Egyptian cleric warns US of Najaf fallout

[leftchick]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AA843409-E1C1-47F9-9717-DF04DA8BC53A.htm


<snip>

A leading Egyptian Islamic leader has warned that a "volcano of anger" could explode in response to US-led military action in Najaf and Falluja.


In a statement on Saturday, Ali Gumaa, the mufti of Egypt and the country's highest authority on Islamic law, condemned the "continuing aggression by US-led forces on the Imam Ali shrine and Islamic holy places" in Iraq.

"After the attack on the shrines of the Prophet's noble companions, after the humiliations and the terrorizing and killing of civilians, the world cannot expect… that a volcano of anger and indignation will not explode," Gumaa said.

Gumaa is second in the Islamic hierarchy only to the shaikh of al-Azhar, Cairo's ancient university and institute of religious learning.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I agree.

Nobody believed that the assassination of an unpopular son (Archduke Franz Joseph) of the ruler of the Austrio-Hungarian empire would eventually involve more than 30 nations in World War I. But it did. The goal of the murder was simply to compel independence of a small country (Bosnia) from an empire.

A seemingly innocuous manuever in Iraq, no matter the motivation, could explode into an Islamic war jubilee. And there are martyrs aplenty ready to go.

At this point, whatever this country does in Iraq will be counterproductive unless:
1. Iraq is truly independent of Washington's influence;
2. Our military is subservient to Iraq's decisions;
3. Our military exists only for protection of Iraqi citizens and for humanitarian purposes.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Dr. Kristol, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fundies

My personal opinion is that this total war is exactly the point of all this: final confrontation. Anxious for Armageddon, longing for the end.

[anarchy1999]

3. Please tell us something that none of us already knew back on

February 15, 2003 when the whole world rose up in protest to try and to prevent this disaster. It just quite simply breaks ones heart.