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May 10, 2010 Special Dispatch No. 2942

Kurdish-Sunni Tensions Rise against Backdrop of Ongoing Koran Desecration by Kurds in Iraq and Norway

May 10, 2010
Iraq | Special Dispatch No. 2942

In the wake of a series of incidents of desecration of the Koran and offenses against Islam by Kurds, both in Iraqi Kurdistan and in the Kurdish community in Norway, Kurds and Arabs alike have spoken out in condemnation and called for a halt to it. The Kurdistan Islamic Union issued a communiqué accusing the Kurdish magazine Weran of blatantly attacking and harming the prophets of Islam in its No. 6 issue. The union vehemently condemned and renounced the statements in the magazine, calling them loathsome, immoral, and insulting to all the monotheistic religions – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.[1]

The Iraqi website Iraqirabita.org accused Kurdish elements "headed by the Peshmerga forces" of waging an "organized campaign" recently against the Koran and Islam, noting that after several copies of the Koran were found torn and burned in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq "the good voices became louder" in opposition to such deeds. As an example, the website quoted Sheikh 'Abd Al-Khalq Runaki, a preacher at Runaki Mosque in Erbil, Kurdistan, as demanding that Iraqi Kurdistan President Mas'oud Al-Barazani take as serious a stand vis-à-vis these attacks and insults against Allah and His Prophets as he had once done vis-à-vis insults against the Peshmerga.[2]

Two other noteworthy reactions to events were:

1. An appeal by Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, aka Mullah Krekar, founder and former commander of the Kurdish Salafi-jihadi organization Ansar Jihad, who since 1991 has been living in Norway as a political refugee, to the Islamic ummah (nation), its rulers, and its clerics. In his appeal, he enumerated a series of attacks on the Koran by Kurds in Kurdistan and in the Kurdish community in Norway, and called on the Kurds to take immediate and determined action against such attacks before they become all too common.

2. The call by Sheikh 'Abd Al-Mun'im Mustafa Halima, aka Abu Basir Al-Tartusi, a senior salafi-jihadi ideologue, to the Kurds, particularly those in Iraq and Syria, to end the desecration of the Koran amongst them, and to give the fold of Islam priority over nationalist Kurdish zealotry. Al-Tartusi went on to warn the Kurds that if they continue to join with the "Crusaders" and the infidels against Islam and the Muslims, the Islamic ummah would vomit them forth from among it, and would declare an "insane" war against them that will never let them live in peace.

The following are translated excerpts from both these reactions:

Mullah Krekar: The Kurds in Iraq Have a Prearranged Program – Backed by Kurdistan Authorities – to Desecrate the Koran

Mullah Krekar wrote: "To the rulers of the Islamic ummah, the devout scholars, preachers and leaders, and all sons of the Islamic ummah:

"I hereby inform you that the Kurds in Iraq have a prearranged program for operations [aimed at] desecrating, defiling, and burning the Koran, after the Kurdish authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan prepared the ground for them legally...

"The plan was revealed the day a copy of the Koran was found in a public trashcan in the religious city of Halabja. When the devout scholars became upset, they were told that it was the act of an isolated individual. A few weeks later, a copy of the Koran was found in the bathroom of the Khamkhane mosque in the city of Al-Sulaymaniyah; again they called it the act of an isolated individual. Early this year, a number of copies of the Koran were found torn and desecrated in the suburbs of [the city of] Erbil, and they said, for the third time, that it was the act of an isolated individual. After that, the talk about what is being done to the Koran and about the [Kurds'] excuses [regarding it] was repeated so often that it became repugnant...

"The Sunnis in the Kurdish cities continued to defend the Koran, despite their weakness, filing lawsuits and complaints to the Kurdish municipal authorities, but to no avail...

"Everyone was surprised when in the city of Bawa Nur, an [apparently] lucid policeman went into a mosque during public prayers and ripped up Korans that were there, and then fearlessly and shamelessly provoked [the worshippers]. The worshippers filed a complaint against him with the police, and he was arrested for two days; then he was released [just] so that he could rip up the Koran again a week later, in another mosque, in the city of Kalar, during public prayers.

"On April 14, 2010, the anniversary of the so-called Al-Anfal Campaign by [Saddam Hussein's] Iraqi regime,[3] Kurdish amputees [who were wounded in that campaign]... attacked the Koran, particularly the 'Al-Anfal' sura, in public, on the media controlled by both ruling [Kurdish] parties, making the general atmosphere charged.

"Influenced by this atmosphere, on April 22, 2010, an exiled Kurd in Norway burned the Al-Anfal sura, and this shameful operation was filmed and broadcast on YouTube, after [the perpetrators] showed themselves and filmed themselves as they openly provoked the sentiments of the Muslims... That [Kurdish] community [in Norway] was still stupefied when the next day another Kurd, in Oslo, burned the Al-Nisaa, Al-Anfal, Al-Fath, and Al-Nasr suras, filming his loathsome actions and posting them on the same website... Then a third Kurd did the same, and a[nother] group [of Kurdish exiles in Norway] has already decided to repeat the performance.

"Oh devout [Muslims], this is a serious matter! It demands nothing but a serious and resolute stance. For these amputees would not have done what they did unless they felt that the Kurdish Muslims had become weak and unable to defend themselves and their religion.

"Accordingly, we call on them to intervene [and to wage a] campaign of condemnation and denunciation [of such deeds] and to use their influence to pressure the Kurdish leaders and the government of Norway to prevent [the desecrators] from continuing in their evil path, and to prosecute the guilty among them so as to deter [others] – for fear that this criminal activity will become a norm that will recur every year on the anniversary of the Al-Anfal Campaign."[4]

Abu Basir Al-Tartusi: "Oh Kurds... If You Join the Unbelief and the Infidels... You Have No Existence Among Us... Without Islam, You Are Worth Nothing"

Abu Basir Al-Tartusi wrote: "To the Kurds, particularly those in Iraq and Syria:

"We have been informed about your repeated attacks on and desecration and burning of the Koran, before the eyes and ears of the entire [public] and of your leaders... Likewise, we [can]not disregard your repeated nationalist, racist, and hostile speeches and declarations, which are based on atheism and on sowing divisiveness and inciting against Islam and the Muslims.

"You have incited Arab nationalism and the nationalism of other nations [against us], and you have situated [yourselves] in the worst facet of nationalist Kurdish fanaticism; you have joined [a particular side], or borne hostility [for a particular side], in the name of your Kurdish nationalism; you have associated with Satan out of Kurdish nationalist fanaticism, and have declared war on Islam, its people, its culture, and its history in order to defend your jahili [pre-Islamic] nationalist fanaticism; you have joined the Crusaders and asked for their help against Islam and the Muslims, and you have helped them invade [Iraq] and attack its people, out of the abominable nationalist Kurdish fanaticism that you espouse today.

"Another link in the enmity that you harbor for Islam and for the Muslims, about which you inform us [every so often], is the open and repeated desecrations of the Koran, that tell us and every other Muslim that your problem is with the Koran and with Islam – and not with the Arab nationalism, as you falsely claim, [and attempt] to hide [behind that claim].

"In order to remove the injustice and aggression [done to you], you have defended graver injustice, aggression, and unbelief, making us forget the injustice done to you. You have set ablaze an enmity in the heart of the [Islamic] nation that will not be forgotten for generations to come.

"Oh Kurds, with Islam you were, are, and will continue to be our brothers – and if you find among yourselves one who will renew the path, the heroism, and the jihad of the [Kurdish] Muslim Salah-Al-Din Al-Ayyoubi in the [Islamic] ummah, we will not hesitate to set him above us as lord and commander, and to serve him as soldiers and aides.[5]

"But if you declare openly your Kurdish fanaticism, and because of it join the unbelief and the infidels, show hostility towards Islam and the Muslims, participate in war against them alongside the enemies of the [Islamic] ummah, and support atheism and communism against the faith and monotheism, I say to you explicitly – and you will find not one single Muslim to disagree with my words – that you have no existence among us, and you will never obtain from the Muslims, with all their ethnic groups and nations, anything but war, enmity, and hatred.

"If you decide to leave [the Islamic] ummah [and act] against it, you will no longer live in peace, [because] you will enter into insane battles and wars with the sons of the [Islamic] ummah and you will curse the tyrants among you who caused this.

"Without Islam, you are worth nothing; [you are] like a crippled child who renounces his mother and father, like a dry, rotten leaf falling from a tree whose roots are struck deep into the earth and deep into history, and whose branches reach the sky.

"Allah knows that this is an outcome that we do not want for you – on the contrary, we aspire for you to be family members, loved ones, and brothers of over a 1.5 billion Muslims. Your sages must choose, and choose well, and show the lie of the evil ones among you who want to turn you in this world into fuel for the fire of wars that neither you nor we need, and later, in the world to come, [they want to turn you] into fuel for the fires of Hell that are stronger and far worse [than the fire of wars]."[6]

Endnotes:

[3] As part of the massacres and expulsions carried out by Saddam Hussein's forces against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, the Al-Anfal Campaign, aimed at putting down the Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq, was launched in March 1987, and lasted until April 1989. It included the chemical attack on the city of Halabja in April 1987, in which thousands of Kurds died. "Al-Anfal" is the name of sura (chapter) 8 of the Koran; it means "the plunder."

[5] Here Tartusi adds a footnote: "...I have brothers and loved ones among the Kurds who still maintain the covenant and the loyalty to Allah, his Messenger, and the believers. They are [part] of us, and we are of them, and my words above are certainly not directed at them."

[6] Abubaseer.bizland.com, April 27, 2010.

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