Miracles seen in Fallouja by U.S soldiers

[Xudeedi]

In the article, "In Fallouja, Fighters Trade Rockets for Rifles," published in Lon Ageles Times on May 8 2004, had partly infused stories of miracles that were exchanged (irrelevant to the main report) by members of the Brigade and some other tales of miracles gathered from the locals. It is important that we remind ourselves that the miracles of Allah never cease to amaze those with murky understanding of our religion.

 

----------------------------------------------

 

 

For the Flloujans, the American pullout is seen as a miracle and already is being recast as a sort of Muslim desert myth.

 

The Brigade members exchanged stories Friday of supernatural events that they said had led the Faloujans to victory.

 

Similar tales were being told at the Friday prayers at one of the city's main mosques and over lunches of rice and stew in the homes of tribal sheiks.

 

Dulaimi, 50, a warrant officer in the new force, told of how the Americans had planned to drop a bomb that "emits a kind of smoke that would paralyze the people of Fallouja for six hours."

 

But when the pilots began their flights over the city to drop the substance, "they looked down and all they could see was water. There was no city. It was like a mirage in summer," he said.

 

Other brigade members nodded vigorously. Another miracle they reported was the appearance of spiders that had come out of of the desert and killed the Americans by biting them.

 

These were no ordinary spiders, said one of the other men, but killer arachnids that could run 15 miles an hour and whose bite felled some of the Marines.

 

The spider's power in Islamic legend dates back to the Koran when, in the early days of Islam, the prophet Muhammed (PBUH) fled angry infidels and took shelter in a cave. A spider came and wove a thick web over the cave's mouth so that when the infidels came looking for him, they did not think anyone was inside, because he would have had to tear the web to enter.

 

Sheikh Dahir Subhi Alubaide, told the thousands gathered for Friday prayers at one Fallouja mosque a similar story about spiders fighting the Americans.

 

The Sheikh spoke too about "the knights dressed in white who fought on the Iraqi side." Those, he said, "were the angeles of God, who made the Iraqis victorious and enabled them to defeat their enemies."

 

Brigade member Abu Omar retold the story slightly differently, saying that when final negotiations were underway the Americans told the Falloujans that they did not care about having them turn over the weapons. All they wanted, he said, was for them to hand over the knights on horses dressed white.

 

"These white-dressed horsemen are the angeles of God who were sent to fight the infidel at the side of the prophet Muhammad," he said.

 

Whether it was angeles or realpolitik that resulted in the deal, there was little question in the minds of locals that the deal with the U.S , it if holds, represents a profound shift in the occupation force's military strategy.

 

"They have realized that this resistance is not minor or limited to a few people--it is widespread, popular resistance," Sheik Ali Salih Badrani said, and it is not only in Fallouja but all over Iraq.