Shiite Pilgrims Converge on Baghdad

Shiite Pilgrims Converge on Baghdad
NY Times
Damien Cave
August 9, 2007

Tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged today on a shrine in western Baghdad to honor an 8th century Imam, moving through the streets with chants, flags, and only a few signs of the violent attacks and stampedes that have marked previous celebrations.

In Kadhimiya, the site of the shrine honoring Imam Musa al-Kadhim, two people died and at least 15 were injured when pilgrims crushed each other trying to reach a train departing the neighborhood, according to an interior ministry official. A sniper in the mostly Sunni area of Yarmouk was killed by Iraqi soldiers after opening fire on pilgrims at around 2 p.m., the official said. Three soldiers were wounded. [the McClatchy article below seems to report the same incident, and clarifies that the injured were Iraqi soldiers.]

The violence so far, however, has paled in comparison to last year, when explosions and gunfire killed more than 20 people, and 2005 when roughly 1,000 people died on a bridge after rumors of a suicide bomber ignited a mass panic. With a strict curfew in place, pilgrims en route said that security had improved, thanking the Shiite-led government in a few cases, and expressing a form of Shiite nationalism that treated the march as a protest against violence and a show of force meant to tell Sunni attackers that Shiite power is here to stay.

“We thank Maliki for arranging this,” said Mohammed Hussein Mahawish, 33, the owner of a shoe shop, referring to the Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “Regardless of terrorism and danger, no one can stop us, the Shiites, from fulfilling these duties to our Imams,” he said. He then shouted criticism of Sunni extremists, and “Saddamists and terrorists.”

Ahmed Aboud Hassan, 36, a food seller at the public market in Sadr City, said that he had walked overnight through several areas of the city, including Sunni locations. He described the pilgrimage as a display of Shiite unity and strength.

“We are here to tell them you will never frighten us,” Mr. Hassan said. “Our challenge will continue to our last days, until our deaths. You will never break our willpower.”

The rhetoric, he said, was not for all Iraqi Sunnis — just the extremists. He said he was excited to discover Sunnis who welcomed Shiites into their areas, in what appeared to be an effort to make peace, to show that ordinary Iraqis of the warring sects could find ways to get along.

On Haifa Street for example, a Sunni area often riven by sectarian violence, he said that residents handed out tea to pilgrims. Seeing what he hoped would be cause for long-awaited reconciliation, he said that the gesture brought him comfort.

“They’re helping us,” he said. “We’re here and they’re helping.”