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Since the March invasion of Iraq, the Sheikh's neighborhood has had electricity for no longer than three-hours at a time and the water is routinely cut. During one of my visits, the water has been off for more than twenty-four hours. Inside his darkened home, the Sheikh describes American methods in Ramadi.
"When they enter mosques, they don't know the Koran from any other book, they throw it on the ground, they kick it. If they come to my home, they will go to my library and destroy all the books. This means they are against us, against our culture--against Islam."
The Sheikh then relates what he describes as a "funny and sad story." A seven-year-old boy was standing next to a mosque as a military patrol approached. The child threw a rock--hitting one of the passing vehicles. The soldiers answered, "by shooting over one hundred large caliber bullets into the mosque". The military convoy then surrounded the place of worship and demanded to speak with the religious leaders inside. The military asked them to turn over the child. The soldiers then took everyone in the mosque, maybe fifty, handcuffed them, and made them stand with their faces against a wall. "They didn't differentiate between sheikhs, the old, or the young", explains Sheik Mohammed. Continuing, he says, "If they were looking for the child, why did they treat all the people in the mosque so poorly?"
The story is finished, but I've failed to see the funny part. Maybe something has gotten lost in translation. Then I remember: earlier, the Sheik had described the Americans as the "silly people". The humor, which the Sheikh is trying to convey, pivots on how insanely the Americans behave.http://www.counterpunch.org/eshelman01312004.html
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