Sunni clerics urge boycott of Iraq elections in wake of Fallujah siege

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

By Hannah Allam

Knight Ridder Newspapers



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's largest group of Sunni Muslim clerics ordered their followers Wednesday to boycott January's parliamentary elections if American forces don't break off their military campaign in the flash-point city of Fallujah, which is now ringed by U.S. Marines and besieged by daily aerial bombardment.


Gathering from across northern and western Iraq at the Umm al Qura mosque outside Baghdad, the clerics in the Muslim Scholars Association, whose followers make up 35 percent of Iraq's population, called on Arab leaders throughout the Middle East to condemn U.S. actions in Fallujah and "end their silence, which brings frustration and anger." They ruled that Iraqis have a religious duty to fight American-led forces, according to a statement issued from the mosque.


"The esteemed clerics bless the Fallujah sons for their jihad and patience," the statement read, invoking the Arabic word often translated as "holy war."


The clerics' statement was the strongest open opposition yet to pledges by U.S. officials and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to retake Fallujah from insurgents who've controlled it since April, underscoring the serious consequences the battle for the city could have.


One airstrike Wednesday reportedly killed an Iraqi family, as shown in video footage of rescue workers digging a couple and their four children from the rubble of their home. American officials denied the civilian deaths, blaming the report on a "known Zarqawi propagandist."

<snip>

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9970911.htm

[acmavm]

1. Oh geez, this is really getting bad. And now they're lying about the

obvious (I know they've been lying all along) but his one is just NOT going to fly:
<snip>
American officials denied the civilian deaths, blaming the report on a "known Zarqawi propagandist"
<snip>

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. And the photographer was probably French...

Fucking liberal biased cameras.

[VegasWolf]

3. Wonder how Rummy will claim the election is legit without

the Sunni. He has already said 100% is not needed.
What a complete joke this situation is.

New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional

[Disturbed]

4. Iraqi Election will be a Farce!

The U.S. will run Allawi who has maybe a 2% population support.

What other candidates would run that a majority of Iraqis will have heard of?

[bemildred]

5. Let's see what the Shiia say now.

The Iraqi Christian leaders has a solidarity meeting with the
AMS yesterday to show the church bombings had not alienated them.

[Aidoneus]

7. Sistani & the 'election'

He has made it his baby to see to it that it goes off half-way decently, going so far as to make it a religious obligation, however much the occupyers and collaborationist gangs will try to corrupt it to their whims. If, or rather *when*, it goes off as a farce, if even at all, it is unknown what his response would be. I assume giving the Mahdi's Army his nod next time the kids go out hunting, but it is hard to say. I can't see it possibly going off even remotely up to any decent standard.

[bemildred]

8. I meant about Fallujah.

I don't think there will be an election, and as you say, if there
is it will blow chunks. Sistani's agenda is pretty clear and the
reasons for it also, the question is will he support the Sunni or
go for a fake election? If he does not support the Sunnis, things
are going to get ugly, and you have to wonder what it will do to his
credibility. One has to wonder about al Sadr, also.

Edit: to put it succinctly, will they maintain solidarity or allow
the interim gov't to "divide and rule"?

[leftchick]

6. Then this fellow must be carrying a sack of potatoes and not....

a dead child....




An Iraqi rescuer carries the covered body of a child, dug from the rubble of a house which was bombed by U.S. warplanes during an overnight raid, witnesses said, in the western city of Falluja, October 20, 2004. Six members of one family, a couple and their four children, were killed when U.S. warplanes struck overnight at what the military said were Zarqawi-linked targets in the rebel-held city of Falluja. (Mohanned Faisal/Reuters)

... and the reuters photogragher is lying. Hmmm whom to believe... :eyes: and VOMIT :puke: