The Reason Iran Wants Iraq...

...is all about Islam. Iranians are overwhelmingly Shia Muslims. There is a difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and I would recommend you spend a few minutes to research their differences. When it comes to terrorism, and the hate of Jews, both Shia and Sunni agree; but Al-Qaeda style, Sunni (Salafist) muslims consider Shiites apostate, or sinners. They will always ask an unknown person which sect they belong to in order to know if they should discriminate or not. No kidding.

Back to Iran...Iran is majority Shia Muslim. Iraq is majority Shia Muslim as well. There are three significant Shia holy sites in Iraq: Samarra, home of the Imam Kazim shrine; Karbala, home of this Imam Hussein shrine (and others); and

Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law and fourth caliph (656-661). Najaf also contains one of the largest cemeteries in the world. According to Imam Ali, any Muslim buried here will enter paradise; as a result, the tombs of several prophets are found in Najaf. Shia Muslims especially consider it a privilege to be buried here. Like Karbala, Najaf became an important center of Islamic scholarship and theology. During his exile from Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini lived here for 12 years prior to the 1979 revolution in Iran. In 1999, the Iraqi Shia leader Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr was assassinated in Najaf, sparking clashes between Shia and the Iraqi government.

In the nineteenth century, the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala in Ottoman Iraq emerged as the most important Shi'i centers of learning. Najaf is known for being an Islamic center for scientific, literary and theological studies for the whole Islamic world and mainly for the Shiites, therefore Najaf is attractive for a large number of people, poets, authors and other visitors from China/India, Lebanon, Pakistan and Iran which is estimated annually over half a million.

Najaf has a population of 560,000, and Muhammad's son-in-law, Imam Ali bin Ali Talib, is buried in the Imam Ali mosque. Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini spent 1964-78 in exile in Najaf. The holy city of Najaf is located 160 kilometers South of Baghdad and 60 km to the south of Hilla. Najaf in arabic means a high land where water cannot be reached. It is a city situated on high plateau over a sandy ground looking down from northern and eastern sides on wide scope camp of domes and tombs called valley of the peace. Najaf is a city of low-level sprawl, with boulevards lined by trees, arched brick buildings, and streets filled with bearded clerics wearing white or black turbans. Najaf is the spiritual center of Shiite Islam, site of the shrine of the Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad and first leader of the Shias.

Four senior Grand Ayatollahs constitute the Religious Institution (al-Hawzah al-`Ilmiyyah) in Najaf, the preeminent seminary center for the training of Shiite clergymen. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Najaf was the most important center of study for Shia religious leaders. However, Saddam Hussein ordered mass arrests and the expulsion of senior clerics, giving the Iranian seminary in the city of Qom the opportunity to take over the religious leadership of the Shias. Qom was the pre-eminent religious center for Shia Muslims for 25 years. But Najaf has a history of more than a millenium of leadership, and the Iranian clerics who run the holy city of Qom, are facing a revived rival. As of mid-2003 the seminary in Qom hosted between 40,000 and 50,000 clergy, while the number in Najaf stould at about 2,000, down from about 10,000 before the Ba'ath regime took. The first exodus from Qom to Najaf is expected to be by exiled Iraqi clerics, estimated to number between 3,000, and 5,000.

Religious zealots run Iran. The Shia Islam religion is their law and their life. Iraq is the birthplace of Shia, home of their holy sites, and home of the Hawzah religious school that certifies their Imams. Stands to reason that taking over Iraq would be a high priority for the Iranians. If not overtly, then certainly by proxy. Keep your eyes on the Shiites in Iraq, and on Iran. There's more there than meets the eye, and a lot more than you are reading from the press. The Mainstream Media is either ignorant to the significance of what I showed you above, or they think you are too ignorant to appreciate it; otherwise, why wouldn't they choose to talk about it when the subject of Iran comes up?