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Islamic Party Leader Says Alliance Involved in Attacks on Iraq Mosques

Posted on: Monday, 27 February 2006, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Ammar al-Hakim headlined "They accuse us of blowing up shrines and expect us to stay at home. Tariq al-Hashimi: Our hands are in the fire and their hands are in water"; article based on interviews by Ma'd Fayadh, published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 24 February

Dr Tariq al-Hashimi, secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, has expressed his belief that "there is conclusive evidence that the (United Iraqi) Alliance is involved in the campaign that has targeted us, Sunni mosques and our headquarters with no justification". Ammar al-Hakim, a leading figure of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution and son of Chairman Abd al-Aziz al- Hakim, retorted, saying: "In fact, we feel there is imbalance in the way matters are being dealt with."

In a telephone interview from his office in Baghdad yesterday, Al- Hashimi told Al-Sharq al-Awsat: "There was instigation through the media. Nobody denounced the acts of confusion and chaos. People were killed; the mosques and offices of our party were burnt down by the mobs as a result of the calls issued by the Shi'i authorities and the rest of their leaders. They called on people to go out on the streets and express their feelings in whatever way they wanted. What does this mean? This was the message."

Al-Hashimi, who was answering our questions while chairing a meeting of the Iraqi Islamic Party, added: "The rest have their hands in water while our hands are in the fire now. They are breaking into our areas. Our youths are being killed, our mosques are being desecrated and their names are being changed. Al-Mahdi's Army controls the majority of Sunni mosques. They have burnt down some of them and destroyed the others. Other mosques have been plundered. They are pulling down plaques bearing the original names of the mosques and putting up new Shi'i names. They pray in these mosques according to Shi'i teachings. We want to contain this crisis before resuming negotiations. Yes, we are not ready to go back to negotiations before this matter is settled."

The secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party warned that a civil war could break out and said: "All indications show that the country is on the tip of the volcano of a civil war." Al-Hashimi said he considered the decision of the Shi'i authority to protest, as part of the crisis. "The call was not enough, and there was no condemnation of the acts of the commission which followed the blowing up of the shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi. It was instigation to resort to violence. When a religious shaykh calls upon people to go out and protest, what does that mean? This is an irresponsible call and incitement to violence and hatred. They are fully responsible for what has happened."

On the other hand, Al-Hakim defended the Shi'i authority and leaderships and their viewpoint. Speaking to Al-Sharq al-Awsat from his office in Al-Najaf, he said: "Sometimes when some assaults take place here or there against the other party (the Sunnis), they put all the blame on the Shi'i sect, their leaders and religious authorities. We have no choice but to raise more than one question mark about this logic. Why then should the approach be different? Everybody saw and was aware of how the religious authorities and political leaders behaved. In the most agitated cases which the Iraqis experienced as a result of this grave assault (blowing up the shrines of the two Imams al-Hadi and al-Askari), we noticed clearly that these leaders joined ranks, raised their voices and called on people to practise self-discipline and express their feelings by peaceful means."

He added: "When the authority asked the people to go out and protest, it also asked them at the same time not to attack mosques or people. It called for peaceful demonstrations. It forbade people to commit aggression. However, to hurt people's feelings to the point of targeting the centres of imams and then asking Shi'is of the Household to stay at home, is really amazing. This is oversimplifying the incident and failing to understand the tragedy. Everybody should feel this way. The Household [of the Prophet] does not belong to a single sect. We should have seen the gentlemen who made these statements at the forefront of peaceful protest marches, denouncing the incident."

Al-Hakim ruled out the possibility of a sectarian or civil war in Iraq and said: "Despite all these problems we are facing, I see that Iraq is not on the verge of a sectarian war. There is a will and a strong insistence among the religious authorities and political leaderships from both sides and among large circles of Iraqi people to maintain unity and join ranks. They do not want to give an opportunity to whoever wants to ignite sectarian strife."

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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