The term "Father of All Bombs" was created by an analogy. All 605 separate pages of dark red Arabic script, as seen by The Telegraph, have been encased in glass in a rotunda inside the mosque. If you have questions about your account, please Iran accuses Iraq of being godless. After the Gulf war, Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, suppressed a revolt led by the majority Shi-ite groups in the South. The reality is that Saddam has again diverted much-needed public money to finance one of his pet projects while his people remain mired in poverty. Every believer has to go to war to stop the US. The rhetoric of Islamic unity was soon abandoned. But a close look round the mosque suggests the link is not as fanciful as it might seem. Yesterday, as worshipers gathered for evening prayer at Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad, a suicide bomber murdered 28 people. Thousands of Sunni Arabs have been killed at their hands for the crime of participating in Iraq's political process or rejecting violence. subscription. The mosque was built – with four minarets designed to look like scud missiles – for $10 million in the 1990s, a time when international sanctions were driving millions of Iraqis into poverty. Saddam has been forced to make a string of concessions to Islam. I used to visit semi-regularly to talk politics and religion. After the attack, Samarrai blamed Al Qaeda for the deaths, but also called for religious tolerance. The mosque's towering minarets are built to resemble ballistic missiles sitting on launch pads and its 605-page Koran has been written, the Iraqi propaganda machine boasts, with Saddam's own blood. Events at the mosque since the 2003 help illustrate the challenges Iraq continues to confront. Large murals and bronze statues of Saddam praying are as common now days across Iraq as pictures of him shooting guns and patting small children on the head. Then in 1994, the president, looking to bolster his image as a good Muslim, banned alcohol and encouraged more mosque building. Now we must liberate Iraq.". Western diplomats based in Baghdad are unimpressed with the Iraqi leader's religious devotion, dismissing the mosque and its holy book written in blood as a crude publicity stunt. The sudden death of the ayatollah, who had a history of heart trouble, followed the recent killings of three leading religious figures in the city. Another minaret was 37 metres high, to represent the year of Saddam's birth, 1937. In 2004 alone, Dhari was able to negotiate the release of at least a dozen hostages. After years in which Saddam concentrated on building extravagant presidential palaces at a time when most of the population were suffering the deprivations caused by international sanctions, he has now switched to mosque-building. continue to use the site without a That's one reason that the vast majority of Iraq's Sunni Arabs are opposed to the jihadis. In 2007, US forces raided the mosque, making over a dozen arrests. Building programme shores up Saddam's power against rising Islamism and US threat. Iraq has both Shia Muslims, the majority, and Sunnis, to whom Saddam belongs. At the Umm El-Mahare (Mother of all Battles) mosque, there is a massive water and stone relief map of the Arab world. He goes back to religion." Alcohol is available in some shops but there are no bars in Iraq. Dahar Al-Ani, director of information for the mosque, said: "Over three years, the president gave us a total of 28 litres of his own blood which has been mixed with chemicals to produce this hand-written Koran of 605 pages.". Heavy machineguns placed in turrets across Najaf, as well as soldiers wearing flak jackets in the brutal 115-degree summer heat bore testimony to the difficulty Saddam still faces in imposing his religious views across Iraq. A recent decree banned western names from shop fronts. "He dedicated 24 litres of blood over three years," Mr Alani said. The gaudy mosque Saddam Hussein built to celebrate the "victory" of surviving the first Gulf War is back in the headlines today, once again for all the wrong reasons. Officials are touchy about the division, insisting that they are all Muslims, though Shias have been persecuted. Kuwait mourns after suicide bombing, while police begin questioning suspects, One month free trial to the Monitor Daily, attended a meeting of both Sunni and Shiite clerics there designed to cool bubbling sectarian tensions, Dhari was able to negotiate the release of at least a dozen hostages. Your subscription to The attack came as Ahmed Abdulghafur al-Samarrai was leading prayers. In the coming years, the neighborhood around the mosque devolved into a free-fire zone, with kidnappings and sectarian killings by both Shiite and Sunni militias. subscription yet. In the holy city of Najaf, officials last week adamantly denied fresh claims by Iraqi dissident groups that Saddam's government is responsible for the mysterious death in June of the Ayatollah Hussein Bahrir Al-Aloum. In 1980, the year after Saddam came to power, Gavin Young, in his book Iraq, wrote: "Iraq is, of course, a Muslim country, but the Iraqi view is that anyone should be free to choose the manner of his social life, and although the great majority of Iraqis do not touch liquor, those who like it are allowed to enjoy it in a variety of city restaurants and hotel bars." "Some may think that our history stopped when we were occupied by this great power," he said then. "Do not describe [the attackers] as Shiite or Sunni or Iraqis," AFP quoted him as saying at the mosque during funeral services for many of the dead today. The American Dialect Society declared "the mother of all" the 1991 Word of the Year. "As a sociologist, I do not think it will last. In recent years the mosque has been, well, a mosque again, and Samarrai has been an important voice calling for Iraq's sectarian divisions to be healed. The huge dome of the mosque is inscribed in Arabic lettering with the word "La", meaning "No" in Arabic. one asked. Faced with an economic blockade and a threat of war, people turn to religion for moral and psychological support, he said.

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