Iran’s Supreme Jurisprudent,Ali Khamenei, managed to blame the Iraqi Baath Party, the Wahhabi sect of Islam, the Salafi Jihadi radicals among Sunnis, and the United States, jointly for the blowing up of the minarets at the al-Askariya Shrine in Samarra. The shrine is among the holiest sites for the Shiite branch of Islam. Iran is the largest Shiite country, with 90% or so of its 70 million people adhering to it. Khamenei is both the head of the Iranian state and the head of Iranian Shiism, and is recognized as authoritative by some Shiites outside Iran, especially the Hizbullah Party of south Lebanon. Most non-Iranian Shiites follow instead Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, who has called for calm. But Khamenei has a big megaphone among Shiites. His laying of responsibility for the bombing at the feet of the US will increase anti-American hatred in the Shiite world. Khamenei’s heated and irrational rhetoric, positing a vast conspiracy among various groups that hate one another, is typical of the hardliners in Iran, but it is my impression that in recent months he has tended to leave the wilder talk to his rival Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi and his protege, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. I don’t think Khamenei’s remarks on this matter are a good sign.

There were angry demonstrations by Muslims in Srinagar and elswhere in Indian Kashmir, at which the US was blamed for the Samarra bombing and Bush was burned in effigy: ‘The protestors said that the US had launched a war against the Muslim world, and decried its policy in West Asia [i.e. Israel/Palestine]. . . Reports of protests have also come from other parts of the valley like Baramulla, Pattan, Mir Gund Divsar and Qazigund.’

Oh, great. Now Bush’s Iraq blunder has made us hated in Mir Gund. He is such a great leader. I’ll bet the people of Mir Gund once just ignored the United States. Bush got their attention all right. God talks to him and gives him missions, you know. To rile up Kashmiris in Mir Gund.

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