Najaf and the Shrine of Ali

Najaf and the Shrine of Ali
August 11, 2004

Hi everyone,This morning I knew I needed to drag myself out of bed, finishsanding down old furniture and get it painted before this weekend'smove to seminary. However, the news on NPR kept me listening, asthey described hundreds dead in Najaf already and preparations toattack the Shrine of Ali. This is terrible news. I can only thinkthe governor of the city in Sistani's absence (due to heart surgery)agreement to allow the military to do so is to prevent wholesaledestruction of the city and mass civilian killings as happened inFallujah in April. Please read below for more details which Ireceived today from Voices in the Wilderness, which helped turn myfeeling of helplessness back here at home into ideas for action. Aphone call need last only five minutes today.peace,Le Anne

------------------------- Original Message -------------------------Subject: Voices in the Wilderness - Najaf - The Shrine of AliFrom: "Voices in the Wilderness" <emaillist@vitw.org>Date: Wed, August 11, 2004 0:45To: leanneclausen@cpt.org--------------------------------------------------------------------Dear friends,As the fighting and crisis intensifies in Najaf, Voices in theWilderness calls for nonviolent acts demanding an end to thefighting. Call your Congressional Representative, US Senator andJohn Kerry’s campaign headquarters in your state to demand that theypublicly call for an end to all US military actions in Najaf,against its citizens and at the Imam Ali Mosque. Call candidates forfederal office in your state and issue the same demand. If theydon’t respond positively, initiate nonviolent direct actions attheir offices. Such nonviolent actions can include: an occupation oftheir office; a daily vigil outside of their office; a fax campaignto their office demanding they issue the statement; or a phone callcampaign to their office. Also, write letters to the editor of yourlocal newspapers and hold vigils in your local community. The timeto act is now.Our country’s military now declares preparations to attack theShrine of Ali in the city of Najaf in Iraq. Our country stands onthe precipice of declaring war on Islam. An attack on the Shrine ofAli is an attack on the heart of Islam and must be nonviolentlyresisted in our country.The US military is urging civilians to leave Najaf. We take this asa signal that our country is preparing to turn Najaf into a freefire zone, in which all who move, civilian or not, are targeted forattack. A free fire zone and an attack on the Shrine wouldsignificantly escalate the violence throughout Iraq, increasing thedanger for all Iraqis.Voices in the Wilderness calls upon all US governmentofficials—elected or appointed—to publicly declare their oppositionto any attack by US military forces against the Shrine of Ali. Wefurther call upon US military forces to withdraw from the holy cityof Najaf and to cease all military operations against the city, itscitizens and at the Imam Ali Mosque.The Shrine of Ali is the holiest of shrines in Shia Islam. It is theburial place for Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the ProphetMohammed. The shrine is sacred to both Shia and Sunni Muslims.Attacking the Imam Ali Mosque is akin to bombing the burial site ofJesus for people of the Christian faith or the Western Wall forpeople of the Jewish faith.An attack on the Mosque would also replicate the history ofoppression of Shia under Saddam Hussein. In 1991, Shia rose upagainst Saddam Hussein, at the urging of the first President Bush.As US warplanes flew overhead, not intervening, Saddam’s helicoptersmassacred Shia on the ground below. Saddam attacked the Imam AliMosque during this time, killing those inside.As US citizens we must say "no" to this threatened attack on theheart of Islam. We will use all nonviolent means available to us toresist it.The violent overthrow of the Iraqi government and the subsequentmilitary occupation of Iraq have not lead to freedom, security, andprosperity for the Iraqi people. Neither have they created theconditions in which freedom, security, and prosperity can be sownand nurtured. Quite the opposite: the threat and reality of violenceis commonplace. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed orinjured. To this threat of violence, add the increased threat ofwater-borne disease and the weight of a collapsed electrical grid.The Iraqi people are our sisters and brothers. Our humanity demandsthat we begin to act as if lives of Iraqis and their faith trulymatter to us. As US citizens we must respond without equivocationand act to end this war and occupation.Voices in the Wilderness was formed in 1996 in response to the USeconomic sanctions against Iraq. Voices has sponsored over 70delegations to bring humanitarian supplies to Iraqi citizens despiteUS law. Voices currently faces a $20,000 fine for deliveringmedicine and other humanitarian supplies to Iraq.Kathy Kelly, Tess Kleinhaus, Jeff Leys, Danny Muller, Chuck Quilty,David Smith-Ferri, and Scott Blackburn for the Voices in theWilderness Chicago office<><><><><><><>Video: Justice and Courage in Occupied Iraq: Challenges for theanti-war movementMichael Birmingham of Voices in the Wilderness speaks about theoccupation of Iraq and resistance to Empire in the US, Iraq andelsewhere. This is from a talk that both Michael Birmingham andKathy Kelly gave in Chicago, IL, July 7th 2004. You can view thevideo at http://vitw.org/video/Audio: To listen to the complete audio of Justice and Courage inOccupied Iraq: Challenges for the anti-war movement please go tohttp://vitw.org/audio/ <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Please pass this information on to others. You can visit our emailarchive at http://vitw.org/emailarchives.html and use "Send thismessage to a friend" located at the bottom of each archived email.<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>Our home page http://vitw.org/letters from Iraq http://vitw.org/letters/about us http://vitw.org/who_we_are/recent updates http://vitw.org/updates/<><><><><><><>--To unsubscribe from: Voices in the Wilderness eMail List, justfollow this link:http://vitw.org/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=vitwlist&e=leanneclausen@cpt.org&p=6\007882Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser.