Lebanese Shiites mourn Iraq Shrine attack
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-24 10:36

Tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiites beat their chests in mourning and shouted anti-American slogans in a rally Thursday to protest the bombing of a Muslim shrine in Iraq.

A Lebanese Shiite Muslim child shouts slogans while wearing a military uniform and holding a toy machine gun, in front of the Lebanese flag, during a protest against the bombing of one of the Shiite sacred shrines in Iraq, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006. Tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiite Muslims, many of them denouncing the United States, rallied Thursday to protest the bombing of one of their sacred shrines in Iraq, beating their chests in traditional mourning. [AP]

The bomb attack on the Shiite shrine Wednesday and bloody reprisals by Shiites that ensued underlined the rising tensions between Shiites and Sunnis across the Mideast. Leaders of both communities have called for calm and tried to shift attention — and blame — to the United States.

"Let's not blame each other. We shouldn't give them that opportunity," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told tens of thousands in south Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite militant organization. He said Shiites should limit their accusations to "the American occupation" in Iraq and Sunni extremists.

Nasrallah ridiculed an offer by President Bush to rebuild the shrine's Golden Dome.

"I tell him: don't destroy our sanctities and don't rebuild them. You are destroying our sanctities. Who are you fooling?"

The bombing devastated the golden dome of the Askariya shrine and sparked outrage among Iraqi Shiites and violent reprisals against Sunnis. More than 100 people have been killed in Iraq in two days of violence linked to sectarian tensions unleashed by the attack.

The hard-line president of Iran — a predominantly Shiite nation — accused the United States and Israel of carrying out the bombing to divide Muslims.

"They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech in southwest Iran, referring to the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad offered Iran's help in rebuilding the shrine in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

A worsening of sectarian strife could exacerbate already strained relations between Shiites and Sunnis across the region over the conflict in Iraq.

The majority of the Middle East is Sunni, and some have been dismayed by the growing power of Iraq's Shiite majority. Sympathy for the country's Sunni minority has led some to support the Sunni-led insurgency.

At the same time, some Arab leaders — particularly in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf — have worried about increased activism among Shiite minorities in their countries, inspired by their new domination in Iraq.

In Kuwait, hundreds of members of the Shiite minority rallied Thursday to protest the attack on the shrine, and the Sunni-led government was quick to condemn the bombing.

Kuwait's Parliament Speaker Jassem al-Kharafi said the perpetrators were "the same ones who carried out the chain of attacks that followed on Sunni mosques — because their target is to create a devastating sectarian war in Iraq."

Egyptian cleric Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi warned the attack aimed to "ignite sedition that will destroy everything."

"Here we see the angry reaction of the Shiite street ... and the blood of the innocent Sunni people still being shed without mercy," he said. "We fear that the Sunni street will react in the same way."

In Cairo, representatives to the Arab League condemned the bombings and the reprisals against Sunni mosques that followed. They called on Iraqi religious and political leaders "to show self-restraint ... and foil all plots aimed at striking Iraq's unity, security and stability."

In Lebanon — where Shiites form the largest community but are in a delicate sectarian balance with Sunnis and Christians — leaders from both Muslim communities met in Beirut to condemn the attack.

Grand Mufti Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunnis, laid the blame squarely on the United States. "It is being accused, whether it directly carried out this act or instigated it," he said.

Hezbollah leaders led the crowds that packed a Beirut soccer stadium in chants of "America, America is the enemy of Muslims" and "Muslims, unite, unite."

Shiites beat their chests in a traditional gesture of mourning and chanted "America, America, you are the Great Satan," borrowing the slogans of Hezbollah's patrons in Iran. Organizers said tens of thousands took part in the rally, where shouts of "Israel, Israel is the enemy of Muslims" also rang out.

Nasrallah spoke of a Western campaign to undermine Islam, linking the shrine bombings with cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that offended Muslims and sparked widespread protests.