In government records, the building in eastern Baghdad with a tan dome and archways of blue tile is designated Mosque No. 5-833 of Sector 3. Until last week, it was known throughout the neighborhood as the Saddam Hussein Mosque, a name favored by the Sunni Arab imam. Now, to the Shiite militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles who expelled that cleric and stand guard, the building is called the Imam Ali Mosque, after the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad whose murder catalyzed the epochal Sunni-Shiite split. “I have only four bullets in here,” said Jabar Hashem al-Mousawi, 40, the militia’s commander at the mosque, as he popped the cartridge out of his pistol at an outer checkpoint. “I take this to defend against those who want to attack the poor people here.” Full Story
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