Islamic Extremists Call Iraqi Vote 'Satanic'
Patrick Quinn
December 13, 2005
Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced this week's parliamentary elections as a 'satanic project' that violated God's law, but they stopped short of an explicit threat Monday to attack polling stations.
Despite the sound of detonations rumbling across the capital and at least 15 deaths in ongoing violence, early voting went ahead in hospitals, prisons and military bases, and President Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters.
In a rare joint statement, the five militant groups denounced the election as a 'satanic project' and said that 'to engage in the so-called political process' violates 'the legitimate policy approved by God.'
The groups vowed to 'continue our jihad (holy war) ... to establish an Islamic state ruled by the book (the Quran) and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.'
However, the statement contained no clear threat to disrupt voting as in the run-up to the Jan. 30 election and the Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site that often publishes extremist material.
The absence of a clear-cut threat could reflect the growing interest among Sunni Arabs, the foundation of the insurgency, to take part in the election. The Sunni decision to boycott the January ballot left parliament in the hands of Shiites and Kurds _ a move which increased communal friction and cost the Sunnis considerable influence in drafting the constitution.
A leaflet that appeared Monday in the Baghdad Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah acknowledged that Sunni Arabs could make gains in the election but that 'fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers.'
The statement was unsigned but was written in a style favored by Islamic extremists.
U.S. officials hope for a large turnout among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, a development which could produce a government capable of winning the trust of the Sunnis and defusing the insurgency. That would enable U.S. and other foreign troops to begin heading home next year.
Many Sunnis are campaigning vigorously for office this time around,' Bush told an audience Monday in Philadelphia. 'Many Sunni parties that opposed the constitution have registered to compete in this week's vote.'
In the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, hooded men carrying assault rifles erected campaign posters Monday for the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni Arab alliance headed by Adnan al-Dulaimi, Tariq al-Hashemi and Khalaf al-Ilyan.
Elect them for the sake of defending the rights of the Iraqi population,' said a banner held up by men who claimed to be insurgents. 'They have pure hands.'
In the first day of early voting, about 250,000 Iraqis _ soldiers, police, hospital patients and prisoners in jail _ cast ballots, according to election official Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. Iraqi television aired footage showing inmates in orange jumpsuits depositing their ballots in jailhouse boxes.
The U.S.-led multinational force said 90 percent of all eligible detainees held in facilities under its control participated in the vote. It did not release the number represented by that percentage. Suspected insurgents held in detention but not convicted were eligible to vote, officials said.
Deposed leader Saddam Hussein, who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982, could also vote, but it was not know if he did.
Abroad, an estimated 1.5 million expatriate Iraqis will begin voting over a two-day period in polling centers in 15 countries including the United States.
Most of the 15 million registered voters go to the polls Thursday.
Sunni Arab politicians have promised an end to what they term abuse at the hands of the Shiite-dominated security services. As voting began, the Human Rights Ministry and the U.S. military said that 13 prisoners were hospitalized after being found at an overcrowded prison run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry.
Later Monday, Al-Jazeera television aired a video allegedly showing abuse at another Interior Ministry facility in western Baghdad. The footage showed dozens of men, many with welts and bruises. The station did not say how it obtained the footage or when the alleged incidents took place.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, ordered an investigation into what he described as an 'unhealthy phenomenon.' A similar case also surfaced last month.
I will not allow such treatment of any prisoner,' al-Jaafari said during a news conference.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have expected an upsurge in insurgent violence as the election approaches.
A U.S. soldier was killed Monday in a bombing in Baghdad, and another American soldier attached to the Marines died the day before in a suicide bombing west of the capital near the city of Ramadi, the U.S. command said.
The deaths brought to at least 2,144 the number of U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Elsewhere, an empty minibus loaded with explosives blew up Monday near the Kindi hospital in east Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 13, including five police officers.
The threat of insurgent attacks did not deter Shiites in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, where thousands staged a massive pre-election rally for Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a 55-year-old cleric who is widely considered to be Iraq's most powerful politician.
Al-Hakim heads the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite coalition that hopes to maintain its dominance of parliament.
Yes, yes to Islam! Yes, yes to Iraq! Yes, yes to the religious leadership!' the group chanted during the rally in Sadr City, a Shiite dominated slum.
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005, InterestAlert
Despite the sound of detonations rumbling across the capital and at least 15 deaths in ongoing violence, early voting went ahead in hospitals, prisons and military bases, and President Bush offered encouraging words from Washington to Iraqi voters.
In a rare joint statement, the five militant groups denounced the election as a 'satanic project' and said that 'to engage in the so-called political process' violates 'the legitimate policy approved by God.'
The groups vowed to 'continue our jihad (holy war) ... to establish an Islamic state ruled by the book (the Quran) and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.'
However, the statement contained no clear threat to disrupt voting as in the run-up to the Jan. 30 election and the Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it appeared on a Web site that often publishes extremist material.
The absence of a clear-cut threat could reflect the growing interest among Sunni Arabs, the foundation of the insurgency, to take part in the election. The Sunni decision to boycott the January ballot left parliament in the hands of Shiites and Kurds _ a move which increased communal friction and cost the Sunnis considerable influence in drafting the constitution.
A leaflet that appeared Monday in the Baghdad Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah acknowledged that Sunni Arabs could make gains in the election but that 'fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers.'
The statement was unsigned but was written in a style favored by Islamic extremists.
U.S. officials hope for a large turnout among the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, a development which could produce a government capable of winning the trust of the Sunnis and defusing the insurgency. That would enable U.S. and other foreign troops to begin heading home next year.
Many Sunnis are campaigning vigorously for office this time around,' Bush told an audience Monday in Philadelphia. 'Many Sunni parties that opposed the constitution have registered to compete in this week's vote.'
In the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, hooded men carrying assault rifles erected campaign posters Monday for the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni Arab alliance headed by Adnan al-Dulaimi, Tariq al-Hashemi and Khalaf al-Ilyan.
Elect them for the sake of defending the rights of the Iraqi population,' said a banner held up by men who claimed to be insurgents. 'They have pure hands.'
In the first day of early voting, about 250,000 Iraqis _ soldiers, police, hospital patients and prisoners in jail _ cast ballots, according to election official Abdul-Hussein Hendawi. Iraqi television aired footage showing inmates in orange jumpsuits depositing their ballots in jailhouse boxes.
The U.S.-led multinational force said 90 percent of all eligible detainees held in facilities under its control participated in the vote. It did not release the number represented by that percentage. Suspected insurgents held in detention but not convicted were eligible to vote, officials said.
Deposed leader Saddam Hussein, who is jailed and facing trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982, could also vote, but it was not know if he did.
Abroad, an estimated 1.5 million expatriate Iraqis will begin voting over a two-day period in polling centers in 15 countries including the United States.
Most of the 15 million registered voters go to the polls Thursday.
Sunni Arab politicians have promised an end to what they term abuse at the hands of the Shiite-dominated security services. As voting began, the Human Rights Ministry and the U.S. military said that 13 prisoners were hospitalized after being found at an overcrowded prison run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry.
Later Monday, Al-Jazeera television aired a video allegedly showing abuse at another Interior Ministry facility in western Baghdad. The footage showed dozens of men, many with welts and bruises. The station did not say how it obtained the footage or when the alleged incidents took place.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, ordered an investigation into what he described as an 'unhealthy phenomenon.' A similar case also surfaced last month.
I will not allow such treatment of any prisoner,' al-Jaafari said during a news conference.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have expected an upsurge in insurgent violence as the election approaches.
A U.S. soldier was killed Monday in a bombing in Baghdad, and another American soldier attached to the Marines died the day before in a suicide bombing west of the capital near the city of Ramadi, the U.S. command said.
The deaths brought to at least 2,144 the number of U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Elsewhere, an empty minibus loaded with explosives blew up Monday near the Kindi hospital in east Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 13, including five police officers.
The threat of insurgent attacks did not deter Shiites in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, where thousands staged a massive pre-election rally for Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a 55-year-old cleric who is widely considered to be Iraq's most powerful politician.
Al-Hakim heads the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite coalition that hopes to maintain its dominance of parliament.
Yes, yes to Islam! Yes, yes to Iraq! Yes, yes to the religious leadership!' the group chanted during the rally in Sadr City, a Shiite dominated slum.
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright © 2005, InterestAlert
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