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Sistani warns U.S. on Lebanon


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The most important man in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned that the United States will face dire consequences in the region if it does not move swiftly to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon. Reluctant as I am to say it, Juan Cole has the most interesting analysis of the implications that I have been able to locate:

 

Sistani is taking such a hard line on this issue not only because he feels strongly about it (his fatwa against the Jenin operation of 2002 was vehement) but also because he is in danger of being outflanked by Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's Mahdi Army is said to be "boiling" over the Israeli war on Hizbullah, since after all the Sadrists are also fundamentalist Shiites and they identify with the Lebanese Hizbullah. There have already been big demonstrations in Baghdad against the Israeli attacks, to which Sadrists flocked but probably also other Shiites.

 

Sistani cannot allow Muqtada to monopolize this issue, or the young cleric's legitimacy will grow among the angry Shiite masses at the expense of Sistani's.

 

Sistani is not linked to Hizbullah, which is strongly Khomeinist in orientation. Sistani largely rejects Khomeinism. He told an Iraqi acquaintance of mine, "Even if I must be wiped out, I will not allow Iraq to repeat the Iranian experience." When Sistani had his heart problems in summer, 2004, he flew to London via Beirut. He stopped in Beirut several hours, and Nabih Berri came out to the airport to consult with him. Berri is the speaker of the Lebanese parliament and the leader of the Amal Party. Amal is the party of the secularizing, moderate Lebanese Shiites. It was more militant in the 1980s but it mellowed.

 

So Sistani's political ties in Lebanon go to Amal much more than to Hizbullah. Sistani has many followers or "emulators" (muqallidun) among the Lebanese Shiites, though the hard core Hizbullahis tend to follow Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran instead.

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Muqtada al-Sadr. & Sadr's Mahdi Army are as destructive to a free Iraq as was Saddamn, as are Sunni Militia's and insurgency. Iraq needs to get over this Sunni/Shiit crap and get on with living together peaceful. Iraqi's and Muslims in general need to get over their hatred of Jews if they are ever to survive in peace.

 

I'm pissed off in Texas, Your religion is supressing & killing more Muslims than anything else in the world today.... moderate it before we all are killing one another.

 

Tex

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"Knocking on Heaven's Gate"

 

In March of 1997 thirty-nine people, 21 women and 18 men were found dead in a mansion within the exclusive neighborhood of Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego in the United States. They ranged in age from 26 to 72 and came from nine different states within the US. The thirty-nine bodies were identified as members of a cult group, which later came to be known as "Heaven's Gate."

 

The bodies were found dispersed within the mansion on cots and mattresses. All but two had shrouds of purple covering their heads and shoulders. Most died of suffocation, induced by plastic bags placed over their heads, after taking a concoction of Phenobarbital and alcohol. Found among the dead was Marshall Herff Applewhite, the 65-year-old leader of the group.

 

Applewhite taught his followers that he was a messenger from an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human." He claimed that periodically this higher kingdom sent messengers to earth and that one such previous visitor was Jesus. Applewhite believed he was once "Jesus" in that same "away team" now "incarnated again in...[a] mature (adult) [body] that had been picked and prepped for [his] current mission." He advised that if his followers studied with him, he would become their pivotal link to this higher level. And that only through him would it be possible for them to eventually evolve and shed their human "containers," which were only "vehicles" for this supposed journey.

 

Applewhite required his "class" to give up virtually everything. This included families, friends and sex, five of his male followers had themselves surgically castrated like their leader. They also surrendered and/or renounced all their worldly possessions. His "crew" was told they must overcome and do battle spiritually with dark forces known as the "Luciferians" and those they influenced. This became a negative label that could be applied to anyone or anything outside the group.

 

It was through a process of rigid regimentation that Marshall Applewhite was able to purge his "class" of their individuality and program their minds to accept his doctrines. They were often not allowed to sleep undisturbed, but instead subjected to scheduled interruptions for periodic prayer. They ate the same food, called "formulas" at the same hours," which was referred to as "fuel for the vehicle." They all wore the same haircuts and clothing, which often included gloves, apparently to avoid human contact. Work was even once divided into 12-minute intervals by audible beeps. Communication was at times limited to simply saying "yes," "no," or "I don't know."

 

This rigid regimentation persisted to the end. All the "Heaven's Gate" members ordered exactly the same last meal and ended their lives precisely alike in virtually every detail.

 

The members of "Heaven's Gate" were also relatively isolated from the outside world and most often not in touch with their families or old friends. They also had new names, which further broke down their sense of individual identity and personal history. Applewhite controlled information, his followers were not allowed to watch television or read anything by choice, but rather given lists of proscribed literature.

 

Each member was assigned a partner and encouraged to travel in pairs. One former devotee recalled that this was an important facet of group control, "to keep [members] in the mindset. The partner was there, if [a member was] falling out of what [they] had to do, so [they] wouldn't fall out. It was part of the mind control."

 

According to Marshall Applewhite the world was merely a "stepping stone" to "the true Kingdom of God." And this world was about to be "recycled" or "spaded under" because its inhabitants had refused to evolve. Only those who were bound together through his teachings could survive by traveling to the next level.

 

 

The group's suicide was almost logical within this mindset, since Applewhite insisted that "the Truth can be retained only as one is physically connected with the Next Level, through an Older Member" (i.e. Marshall Applewhite). Thus, without Applewhite there was no hope of transition to the next "Evolutionary Level." When he elected to die his followers were obliged to do likewise. It was the only way they could retain "The Truth" and its required and seemingly necessary final step to enter "the true Kingdom of God."

 

Everything Applewhite taught his followers was a rejection of their humanity. Perhaps by rejecting his own humanity Marshall Applewhite believed he had finally overcome his own sexual frustrations and mental illness. But the more power he gained over his small group the more intense his madness became, until it finally led to a tragedy that was indeed inhuman.

 

In preparation for their suicide, members of the cult drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their bodies of impurities. In the wake of the cult's suicide, some of the members attributed their ability to attract new members to the growth of the Internet. The thirty-nine bodies of the cult members were found in a rented mansion in the upscale San Diego community of Rancho Sante Fe, California on March 26, 1997. Their suicide, conducted in shifts, was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with vodka, along with plastic bags secured around their heads that killed them in their sleep.

 

The cult's end, coinciding with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp, created a sensation in the United States in 1997. Applewhite convinced 39 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet; members reportedly believed themselves to be extraterrestrials

 

 

 

Spenta Mainyu says:

 

Any faith in its simple form is pure. It should be between the believer and the central character of that 'belief'. But when a “clockwork” (Here defined as the functioning of the belief system with a central institution (church, mosque, synagogue etc.) mechanism is built around a faith for a variety of reasons, a different body enters the stage. This body operates efficiently, relentlessly and ruthlessly, which is called the belief system, which occupies the minds, influences the way we act , and almost dictates the lives of each and everyone of us. It creates debate at best, and misunderstanding and conflict at worst. It costs lives. Of whom? Of its creators and servants. Why do they give their lives? For supremacy and immortality of course!

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The most important man in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned that the United States will face dire consequences in the region if it does not move swiftly to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon. Reluctant as I am to say it, Juan Cole has the most interesting analysis of the implications that I have been able to locate:

 

 

....

.....

Muqtada al-Sadr. & Sadr's Mahdi Army are as destructive to a free Iraq as was Saddamn, as are Sunni Militia's and insurgency. Iraq needs to get over this Sunni/Shiit crap and get on with living together peaceful. Iraqi's and Muslims in general need to get over their hatred of Jews if they are ever to survive in peace.

 

I'm pissed off in Texas, Your religion is supressing & killing more Muslims than anything else in the world today.... moderate it before we all are killing one another.

 

Tex

from the original Reuters article;

""The Islamic world and peace loving people will not excuse sides which hinder a ceasefire.

 

what was Sistani's position on the taking of Israeli soldiers?

They are fair game on an unlevel playing field?

 

 

""It will have harmful consequences in the whole region," he said in a statement issued late on Sunday, in a clear reference to the United States.""

 

As for Juan Coles article, I wouldn't put much faith in his opinion. Wasn't he saying that the US invasion of Iran was supposed to start in June, 2005 ?

 

 

As long as Iraqi's are killing Iraqi's, the insurrection against the current government sitting in Baghdad will continue and Sistani knows the rift betwen Sunni/ Shia runs hundreds of years deep.

 

BTW,

The Pope in Rome has been calling for a cease fire longer than Sistani has.

 

People do not heed his requests,or the EU's requests or the UN's

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from the original Reuters article;

""The Islamic world and peace loving people will not excuse sides which hinder a ceasefire.

 

what was Sistani's position on the taking of Israeli soldiers?

They are fair game on an unlevel playing field?

 

 

""It will have harmful consequences in the whole region," he said in a statement issued late on Sunday, in a clear reference to the United States.""

 

As for Juan Coles article, I wouldn't put much faith in his opinion. Wasn't he saying that the US invasion of Iran was supposed to start in June, 2005 ?

 

 

As long as Iraqi's are killing Iraqi's, the insurrection against the current government sitting in Baghdad will continue and Sistani knows the rift betwen Sunni/ Shia runs hundreds of years deep.

 

BTW,

The Pope in Rome has been calling for a cease fire longer than Sistani has.

 

People do not heed his requests,or the EU's requests or the UN's

 

 

 

Airedale Airedale Airedale,

 

I DO NOT, NOR HAVE I EVER put trust in much coming from Professor Juan Cole.

I was TOTALLY taken aback when he opined reasonable assumptions concerning a Sistani Vs. Mookey rivalry. Usually Cole’s “Blame America First” with his perusal reconstructs of demented terrorist stances and promoting their propaganda more intensely. This was probably the ONLY thing I have ever agreed with him on politically or morally. Personally, I think Juan Cole is another Edward Siad/Noam Chomsky type major terrorist sympathizer, enabler and lying propagandist from the EXTREME LEFT of American academia.

 

My girlfriend is still laughing :D she say; “he don’t know you well very well does he ?”

 

As far as Sistani or the Pope ? Neither has a monopoly on GOD ! Nor do JEWS or anyone else !

 

All that going on IS NOT BECAUSE OF JEWS (thats the excuse)…. It’s gone on for centuries PRIMARILY because of the JEW HATRED promoted in the Qu’ran, one of the few things Shia/Sunni agree on, ...THAT is sick.

 

BTW

1. JENNIN ---- MOSTLY STAGED ISLAMIC THEATRICS

2. QANNA ---- SEE #1.

 

BTW 2

(from Cal Thomas today)

 

Donald Rumsfeld reminded the free world are in a:

 

"global struggle against violent extremists."

 

"one side puts their men and women at risk in uniform and obeys the laws of war, while the other side uses them against us."

 

"One side does all it can to avoid civilian casualties, while the other side uses civilians as shields, and then skillfully orchestrates a public outcry when the other side accidentally kills civilians in their midst. One side is held to exacting standards of near perfection; the other side is held to no standards and no accountability at all."

 

Rumsfeld noted how the enemy uses our media to undermine American resolve, "planning attacks to gain the maximum media coverage and the maximum public outcry." And then, most importantly, he said: "If we left Iraq prematurely - as the terrorists demand - the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they'd order us - and all those who don't share their militant ideology - to leave what they call occupied Muslim lands, from Spain to the Philippines, and then we would face not only the evil ideology of these violent extremists, but an enemy that will have grown accustomed to succeeding in telling free people everywhere what to do."

 

For those who claim Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terrorism, Rumsfeld noted, "This enemy has called Iraq the central front in the war on terrorism."

 

During World War II, U.S. and German forces fought the battle of Hurtgen Forest. It began Sept. 19, 1944 and ended Feb. 10, 1945. That was one battle in a strategically insignificant corridor of barely 50 square miles east of the Belgium-Germany border. The Germans inflicted more than 24,000 casualties on American forces, while another 9,000 Americans were sidelined due to illness, fatigue and friendly fire. Had live TV beamed this battle to America, there might have been an outcry that the policy was failing and somehow a cease-fire and an accommodation with Hitler should be achieved. America won that war because the objective wasn't to understand the Nazis, or to reach an accommodation with them; the objective was to win the war. Anything less in this war - against an equally evil and unrelenting enemy - will mean defeat for the United States and for freedom everywhere. That's what Rumsfeld was getting at when he said, "We can persevere in Iraq or we can withdraw prematurely, until they force us to make a stand nearer home. But make no mistake: They are not going to give up, whether we acquiesce in their immediate demands or not."

 

Rumsfeld is right.

 

BTW 3. you probably noticed PC for me is GONE ! a spade is a spade .... who says the playing field has to be level ??

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