Persia (Iran) used to be a majority Sunni country, up until when Shah Ismail I of the Saffavid Empire forced all Persians to convert to Shi’ism or die at the sword. And so it was that Iran today has become a majority Shia country. Now, this same process is going on in neighboring Iraq, in which the Shia Iran is sponsporing a targetted campaign of ethnic cleansing against Sunni masses.

Ten thousand Iranians per day are swarming into the Iraqi nation, with the blessing of the Iranian government. This includes Iranian militias which have seized over a hundred Sunni mosques. At least one hundred thousand armed militia-men have been sent over the Iranian border and into Southern Iraq. In fact, right after the fall of Saddam’s regime, Iranian milias seized dozens of Sunni mosques. Knight Ridder magazine stated:

Shiites have seized up to 40 Sunni mosques since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell, according to Shiite and Sunni clerics. While Sunnis view the campaign as a land grab, Shiites say they’re reclaiming plots that Saddam stole from Shiite landowners…

(Source: Knight Ridder,
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13890335.htm)

To justify this nefarious land grab, the Shia leaders have claimed that this land rightfully belongs to the Shia. This of course has no legal precedent and is invalid reasoning by international law. Knight Ridder magazine stated:

Just days into the war, Shiites dizzy with newfound religious freedom stormed into dozens of Sunni mosques and have prayed there ever since…

“Because of the illegal orders of the toppled [Saddam] regime, the Sunnis were able to build mosques that exceeded their needs while the Shiites were left to pray in the streets under the burning sun,” said Salah Abdul Razaq, spokesman for the government’s Shiite endowment…

The Shiite endowment immediately staked claims to mosques, including [the Sunni mosque] Hassan bin Ali. Sunnis moved to block the takeovers, and violence has colored many of the disputes. Abdul Razaq denied that Shiites had resorted to violence in their campaign to reclaim mosques, but said the stolen land must be returned.

“According to the endowment regulations, all the properties taken from Shiites should go back to them, even when the Sunnis refuse,” he said.

Even mosques that changed hands peacefully have been targeted. The Al Mahabba Mosque, now used by Shiites despite its location in a heavily Sunni district, sits behind new concrete barriers and watchful guards. It has been attacked four times since Sunnis ceded it to Shiites in 2003. Grenades and gunfire have wounded worshipers and damaged the building.

“I’ll guard this place with the last drop of my blood,” said Malik Hassan, an armed Shiite security guard who was shot in the leg during one of the attacks. “After all, we’re under the protection of God.”

(Source: Knight Ridder,
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13890335.htm)

Another major Sunni mosque which was seized by the Shia militias was the famous Rahman Mosque. Knight Ridder stated:

Today, however, it’s Shiites who pray at the cavernous construction site [of Rahman Mosque], about the size of four football fields, in Baghdad’s most upscale neighborhood…[This mosque is now] the crowning glory of the new Shiite government…

“The Shiites took our mosques,” said Adnan al Dulaimi, the head of the Sunni endowment. “One of them was about to be the largest mosque in the Middle East and maybe even in the world.”

(Source: Knight Ridder,
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13890335.htm)

The Sunnis are trying very hard to defend their mosques from being seized by the Iranian and Shia militias. Knight Ridder magazine described some of the terror spread by these Shia hoodlums:

At a humble, green-domed mosque in the heart of Baghdad, a grizzled [Sunni] preacher named Sheik Ahmed Yassin was standing his ground. [Shiite] gunmen had killed five of his followers and kidnapped two of his sons. Threats had thinned his [Sunni] congregation, and the [Sunni] worshipers who still came rushed to their cars after prayers to avoid becoming the latest victims.

To Yassin, every drop of blood is worth the fight to keep his sanctuary in the hands of Sunni Muslims, who built it 25 years ago, and away from the rival Shiite sect.

“They’ll have to kill us all before they take this mosque,” Yassin vowed last week.

The battle over the Hassan bin Ali Mosque is perhaps the bloodiest in a two-year power struggle that has turned Iraq’s holiest places into sectarian battlegrounds. Shiites have seized up to 40 Sunni mosques since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell, according to Shiite and Sunni clerics.

(Source: Knight Ridder,
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/13890335.htm)

Shia militias have killed hundreds of Iraqi Sunnis. The War Times says:

[Within] three days Shiite crowds or militias attacked at least 100 Sunni mosques and close to 200 people were killed.
(Source: War Times, www.war-times.org/pdf/WT%20MiR-Feb06.pdf)

Within another twenty-four hour period, a reported 168 Sunni mosques were attacked by armed Shia militants. Indeed, the Shia leadership publically calls for Sunni-Shia unity and then sends its militias to kill, intimidate, and steal mosques from Sunnis. These Shia are trained and sponspored by Iran, the historical arch-rival of Iraq. The greatest irony is the order in which the violence takes place. First, the Iranian-backed militias seize Sunni mosques and convert them into Shia mosques. Then, the Sunnis respond by using force to reclaim these same mosques. After this, the Shia government claims that they are responding to “Sunni terrorism” against “Shia mosques” and use this as an excuse to attack more Sunni mosques to “route out insurgents.” And so the cycle continues, and the Shia continue to annex more and more Sunni mosques.

Article Written By: Ibn al-Hashimi, www.ahlelbayt.com