Razing of Mosul’s shrines sparks first signs of resistance against Islamic State: Who said prayer does not work?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="unprocessed" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/30/Foreign/Images/Mideast_Iraq-04f42.jpg?uuid=ccnw4BgdEeSeO38vEQxiZQ" data-low-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_400w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/30/Foreign/Images/Mideast_Iraq-04f42.jpg?uuid=ccnw4BgdEeSeO38vEQxiZQ" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_400w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/30/Foreign/Images/Mideast_Iraq-04f42.jpg?uuid=ccnw4BgdEeSeO38vEQxiZQ" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">People walk on the rubble of the destroyed mosque of the prophet Jonah in Mosul on July 24. The Muslim shrine was destroyed by Islamic State militants who overran the city in June and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. (AP)</span></span></div> <br /> <article></article><br /> <div class="pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 20px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> <span class="pb-byline" style="display: inline-block; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, sans-serif; padding-right: 5px;">By <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/loveday-morris" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Loveday Morris</a></span> <span class="pb-timestamp" style="color: #aaaaaa; display: inline-block; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; padding-right: 5px; white-space: nowrap;">July 30 at 6:14 PM</span> <span class="pb-tool email" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px;"><a href="mailto:loveday.morris@washpost.com?subject=Reader%20feedback%20for%20'Razing%20of%20Mosul%E2%80%99s%20shrines%20sparks%20first%20signs%20of%20resistance%20against%20Islamic%20State'" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-envelope" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1;"></span></a></span> <span class="tweet-authors" style="white-space: nowrap;"><span class="pb-twitter-follow" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 5px; position: relative; top: 5px;"><a class="twitter-follow-button" data-lang="en" data-show-count="false" href="https://twitter.com/@LovedayM" style="color: #2e6d9d; text-decoration: none;">Follow @LovedayM</a></span></span></div> <br /> <br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="dateline">BAGHDAD –</span> As al-Qaeda-inspired militants have reduced Mosul’s ancient religious shrines to rubble in recent weeks, their support has also crumbled, with popular outrage producing the first signs of resistance in the Iraqi city.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A newly formed militant group calling itself the Mosul Battalions claims to have killed nine members of the extremist Islamic State in recent days in knife and sniper attacks as retaliation for the destruction of the religious sites.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, residents say they have protested attempts to destroy the city’s most iconic landmark – an 800-year-old minaret known locally as al-Hadba, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_al-Nuri_%28Mosul%29" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">“the Hunchback,</a>” because of its distinctive lean.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many Mosul residents had initially welcomed the Sunni militants when they took over in early June, praising them for expelling the largely Shiite Iraqi army, which had been accused of mistreating the city’s majority Sunni population. But local dissatisfaction with the new overlords has been increasing.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The city has suffered from severe electricity, fuel and water shortages, and the smashing of shrines and statues. But the expulsion of tens of thousands of Christians from the city and the destruction a week ago of a highly prominent religious site — the tomb of the prophet Jonah, who, according to Islamic, Jewish and Christian scriptures, survived being swallowed by a whale — brought a new level of resentment.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo-left" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: left; margin: 0.5em 20px 10px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 300px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/30/Foreign/Images/Mideast_Iraq-07b32.jpg?uuid=8TCy5BgbEeSeO38vEQxiZQ" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">A photo posted on a militant Web site that frequently carries official statements from the Islamic State shows a bulldozer destroying a Sunni Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Tal Afar, Iraq. (Uncredited/AP)</span></span></div> <div class="subhead" style="padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 10px; zoom: 0;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">‘People feel deceived’</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It was truly shocking for the people of Mosul,” said a 37-year-old resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “The people feel deceived by Islamic State. When they first came, they told us, ‘We will set you free,’ but they have turned against everyone.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said as residents gathered at the tomb of Jonah to see what had happened, some started shouting at the militants in anger.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nonetheless, the following day, the mosques and shrines of the prophets Seth and George were also destroyed. Axel Plathe, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, described the actions as “deliberate and systematic destruction” on a scale never seen before in Iraq’s modern history.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In total, at least seven sacred <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/25/after-leveling-iraqs-tomb-of-jonah-the-islamic-state-could-destroy-anything-in-the-bible/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">shrines have been razed</a>, said an official with the city’s Sunni endowment authority, which manages religious affairs.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“At first, we expected them to only blow up places for Shiite people,” said the official, who declined to be identified for security reasons. “Now they are blowing up everything.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At least three Shiite mosques have been destroyed in Mosul, and more in nearby areas, he said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Islamic State militants argue that it is idolatrous for Muslims to revere shrines and tombs.</span></div> <div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mosul has some of the most diverse cultural history in Iraq, said Plathe.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There are mosques built on churches, built on synagogues,” he said. “It’s a city that has all these layers, where cultural diversity and religious diversity has been existing for so many hundreds of years.”</span></div> <div class="subhead" style="padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 10px; zoom: 0;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Armed defiance grows</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The destruction of the religious sites has spurred an increasing backlash.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Because of what has happened with the shrines, the population has completely turned against Islamic State,” said Atheel al-Nujaifi, the former governor of Nineveh province who fled the city when the militants took control.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> <br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The imam of a Sufi mosque in the city was arrested by Islamic State when he and other worshipers protested the destruction of a shrine there, Nujaifi said. He was released on Tuesday after being held for two days, he said, and the mosque and shrine are still intact. Sufis are followers of a mystical branch of Islam.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The militants took their extreme doctrine a step further when they rigged the ancient Hadba minaret with explosives Saturday, residents said. Just last month, UNESCO­ had begun urgent restoration work to stabilize the minaret on the city’s oldest mosque.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When people heard, they quickly gathered around and prevented it from being destroyed,” the 37-year-old Mosul resident said. “They were very, very angry.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That anger has fueled armed resistance to Islamic State, said Nujaifi, who said that at least five Islamic State members have been killed in recent days by the Mosul Battalions. Two were stabbed, while others were killed by sniper fire, he said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The people in the city of Mosul are busy forming armed groups and small brigades to work against Islamic State,” he said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said he was not directly involved with the Mosul Battalions, but is in contact with its leaders, who include former army officers from Saddam Hussein’s regime.</span></div> <br /> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_3" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 6px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> </div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> Local insurgent groups, including the Naqshbandi army and other Sunni militants who had formerly fought U.S. soldiers, have yet to lend support to the battalions, he said. The killings could not be independently verified and have not been acknowledged by Islamic State.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a statement on its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84/261442370716092" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Facebook page</a>, the Mosul Battalions group says it began forming soon after Islamic State seized the city, but that the destruction of Mosul’s sacred shrines had sped up its military activities. It lists nine killings of Islamic State members in the past week. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It stressed that it was not looking for the Iraqi army to return, saying the government forces are as bad as the militants.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“People are rising up, but the resistance is based on sniping at them from a long distance,” the Sunni endowment authority official said. “That’s all we can do.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That the Iraqi army did not allow Mosul residents to keep arms makes it even more difficult to turn on the extremists, he said. “But we are now against them, 100 percent.”</span></div> </div>

Razing of Mosul’s shrines sparks first signs of resistance against Islamic State: Who said prayer does not work?

People walk on the rubble of the destroyed mosque of the prophet Jonah in Mosul on July 24. The Muslim shrine was destroyed by Islamic Sta...

Read more »