Muqtada warns Muslim Nations

In his Friday prayer sermon on Friday before hundreds of followers in Kufa, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned Muslim nations not to send troops to Iraq, warning that they would be considered collaborators with the US Occupation, and would risk being hit as such by Iraqis.

His warning was echoed by radical Sunni clergymen, as well.

Al-Zaman says that Muqtada also explained his two month long disappearance in part by reference to a schism within the Sadr movement, begun by his father. (He may have been referring to the opposition of many Sadrists, including his former mentor Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri in Qom, to the uprising he launched in April against the US in response to Washington's attempt to arrest or kill him.)

Muqtada also vehemently criticized the government of caretaker PM Iyad Allawi for failing to provide services and security.

He complained that the United States had succeeded in globalizing the world (`awlamat al-`alam). He called for resistance not just in Iraq but everywhere people were suffering oppression.