hearandobey
4th June 2008, 12:02 AM
Eccentric ally in Green Zone
Imam extols U.S., reveres Virgin Mary -- despised by fellow clerics
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Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Imam Fuad Rashid is an eloquent preacher who advocates co...
(07-31) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Fuad Rashid may be the only Sunni Muslim cleric in Iraq who defends America from his pulpit. Right now, however, he is making Lt. Col. Robert Campbell squirm.
Campbell, commander of a battalion in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, visited Rashid's house to discuss neighborhood affairs -- but is starting to look as if he wishes he hadn't.
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Rashid cheerfully asked Campbell. "You don't really think you were sent here for democracy? That is so silly."
"But sheikh," Campbell spluttered, as Rashid segued into an extended rant.
President Bush is "too much," he continued, his eyes twinkling incongruously. The military's Iraqi translators are "all corrupt, bad men." Certain U.S. Army officers are "ugly." And American promises to repair the mosque's electricity generator? "I don't know, lies or what," he said scornfully.
Rashid is imam of the al-Qadisiya Mosque, the sole Muslim house of worship in the Green Zone, the 3-square-mile area in the heart of Baghdad that effectively remains under U.S. control. And despite the criticisms he had just leveled, he proudly calls himself the "only imam in Iraq who speaks in favor of the Americans."
"I love America," Rashid said, with passion. "Americans are so beautiful."
Resplendent in a cream-colored gown and a white gauze turban around his boyish face, the 40-year-old Rashid looks more like a Catholic nun than a Muslim cleric. The similarity is deliberate -- he readily admits that he models himself after Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Although Islamic doctrine considers Mary the virgin mother of a prophet - - a status almost as revered in Islam as it is in Christianity -- it is unheard of for a Muslim cleric to adopt Christian-style garb, much less a woman's.
Rashid says Mary appeared to him in three visions telling him to follow her. He adopted the style when he was a seminary student in Baghdad in the early 1990s, but it has become more pronounced since his mosque came under U.S. protection after the April 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Rashid's close-cropped beard is dyed blond, in keeping with his all-white image -- a sign of purity, he says -- and he wears patterned contact lenses.
Despite his unorthodox appearance, he is a powerful, eloquent preacher who advocates conservative social values. On one recent Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, Rashid preached to a crowd of about 150 worshipers -- mostly Iraqi government workers, along with several dozen foreign contractors, mainly Pakistanis and Egyptians.
With an actor's poise and pitch-perfect cadence, Rashid extolled the benefits of "love and democracy" and condemned "people who want to destroy what others are building" -- a clear reference to the insurgency. But he reserved his biggest lines for the evils of alcohol.
"A man who drinks is the same as a man who worships another god," he warned. "His mind will be troubled, he will be an animal, like a pig."
After the prayer service, worshipers seemed wowed by Rashid's showmanship. "He is very good," said one Pakistani truck driver. "He has a beautiful voice. "
Other Sunni Muslim leaders mention him with scorn. "We don't know him well, but if he is praising the Americans, then he has sold himself to them," said Mohamed Bashar al-Faidhy, spokesman of the Islamic Clerics Association, the nation's main Sunni alliance, which has steadily criticized the U.S. presence and gives tacit support to the anti-American insurgents.
Some Iraqis are harsher in their judgments.
"If he were anywhere else in Iraq, he would be killed," said one Iraqi man who visited the mosque recently and asked to remain anonymous. "And I would do it myself," he added, saying Rashid "gives a bad example." But Rashid is in the Green Zone, a well-guarded bubble of Americana in the heart of a hostile nation. Protected by U.S. tanks, 20-foot concrete walls and barbed wire, the zone holds thousands of U.S. troops and civilian workers, as well as the sprawling Republican Palace, where administrator Paul Bremer once ran the occupation and now U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte has his headquarters. Lawns are clipped and well-watered, women jog the streets in T-shirts and shorts, signs advertise hip-hop and salsa dance nights, and the only worries are the occasional incoming mortar round fired by insurgents outside the zone.
The compound also includes the homes of top Iraqi officials and Iraqi government offices. U.S. officials say they have no immediate plans to return the zone to Iraqi control -- a source of resentment for many Iraqis who see it as a symbol of continuing U.S. occupation despite the transfer of nominal sovereignty a month ago.
The al-Qadisiya Mosque is a striking ultra-modern building with sail-like wings, like the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was built in the mid-1990s as the favored mosque of Hussein's presidential office, and its worshipers once included some of the regime's most powerful officials.
Before the war, Rashid was the assistant to the mosque's pro-Hussein imam, his main task singing the five-times-per-day call to prayer. After the war, the chief imam fled, and the Americans promoted Rashid to the No. 1 spot. Rashid speaks near-fluent English, which he says he learned by watching videos of his three favorite movies, "Gone With the Wind," "Love Story" and "The Bodyguard." "I love what's her name -- Whitney Houston? She is so beautiful, so pure. She is like (the Virgin) Mary, very clean."
Now, as Islamic conservatism gains strength throughout Iraq, Rashid revels in the fishbowl-like isolation of the Green Zone, and he avoids contact with other Muslim clerics. Whether he would be accepted at any other Iraqi mosque is an open question, he admits. "I'm more honest than the other imams," he said. "They like to lie, they are full of hate, they try to make trouble."
Rashid lives next door to the mosque in a comfortable home surrounded by fruit trees. He has been married for five years to a woman 20 years his junior, although they have no children -- a rarity in Iraq.
During Campbell's visit, Rashid deflected Campbell's attempts to discuss a petition by local Iraqi residents for a loosening of the Green Zone's strict security policies.
Instead, he unleashed a barrage of criticism at his countrymen.
"Iraqis are all animals, 95 percent are looters," he said, referring to the wave of theft from government facilities after Hussein's regime fell last year that still continues on a diminished level.
"The people is monkeys," he said, his grammar faltering as the words came out in a rush.
Campbell, who considers Rashid a "good friend," could hardly get a word in edgewise.
"I like American freedom," Rashid went on. "I would like to go there soon, you know?"
Source (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/31/MNGDM80L0P1.DTL)
Imam extols U.S., reveres Virgin Mary -- despised by fellow clerics
FOR PICS, SCROLL DOWN!
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Imam Fuad Rashid is an eloquent preacher who advocates co...
(07-31) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Fuad Rashid may be the only Sunni Muslim cleric in Iraq who defends America from his pulpit. Right now, however, he is making Lt. Col. Robert Campbell squirm.
Campbell, commander of a battalion in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, visited Rashid's house to discuss neighborhood affairs -- but is starting to look as if he wishes he hadn't.
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Rashid cheerfully asked Campbell. "You don't really think you were sent here for democracy? That is so silly."
"But sheikh," Campbell spluttered, as Rashid segued into an extended rant.
President Bush is "too much," he continued, his eyes twinkling incongruously. The military's Iraqi translators are "all corrupt, bad men." Certain U.S. Army officers are "ugly." And American promises to repair the mosque's electricity generator? "I don't know, lies or what," he said scornfully.
Rashid is imam of the al-Qadisiya Mosque, the sole Muslim house of worship in the Green Zone, the 3-square-mile area in the heart of Baghdad that effectively remains under U.S. control. And despite the criticisms he had just leveled, he proudly calls himself the "only imam in Iraq who speaks in favor of the Americans."
"I love America," Rashid said, with passion. "Americans are so beautiful."
Resplendent in a cream-colored gown and a white gauze turban around his boyish face, the 40-year-old Rashid looks more like a Catholic nun than a Muslim cleric. The similarity is deliberate -- he readily admits that he models himself after Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Although Islamic doctrine considers Mary the virgin mother of a prophet - - a status almost as revered in Islam as it is in Christianity -- it is unheard of for a Muslim cleric to adopt Christian-style garb, much less a woman's.
Rashid says Mary appeared to him in three visions telling him to follow her. He adopted the style when he was a seminary student in Baghdad in the early 1990s, but it has become more pronounced since his mosque came under U.S. protection after the April 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Rashid's close-cropped beard is dyed blond, in keeping with his all-white image -- a sign of purity, he says -- and he wears patterned contact lenses.
Despite his unorthodox appearance, he is a powerful, eloquent preacher who advocates conservative social values. On one recent Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, Rashid preached to a crowd of about 150 worshipers -- mostly Iraqi government workers, along with several dozen foreign contractors, mainly Pakistanis and Egyptians.
With an actor's poise and pitch-perfect cadence, Rashid extolled the benefits of "love and democracy" and condemned "people who want to destroy what others are building" -- a clear reference to the insurgency. But he reserved his biggest lines for the evils of alcohol.
"A man who drinks is the same as a man who worships another god," he warned. "His mind will be troubled, he will be an animal, like a pig."
After the prayer service, worshipers seemed wowed by Rashid's showmanship. "He is very good," said one Pakistani truck driver. "He has a beautiful voice. "
Other Sunni Muslim leaders mention him with scorn. "We don't know him well, but if he is praising the Americans, then he has sold himself to them," said Mohamed Bashar al-Faidhy, spokesman of the Islamic Clerics Association, the nation's main Sunni alliance, which has steadily criticized the U.S. presence and gives tacit support to the anti-American insurgents.
Some Iraqis are harsher in their judgments.
"If he were anywhere else in Iraq, he would be killed," said one Iraqi man who visited the mosque recently and asked to remain anonymous. "And I would do it myself," he added, saying Rashid "gives a bad example." But Rashid is in the Green Zone, a well-guarded bubble of Americana in the heart of a hostile nation. Protected by U.S. tanks, 20-foot concrete walls and barbed wire, the zone holds thousands of U.S. troops and civilian workers, as well as the sprawling Republican Palace, where administrator Paul Bremer once ran the occupation and now U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte has his headquarters. Lawns are clipped and well-watered, women jog the streets in T-shirts and shorts, signs advertise hip-hop and salsa dance nights, and the only worries are the occasional incoming mortar round fired by insurgents outside the zone.
The compound also includes the homes of top Iraqi officials and Iraqi government offices. U.S. officials say they have no immediate plans to return the zone to Iraqi control -- a source of resentment for many Iraqis who see it as a symbol of continuing U.S. occupation despite the transfer of nominal sovereignty a month ago.
The al-Qadisiya Mosque is a striking ultra-modern building with sail-like wings, like the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was built in the mid-1990s as the favored mosque of Hussein's presidential office, and its worshipers once included some of the regime's most powerful officials.
Before the war, Rashid was the assistant to the mosque's pro-Hussein imam, his main task singing the five-times-per-day call to prayer. After the war, the chief imam fled, and the Americans promoted Rashid to the No. 1 spot. Rashid speaks near-fluent English, which he says he learned by watching videos of his three favorite movies, "Gone With the Wind," "Love Story" and "The Bodyguard." "I love what's her name -- Whitney Houston? She is so beautiful, so pure. She is like (the Virgin) Mary, very clean."
Now, as Islamic conservatism gains strength throughout Iraq, Rashid revels in the fishbowl-like isolation of the Green Zone, and he avoids contact with other Muslim clerics. Whether he would be accepted at any other Iraqi mosque is an open question, he admits. "I'm more honest than the other imams," he said. "They like to lie, they are full of hate, they try to make trouble."
Rashid lives next door to the mosque in a comfortable home surrounded by fruit trees. He has been married for five years to a woman 20 years his junior, although they have no children -- a rarity in Iraq.
During Campbell's visit, Rashid deflected Campbell's attempts to discuss a petition by local Iraqi residents for a loosening of the Green Zone's strict security policies.
Instead, he unleashed a barrage of criticism at his countrymen.
"Iraqis are all animals, 95 percent are looters," he said, referring to the wave of theft from government facilities after Hussein's regime fell last year that still continues on a diminished level.
"The people is monkeys," he said, his grammar faltering as the words came out in a rush.
Campbell, who considers Rashid a "good friend," could hardly get a word in edgewise.
"I like American freedom," Rashid went on. "I would like to go there soon, you know?"
Source (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/31/MNGDM80L0P1.DTL)