Leading Iraqi Shiite cleric was killed by al-Qaida to stir up trouble: bro

[DuctapeFatwa]

The al-Qaida terror group was behind last year's assassination of a leading Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, his brother said in remarks published Saturday.

Al-Qaida "wants to ignite sectarian conflict," Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat in an interview.

Abdel Aziz al-Hakim now leads SCIRI and is a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

"Al-Qaida's ideology and attitude toward other Islamic sects are well known. There is lots of intelligence that proves the group is responsibile for the killing of al-Hakim," Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told the London-based newspaper.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2004/02/21/356238-ap.html

[ParanoidPat]

1. The KEY line.....

....."Abdel Aziz al-Hakim now leads SCIRI and is a member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council."

Yep, there's an impartial, unimpeachable source for ya'! :evilgrin:

Kind of like all of the 'Iraqi exiles' that swore that Saddam had ongoing WMD programs to help get the war going. "Mistaken hero's", all of them. :puke:

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. LOL Remember Chalabi was saying that the day the mosque was bombed

That Al Qaeda keeps mighty busy..

[berry]

3. Wasn't this cleric in exile until after the US invasion?

Was he in the US? Most of the reports at the time seemed to think he was one of the "good guys"--meaning, I think, that the US had hoped that he could influence others to accept the "inevitable" of US occupation. Hmmm. I'm rather fuzzy about this, though. It does seem wise, in any case, to maintain some skepticism about this pronouncement.

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. He was in Iran for 20 yrs, here's a little background

The Shia Muslim religious authority and prominent politician; Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim was killed in the holy city of Najaf shortly after leading Friday Prayers in the Mosque of Imam Ali (AS). A car bomb attack planted strategically between eight cars outside the mosque took the life of the Ayatollah and 83 worshippers as well as injuring more than 230 others.

"Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim has today become a martyr," announced Mohsin al-Hakim, his nephew and top official of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq....No group has admitted to carrying out the attack..During a visit to Iraq in May, Bayati said he told the US occupation authorities that there should be protection for holy places and leading clerics. "The allies did not respond to this proposal," Mr Bayati said. "I blame them for negligence in not protecting holy places and holy men."....

A US military spokesman said no coalition forces were in the area "because it is considered to be sacred ground."..The holy city of Najaf was also the scene of the brutal killing in May of Sayyid Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, another prominent cleric who returned to Iraq from exile in London.

On Sunday, three people were killed in an assassination attempt on another leading Shia Muslim cleric. Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim received only scratches in the blast at his office but two of his bodyguards and a driver were killed. Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim is the uncle of the slain SCIRI leader.

http://hussaynia.com/hakim/hakimmaryrdom.htm


When Ayatollah Baqer Al-Hakim fled Iraq some 20 years ago and set up office in Iran, he envisioned an Iraq without Saddam that would be analogous to the Islamic Republic which hosted him. He planned, organized and fermented the ideal of an Islamic state in Iraq. The creation of the 15,000-strong Badr Brigade was to assist in the realization of that ideal.

When Al-Hakim was approached by the CIA to join an amalgamation of Iraqi opposition groups, he was loathe to shake hands with the “Great Satan,” as Iranian spiritual leaders had come to call the US. However, Al-Hakim sensed that the US was serious this time. He joined other Shiite groups in tugging along with plans for an invasion, but with a little insurance policy thrown in for good measure. Iraqi Shiites were to realize their political aspirations in a post-Saddam climate – or else. The “or else” was a silent reminder to the US that Iraqi Shiites would no longer tolerate a Sunni strongman sanctioned and supported by Washington. Many Iraqis around the world believe that Saddam was Washington’s point man who had gone astray.

However, since entering Iraq in early May, Al-Hakim modified his vision of an Islamic state. He preached tolerance of all faiths in Iraq , moderation in an Iraqi civil society, and to the relief of Iraq ’s Sunni population, he urged unity among all Iraqis. This may have angered some in Iran and others in Iraq who believed Iraqi Shiites should follow another course.

When CENTCOM and the US-led Civilian Authority in Iraq failed to deliver on promises of security and economic re-stabilization, Al-Hakim sensed the pulse of the nation and preached against an occupation of Iraq. However, and this is where Al-Hakim became a force of moderation and stability, he urged Iraqis to be patient. He did not urge a military uprising against the Anglo-Americans. Not yet.

Mere minutes before his assassination in Najaf on Friday, Al-Hakim used the Friday prayers sermon to urge Iraqis to unite and resist outside pressures, pressures on the Iraqis to dissolve into factions and war with one another.

There is a precedent for his choice of words. Reports have been surfacing from numerous sources in Iraq that a battle of wills was coming to a head among Iraq’s Shiite factions. These included Iranian Shiite clerics, Iraqi Shiite clerics, and an Afghani Shiite cleric. All had various schools of thought and all approached the presence of coalition troops in Iraq from different points of view.

The most notorious ideological battleground is the one fought by Al-Hakim, his family and supporters on one front and the fiery militancy of Muqtada Sadr and his supporters on the other.

The current spate of violence in Najaf may have been predicted when Shiite cleric Abdul Majid Al-Khoei was brutally murdered in the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf in early April. Another Shiite cleric (who had been appointed by Saddam), Haider Roafee, was also killed. Eyewitness accounts spoke of a barbarity so gruesome that few could stomach what happened: Al-Khoei was shot, dragged into the streets, had his fingers and hands severed from his body while still alive, and then hacked to death by a savage crowd of some 200.

Last Friday, the same mosque was the scene of the horrific assassination bombing. Eyewitnesses said there was nothing left of Al-Hakim’s body.

Many in Iraq believed that Al-Khoei was killed because his moderate views and tolerance of the coalition were in stark contrast to a more militant, yet homegrown Shiite faction. Most suspected Sadr, or someone allied with his ideologies, but the matter was quickly buried.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2003/09/article_01.shtml