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A Non-Muslim in Najaf: Absorbing the Scene
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Imam Ali Mosque and possibly the world’s largest—and for many Shiites most sacred—cemetery in Najaf
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A
further attack on the Imam Ali Mosque and possibly the world’s largest—and
for many Shiites most sacred—cemetery in Najaf, may well mark the beginning of
the end for Britain and America’s ill-conceived rampage in Iraq. George W. Bush announced he was going on a Crusade, and indeed the attacks are
seen by Muslims worldwide as just that, an attack on Islam itself.
America
and Israel are, for many, firmly entrenched in the frame. Britain, by acceding to the
US request to move troops north to Najaf from Basra, will further fuel another explosive situation. It was not lost on Iraqis that
the British entered the south with many vehicles flying, not the usual British
flag, but St George’s flag—the flag of the Crusaders.
In
a rare example of something resembling insight, prime minister Blair’s
government are said to be extremely concerned regarding implications of
deploying troops to Najaf. However, supine to the last, they are more concerned,
it would seem, about displeasing President Bush.
The
importance of the Imam Ali Mosque in the region cannot be overstated. With
Makkah and Madinah held in reverence by many as a place of pilgrimage, it is
believed that Najaf was completed in 700 CE as the burial place of `Ali ibn Abi
Talib (600–661 CE), after whom it is named, Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and
son-in-law. Najaf is a holy city for the Shiites and one of their most important
seats of religious instruction. Prior to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, thousands
of pilgrims flocked from Iran to the mosque. In the three years prior to last year’s invasion, which
coincided with Iran and Iraq building tentative, fragile bridges, they did so again.
Some
years ago, a Jordanian friend said, “There is something you must not leave Iraq
without seeing.” For a non-Muslim to enter the mosque itself is believed to
defile its hallowed ground. She lent me an abbaya, taught me to walk without the
head cover slipping off (which is actually harder than the graceful females who
are used to it make it look), and covered from head to toe, we entered the
mosque, whose golden domes and minarets can be seen 75 kilometers away.
It
is seldom that one is literally struck dumb, almost unable to absorb a place, a
scene. Karen Dabrowska (Iraq, Bradt Travel Guides 2002) quotes Gavin
Young’s description: “gold tiles, darkened handsomely with age…pink, blue
and yellow patterns of birds and flowers bedeck the archways…potentates,
sultans, through time, have brought gifts of gold, jewelry, priceless objects,
all donated in reverence.” Reverence is the key word and it was overwhelming,
humbling, and chilling. I realized in an instant that if I was rumbled I really
might not get out.
Women
and men worship separately and I was surrounded—or should I say engulfed—by
hundreds of black-clad, swaying worshipers pushing forward in a gentle,
purposeful wave to touch the great gold and black tomb of Imam Ali, or even to
stretch the tip of one finger, or place their forehead against it. Reverence,
passion, piety, humility, and complete, unquestioning belief. My fear was joined
by deep shame at my intrusion into a situation I had simply failed to
comprehend—a trust in the prophets, the afterlife—all beyond a stupid
Western head. Yet to witness such faith was unique, utterly humbling, and
unforgettable. Most people, at some time, ponder on what in their life they will
remember as supremely significant on their death bed. For me, a dominant memory
has to be the beauty, the passion, and the sanctity of the Imam Ali Mosque.
The
shrine is Najaf’s genesis. Imam Ali left instructions that when he died, he
should be tied to a camel, which must be left to roam free in the desert. Where
the camel came to rest, the imam’s body was to be buried. The camel halted at
what is now Najaf. (Dabrowska, as above.)
Outside
in the superb mosaic courtyard, women sat in the sun with cauldrons of aromatic
cooking—Arab style fast food—to give to the needy or sell for a pitifully
small price to those with more. As the faithful left the interior of the mosque,
they lingered, touching walls and pillars, with the now familiar gesture of the
palm of the hand and touch of the fingers. When they left to pass into the
street between the two great pillars that have now been reduced to rubble as a
result of the bombing that killed Ayatollah Baqer Al-Hakim and many others last
August, some rubbed their foreheads
against them until blood appeared. Oddly again, it seemed humbling rather than
alien, and one had a brief glimpse of a world of total trust in the departed and
certainty in the hereafter.
The
murdered ayatollah, whose coffin reportedly contained just one hand and his
turban, was not without enemies. Some people saw him as a bridge builder, and
his brother is in the Coalition Provisional Authority, but for others he was a
collaborator. He had been in Iran since 1982 until he returned after the invasion. Many members of his family
were murdered by Saddam’s regime. His Badr Brigade was formed to fight against
Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. Many analysts point to a power struggle among the
prominent Shiite leaders as a motive.
The US administration blamed Saddam loyalists, Al-Qaeda, foreign
terrorists, remnants of the Baath party, insurgents, and numerous other Islamic
militants—many of whom have now pitched up in the former, fairly secular
Iraq—and all are enraged at the invasion. (Strangely, the illegal western
invaders squatting in Iraq’s palaces and public buildings, flogging off the country’s assets, and
usurping its sovereignty do not see themselves as insurgents. Might, as always,
it seems, is right.)
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History is in danger of again repeating itself in Najaf
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However,
many informed commentators have made another analysis concerning attacks on
Najaf, and given the nature of the Arab grapevine that can engulf the Arab
world, it is not looking good for the liberators. Given that regardless of all
the turmoil of a blood-soaked region, the fact that the mosque has survived
nearly unscathed throughout history is testimony to the esteem in which it is
held. No Muslim would commit such an act, they say. American tactics in Iraq
and Israeli tactics in Palestine are painfully similar—disappearing people, shooting them at road blocks,
denying the injured passage to hospitals, smashing and demolishing homes, and
torturing. Remembering both George W. Bush’s Crusade and the vow of Israel
to rule from the Nile
to the Euphrates, the saying that only Americans or Israelis who would do this is fast gaining
credence in the collective psyche.
Further reasoning is that Britain and America saw Iraq as a fractious, divided country floating on a sea of oil, which would be
relatively easy to rule. However, in actual fact, Iraq has virtually united itself against the occupiers. Thus, if an action results
in different factions accusing each other and bringing about the divide that has
not really happened, this would be greatly beneficial to the occupiers.
However, not only are August’s and this last incursion and damage to the
mosque and cemetery an insult to Muslims worldwide. The Americans have made yet
another fatal blunder in closing the official Iranian border, thereby denying
Iranians the chance to pay their respects to the ayatollah and pray at this
revered mosque. Given that hundreds of kilometers between Iraq and Iraq cannot be policed, it is conceivable that thousands of furious Iranians flooded
and are continuing to flood in through the marshes and other areas, pledging
revenge.
Commentator Ramzi Baroud made the comparison between Iraq and the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon. The war and slaughtering with far superior military power was swift, but
raising an Israeli flag over Beirut in 1982 was only the beginning. It is occupation itself that opens the door to
terrorism.
History is in danger of again repeating itself in Najaf. Dabrowska relates a
monitory tale: In 1918 the British tried to increase their control of Najaf and
Captain Marshall was put in charge. He attempted to organize a police force
outside the authority of the local sheikhs. Faced with a serious threat to their
authority, the sheikhs rebelled and had Marshall murdered. Just three years before, they had finally rid themselves of the
Ottomans.
It is possible that amid the body parts and rubble, the blood, the severed dead
of the Imam Ali Mosque, and now those slaughtered again in the holy city and
ancient, evocative cemetery City of Rest, also lie the remains of America and
Britain’s Iraq adventure - and the severed political remains of President George W. Bush and
Prime Minister Blair.
Felicity
Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited Iraq on numerous occasions since the 1991Gulf War. She has written and broadcast
widely on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also Senior
Researcher for John
Pilger’s award-winning documentary Paying
the Price Killing the Children of Iraq.
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