Iraqi cleric and leader of powerful militia calls for ‘special division’ to liberate Jerusalem if Donald Trump goes through with plan
MEE and agencies
Moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a declaration of war on Islam, influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Tuesday.
“Transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem would be a public and more explicit than ever declaration of war against Islam,” he said in a statement.
Sadr, a Shia cleric whose powerful Mahdi Army militia once fought US occupation forces in Iraq, called for the “formation of a special division to liberate Jerusalem were the decision to be implemented”.
Sadr said the Cairo-based Arab League as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s main pan-Islamic body, should take a decisive stand on the issue or dissolve themselves.
The Najaf-based cleric also called “for the immediate closure of the US embassy in Iraq” should Washington go ahead with its promised embassy transfer in Israel.
Sadr supporters protesting against the lack of services and widespread corruption in the Iraqi state stormed the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad twice last year.
The protesters entered the parliament buildings and the prime minister’s office but did not attempt anything against the US embassy there, which is Washington’s largest foreign mission.
The Mahdi Army has been reorganised as the Peace Companies and now fights in the system of militias known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units.
The US provides military backing for the Iraqi offensive to retake large parts of the country seized by the Islamic State group.
The final status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Birdalone Said:
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Who knows whether Muhammed ever existed, and certainly, there could not be a descendant in direct line, no matter ho polygamous he was–assuming he ever lived which archaeologists assert in the negative.
The dreamy mumblings of ancient men may serve for a “Holy” Book for them, but NOT for us.
For example, the evidence found by deep archaeological sifting, found that no army of muslims captuired Jerusalem. They state that all the evidence points to the fact that they drifted in from the Eastern Desert over years, (where ample pre amd -muslim period remains are found) and eventually took over the city. There is no denying that The Dome of The Rock was built as a gathering place for Arabs in opposition to Mecca, and was never a mosque. The Muslim “history” has contorted itself into impossible shapes to acommodate that fact, which is now NEVER mentioned.
And the “Mosque of Omar” is not only NOT a mosque but was not built by Omar….
Indisputable documented evidence shows this.
@ dreuveni:
Bluff, indeed! When we advance, they retreat; When we retreat, they advance. This is an iron law. Has there been an exception, going all the way back, 1400 years? Peace is a chimera, a dangerous figment of the imagination. Our imagination. They have no such concept. There are only winners and losers, conquerors and conquered. There can be no democracy between mortal enemies. If we don’t wake up and enslave them, they will enslave or exterminate us.
it’s all bluff and hot air. The cousins have been saying this kind of stuff for years now. Do you think they would still be whining and bluffing if they could have done all they say back then?
Reminds me of the “fight”:
I’m gonna kill him if I can get my hands on him! Hold me back! don’t let go or we’ll have a death on our hands…
But as soon as you let him go, as peaceful as a lamb!!!
a green light to invade iraq and seize their oil. Since Israel spends so much on defense it should seek the benefits of maintaining a high cost military… it can extort through threats, it can seize oilfields, it can bomb oilfields and interrupt supplies… Israel should think out of the box and employ it resources.
Since BB has these great relationships with the gulf arabs why not cooperate with them to seize shia iraq oil and to destabilize iran?
Muqtada al-Sadr is Iran’s proxy in Iraq; his Mahdi Army is the Iraqi Hezbollah; he is related to Musa al-Sadr, Lebanon’s missing imam, and a descendant of Muhammed (black turban). Weird that this article omits this.