In Baghdad and Krabala
At huge Muslim rallies, cries of 'U.S. out'
By Greg Butterfield
Days after U.S. troops gunned down 19
protesters in the northern city of Mosul, thousands of Iraqis
took to the streets of Baghdad April 18 to demand the
withdrawal of U.S. and British occupation forces.
In a powerful rebuff to President George W. Bush's claim to
be the "liberator" of Iraq, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims and
secular forces all answered the call for a united protest by
the Abu Hanafi Mosque, a large Sunni religious center in the
capital, after traditional Friday prayers.
Over loudspeakers that could be heard blocks away by U.S.
troops, Abu Hanafi prayer leader Ahmed al-Kubeisy said: "You
are the masters today. But I warn you against thinking of
staying. Get out before we kick you out." (New York Times,
April 19)
The crowd, estimated at up to 10,000 people, marched from
the 1,300-year-old mosque through the wreckage of downtown
Baghdad. "Leave our country. We want peace," one of their
banners said. Another read, "No to sectarianism, one Islamic
state, no to America."
Fergal Keane, writing in the April 19 Independent of
Britain, gave this description of the charged atmosphere in
Baghdad: "They are shouting slogans forbidden under the secular
rule of Saddam, slogans which, if George Bush could hear them,
would surely cause him to revolve with anxiety: 'With our blood
and our souls we will defend Islam.' The same slogans rattled
the walls of the Shah's palace in Iran a quarter of a century
ago. ...
"An imam came over to me and asked to be interviewed. 'The
Americans are here in our country for one thing. They want the
oil. They want to defend Israel. If they don't leave soon there
will be queues of mujahedin lining up to drive them out.' Again
it was rhetoric familiar from the streets of Cairo and Beirut.
But this was Baghdad, and there were American troops just up
the road. ...
"Then came one of those moments you live through with every
nerve of your body vibrating. I saw young men breaking away
from the main crowd and running toward a street corner. There
was some shouting. Then I spotted American helmets bobbing
above the crowd. 'Look, buddy, I've got the gun--now back off,'
a voice shouted. An Iraqi man was confronting an American
soldier. 'Go ahead and shoot me. Go ahead,' the man said. A
woman shouted into my face: 'It's about our pride. It's just
about our pride.'"
Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the demon stration in the
midst of devastation caused by weeks of U.S. bombings, a press
conference was held at the exclusive Hunter's Club in a wealthy
and relatively unscathed part of Baghdad. There, under heavy
U.S. Special Forces guard, Ahmad Chalabi was wooing the
international media.
Chalabi has been identified as the favorite of War Secretary
Donald Rums feld and the Pentagon to be the future president of
Iraq. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress received millions of
dollars from the Clinton and Bush administrations, but has no
support in the country. In fact, the Pentagon recently created
a mercenary militia for the INC.
Until he was flown into northern Iraq by U.S. forces,
Chalabi had not set foot in the country since he was 12. His
wealthy family fled the 1958 nationalist revolution against
British colonialism. Chalabi is wanted in Jordan, where he was
convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement after the
collapse of his Petra Bank cost the Jordanian government $300
million in the early 1990s.
During his news conference, shots were fired at Chalabi's
bodyguards outside. (The Independent, April 19)
U.S. arrests, then releases, Shiite leader
The French Press Agency reported April 22 that after two
days of protests, U.S. forces released Sheik Mohammed
al-Fartusi, a prominent Shiite cleric in Bagh dad who had
spoken out against the occupation and in favor of Shiite-Sunni
unity.
Before Fartusi's release, supporters staged a sit-down
protest in front of the Palestine Hotel, which U.S. forces have
transformed into a command post. A protester who identified
himself as Sheik Ahmed said they were trying "to find out if
America is here to export freedom or terrorism." Another
charged, "The United States wants to create problems between
Sunnis and Shiites."
Fartusi and five others were seized at a U.S. checkpoint 10
miles south of Bagh dad on April 20. The group was returning
from Karbala, where up to a million Shiites were gathering to
mark a holy day honoring Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim
prophet Mohammad.
The gathering of Shiite pilgrims in Kar bala climaxed on
April 21, 22 and 23, with hundreds of thousands joining in
chants and protests against U.S./British occupation.
"These public demonstrations are ... to express Shiite power
to the Americans," said Sheik Abdul Mahdi al-Karabalai.
"Midmorning, even as pockets in the crowd chanted
anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans, two U.S. Humvees drove
through the masses to the edge of the Abbas Mosque, with
soldiers in sunglasses waving self-consciously like beauty
queens on parade," reported the April 23 Christian Science
Monitor.
"We don't want the Americans driving here," said Haidar
Ghazi, a student. "We want them to go."
Al Jazeera reported, "The crowd repeated slogans calling for
unity between Shia and Sunnis, and between Shia political
groups ... 'No Sunnis, no Shias, Islamic unity,' they
chanted.
"Some also shouted slogans demanding a U.S. withdrawal from
Iraq. 'If Amer ica stays, it will suffer,' shouted a group of
some 3,000 people as they passed in front of a hotel housing
foreign reporters. 'No to colonialism, no to occupation,' 'No
to America, no to Saddam, no to tyranny, no to Israel,' they
continued."
Reprinted from the May 1, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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