What Was and Never Shall Be
Today's Washington Post has an interesting analysis of yesterday's terror bombing in Iraq in which the Shiite Muslim Askariya Shrine in Samarra, Iraq was destroyed yesterday, apparently by Sunni Muslim bombers.But there was hardly time for any of those fumbling efforts to find an analogue between the Christianity many Americans know and the Islam so many of us learn about only when violence brings it into view. And no sooner had the building appeared on our television screens than it was obscured by images of rage in the streets. Tens of thousands of Shiites protested the bombing, and Sunni mosques were attacked in Basra and Baghdad. The pundits chattered about civil war. A great golden dome, that most of us had never seen, came down, replaced by images we've seen all too often, proof that yet again the sum total of anger in the world had gone up a few notches.
But Iraq has a peacemaker: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an effort to avoid an Iraqi civil war between Shiite's and Sunni's (for those who are naive enough to believe he doesn't have more incidious motives for his words), Ahmadinejad found two other parties to blame today for the destruction of the Askariya Shrine: the United States and Israel.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel on Thursday for the blowing up of a Shi'ite shrine's golden dome in Iraq, saying it was the work of "defeated Zionists and occupiers."
Speaking to a crowd of thousands on tour of southwestern Iran, the president referred to the destruction of the Askariya mosque dome in Samarra on Wednesday, which the Iraqi government has blamed on insurgents.
"They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the US-led multinational force in Iraq.
According to the Washington Post:
"It is not a question of the date or the age of the structure," said Professor Hamid Algar, of the University of California at Berkeley. Algar, who hadn't yet heard of the bombing when a reporter called, sounded sad and weary as he explained the historical background to the Askariya shrine. It is the burial place of the 10th and 11th imams, revered by Shiites as the direct descendants and spiritual heirs to the prophet Muhammad.As was pointed out on Little Green Footballs two months ago, Ahmadinejad is just the latest representative of a centuries-old Islamic apocalyptic movement that is waiting for the return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam they expect will soon emerge to bring justice and peace to a corrupt world.
I guess this bombing could not fit Ahmadinejad's world view unless Jews and Americans are responsible. After all, we all know that Islam is the 'religion of peace.'
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:59 PM
1 Comments:
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