Iraqis in Shock

Iraqis are in shock in the wake of the suicide bombings in Kadhimiya district in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala, which together resulted in more than 200 dead civilians, mostly religious pilgrims commemorating Ashoura. According to Iranian press reports, up to 50 Iranian pilgrims were among the dead.

Ashoura marks the martyrdom of Hussein, son of the Imam Ali and grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. More than 1,400 years ago, Hussein and a band of some 70 supporters were surrounded by thousands of Ummayad soldiers who promptly massacred the entourage, killing Hussein and his entire family. Hussein was killed because he sought to return to the values that first cemented the Islamic community - a measure that threatened the corruption and political power of the new rulers of the expanding empire. One can imagine how sacred a day Ashoura is.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites from around the world gathered at Hussein's tomb in Karbala this year, for the first time in 25 years (Saddam Hussein banned the religious processions and ceremonies in 1979 when he became president of Iraq). Arab and regional news broadcasts showed thousands of pilgrims donning black gowns, flagellating themselves with chains, beating their chests and using swords to beat at their foreheads - all to mark the tragic martyrdom of Hussein and also to call on the culpability of the Muslim community for allowing the massacre of Hussein and his family.

And yet, blood was shed again in the most horrific of ways on this day, more than 1,400 years later.

Yesterday, leading Sunni clerics joined their Shiite brethren and called on all Iraqis to consider themselves "Husseiniya," the living embodiment of the struggle and sacrifices the Imam Hussein faced.

A day later, the leading Sunni religious establishment in Iraq called on the Iraqi resistance to immediately halt all attacks on Iraqis and Iraqi institutions.

"Jews and Americans are behind this," shouted someone from the Kadhimiya mosque. A U.S. troop contingent deployed to the area came under attack from enraged Shiite crowds.

Foreign journalists were also attacked in central Baghdad, according to reports from independent sources.

Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the leading Shiite cleric, joined Harith Al-Thari, chairman of the Sunni Cleric Council, in blaming U.S. forces for "dragging their feet" in securing Iraq's borders. Both blamed foreign insurgents, with some officials throwing al-Qaeda's name into the fore.

According to Jawad Al Naboulsi, a Sunni Iraqi businessman in Beirut, Lebanon, today's attacks are by forces desperately trying to engineer a civil war. "They know Islamic Iraq is coming, but they fear Shiites and Sunnis uniting as one fist," he said. "We are Arabs; we are Iraqis; this is our land; this is our religion. Today, we are all Shiite," he added.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to agree that there are concentrated efforts to tear Iraq apart: "The purpose...is to try and set the different religious communities in Iraq against each other, to destroy the progress in Iraq, to cause the maximum amount of dissent, division and hatred," Blair said at a press conference in London today.

Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry. Firas Al-Atraqchi encourages your comments at [email protected].