Fearing assassination, clerics flee Iraqi "City of Mosques" (Falluja)

[Barrett808]

Fearing assassination, clerics flee Iraqi "City of Mosques"
By Nasser Khalil

Falluja, Oct 12, (VOI) – It all started about a year ago with the murder of Sheikh Hamza Abbas al-Issawi. A wave of killings then silenced several other clergymen in the "City of Mosques" as Falluja is known in Iraq.

Death threats stressed the message, driving dozens of Sunni and Sufi clerics out of the city, 45 km west of Baghdad.

The center of the city, which has made headlines worldwide as a hotbed of resistance against U.S. forces, is home to 102 mosques normally crowded with worshippers who are spiritually attached to their preachers.

“Most clerics fled Falluja following a wave of assassinations targeting Muslim sheikhs that started with the killing of Sheikh Hamza Abbas al-Issawi, Sheikh Shawkat al-Sa’ab, Sheikh Kamal al-Tikriti, Sheikh Omar Sa’ed Horan and others," Sheikh Abdullah Mohammed al-Issawi, a Falluja cleric, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"Let alone the threats written on sheets of paper received by the rest,” he added.

(more)

http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=28640&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[rodeodance]

1. umm.. I wonder if the WH can keep the lid on till Nov. 7?

[Igel]

2. I wonder what the leanings of the threatened imams are.

OK, some are Sufi. I can see ardent takfiris (takfiriyuun?) threatening them.

But are they all Sufi? Or are more of them what passes for moderate Muslims in that part of the Middle East? Or possibly allied with the "wrong" clan?

I may have to start using Aswat al-'Iraq for my supplemental Arabic readings.