http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000528.phpFALLUJAH ? A stepped up military offensive that targets mosques,
religious leaders and Islamic customs is leading many Iraqis to believe
that the US-led invasion really was a "holy war."
Photographs are being circulated of black crosses painted on mosque
walls and on copies of the Quran, and of soldiers dumping their waste
inside mosques. New stories appear frequently of raids on mosques and
brutal treatment of Islamic clerics, leading many Iraqis to ask if the
invasion and occupation was a war against Islam.
Many Iraqis now recall remarks by US President George W. Bush shortly
after the events of Sep. 11, 2001 when he told reporters that "this
crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while."
"Bush's tongue 'slipped' more than once when he spoke of 'fascist
Islamists' and used other similar expressions that touched the very
nerve of Muslims around the world," Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubayssi of
the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), a leading Sunni group, told
IPS in Baghdad. "We wish they were just mere slips, but what is going on
repeatedly makes one think of crusades over and over."
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