A tooth for a tooth
Last March al-Sadr said: “I have failed to liberate Iraq, and transform its society into an Islamic society.” But he has not given up. The theology of jihad doesn’t allow him to give up.
“Iraq: Cleric urges ‘revenge operations’ over Gaza,” from AP, January 7 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
NAJAF, Iraq — Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi resistance Wednesday to stage “revenge operations” against American forces to protest Israel’s Gaza offensive.
The statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf came as criticism is mounting over civilian deaths in Gaza.
The State Department dismissed al-Sadr’s calls, describing them as “outrageous.”
“Any call for attacks against Americans is outrageous and, frankly, not worthy of much more comment,” deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. “Outside calls to attack Americans for what’s going on in the region are outrageous.”
Al-Sadr also urged that Palestinian flags to be raised on mosques, churches and buildings in Iraq in a show of solidarity and that all countries close Israeli embassies.
The cleric issued a statement last month calling for protests, and his followers have complied with rallies against the offensive.
But he said more steps are needed “due to the continuation of Arab silence and the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy under U.S. and international cover.”
“I call upon the honest Iraqi resistance to carry out revenge operations against the great accomplice of the Zionist enemy,” he said, using rhetoric referring to the United States and Israel….