The battle for Sunni hearts and
minds By Nir Rosen
BAGHDAD -
In the Mother of All Battles mosque on Friday April 9,
the immense Kalashnikovs were pointed up, as always.
Saddam Hussein had the mosque built, known in
Arabic as Um al-Maarik, in honor of the first Gulf War
in 1991. Four of its towers are shaped like
Kalashnikovs, while another four are shaped like
missiles.
The spotless mosque, occupying an
immense plot of land, is surrounded by a moat, has
well-manicured plants, a parking lot, and many armed
guards. Though after the fall of Saddam's regime the
Sunni mosque's official name was changed to Um al-Qura,
and a new sign was put outside, locals have ignored the
change, and inside the mosque the walls bear the
original name. Unlike most mosques in Baghdad, Um
al-Maarik still displays a sign to the right of its door
stating that it was "built by the order of President
Saddam Hussein, may Allah keep him".
Sheikh
Harith Suleiman al-Dhari gave the sermon last Friday.
Dhari is the general secretary of Iraq's Council of
Sunni Ulama, or theologians, Iraq's most important Sunni
organization. Dhari called for national unity and a
general strike for the next three days to protest the US
siege of the town of Fallujah, a city of 200,000 Sunni
Iraqis to the west of Baghdad where over 700 Iraqis have
been killed fighting American Marines, who were
punishing the town for the deaths and mutilation of four
American security contractors last month.
Thousands of Sunnis were joined by Shi'ite
Iraqis demonstrating their solidarity as Dhari condemned
American brutality in Fallujah. Dhari excluded workers
providing essential services to the people from his call
for a general strike. He added that the Sunni council
had declared it against Islam to purchase American or
British goods, since the money would support the
military operations against Iraqis, Arabs and the Muslim
world. Dhari also asked his audience to help in the
provision of medical supplies, as well as gas and
generators.
"Hai-al al-jihad!" he shouted,
calling his listeners to join the battle against the
Americans and calling the battle of Fallujah a historic
battle of the Iraqi nation where their loved ones are
fighting, welcoming death and martyrdom. Dhari called on
Allah to seek revenge for the spilled blood and destroy
America and Britain, as well as anybody loyal to them
and the infidels. He called on Allah to support the
mujahideen, or holy warriors who are fighting to
liberate their country and their religion, and to kill
all the occupiers. "Do not spare any of them!" he said.
"What America did in Iraq has done nothing but
increase the fire and convince us that the occupation is
a failure," he said, adding that America would not
defeat freedom. He explained that Iraqis who had lived
for one year without essential services or electricity
were demanding the expulsion of the occupation from
Iraq. He called on Iraqis of all sects to be united and
forgive one another "so we can show the world that we
are not like the rumors that predict we will kill each
other and that the rumors that the US is here to protect
us from a civil war are false. Our only protection is
our unity."
Dhari criticized the Iraqi Governing
Council, damning anyone who suggested that the
anniversary of the Iraqi occupation was a cause for
national celebration. "It is a sad and painful day in
our memory," he said, damning the "silent officials
responsible for the crimes being committed against the
Iraqi people", adding that those officials "do not
represent Iraq, they represent the occupation's desires,
they obey the occupation and they defend the
occupation".
Dhari's call for a strike was
obeyed by Sunnis as well as many Shi'ites. Shops
throughout Baghdad were closed to protest the crimes of
the occupier and demonstrate solidarity with the people
of Fallujah, or at least not provoke those who did feel
that solidarity. Even the Internet cafes that cater to
Western reporters next to the Sheraton and Palestine
hotels in central Baghdad were closed. Fallujah had
become a symbol for the plight of the Muslim people,
much as the Israeli siege of Jenin in the West Bank, or
the Serbian siege of Sarajevo, had previously galvanized
them.
Dhari's views have been echoed by other
members of the Sunni council, such as Sheikh Muhammad
Bashar al-Faidi, a council spokesman who has called for
the Iraqi constitution to be based on the Koran.
Al-Faidi compared the occupation to Saddam's regime,
explaining that it has no right to reject Islamic
government the way US civilian administrator L Paul
Bremer had done when he forbade the constitution to be
based on Islamic law.
After the sermon and
prayer had ended, Husham al-Dulaimi, a leader from an
important western Sunni tribe, addressed the people,
using the mosque's microphone, asking them to join the
battle. He said that the people of Fallujah did not need
food or clothes. "We need you and your support," he
said, asking them to attack American convoys. The crowd
responded with calls of "jihad!"
Dhari, Iraq's
premier Sunni scholar, was born in Baghdad in 1941,
graduating from Egypt's prestigious al-Azhar Islamic
University in 1967. The Dhari clan is based in Khan
Dhari, a village in western Iraq with a history of
resistance to foreign occupiers. His ancestor is famous
for killing Colonel Gerard Leachman, a British colonial
officer, in 1920, provoking an uprising against the
British known by Iraqis as the 1920 Revolution. Dhari
was a professor outside Iraq until he returned following
the former regime's collapse last year.
Dhari's
brother Dhamir was murdered by unknown assailants in
February. Dhari blamed the attack on "parties working
hard to provoke sectarian and ethnic strife in Iraq.
They want to ruin the image of peaceful coexistence
among Iraq's different ethnicities and sects." That same
month, Dhari voiced his concerns over "shady rooms"
where Iraq was being discussed. He warned of the strong
influence of Jews and Israelis in post war Iraq. "Jews
are in Iraq now," he said, "actively working with the
occupation forces, intelligence and companies supposedly
in the country to rebuild Iraq". Dhari attributed the
occupation of Iraq to Zionist ire over Iraqi support for
the Palestinians.
Dhari has often called for
"liberation before elections", explaining that there is
no point to elections while Iraq is under occupation,
and predicting the failure of United Nations
intervention. Dhari has also repeated the oft-heard
Sunni claim that they are the majority. "Sunnis in Iraq
are more than half of the population," he has said,
estimating that they might be up to 60 percent of the
population, and adding that the "numbers quoted for the
Shi'ite majority in Iraq are a lie which we have not
disputed until now for the sake of national unity".
Most observers give Shi'ites a 60-65 percent
majority in the country.
In previous sermons in
the Um al-Maarik mosque, Dr Sheikh Ahmad al-Ghafur
al-Samarai, also a member of the Sunni council, had
presented a series of discussions about "tyrants",
referring to the American occupation. "We ask god to
stop the bloodshed and death of women and children and
old people," he said in a sermon about "the tyrant's
death throes", where he asked rhetorically: "Can the
occupation stop the tyrant from dying? Can his air
force? What can he do when god has ordered his death?
The big tyrant here in Iraq is the occupier who wants to
start sectarian strife among the Iraqi people, but his
efforts have failed and there will not be a sectarian
war because of the good Iraqi people." Ghafur added that
the failure to provoke a civil war had caused "the
occupier" to "lose his mind".
Angrily, the
preacher, also a member of Dhari's council, demanded:
"Where are the international organizations? This week
many Iraqis bled and mosques and places of prayer and
many innocents were killed." Ghafur told his listeners
that "the truth is the occupiers want to start strife so
Iraqis will be busy fighting each other and forget the
presence of Americans stealing the money of the Iraqi
people. Iraqis should be united and they should know the
malicious plan and be awake." Ghafur concluded by asking
Allah to remove the occupation.
In a previous
sermon, Ghafur has complained that the occupation forces
were favoring Shi'ite Iraqis, and called for elections
to be held only after the occupiers had left. Ghafur
explained that ending the occupation was more important
than holding elections, which could not be fair if
conducted under occupation. He called for UN and Arab
League forces, a constitution and finally elections.
"How can they protect Iraqis," he asked, when "the
Americans are not able to protect themselves"?
After prayers at the mosque, the faithful can
purchase from a large selections of books, CDs, tapes
and magazines dealing with the occupation, radical
Islam, Islamic awakening, globalization and
international Jewish conspiracy theories. A popular
theme is also methods to convert Christians and Jews to
Islam and books proving that Shi'ites are wrong in their
beliefs, in particular who is responsible for killing
Husein, a central event in centuries-long Shi'ite
history and in the divide between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
The Sunnis of Iraq are afraid of the Shi'ites,
even those who fight with them. They have not abandoned
the Ba'ath (and even pre-Ba'ath) hatred for the
Shi'ites, and they fear the redistribution of resources
as well as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini-style
theocracy of Iran that would be imposed should the
ambitions of many Shi'ites be realized through
democratic elections giving them power.
The
articles that the Sunnis read, as well as the statements
of prominent Sunni leaders, make it clear that the
alliance with radical Shi'ites is a temporary measure to
battle a common foe. Basair, or "The Mind's Eye", is a
newspaper published by the Council of Sunni Ulema. A
recent article focused on the close relationship the
council has with radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr,
the only Shi'ite leader Iraqi Sunnis support, thanks to
his defiance of the Americans. Referring to the March 2
Ashura explosions in which scores of mostly Shi'ites
were killed, the article states: "The council and Sadr
representative Seyid Ibrahim Jabari agreed that Israel
and the US and the UK are responsible for the
explosions. They were done by a small devil working for
the big devil Israel, the US and the UK."
A more
typical article, however, condemns the (Shi'ite) police
for killing Sunnis "for the benefit of groups for whom
the police work [the Americans]", and supports the
resistance (Sunni) attacks on the police. "Iraqis know
about the conspiracy to cause sectarian strife among
them," an article begins, quoting accusations made by
Naseer Chadarchi, a Sunni member of the Iraqi Governing
Council that "thousands of Iranians [Shi'ites] are
sneaking into Iraq and they should not get citizenship
as already happened in Amara, where 10,000 Iranians
received Iraqi citizenship." The article, voicing
typical Sunni paranoia that all Shi'ites are in fact
illegal Iranians, continues that "many groups are
sneaking into Iraq to get passports", hinting at the
Sunni fear of a democracy that would result in the
Shi'ite majority determining the shape of the new
country. The article continues that "this is why some
people [meaning Shi'ites] want direct elections and a
census that will benefit them".
Continuing the
theme of Shi'ite hatred, another article describes the
"dangerous demographic changes in Iraq after the war",
referring to an imagined influx of Iranians who created
a Shi'ite majority. "Occupation forces will change the
demography of Iraq for their benefit," the article
warns, "using the huge capabilities of the occupation
forces, their intelligence and experience in this field.
These new demographic changes are worse than Saddam's
because they [Americans] are using migrations, economic
rules and killing to increase the population of certain
sects such as Iranians, Kurds and Turks. We want to say
that the reactions [meaning violent attacks] of Arabs
[meaning Sunnis] in the west and south is a reaction to
these changes. Jordan and Saudi Arabia are also part of
Iraq, so there are more Arabs [Sunnis] but borders
separate them. America is the cause of these changes."
The article attributes the secret plot to import
Iranians to skew Iraq's population to "the Jewish and
Zionist strategy in the Middle East and the security of
Israel in the future". The author warns that "these
demographic changes and their direct effects on future
elections and the type of government will lead to a
civil war to divide Iraq and we will have a racist
government that will oppress most nationalities and
minorities". The author explains that "Iranians want to
increase the ratio of Persians among the [Arab] Shi'ites
which will increase the ratio of Shi'ites in Iraq and
Baghdad in hidden and declared ways."
Dar
Assalam, the newspaper of the Islamic party, whose
representative in the Iraqi Governing Council has openly
stated that Sunnis are the majority in Iraq and that
Jordan actually belongs to Iraq, provides weekly
analysis of political events. Its articles refer to
foreign conspiracies to provoke a civil war in Iraq. It
also blames Iranians (the code word for Shi'ites) for
Iraq's problems, absurdly writing that many Iranian
suspects were arrested for involvement in the Ashura
attacks. However, it too also views Muqtada favorably,
quoting him to prove that the al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi is an American invention and trick.
In front of Aadhamiya's Abu Hanifa mosque, a
bookstore selling anti-American sermons on tape and CD
also sells al-Bayan, or "The Statement", a radical
Wahhabi magazine published in Saudi Arabia. One article
articulates the Wahhabi position on ahl albda, or
"religious innovators", a reference to Shi'ites who
"deviated" from the true Islam. The article concludes
that Shi'ites should be ignored, not dealt with or
spoken to.
In front of the Hudheifa mosque in
the Shurta district of Baghdad, after the evening
prayers, similar literature is sold, under the watchful
gaze of nervous guards, eyeing the streets for
attackers. Alongside copies of Basair and Dar Assalam, a
magazine called Nur, or "Light", is sold. The magazine
is published in Iraq. A typical issue informed its
readers that the "American CIA [Central Intelligence
Agency] makes false religious leaders for Iraqis to
follow to stop anti-American feelings," and "the
Americans are responsible for attacks on police
stations". "The CIA is studying how to kill Saddam so
they won't have to put him on trial." Another article
was critical of women's rights. And another discussed
how Islamist parties had achieved electoral victory in
Turkey.
An article on Iran contained the same
themes evident elsewhere. "Presidential elections in
Iran provoke many questions," the article begins, "such
as where is Iran headed after 25 years of revolution,
what are the problems dividing reformers and
conservatives, what did people gain from the revolution,
did Iran succeed in creating freedom and democracy, or
do they exist only superficially? Iran has some cards to
play in Iraq against the US. There is a good
relationship between Iranian reformers and the Iraqi
Sadr and Sawa parties. This weakened Iranian
conservatives in their negotiations with the US over
their nuclear program, so the conservatives began
supporting [Grand Ayatollah Ali al-] Sistani to support
them in Iraq against the US. Both reformers and
conservatives in Iran agree in their desire to start a
sectarian war in Iraq. Despite their competition over
who will lead the Hawza, all Iraqi Shi'ites agree to
follow Iran."
The magazine addresses the Iraqi
ministry of human rights, asking: "What is more
important, to ask for the rights of dead people in mass
graves [Shi'ites] or the living people [Sunnis] in Abu
Ghraib?" The conclusion dismisses the need to revisit
the past alleged crimes committed against the Shi'ites,
and demands attention to the true victims of the
present, the Sunnis.
In an article that would
make any Shi'ite incandescent, the author asks: "Who
killed Husein?" and concludes that "it was a
conspiracy", but the Shi'ite Persians killed him. The
article refers to Yazid and Muwiya, the most hated
individuals in the Shi'ite pantheon as wise and good,
praising Muwiya for his wisdom in appointing Yazid as
his successor because he feared the Persians. Yazid, the
man Shi'ites believe usurped the leadership of the
Muslim world from Husein, its rightful heir, and
murdered him, is described as "devout, religious and
moral", a point of view that could provoke an ordinary
Shi'ite to violence. For good measure, the article
blames Jews and Christians as well for betraying Husein.
These articles, and similar sermons on CDs with
covers depicting an American hand plunging a bloody
knife into Iraq, are available in hundreds of mosques
and book stores. They are not mere rhetoric, just as the
pro-Israeli headlines in the Daily News or New York Post
are not empty words. They target an already susceptible
audience and are circulated throughout Sunni regions and
neighborhoods, elaborating on the themes Sunnis read on
the graffiti on their city walls, hear in their shops
and cafes, and listen to during the important Friday
sermons. This is not the propaganda of a small minority
of "former regime loyalists" or foreign fighters, as the
occupying forces and the American administration insist.
This is the world view of a very large and powerful
segment of the population. And it is a very well armed
segment that believes it is backed into a corner and has
nothing to lose. The Sunni hatred of the West and fear
of the Shi'ites are the constant motif.
Though
Sunni leaders in mosques throughout Iraq praised Muqtada
and his "army of the Mahdi" for standing up to the
Americans, in previous weeks they had all warned of the
Shi'ite threat in words similar to those of the
newspapers quoted above, and a statement by the army of
Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni militant organization that has
vowed to attack occupation forces. In its statement last
month signed by the organization's leader, called an
emir, Abu Abdallah al-Hasan bin Mahmud, it condemned the
Iraqi Governing Council for collaborating with the
occupation and taking their orders from the US and not
Allah. The statement, which complained that mosque
speakers were not sufficiently calling for jihad against
the American military and the American people, also
criticized Shi'ites for not resisting the "infidel
attackers in our Muslim country". The statement said
that "it is in the nature of the [Shi'ite] communities
to side with infidels against the Sunnis".
Another Sunni leader, Sheikh Mudhafar Hadi
al-Qaisy, of the Khadija al-Kubra mosque in Baghdad,
warned that "Shi'ite influence would lead to many errors
being made in the constitution", adding that the Shi'ite
clergy could not be allowed to control the process.
Resistance members in Western Iraq have warned
that they want to assassinate the relatively moderate
Shi'ite cleric Sistani for compromising with the
American occupiers, but added that they admire the
radical Muqtada, whom the Americans are now trying to
kill or arrest. Elsewhere, in the Shi'ite Shaab
neighborhood, Sheikh Walid, the leader of a small Sunni
mosque that has been shot at three times already, does
not unlock his door when guests knock. He suspiciously
peers out, and even after being reassured that the
stranger is only a journalist, Walid does not remove the
Kalashnikov strapped around his torso for a moment,
afraid of everybody.
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policies.)
Hussein had the mosque built, known in
Arabic as Um al-Maarik, in honor of the first Gulf War
in 1991. Four of its towers are shaped like
Kalashnikovs, while another four are shaped like
missiles. 
