Students Beaten to Death at 'Immoral' Picnic in the Park

[chlamor]

Iraq

March 23, 2005

Death at 'immoral' picnic in the park
By Catherine Philp
Students are beaten to death for playing music as Shia militiamen run amok

The students had begun to lay out their picnic in the spring sunshine when the men attacked.

“There were dozens of them, armed with guns, and they poured into the park,” Ali al-Azawi, 21, the engineering student who had organised the gathering in Basra, said.“They started shouting at us that we were immoral, that we were meeting boys and girls together and playing music and that this was against Islam.“They began shooting in the air and people screamed. Then, with one order, they began beating us with their sticks and rifle butts.” Two students were said to have been killed.

Standing over them as the blows rained down was the man who gave the order, dressed in dark clerical garb and wearing a black turban. Ali recognised him immediately as a follower of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric. Ali realised then that the armed men were members of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, a private militia that fought American forces last year and is now enforcing its own firebrand version of Islam.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1537512,00.html

[Nikepallas]

1. This just sound TOO propagnada to believe it.

[izzybeans]

4. Juan Cole passed this on as well

www.juancole.com


snip

Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that engineering students at Basra University continued their strikes and demonstrations Tuesday, protesting the violence they experienced from students adhering to the Sadr Movement, the radical Shiite trend, who disrupted a picnic last week and attempted to intimidate students into a puritan style of life. Iraqi national guards arrested students from both factions (liberals and Sadrists). The university administration has called for an end to the strike, and has pledged to ban party politics from university life.

From al-Zaman, March 19, BBC World Monitoring: "Al-Zaman publishes a 100-word front-page report stating that three mortar grenades targeted a school in the city of Al-Fallujah. The report says that the attack caused damage in the building, but no casualties were recorded." Maybe it isn't the safest city in Iraq, after all.


end snip--

It looks like David Horowitz and the Sadr Militia have something in common.

[vpigrad]

7. I believe it!

Bush is pushing those people to violence. Heck even some of the most peaceful friends I have are ready to kill someone because of the horror of Bush.

[LeftHander]

9. Iraq bound for years of civil war

Thanks to the irresponsible arrogance of George W. Bush and the rest of the neocons.....

[fallout]

14. what the fuck is wrong with these people?? seriously... nt

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Yes, democracy is on the march in Iraq...might happen here in

the near future as the RW continues to seek and gain favor with our 'rulers'.

[yellowcanine]

3. Dang that untidy, messy freedom. Someone call Housekeeping.

Tell them to bring the mop bucket.

[BiggJawn]

5. Remind me again....

...how much BETTER this is than being beaten by Uday?

[sui generis]

6. isn't it funny, it's more moral to beat someone to death

than to allow people of the opposite sex to socialize.

I hate all "fundamentalist" religion - it's fine when you decide you need to beat yourself to death for having an impure thought (whatever that is), but fundamentalism demands that of their society and culture, and it seems to attract grossly violent humans.

We're no better with our crusades, auto da fe's and inquisitions, and allowing "gay panic" as a defense for beating someone you thought was gay to death.

[fallout]

15. yeah i'm not going to blame this on islam... BUT.... nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. Before the invasion, Iraq was the most secular muslim state in the

region. It also afforded women more rights than any state other than Israel.

"It showed images of one girl struggling as a gunman ripped her blouse off, leaving her half-naked. “We will send these pictures to your parents so they can see how you were dancing naked with men,” a gunman told her. Two students who went to her aid were shot — one in the leg, the other twice in the stomach. The latter was said to have died of his injuries. Fellow students say that the girl later committed suicide. Another girl who was severely beaten around the head lost her sight."

So American imposed democracy has improved women's rights in Iraq? That's what people keep telling me.

[grumpy old fart]

10. Coming to a Red State park near you!

Saw the headline, and just pictured some Talibush descending on a gay picnic in Oklahoma....

[megatherium]

11. If we went to war in Iraq to liberate people from this kind of fascism,

I would almost be in favor of it.

[grumpy old fart]

12. We went to Iraq and UNLEASHED this kind of fascism....

Removing a secular dictator did nothing to quell fundamentalist blood lust...there or here.

[MollyStark]

13. Now we have an even bigger problem

Americans on the right and in the center don't want to admit we unleashed this problem and Muslim americans and leftists who are are in favor of pulling american troops and leaving Iraq to the Iraqis, don't want to admit that the people there are going to be worse off under religious Islamic rule.

I am in the pull out of Iraq and admit we were wrong group. But I suffer no delusions about the fate of the Iraqi women.

[megatherium]

17. Of course, we didn't go to war in Iraq to fight Islamic fascism. nt

[fallout]

16. i guess they got bored and had nobody to kill?? how sick ... nt

[The_Casual_Observer]

18. Let Freedom Reign!

[ChickMagic]

24. Casual Observer

you took the words out of my mouth! Let Freedom Reign, indeed!

[NNN0LHI]

19. Iraqi militias take Islamic law into their own hands

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12643633%255E2703,00.html

THE students had begun to lay out their picnic in the spring sunshine when the men attacked.

"There were dozens of them, armed with guns, and they poured into the park," said Ali al-Azawi, 21, the engineering student who had organised the gathering in Basra.

"They started shouting at us that we were immoral, that we were meeting boys and girls together and playing music, and that this was against Islam.

"They began shooting in the air and people screamed. Then, with one order, they began beating us with their sticks and rifle butts."

Two students are said to have been killed.

more

[Dhalgren]

20. Ahhh, democracy and freedom - you can't beat it with a stick!

Well...maybe you can, but it's the only talking point the Emperor has left, so... "Let freedom reign!"

[villager]

21. you mean, like Republicans?

n/t

[Cocoa]

22. these are the militias we're going to use in the "Salvador option"

to fight the Sunnis in the upcoming low-level civil war.

Geraldo Rivera specifically suggested using Sadr's army, and I wouldn't be surprised if we're already doing it.

[NNN0LHI]

23. Geraldo thought it was great for America to support Osama bin Laden too

When bin Laden was fighting the USSR for us. We all know how that turned out.

Don

[XemaSab]

25. We should go in and liberate them

/sarcasm