“At the moment our country is a battle field for the defence of Arabness and of Islam…” Here again we hear the charge that the West is attacking Islam. Western officials have said they are bringing freedom to the Middle East, and insist that they are not fighting against Islam. People like Al-Sadr in the Islamic world sees any proffered freedom that does not involve submission to Allah’s law as worthless or worse, and the very offer of it as a challenge to the political and social aspects of Islam. These two sides are talking past each other. The West might be able to make some headway by capitalizing upon the large disaffection with strict application of Sharia in the Islamic world, and stating its vision of the dignity of all human beings before God as a positive alternative to the institutionalized subjugation of women and non-Muslims, but in this multiculturalist fog, that will never happen.
“Iraq: Violence Can Spill Over To Neighbours, Al-Sadr Warns,” from AKI, :
Baghdad, 8 June (AKI) – The violence Iraq is suffering will soon spread right across the region unless Arab countries help us, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has warned in an interview with Iraqi state television. “We Iraqis do not need anyone. It is the Arab nations that need Iraq. They need stability in Iraq because our country is part of the Arab world” he said in the interview Friday.
“At the moment our country is a battle field for the defence of Arabness and of Islam, and what is happening here now could occur in other countries in the Middle East” said the influential young leader….
“At the moment we are enduring an attack by the West against Islam” he added. “We refuse any foreign interference in our affairs even from a country like Iran” he concluded.