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inifShiite tradition that the opinions of
three or four of the most revered religious
'scholars, or the marja'ia, set the
tone for the whole community.
Arrayed against them are more activist,
militant opponents of the U.S. occupation.
Gathered around Muqtada Sadr,
the descendant of a long line of illustrious
clerics, they believe that Shiites
should aggressively pursue an Islamic
state modeled on clerical rule over Iran.
Sadr, a .very junior clergyman, lacks
the religious clout to issue his own rulings.
But his message of Shiite power
now exerts a tangible appeal among the
generally disenfranchised, poor Shiites,
one Of the communities most abused by
Saddam Hussein.
". Violence committed against foreign
targets in Baghdad and in the Sun ni
Muslim triangle north of the capital hils
grabbed the most time and attention of
the U.S.-dominated Coalition Provisional
Authority that runs Iraq.
But its senior officials recognize that
'no community is more important than
the Shiites, who make up 60 percent of
the 25million population.
One senior coalition offical described
the consent ofthe high-ranking
ayatollahs to the occupation forces temporarily
running the country asa key
strategic factor in establishing what stability
exists. "Retaining the support of
the Shiites is essential for the success of
the coalition," he said.
Coalition officials expect that support
will persist, at least in the short
term, given Shiite hatred of Saddam
Hussein, hatred that deepened with the
discovery of mass graves filled with
thousands of Shiite dead. The endorsement
of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the
most senior cleric in An Najaf, is perhaps
even more important.
In general, Shiites are reluctant to
discuss factional rivalries. Senior officials
from the Supreme Council
".~
for the
Islamic. Revolution in Iraq and the
Dawa Party, both of whom have mem-
..... ~~'" -
de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
Poised for power, Shiites clash
Schism erupts among Iraq's ~elderclerics and young radicals
By Neil MacFarquhar
AN NAJAF, Iraq: The prospect of
Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims finally
gaining a significant voice in running
the country is fueling a consistently volatile
schism between the elderly ayatol~
labs counseling patience and younger,
more radical clerics pursuing an Islamic
state.
The militants are believed to be behind
a series of violent incidents engineered
to either eliminate or at least unsettle
the city's established religious
scholars. Much is at stake, as the clerics
who hold sway over An Najaf basically
shape the opinions of the entire major~
ity Shiite community in Iraq.
"We call it The Battle of the
Mosques," said Major Rick Hall, executive
officer of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines,
which controls this city. "It is religious
infighting for power and
influence in the clerical realm."
The bloodshed started in April with
the murder of a prominent young cleric,
Abdel Majid al-Khoe~ inside the city's
. most holy shrine. The slaying is still
such a tinderbox issue that the police
and prosecutors only reluctantly con-
. firmed for the first time Monday that
about 12suspects bave been rounded up
this month and 'more arrests are
pending.
The revelations came as hundreds of
men marched through this holy seat
Monday to mourn three men killed in
an attack targeting the residence of
Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Saeed al-
Hakim, a 70 year-old cleric in good condition
after being cut in the neck by flyingglass.
The ayatollah is among the senior
clerics who have affiliated themselves
with the American authorities ruling
Iraq, betting that it is only a matter of
time before the U.S. delivers a democratic
state that the Shiites can dominate
through sheer numbers. Their
most potent weapon is the ttmg-stand-
,~~
li;,' .
bers on the Iraqi Gov:erning Council -
paint the tension as a natural outpouring
following years of oppression.
"After 35years people just want to express
their ideas, even if it is not always
in a responsible way," said Ali Abdel
Mehdi, a senior official with Supreme
Council "It's a healthy sign of the
Shiites coming out of repression. You
have a community trying to find it's
way, which could be dangerous if we
are not united."
Shadowing the entire discussion about
Shiites power is the question of Iran's
role here. Officially, the Iril.Dians have
said they want a stable, democratic Iraq,
expecting that will bring Shiite dominion.
But Iraqi leaders barbor suspicions
that Iran wants the U.S. preoccupied by
an unstable Iraq rather than turning its
attention toward the Islamic republic. So
they suspect Iran is supporting Sadr or
worse, the scattered remnants of the Ansar
al-Islam terrorist group.
Sadr's supporters argue that the split
between agitators and conservatives is a
long Shiite tradition.
"It goes back in history to two dis- .
tinct lines in Muslim and particularly
Shiite thought," said Sheik Ahmed
Shaibani, a 33-year-old cleric who runs
the Islamic court in An Najaf in defiance
of the elder clergy.
"There are those who say you must
undertake jihad in times of oppression,
and those who say we must stay silent
until the reappearance of the Mahdi."
he said, referring to the Shiite savior.
While not calling for jihad outright,
the young clerics around Sadr hint at
the possibility. No one points the finger
at him directly, but the police, prosecutors
and U.S. officers, not to mention ordinary
Najafis, single out his group as
the font of violence.
"Everyone in the city was, expecting
something like this to happen," Q.assim
Shabbar, an An Najaf merchant, said of
Sadr's role in the bombing.
. The New York TImes
~,
~~ . ,
Thousands ofSbiites ~;M:~daYat the funeral ofthree security guards killed inth~ bombing of a senior cleric's office in An Najaf•.
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