Last modified: 2005-08-06 by joe mcmillan
Keywords: islam | shi'a | shi'ite | kerbala |
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Spanish Television mentioned yesterday that shortly before the outbreak
of the war, a team of theirs working in Iraq had made a long report on the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala
(currently under siege), where the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Husayn is buried. The
Shrine of Imam Husayn,
a large and highly decorated mosque was shown, flying a large, plain red flag from the top of the highest dome.
No other flags were visible over the Shrine. However, another page on Kerbala [no longer on-line] shows a white
flag with a black inscription that appears to be a Shahada (Muslim creed), and the caption, "Long live the
banner of Islam which was saved by the holy blood of the Martyrs in Kerbala."
Santiago Dotor, 3 April 2003
Lots of green, red, black, blue and white flags on the Shi'ite march to Karbala.
Francisco Santos, 21 April 2003
An incident in Baghdad reported in the Washington Post of August 14, 2003, ("Flag Is Flash Point In A Baghdad Slum: Perceived Insult Ignites Anti-U.S. Unrest," by Anthony Shadid, p. 11) has some interesting information on religious flags displayed by Iraqi Shi'ites. The August 13 incident arose when a U.S. military helicopter knocked down a flag that Shi'ites had placed on a transmission tower in Sadr City (formerly Saddam City), the huge, Shi'ite populated slum in Baghdad. US commanders have apologized for the incident, which led to the killing of one Iraqi. The article mentions the following flags: