Shiite cleric blasts premier's U.S. visit

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4080194.html

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - In a sermon rich with bloody imagery and religious struggle, an influential Shiite cleric Friday condemned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's trip to Washington this week as a betrayal of Islam and a humiliation to his people at the hands of U.S. and Israeli aggressors.

Sheikh Khafaji intertwined the bloodshed in Iraq and Lebanon, calling it a design by Christians and Jews to defeat the Muslim world. He criticized al-Maliki's speech before the U.S. Congress and asked: "What forced you to eat with the occupiers? Is that your reward? You know more than anybody else that the car bombings, terrorism, explosions and bloodletting in Iraq are under the protection of Zionist-American plans."

The sermon Friday in Baghdad came as U.S. and Iraqi forces are planning a wider security crackdown to stop the unrelenting sectarian violence that is tugging this nation closer to civil war. Khafaji's comments also added another sensitive dynamic to Iraqi politics — the sheik is a confidant of Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric whose movement controls a well-armed Shiite militia and 30 seats in Parliament.

Al-Sadr and his followers often use overheated rhetoric to attack Iraq's leaders, but Khafaji's sermon was a pointed attempt to link the recent bloodshed in Lebanon with the violence that has frayed this country since the U.S. invasion in 2003. The sheik said that al-Maliki effectively had sold his soul by traveling to meet with President Bush and gain applause from Congress.

[demosincebirth]

1. Keep spreading your venom and fan the flames of intolerance!