Free Republic

MEDINA, Saudi Arabia – At the cemetery where the Prophet Muhammad's family is buried, an Iranian Shiite Muslim pilgrim overcome with emotion was jerked by a Saudi soldier, who barked a sharp order: "Stop crying!" The soldier, a gun at his hip, then hovered over the pilgrim as he wrapped up his prayers to make sure he didn't start weeping again. The Baqee cemetery is where the bitter rivalry between Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran gets personal. Iranians and other Shiites flock to the graves to pay respects to several revered descendants of Islam's prophet, while Saudi soldiers...

Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking...

Members of the tiny Jewish community in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, say they have not received their monthly food rations or any government financial assistance for the past three months. Rabbi Yahya Yusuf, leader of the 65-member community, told IRIN the Jews had been “suffering terribly” of late; many had been finding it very difficult to even feed their children. “We have sold everything we possess to buy food for our families. We even sold our women’s gold rings. We have run out of money,” he said. Yusuf said that two weeks ago they had staged a protest outside government headquarters...

Saudi Arabian troops and aircraft are now enforcing a ten kilometer deep "kill zone" on the Yemen side of their Yemen border. This is the first combat operation for Saudi forces since 1991 (during the liberation of Kuwait.) This is in support of a four month war between rebel Shia tribesmen and the Yemeni armed forces. Since November 5th, Saudi fighter bombers have flown over a hundred sorties against rebel targets just across the border. Hundreds of smart bombs and missiles have been used. Saudi artillery has fired hundreds of shells at the rebels, and Saudi helicopters and infantry now...

Federal prosecutors are taking steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization

You have to wonder at the double standards of  “justice” applied to former Bush Homeland Security chief nominee Kerik and former Bush energy advisor Majida Mourad, a Shi’ite Muslim lobbyist and former Bush Administration energy advisor.Both lied on federal forms and to White House personnel officials in the Bush Administration.  But only one of them was prosecuted.  The other, Ms. Mourad, lives the life of Al-Riley.

Sources close to Iraqi Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim say the cleric has died. Hakim was being treated for lung cancer at a hospital in Iran, and those close to the man said his health was deteriorating. A family member and an aide to Hakim, speaking on the condition of anonymity, separately told reporters Wednesday that he had suffered a setback. Hakim was known for his close links with Iran, and he led the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite groups. In June, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visited Hakim in Tehran, where the ailing cleric was...

BEIRUT: A tense calm held in the Beirut neighborhood of Aisha Bakkar during the day Monday after armed clashes on Sunday left one person killed and several wounded. A large number of Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers tanks and armored personnel carriers lined Rachidine Street, which divides Aisha Bakkar between supporters of the Future and Amal parties, as the military tried to keep calm in the neighborhood. Despite the military presence, the atmosphere in the neighborhood was strained, as groups of men congregated on sidewalks and around vandalized cars and shattered glass from Sunday's fighting. On both sides of the road...

MADINAT HAMAD, Bahrain -- On a recent evening, Issa al Jibb climbed the roof of his home and started hurling Molotov cocktails into the adjoining property of the Rawi clan. By the time Bahraini police shot him down with a rubber bullet, Mr. Jibb had managed to burn three cars and part of the building, and inflicted serious burns on two Rawi teenagers. This was no ordinary feud among neighbors. Mr. Jibb, 46 years old, is a native of this small Persian Gulf kingdom. The Rawis are originally from Syria, were recruited along with thousands of other Arabs and Pakistanis...

The US military has released a senior member of a deadly terror group backed by Iran that has been directly implicated in the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala during a complex operation in early 2007. Laith al Qazali was freed last weekend "as part of a reconciliation effort" as well as an attempt to secure the release of captive British hostages, according to a report in The New York Times. Laith is the brother of Qais Qazali, the commander of the Qazali network, which is better known as the Asaib al Haq, or the League of...

The good news is the Hezbollah led March 8th coalition lost the the Lebanese Election, it may also be that the bad news is the fact that the Hezbollah led March 8th coalition lost the the Lebanese Election. First the good news the Hezbollah coalition lost and at the very least, it is a loss of face for Syria and Iran...The bad news is also that Hezbollah lead March 8th coalition lost the the Lebanese Election. As Barry Rubin warned two weeks ago, a Hezbollah victory might have been the worst thing for the terrorist group because it might have...

Awwamiya, Saudi Arabia - Despite the vast oil fields underfoot, this rural village of struggling farmers and narrow streets is a long way from the gleaming riches and wide boulevards of Riyadh. It is also far from the strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam favored by the Saudi government, since most Awwamiya residents are Shiite Muslims. These religious and economic realities help explain the graffiti on view here: "Death to Wahhabi," "Down with the government," and "We will not forget our prisoners." Somewhere here, too, Sheikh Nimer Al-Nimer, a firebrand Shiite cleric in his late 40s, is hiding from police....

DAMMAM // When Sayyid Hassan al Nemer was a young boy, Shiite clerics like himself were not permitted to wear a black turban. Nowadays, Sayyid al Nemer wears his turban everywhere, even when meeting senior officials in Riyadh. On the other hand, said Sayyid al Nemer, 47, “our children are being taught that we are non-believers” by Sunni Muslim teachers in government schools. Fifteen years after the Saudi government extended an amnesty to exiled Shiite leaders and began addressing their complaints, many in the Shiite minority say they still face widespread religious and political discrimination, according to recent interviews with...

Tensions between Egypt and Lebanon’s Hizbollah group have escalated after the Shia movement admitted that one of its members had been smuggling weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian authorities were chasing 10 Lebanese men on Monday, allegedly members of a Hizbollah cell, on the Sinai peninsula, which shares a border with the Gaza Strip, in a crackdown on a group that they claim was planning to attack Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

Morocco Cuts Off Diplomatic Relations with Iran, Accuses It of Spreading Shi'ism in the Country On Friday, March 6, 2009, Morocco announced that it was cutting off diplomatic relations with Iran. The decision followed weeks of escalating measures between the two sides. The two countries had been at odds in the past over Morocco's grant of asylum to the Shah after the Islamic Revolution and its support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, but the current rupture is the worst nadir in Moroccan-Iranian relations since these were normalized in 1991: [1] Undiplomatic Behavior The crisis between Morocco and Iran...

'I have not found in the whole long history of the Arab-Israeli conflict even one neutral American position. We used to love America in the region in the '40s. [President Woodrow] Wilson's principles [of national self-determination] represent freedom facing a Europe that was colonizing us. But America now is living a policy worse than that of British and French colonialism." So said Muhammad Hussein Fadhlullah early one morning last week, and I suppose I should not have been surprised. We met in a nondescript -- but heavily guarded -- office building in south Beirut. On my way there I had...

A female suicide bomber with explosives hidden under flowing black garments blew herself up in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims including many women and children south of Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens more, according to initial reports from Iraqi security officials. ---snip--- The suicide bomber had apparently been aiming to pass through the center of Abu Jasim village in al-Musaib, a popular resting place for pilgrims, a local police official said. When she could not get past a checkpoint just outside the village, the attacker went to a tent that had been set up...

Islam Party...

The best way to understand Ahmadinejad's brand of Shitite eschatology (end-times theology) is to listen to Iranians describe it themselves. Amir Taheri is a European-based columnist who used to serve as the executive editor of "Kayhan", Iran's largest daily newspaper. In an April 2006 essay entitled "The frightening Truth of Why Iran Wants a Bomb," Taheri wrote that just before announcing to the world that Iran had "gatecrashed 'the nuclear club," President Ahmadinejad "disappeared for several hours" to have a secret meeting with the Islamis messiah, a figure known as the twelfth Imam or Mahdi. Taheri wrote, "According to Shia...

PESHAWAR - Pakistani security forces Sunday seized a van packed with 1,000 kilos of explosives. Seven suspected Taliban militants were also arrested in the operation in the northwestern town of Jamrud. "The van was packed from floor to ceiling with explosives weighing around 1,000 kilograms," or 2,200 pounds, the official said, adding that detonators were attached to the explosives. "The van could have been used during Muharram and caused many deaths if this huge amount of explosives had been detonated," he said. The security official said the seven men arrested were members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the country's umbrella Taliban group...

Mubarak especially is often referred to as "Pharaoh" -- from an Islamic perspective, an extremely demeaning epithet, since Pharaoh in the Koran is the ultimate representative of infidelity, idolatry, and tyranny. "Calls in Iran to Topple Egyptian, Saudi Regimes," by Y. Mansharof for MEMRI, December 12: Iran's attacks and accusations against Egypt and Saudi Arabia have recently intensified. In early December, Iran's leading conservative government dailies Kayhan and Jomhouri-ye Eslami accused the Egyptian and Saudi regimes of treason, and called on their peoples to topple their regimes. Kayhan editor Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, praised...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke out against Iran during a meeting with members of the Egyptian ruling party, a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida said Thursday, according to Israel Radio. Mubarak accused the Islamic Republic of trying to subsume its Muslim neighbors, telling the forum that "the Persians are trying to devour the Arab states." Mubarak's comments came after the Egyptian leader recalled the country's diplomatic envoy from the Iranian capital earlier this week following an increase in tension between the two countries. Recent strain between Cairo and Teheran has grown as several demonstrations in Iran called for the...

BAGHDAD — Senior Iraqi and Coalition leaders marked the transfer of the 3,000th armored Humvee to the Government of Iraq Nov. 22, through a program employing 522 Iraqis from different ethnic and religious backgrounds including Sunni, Shi’a and Christian. This milestone transfer is part of a program to produce mission-ready armored Humvees for issue to the Iraqi military and Police forces and to provide on-the-job training to Iraqi mechanics. The two-year program includes refurbishment of Humvees for the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior and the Counter-Terrorism Bureau. The first vehicles went to the Iraqi Army on March 12 of...

Saudi and Sudanese Writers Warn Of 'Shi'ite Octopus' Taking Over Sudan The religious rift between Sunnis and Shi'ites in the Middle East, and the tension between the Arab countries, particularly the Gulf states and Egypt on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand are also manifested in Sudan-Iran relations. While the Sudanese regime maintains close ties with Iran, some Sudanese, especially those residing outside the country, have voiced concerns that Sudan may join the countries under Iranian influence. Over the past few years, there have been several uproars in the Arab press over perceived attempts by Iran to...

On May 12, a few days after street fighting erupted in Beirut, I drove to Majd al Anjar, a Sunni stronghold in Lebanon’s Bekaa, close to the Syrian border, where gunmen were still blocking the motorway from Beirut to Damascus. At the edge of town, several hundred men with automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers, pistols and hand grenades stood before earthen barriers and fires. Some wore masks. There was nobody in command – this was a mob, not a militia. The men were angry, afraid, suspicious, shouting at strangers and each other, each one an authority unto himself, carelessly...

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- Hackers, believed to be of Iranian origin have destroyed a number of Sunni Internet websites, including the alislamnet.com website, which belongs to Dr. Aaidh al-Qarni, a Saudi preacher, and another website that specializes in the prophet's Sunna [line of conduct] and its sciences, in addition to other websites. This campaign is believed to be in retaliation for a similar campaign that was led by Sunni hackers against Shiite websites. The hackers drew the Iranian flag on an unidentified face and wrote at the top of the website's main page in both Arabic and Persian the following Koranic...

Q&A with ex-CIA agent Robert Baer on terror, the Iran crisis, and Hezbollah blasts When reports from US and Canadian intelligence sources surfaced in late June claiming that Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and paramilitary movement which the Canadian government calls a terrorist organization, was scouting Jewish and Israeli locations in Ontario for possible attack, Robert Baer, a former CIA officer, offered his usual blunt take. “They cannot have an operation fail,” said Baer, “and I don’t think they will. They’re the A-team of terrorism,” he told ABC News. The Lebanese Shia—Hezbollah, in other words—may even be the best car bombers...

Dozens of Shiite radicals scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against US forces in Iraq despite an order from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr for them to lay down their arms. Children as young as 10 were among those seen cutting their thumbs with scalpels and putting a bloodied fingerprint to a document circulated by members of the Sadr movement in the cleric's eastern Baghdad bastion of Sadr City. All vowed to fight on, despite orders by Sadr on Thursday to his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia to suspend their armed operations indefinitely. The order followed two...

Devout Muslim found guilty of forcing boys to flog themselves in religious ceremony Last updated at 15:41pm on 27.08.08   A devout Muslim was found guilty of child cruelty today in a British legal first after forcing two boys to beat themselves during a religious ceremony.The jury at Manchester Crown Court found 44-year-old Syed Mustafa Zaidi guilty of two counts of child cruelty.The boys, aged 13 and 15, were forced to beat themselves with a zanjeer zani, an implement containing five curved blades, during a ceremony to commemorate the death of a Shia Muslim spiritual leader.Zaidi, of Station Road,...

Lebanon has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi over the disappearance 30 years ago of a senior Shiite cleric after a visit to Libya, officials said on Wednesday. Kadhafi was also indicted for allegedly "inciting the abduction" of Imam Mussa Sadr, the spiritual guide of Lebanon's Shiite community, investigating magistrate Samih el-Hajj said in a charge sheet. An "arrest warrant" was issued for the Libyan ruler and six other Libyan suspects who were also indicted for taking part in the alleged abduction, AFP reported. Sadr disappeared while in Libya with two companions Mohammed Yacoub and Abbas Badreddin...

BAGHDAD -- An emboldened Iraqi government has launched an aggressive campaign to disband a U.S.-funded force of Sunni Arab fighters that has been key to Iraq's fragile peace, arresting prominent members and sending others into hiding or exile as their former patrons in the American military reluctantly stand by. The Shiite Muslim-led government has long distrusted the fighters, many of whom are former insurgents. Senior Shiite politicians label some of the members murderers, and warn that there is no long-term obligation to employ them after their units are disbanded. "The ones in Baghdad and Diyala province just changed their T-shirts....

BAGHDAD — The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the American payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the nation. In restive Diyala Province, United States and Iraqi military officials say there were orders to arrest hundreds of members of what is known as the Awakening movement as part of large security operations by the Iraqi military. At least five senior members have been arrested there in recent weeks, leaders of the groups say. West of Baghdad, former insurgent leaders...

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber killed six people and wounded 10 on Saturday in an attack near a bus pickup point for Shiite pilgrims heading to Karbala, Iraqi security officials said. The bombing near the Shaab neighborhood in northeast Baghdad was the third attack in three days aimed at Shiite worshipers heading to the holy city of Karbala to celebrate the birthday of Muhammad al-Mahdi, a ninth-century imam revered by Iraq’s majority Shiites. American forces put the toll at three dead and eight wounded, and talked of minor damage to nearby buildings. Three hours after the early-morning blast, shopkeepers, residents...

I. The Shiite Moment One morning this spring I climbed into a Polish helicopter with a major-general in the Iraqi Army named Othman Ali Farhood. He had just surveyed the situation in Kut, a small city 100 miles southeast of Baghdad where Iraqi forces were contending with a Shiite militia, and was returning to his division headquarters near the city of Diwaniya. Othman, who is a lanky man with a welcoming manner, commands the Eighth Division, rated by the U.S. military as one of Iraq’s best units. In many ways, he also embodies the complexities of Iraq today — including...

It was described as an "exemplary piece of programme making" by an award winning film-maker which launched a week of television coverage of Islam. But a Channel 4 documentary on the Qur'an has angered a group of leading Shia Muslim scholars, who have criticised it for making "seriously inaccurate statements" about their branch of the faith. In a letter to Channel 4, they said that the depiction of Shia beliefs in The Qur'an, broadcast earlier this month, was "disappointing, misleading, even defamatory". The signatories to the letter were also angered by the apparent links made between Shiaism and violence, with...

WEST HOLLYWOOD Actor Shia LaBeouf reportedly was driving drunk when he crashed his pickup truck into another vehicle, and rolled the truck twice, at a 2:24 a.m. crash in West Hollywood, authorities said Sunday. LaBeouf, 22, was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where was surgery for his left hand at 9 a.m., said Sgt K. Aloma of the sheriff's West Hollywood station. At least two other people were injured as well, including the woman who was riding with him in the actor's Ford F-150 pickup truck. LaBoeuf had a supporting role in this summer's "Indiana Jones and the...

BAGHDAD -- Gunmen opened fire on Shi'ite pilgrims in southern Baghdad on July 27, killing seven of them as thousands of worshippers made their way to a revered shrine in the Iraqi capital, police said. Iraqi forces have tightened security around the Al-Kadhamiya district in northwestern Baghdad ahead of a major Shi'ite religious pilgrimage this week, an army spokesman said. Police said the pilgrims who were killed were on foot. It appears they had come from cities in southern Iraq, which is predominantly Shi'ite. Shi'ite pilgrims have often been the target of Sunni Islamist Al-Qaeda militants who consider Shi'ism --...

A Shia imam in Saudi Arabia has declared his support for Iran and called on supporters to send money to the country to help it fight against the United States and Israel. "We stand by Iran and we will do everything to support this country," said Shia imam Namer Baqer al-Namer during a sermon he gave at the Imam Hussein mosque in the eastern village al-Awamiya on Friday. The sermon was published on the imam's Internet site on Tuesday. A Saudi citizen, al-Namer said that he felt very close to Iran for his Shia belief and called on the faithful...

BAGHDAD • Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc is close to rejoining the Shia-led government, officials said yesterday, a move that would amount to a long-awaited political breakthrough. Getting the Accordance Front to return to government after it quit nearly a year ago is widely seen as a key step in reconciling feuding factions after years of sectarian conflict. Sunni Arabs have little voice in the current cabinet, which is dominated by Shias and ethnic Kurds. Asked if the Front was set to rejoin, spokesman Salim Al Jubouri said: "Yes. Many of our demands have been executed ... sharing of responsibility,...

From the time america struck into Iraq in 2003, Iraqis have exhibited this great, persistent contradiction: the need for the foreign power's help and protection and an overweening pride that has made them bristle at their dependence. The debate now taking place about a "status of forces" agreement and a security arrangement with the United States puts this Iraqi ambivalence into sharp focus. More than 80 countries have such arrangements with the United States, but Iraq has never been a "normal" country. It has a history of brittle nationalism, and such an accord will have to be reached against the...

CAMP STRIKER — A long tradition of air assaults and a fledgling Army are coming together to secure Iraq. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division continues to use air assaults to execute their mission in southwest Baghdad proivnce, while the Iraqi army draws on the expertise of the Rakkasans during these combined air assaults. Since arriving in Iraq, the Rakkasans and their Iraqi counterparts have completed 55 air assault missions – approximately 63 percent of the total number of air assaults conducted in the Multi-National Division – Center area of operations. “Basically, [it’s] just a movement of troops...

riyadh • Hardline Sunni clerics accused Shias on Sunday of destabilising Muslim countries and humiliating Sunnis, just days before a Muslim interfaith conference called by Saudi Arabia's king. The attacks on Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah — though contrary to official policy — highlight the sharp, growing distrust between Islam's two arms, and its potential to cause more unrest. In a strongly worded statement, the 22 clerics savaged the Iranian-backed Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it has tricked Muslims into believing it is against Jews and Americans. The statement appeared on several websites on Sunday, including Al Moslim, which is run...

There is some serious re-evaluation of priorities in parts of the U.S. and European intelligence communities as to the who now poses the greatest strategic threat to the West-al Qaeda or Hezbollah. Hezbollah has publicly emerged in recent days the premier military force in Lebanon, able to act with relative impunity while the army stands by. But perhaps more importantly, Hezbollah has now become a public target of al Qaeda, as Osama bin Laden has explicitly stated in his most recent audio tape. Bin Laden singled out by name Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, whose 2006 war against Israel boosted...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Approximately 120 men of the Chalabi tribe returned to their homes recently in the Sayafiyah region, about 25 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, more than a year after being driven out by al-Qaeda in Iraq extremists. Escorted by Sons of Iraq leader Jumah al-Kazarji and Soldiers of 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), a large convoy of cars and trucks ushered the Chalabi men back to their abandoned village. Their reclamation of homes signaled the hopeful beginning of a new era of peace and...

A member of the Iraqi national police creates an inventory of illegal weapons confiscated by Iraqi national police in the Sadr City District of Baghdad, Iraq, as he turns them over to members of the 42nd brigade, 11th Iraqi army division, at Combat Patrol Base Comanche on April 19. (US Air Force photo/Technical Sergean Adrian Cadiz) US and Iraqi forces continue to target the Mahdi Army as an Iraqi delegation visited Iran to confront the country over its support of Shia militias battling the government. The US military conducted a guided rocket attack on a Special Groups headquarters adjacent...

Secretary General of the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri said on Saturday that Islamic unity charter has been compiled. In a meeting with Pakistani prominent Shia and Sunni ulema in Islamabad, he said the charter has outlined the commonalties shared by different Islamic sects. Referring to emphasis made by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for promotion of solidarity among the world Muslim nations, he said compilation of the Islamic unity charter is in line with the Supreme Leader's guidelines. He expressed the hope that during his stay in Pakistan, the charter...

The weight of our Muslim Ummah rested on my shoulders as I warmly greeted Rabbi Mark Diamond, the Executive Vice President of Southern California Board of Rabbis who organized our religious and interfaith mission trip to Rome, the Vatican and Jerusalem. Towering and formidable, Roman Catholic Archdiocese's Bishop Edward Clark who was the co-leader of our mission, smiled at me reassuringly as if he understood my predicament as I glanced around at the 27 faces in our group. I am not a religious cleric but did have 12 years of Religious Institutional and Foundational experience to draw upon. Religion had...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift by the end of the week a six-month cease-fire widely credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday. Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended "then that means the freeze is over." The cease fire was declared in August and due to expire at this month's end. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. The crux of...

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has one of the lowest approval ratings in his country’s history thanks to his disastrous prosecution of the July 2006 war in Lebanon against Hezbollah. Nevertheless, and contrary to Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s delusional and arrogant boasts, Hezbollah didn’t win. I toured South Lebanon and the suburbs south of Beirut – Hezbollah’s two major strongholds – after the war. The magnitude of the destruction was stunning. It looked like World War II blew through the place. (Click here and here to see photos.) Nasrallah survived and replenished his arsensal stocks, but, as Israeli military historian...

The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam will Shape the Future. Vali Nasr. Norton. 304 pages. $25.95. Shiite Muslims have a saying: ''Every day is Ashura, and every city is Karbala.'' The adage evokes the murder of Husayn, the prophet Mohammed's grandson and, according to Shiites, his rightful successor. More generally, the phrase recalls Shiites' collective identity as the underdog, a neglected and often persecuted minority. Every year, on the 10th day of the first month of the Islamic calendar, Shiites worldwide mark Ashura, the day that commemorates Husayn's death in the Iraqi city of Karbala in 680 A.D. From...