occupation

But the anger in Falluja goes far beyond the treatment of its women.

Many of the men were soldiers in the Iraqi army, which has been dissolved by the U.S. administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer. Their new unemployment has added to the city's misery.

The combination of suffering and outrage, and what seems to be an endless supply of guns and rocket-propelled grenades, surely spells more bloodshed to come for the U.S. troops.

"Every time you go out, there is a 50-50 chance you will get shot up," says Private First Class Raymond Mickler, speaking from an armoured Humvee with a machine gun mounted and loaded. "We just have to be real careful."

Nahaf al-Diaji, another resident, warns the Americans have yet to taste Falluja’s full fury.

"We have not even started attacking them yet," he said. "This is just the beginning."