I got this from the This Modern World blog. Bolding by me.
India News > Shias demand UN intervention in Iraq
New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) :
Thousands of Shia Muslims rallied here Sunday for a rally to protest the US occupation of Iraq, with leaders launching a scathing attack on President George W. Bush for his "inhuman policies" towards Iraq.
Dozens of Shia leaders who addressed a rally at the historic Ramlila ground in central Delhi also called on the UN to intervene in Iraq to end the occupation by US forces and to act against excesses by them.
Thousands cheered the emotionally charged speeches and shouted slogans against the US. It was perhaps for the first time that crowds could be seen shouting slogans like "Allah-o-Akbar and "Har Har Mahadev" in the same breath.
The crowd also cheered when Hindu leaders like Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati and Swami Agnivesh addressed the massive rally that was projected by organisers equally as an event symbolising Hindu-Muslim unity.
While a majority of those who attended the rally were from Delhi and its surrounding areas, some Shias had come from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing the crowd, leading Shia leader Maulana Kalbe Jawad said: "The UN has been a mute spectator to all that has happened in Iraq but now all Muslim nations should request the UN to play a bigger role in organising elections and bringing functional democracy to Iraq."
Jawad further said the US would have to pay for its aggression in Iraq because its war had claimed the lives of "thousands" of innocent Iraqi people.
"The Muslim nations should unite and create a front to build pressure on international bodies to play a crucial role in Iraq and put an end to the US occupation," he said.
Jawad also praised the new Indian government's decision not to send troops to Iraq despite US pressure.
"It is only our country that is courageous enough to say no to the biggest superpower on the question of sending troops to Iraq and I and my fellow Muslim leaders wish that no Indian solider should work under the US in Iraq," he said.
The crowd loudly cheered the leaders who addressed them during the four-hour rally.
Addressing the crowd, Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati said: "The US occupation of Iraq should be condemned worldwide. The manner in which the US and its allies are torturing Iraqi people in prisons is unthinkable and condemnable."
Saraswati, head of Jyotir Math in northern India, created a flutter when he called Saddam Hussein a religious man.
He said: "Iraqis had been ravaged by the US because they loved their leader, who is in fact a religious man."
Politician Shoab Iqbal said: "Today's protest is just a beginning and several demonstrations are being planned, including one to be held outside the American Centre and the US embassy."
After the rally, the crowd burnt effigies of the US president in the streets. Police made elaborate security arrangements and over 1,000 personnel were deployed around the venue of the rally.
Bush unites Muslims and Hindus
Bush unites Muslims and Hindus
Last edited by Patrick M on Tue Jun 22, 2004 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
