[NYTr] Fallujah Battle Deepens Divisions in Iraq

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

Associated Press via IraqNet
http://www.iraq.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=5901&newlang=&topic=2&catid=0

Fallujah Battle Deepens Divide in Iraq

By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Raids on mosques and the arrests of several hardline Sunni
clerics have raised fears the U.S.-led assault on the Sunni insurgent
stronghold of Fallujah will further alienate Iraq's religious minority from
the majority Shiites and autonomy-seeking Kurds.

Last week, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, head of the Supreme Association for
Guidance and Daawa, a conservative Sunni organization, accused interim Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi's government of "launching a war on Sunnis."

On Thursday, al-Sumaidaei urged Sunnis to launch a civil disobedience
campaign to protest the assault on Fallujah. Hours later, Iraqi security
forces raided his Um al-Tuboul mosque, a major landmark in western Baghdad,
seizing weapons and arresting the cleric and about two dozen supporters.

The arrests of at least four Sunni clerics in recent days were being
perceived by many within the Sunni minority as a deliberate policy aimed at
targeting and marginalizing their community, which is in the majority in the
Islamic world.

For many Sunni Arabs both here and elsewhere in the Arab world, Fallujah has
become the symbol of Iraqi resistance against the U.S. occupation. But many
Shiites and Kurds do not share that view.

Nawshirwan Mustafa, an official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said
Fallujah was a "hub of terrorists" and his only criticism of the U.S.-led
attack was that it did not happen sooner. Former Kurdish guerrillas, now
serving in the Iraqi National Guard, have provided reinforcements to battle
Arab insurgents in the northern city of Mosul during the attack on Fallujah.

Secular politician Modher Shawkat, a top official with the Shiite National
Congress Party, warned that national unity would be the first victim of "a
wide perception in the Sunni streets that they are targeted and such is a
reality even if it is not intended."

Allawi, a secular Shiite, defended his decision to order the assault on
Fallujah, saying it was necessary to bring enough stability for national
elections to be held by Jan. 31.

Allawi brushed aside suggestions the offensive would create a backlash among
the Sunni minority.

"There is no problem of Sunnis or Shiites," he said. "This is all Iraqis
against the terrorists. We are going to keep on breaking their backs
everywhere in Iraq. We are not going to allow them to win."

However, the Association of Muslim Scholars, considered the most influential
Sunni group in Iraq with 3,000 clerics, has called for a nationwide election
boycott to protest the assault on Fallujah.

Shawkat said that as Allawi struggles to secure the coming general
elections, any results would be invalid if Sunnis boycott them.

"Forget about Sunnis," he said. "As I know from their leadership, they would
boycott elections unless their demands are met seriously."

Sermons at Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area urged worshippers to refrain
from "joyous manifestations" during the Ramadan holiday in a show of
solidarity with Fallujah's people.

While Sunni clerics are urging an election boycott, Shiite preachers have
been telling their congregations it would be sinful not to vote. Shiites are
estimated to comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's nearly 26 million people
and believe their numbers will guarantee a Shiite-led government.

Most leading Shiite clerics did not take a public stand over the attack on
Fallujah, raising the danger of further widening the gulf between the two
communities at a time when Sunni Arabs are worried about the loss of
prestige to rival Shiites and Kurds.

Al-Sumaidaei blamed the most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, for not condemning the Fallujah attack.

"We didn't hear from them at all," al-Sumaidaei said. "I assume they are
either satisfied or they are afraid. However, when there were attacks on
Shiite cities, the Sunni clerics in Iraq immediately condemned them. What
about the Shiites?"

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terror mastermind responsible for many
car bombings and beheadings in Iraq, also has accused Kurds and Shiites in
the Iraqi military of abandoning their religion. In an audiotape posted on
Islamic Web sites recently, al-Zarqawi accused al-Sistani of having blessed
the Fallujah assault, calling him "the infidel's imam."

Al-Sistani has issued no public statement on the Fallujah attack, but an
aide in Karbala, Afdhal al-Mousawi, dismissed such criticism, asking whether
the Shiites had been responsible for "the terrorists taking shelter in
Fallujah."

Al-Mousawi said the assault on Fallujah was inevitable "to free the city of
its kidnappers." He also said the attack on Fallujah paled in comparison to
the suffering of the Shiites under Saddam Hussein who was a Sunni.

"Well, Shiites were slaughtered over the past 40 years in the security
headquarters and now they are slaughtered in the streets by the remains of
the former Baathist regime," he said.

During a sermon Friday in Najaf, Sadr Eldin al-Qabanji of the Shiite Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said curbing terrorism in
Fallujah was necessary to protect Iraqis. He warned that terrorists were
targeting Shiites in several Iraqi towns.

Mohammed Hussein Abbas, 40, a Shiite from Karbala, said the attack on
Fallujah was God's punishment for the role played by that city under the
Saddam regime.

"Remember during the former regime, the security forces and the government
officials all came from Fallujah," he said. "The Fallujah residents are the
sons of Saddam who were torturing us."