The most combative group of Shiite Muslims announced during their main prayer sermon today that they would proceed with a proposal to form their own militia to safeguard holy sites from any transgressions by American troops.
More than 3,000 of the faithful flooded one of the dusty main thoroughfares in Sadr City, a predominately Shiite slum in Baghdad, to hear the prayer leader, Sheik Abdel Hadi al-Daraji, denounce the American forces, accusing them of defiling sacred places after an incident on Wednesday in which an American Black Hawk helicopter forced down a flag near a Sadr City mosque.
The proposal for a Shiite religious militia initially received a tepid response from other, senior clergymen. Its revival could set the stage for renewed tension between the older, more respected scholars who control the influential seminary movement — known as the Hawza — and Mr. Sadr's young clerics, who have a wide street following in Baghdad.
There seem some conflict in the reportage on the flag incident, as alert reader salvage points out. The original AP story mentions amateur film footage that is said to show soldiers tearing the banner down. Then AP scrubs this and replaces it with a story that "prop wash" (accidentally) blew the flag down. The Times equivocates with "forced down," but mentions no film footage. Interesting ....