From the Boston Globe, with thanks to Mackie, a glimpse inside a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad:
Alternately raucous and sober, yesterday's prayers offered a stark glimpse of how Shi'ite clerics get their followers to speak in one voice on the social and political issues of the day."We thirst for martyrdom," said 24-year-old Abdul Allah Abed, a carpenter who also volunteers in the Army of the Mahdi. "We are not scared." He, like the hundreds of other Mahdi members ringing the mosque area, wore all black; the group, thousands strong, answers to Moqtada al-Sadr, the young firebrand anti-American cleric. ...
Shortly after noon, a crowd of 10,000 men on prayer rugs, filling the entire street in front of the mosque, chanted as one to the call of the imam, Sheik Nassir al-Saidi.
"Yes, yes to Islam! Yes, yes to al-Sadr!" they shouted after the imam offered a prayer to all the martyred descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. ...
He also denounced the interim constitution approved by the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, which sets the structure for a caretaker government to supervise national elections.
"You should not say you support the interim constitution. You should say you reject it," Saidi said, adding that God would send supporters of the plan to hell.
I have been predicting this sort of response would come for some time now.
They 'thirst for martyrdom?' So, give those guys a drink!
It's rather funny how mortal men from the time of Muhammad have been bossing Allah around. Muhammad made proclamations which implied a degree of control over the Big Guy, and nowadays I hear all about clerics in Indonesia, Iraq, etc, saying that people who vote this way or that will be going to Hell.
When they're that openly and unashamedly manipulating religion for political gain, one would expect the people they're preaching to to catch on. I suppose the fact that the people in question are ignoramuses is the crux of the issue.
Anonymous -
I can understand the plight of the poor Muslims that have no other ideology with which to compare the one in which they have been indoctrinated for centuries. What I can never understand, nor forgive, are the apologists of any stripe that have had access to other schools of thought. Are they manipulators, power hungry, flatterers, or just plain fools, or are something else that hasn't come to mind? In any case, they are just as guilty as the clerics and their jihadists for promoting this attempt to destroy the West and to create the MOTHER of ALL COLONIES, better known as the CALIPHATE. This is a religous war, put the implications for and effect upon the rest of us is definitely poltical.
epg, I think the answer is "All of the above."
Ten thousand? Great! The more "martyrs" there are, the cleaner the gene pool will be! Given their birth rate, it seems they have promoted the notion that thousands upon thousands of "martyrs" is an OK alternative to birth control, along with prosperity and happiness (the latter being mankind's sole reason for existing).
God forbid they get their wish.
Bring it on, islam is the devil, and we will defeat it.
Since they thirst for martyrdom, let Saddam be returned to them. I thought the Shi'a mourned the mass graves. I guess not. Ah, no martyrdom in being killed by Muslims. Martyrdom comes only in dying while killing the infidel or being killed while engaging in jihad. There we go. They're going to attack the Coalition in Iraq and American interests abroad or in America.
the greatest deception of the devil is the belief that he does not exist