Senior Iraqi Shi'ite joins sectarian war of words (al Hakim)

[sabra]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L08833880&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3

Senior Iraqi Shi'ite joins sectarian war of words

BAGHDAD, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A powerful Iraqi Shi'ite leader said on Monday his majority community was a victim of "sectarian genocide", a new twist in a bitter exchange of accusations between Iraq's rival Muslim sects.

...


In a speech to followers in Baghdad celebrating a Shi'ite holy day, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim accused other groups of trying to kill Shi'ites in what he called "sectarian genocide".

Though he did not use the word "Sunni", his use of terms describing non-Shi'ites made clear to listeners he was referring to militants from Saddam's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority.

...

In the speech, broadcast on the state television channel Iraqiya, Hakim appeared to refer to an incident on Saturday when police said they found 27 bodies in a Sunni district of Baghdad.

"You heard what happened the day before yesterday ... They took young men, women and children, killed them and hanged them on electricity poles," Hakim said, voicing a rumour in the city that has not been confirmed by police or the Interior Ministry.

[Doctor_J]

1. This can't be right - William Kristol said that Shiites and Sunnis

and secular people in Iraq can live in perfect harmony.

[Tempest]

2. Here's something interesting

"In the speech, broadcast on the state television channel Iraqiya"

So the state television channel broadcasts al-Hakim's speech, but shuts down a private TV station for airing a Sunni cleric's speech accusing Shiites of fostering attacks against Sunnis.


This is not going to end well, not at all.

[LynnTheDem]

3. It isn't the tiny minority Sunnis. It's the fundie extremist rightwingnut Shia

and their militias.

The same ones Saddam Hussein kept oppressed.

The same ones the US is trying to get rid of.

Ain't many Sunnis in Basra...yet Basra, once the most liberal oasis in the ME, is now women covered head to toe (for those who actually dare to go outside) and roaming "morality" militia squads.

They aren't Sunni.

Al Sadr ain't Sunni, either.

No, FACT is, George W. bUsh's war on the people of Iraq has set free the radical fundie extremists, mostly Shia. Exactly as the world's experts warned would happen.