With its twin minarets and glinting gold dome, the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf has been a beacon for the Muslim faithful for more than 1,200 years. But with fighting raging around the Iraqi shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam has reprised another historical role: rallying point against foreign forces.
In 1920, rebels intent on kicking out the British troops who occupied the region gathered at the mosque and readied for revolt. Among their leaders was Mohammed Sadr, the scion of a prominent Shiite family and a future prime minister.
Eighty-four years later, firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, one of Mohammed Sadr’s descendants, wants the U.S. military out. And all eyes are once again trained on the shrine.
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Believed to have been erected in the 8th Century and rebuilt at various times, the Imam Ali shrine is the heart of Najaf, attracting hundreds of thousands–perhaps millions–of pilgrims a year.
Shiites revere the shrine as the burial place of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, father of their branch of Islam and one of the earliest Muslim caliphs, who was assassinated in 661 in the nearby town of Kufa. Ali was said to have been buried in secret so his enemies could not desecrate his tomb, but the spot was discovered decades later and a shrine erected.
Religious tourism has been Najaf’s lifeblood for centuries, and the mosque is a repository of riches ancient as well as modern: Precious gifts from sultans and potentates are housed in the shrine.
Shiites “worldwide are shocked and outraged over what is going on in Najaf,” said Imam Moustafa al-Qazwini, a prominent Shiite leader in Southern California. “They consider it an assault on the sanctity of Islam and in particular Shia Islam. Any attack on that city will destroy America’s future in Iraq completely.”
Several Shiite Muslims liken any attack on the Imam Ali shrine to bombing the Vatican and predict it would spark retaliatory attacks on U.S. facilities in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other nations with significant Shiite populations.
Parvez Shah of the Universal Muslim Association of America called for Iraqi forces to replace U.S. troops in Najaf to defuse growing tensions.