IRAQ

Asiatimes: Freedom unbound, and out of control

BAGHDAD - The imam was on fire. "None of us want an occupation of an Islamic country!" he seethed over the (very loud) loudspeakers of the Abu Hanifah mosque in the capital during Salat al-Juma prayers last Friday afternoon.

"Not Shi'ites! Not Sunnis! The soldiers of the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, will destroy any American or Israeli troops - just wait! We will not let any government trick us! No one can be the governor of Iraq if he is not a good Muslim and applies sharia [Islamic law]!"
When the celebrated Sunni Doctor Ahmad al-Qubaisee got to the obligatory part that goes "America is the enemy of God! Israel is the enemy of God! Down with Israel! Down with America!" - his voice rose to a shrill hectoring screech that harmonized sweetly with the occasional staccato pop-pop-pop sound of Kalashnikovs going off in the distance.
The imam was breathing fire, and the crowd was catching. It was the sort of stump speech that's designed to pack them in in this part of the world, and liberated Baghdad proved no exception. Thousands strong when the sermon began, the crowd had been expanding by the minute, overflowing the mosque and taking over every available speck of pavement on Omar Abduaziz Street in the northwestern Adhamiya district. By mid-afternoon, everything not able to walk, crawl or roll out of reach of the crowd - including a surrounded tanker truck complete with hapless driver trapped in the cab - found itself blocked in by prayer rugs and unable to move