According to the LA Times, the world’s Shi’ite Muslims are seething with rage over US military actions in Najaf, although they don’t seem very upset over the thugs and murderers who’ve defiled the Imam Ali Mosque by turning it into a storehouse for weapons and a staging area for attacks: World’s Shiites Warn That U.S. Is Treading on Sensitive Ground.

With U.S. military officials saying they have received permission from Najaf’s governor to strike the mosque if necessary, religious and political leaders from Iran to Los Angeles are voicing grave warnings that an American assault on the shrine could be catastrophic to the U.S. image in Iraq and the Muslim world.

“The United States is slaughtering the people of one of the holiest Islamic cities, and the Muslim world and the Iraqi nation will not stand by,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of neighboring Iran, said in an address on Iranian state television.

Three major American Muslim organizations also issued statements Wednesday calling for negotiations to end the conflict.

“Illegal under the Geneva Conventions, any fighting or destruction to the mosque would result in incalculable damage to the image and interests of the United States and would be widely condemned across the world,” the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council said. [This is a complete distortion of the Geneva Conventions, of course, but what else can we expect from MPAC? —ed.]

U.S. authorities, while repeatedly declaring that Sadr has made the mosque a legitimate military target, also have pledged to proceed with caution. “We have always respected that as a holy site,” one senior U.S. military official said this week, on condition his name not be used. …

Shiites “worldwide are shocked and outraged over what is going on in Najaf,” said Imam Moustafa Al-Qazwini, a prominent Shiite leader in Southern California. “They consider it an assault on the sanctity of Islam and in particular Shia Islam. Any attack on that city will destroy America’s future in Iraq completely. It will completely discredit America and make it the new tyrant in the eyes of Shias worldwide.” [And this is different from the current situation … how? —ed.]

Several Shiite Muslims likened any attack on the mosque to bombing the Vatican [If the Vatican had been commandeered by terror gangs… —ed.], and predicted that it would spark retaliatory attacks on U.S. facilities in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Lebanon and other nations with significant Shiite populations. [And this is different from the current situation … how? —ed.]

Apparently, mosques are supposed to be magical sanctuaries for Muslims, where they are immune from all retaliation no matter what they have done, and especially if pursued by infidels.

Remember that outrage from the Muslim world when Palestinian terrorists broke into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and held the monks and priests hostage? You don’t?

UPDATE at 8/12/04 4:40:57 pm:

DEBKAfile reports that Muqtada al-Sadr has booby-trapped the shrine and is threatening to blow it up with 2,000 holy warriors inside.

Oh no. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen. (Do I need a sarcasm tag?)

UPDATE at 8/12/04 5:42:22 pm:

An interesting detail from the LA Times article linked above:

Shiites revere the shrine as the burial place of Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, and in their eyes, his legitimate successor.

That would be Mohammed’s (propellor beanie upon him) first cousin, Imam Ali, and his daughter, Fatima, respectively.

Keepin’ it in the family, yo.