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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
With cleric in holy city,
pôlitical rivalry flares
,Iraqi exile's return hurts unity efforts
BY Susan Sachs
An Najafby the United States flom exile
inLondon.
~N NAJAF. Iraq: Iraq's Shiite Shiites are, believed to make up at
Muslims have emerged from years of of-' least ~O percent of Iraq's population,
ficial repression and slaughter only to ,but under Saddam, their religious celeface
a potentially dangerous new battle •brations were restricted. Leading clerbetween
rivlll clerics competing for,! ic~ ,,)Vere arrested. expelled and'
, political power.,' • ; murdered. Thousands of people were
The passions and ambitions were on:
displaywhenoneoftheaspiringleaders,
believed killed when Shiite uprisings in
1991and 1999 were crushed. Even now,
a ,Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim, ar- An Naja' the seat of Shiite learning, re-
~ • rived like a triumphant hero to this holy mains a traumatized city. Almost every
;:f city to take up its politicalleadership. day, Iraqis discover a new mass grave
6' Returning Monday from 23 years of dating from one of the old crackdowns.
~ exile in Iran, the gray-bearded cleric The political maneuverings here of the
came in a noisy flag-flying convoy, led, Shiite clerics resonate across the coun-
Ëi' by police cars bedecked with his pic- try, especially as Iraq's various parties
] ture and a parade of Toyota Land Cruis- try to work out a formula to share polit-
-ä ers jammed with guards and followers. ' ical power until elections can be con-
~ As the shops emptied and street ped- ' ducted.
~ dlers packed up their cigarettes and "Najafis the key to Baghdad and all of
plastic toys to watch the spectacle, Iraq because the religious authority and
Hakim was driven to the tiled archway most of the clergy are here," said Hasleading
into the main Shiite shrine. san Juma Inouz, the local representative
One of his advance men shouted of the Iraqi National Congress, the umthrough
the mosque's loudspeakers: brella group of former opposition
• "Welcome the lion, welcome the wise : parties that is trying to create a transi-
:leaderl The shrine of the prince of be- tionalleadership.
; lievers welcomes one of his greatest Judging from their public statements,
: heirs." Sadr and Hakim hold largely similar
For all the excitement over Hakim's views. Both have demanded thàt U.S. '
, grand entrance, there were clear signs forces leave Iraq and have called the
of discord that could complicate efforts
United States an enemy. Both support
: by other Iraqi political forees to form a' an Islamic government, although
unity government to deal with the neither has' suggested it can or should
, country's American overseers. '
Just after Hakim left the mosque, an
unmistakably hostile demonstration
, erupted in the courtyard where he had
delivered a 4O-minute address. Men
i supporting one ofhis clerical and polit-
: icalrivals, Muqtada Sadr, marched and,
: shouted, "Iraq is Sadr's."
i" Sadr, like Hakim, is the son of a
: revered religious scholar who opposed
" th~,secular Ba'ath Party regime of Saddam
Hussein. Although he is only 30, he
thrust himself forward as the champion
of ,downtrodden Shiites in the first
, weeks afterthe fall of Baghdad.
,The political competition between
the two clerics, and their emotional
constituencies, threatens to rmve the
old divisions between Iraq's Shiites that
were constantly exploited and encouraged
over 35years by Saddam's government.
At. the same time, there were,
hopeful signs that higher-ranking
ayatollahs in the religious schools of An
Najaf prefer to separate Islam and politics,
and will discourage the budding
competition. ,
Recent history shows how dangerous
such jousting can become. In April, Ab-
• del Majid, Khoei, another well-known
! Shiite cleric, was murdered by a mob
i~st_~ ~e~ days after he was flown into
-dela Prensa-Baszn Özeti.
, be imposed. .')'::' ' ,
, The rival clerics appear t() differ
,more in style, experience and résources '
than in the substance of their beliefs. '
Profiting from the veneration still felt,
for his father, who waS murdered in
1999, Sadr organizèd huge demonstrations
against U.S. forces soon after the '
war ended. He supported clerics who
commandeered government buildings
and took control of hospitals in Shiite ,
neighborhoods. He has, as il result, become
a popular figure.
But Hakim has the advantage of an
established exile political party; the Supreme
Council for the .Islamic Revolu- ,
tion in Iraq, that Iran sùbsidized, as it '
did his Badr Brigade militia. The coun-
,cil also has a seat on the Iraqi National
Congress. Hakim's advisers also say he,
is a pragmatist who does not want to
create rifts with other more secular,
political groups.
The other established Shiite movement,
the Dawa Party, has already taken'
a more conciliatory approach to participation
in a transitional government. Its
leaders, who also returned from exile in
the past month, said they wanted an im-
~ediate puplic rolè to raise their profile.
Hakim's political organizing skills,
and perhaps, his financial resources,
also have overwhelmed, at least temporarily,
Sadr's ability to promote himself
beyond An Najaf.
"It's all propaganda and banners,"
Sadr said of Hakim's return, in a brief
interview Monday.' "These can be
bought with money. Here ismy ,message:
I sit here and meet peopJe." .
The New York TImes ..
" an n e ew orkTlmes
Supporters greetÜl$.Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim as he arrived in An Najaf.
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