BAGHDAD, 13 March 2004 — Fears of a religious war between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite communities were palpable yesterday as hundreds of worshipers, some of them armed, gathered at a Baghdad mosque to pay tribute to a slain cleric.
Dozens of guards, their faces wrapped in headscarves, and a US military team stood tense watch, as worshipers were searched at the entrance to the Findi Al-Kubaiysi mosque, its wall scarred with bullet and shrapnel marks.
US officials say Imam Ali Hussein Hassan Al-Obedi was gunned down on a nearby street Monday by four men in a brown BMW vehicle. No clear leads have emerged from the investigation so far.
But people who came yesterday to the Sunni mosque to pay their respects in this predominantly Shiite quarter of Shorta Al-Hamsi spoke of a campaign by foreigners to covertly ignite a civil war between the two communities.
One worshiper was gunned down in his home near the mosque on Wednesday. On Thursday, a security guard was killed when a grenade was tossed toward the entrance from a passing car, people here said.
They said another imam in the district was also attacked and injured and that two members of his family were shot dead. On Feb. 21, men assassinated a Sunni cleric from a nearby mosque at his home.
“They want to spark a civil war,” said an official from Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council, but he was certain “they” were not Shiites, or even Iraqis.
Sunnis formed the ruling class under former dictator Saddam Hussein, while Shiites, who make up more than 60 percent of the population, were oppressed.
As Sunnis fear for their future, Shiites are grappling with their newly found political clout, and the tensions make a perfect target for anyone looking to destabilize Iraq.
As cars pulled up loaded with prayer mats so that the hundreds unable to enter the mosque could pray in the street, Ahmed, a 23-year-old arts student, described how people from all communities got on in Shorta Al-Hamsi.
“There are very good relations. People from different religions often work at the same place. There is no aggression between them,” he said. As he spoke, security guards dotted atop the mosque and throughout the building, in the street outside and on top of nearby buildings, as if the place of worship were a bunker, as shots rang out in the distance and a US tank raced to investigate.
For some Iraqis, Americans too are suspect, as if having a common enemy might somehow unite Iraqi’s diverse religious and ethnic communities.
