2006年VOA标准英语-Shrine Attack Deepens Iraqi Sectarian Divi

By Gary Thomas
Washington
23 February 2006

An attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine¹ in Iraq has sparked a wave of violence between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. More than 130 people, most of them Sunnis, have been killed since the attack Wednesday. The incident puts Iraq's new, but fragile, democracy at risk.

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Iraqis rally in reaction to the shrine explosion in Samarra, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006  
  

Reprisal² attacks erupted across Iraq in response to the bombing that wrecked⁴ the Askriya shrine Wednesday in the city of Samarra. The violence is threatening to wreck³ Iraq's fragile political process.

Security forces in Baghdad were placed on high alert as scores of Sunni mosques⁵ were under attack in retaliation⁶ for the bombing of the shrine, which is sacred to Shi'ites. Sunni clerics were abducted⁷ and killed and three Iraqi journalists for al-Arabiya television were also killed.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through parts of Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Tal Afar, and the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf to protest the shrine attack.

Some Sunni and Shi'ite leaders appealed for calm.

Khalif Ai-Ilyan, head of the Iraqi National Dialogue - a Sunni party - warned that the attack was designed to spark a sectarian civil war.

On the other side of the divide, a representative of Shi'ite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarki said the attack was motivated not by religion, but by politics.

 
George W. Bush 
  
In Washington, President Bush also condemned⁸ the attack as a political act designed to split Shi'ites and Sunnis.

"The act was an evil act," said President Bush. "The destruction of a holy site is a political act intending to create strife⁹. So I am pleased with the voices of reason that have spoken out."

But some Iraqi religious leaders were not mollified. The firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr accused the United States and the fledgling Iraqi government of failing to protect the 1,200-year-old shrine.

On the other side of the religious divide, a spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars blamed the escalating¹⁰ violence on the country's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Shiite religious leaders. Criticism of al-Sistani, a revered¹¹ figure, has been unheard of until now.
 

Jack¹² Straw  
  
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said suspicion fell on al-Qaida in Iraq.

The bombing threatens to unravel¹³ Iraq's still-fragile political structure. Talks on the formation of a new government are still under way among Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds.

President Jalal Talibani called a meeting to discuss the growing crisis. Some Sunni leaders attended, but others did not and are threatening to walk out of the political process altogether.

1 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

2 reprisal   

n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠

参考例句：

• There is no political alternative but a big reprisal.政治上没有旁的选择只能是大规模报复。
• They bombed civilian targets in reprisal.他们炮轰平民目标作为报复。

3 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

4 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

5 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

6 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

8 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

9 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

10 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

11 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

12 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

13 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。