Meet the new Ayatollah of Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3033306.stm

Profile: Ayatollah Ali Sistani

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is the prime marja, or spiritual reference, for Shias everywhere.

He is one of only five living grand ayatollahs and the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq.

The elderly cleric lived in uneasy stalemate with the former Iraqi regime. He spent long periods under house arrest but largely stayed out of politics.

The low-profile approach he had to adopt to survive in Iraq has been criticised by younger, more radical Shia leaders such as the young upstart Moqtada Sadr - son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a cleric murdered by the old regime.

In April, just after the fall of the regime, club-wielding members of the Sadr Group besieged Ayatollah Sistani's house, demanding that he leave the country and that he recognise Moqtada Sadr as a marja.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61200-2003Dec12.html

In Iraq, an Ayatollah We Shouldn't Ignore

A quarter-century ago, the United States misread the power and legitimacy of a Shiite ayatollah -- and ended up "losing" Iran, then one of two pillars of American policy in the Middle East. The impact is felt to this day.

Could Washington be on the verge of making the same mistake in Iraq in a way that could also compromise, even betray, the very democratic process that the Bush administration has begun to demand for the entire region?

The problem stems from the game of chicken the United States is playing with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani over the future of Iraq. The cleric, the most powerful leader in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled, wants elections for a government that will assume control when the American occupation ends on July 1.

But the United States, still smarting from its encounter with Ayatollah Khomeini after Iran's 1979 revolution, has a bad case of ayatollah-itis. Policy-think is shaped by an unspoken fear: Beware Shia-istan.

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[DinahMoeHum]

1. Tee hee. If the Iraqis were to hold elections tomorrow. . .

Iraq would become a theocracy, just like Iran.

And the Iraqi Shiites are well organized. Fat chance they'll listen to any so-called provisional government or any other puppet government Bush & Co. try to install. Their only allegiance is to the Ayatollah Sistani.

Get ready for a ver-r-r-r-y nasty civil war out there. Bush & Co. cannot do anything about it.

:evilgrin:

[Aidoneus]

2. Sistani is not really a politician

That he's sticking his neck up out of his office to resist the occupation authorities' criminal plots is just a sign of how angry his followers are about things--while being of such accomplishment that he is considered without any superior in his field, he personally is notoriously passive unlike some of his martyred peers (Sadr's father, for instance). On the side, Iraq has a great deal of Ayatallahs--the position is not limited to merely heads of state.

No, the Ayatallah to be politically ambitious in a dominant/figurehead sense will probably instead be Ayatallah al-Uzma as-Sayyid Kazim al-Haeri (that is, if he ever returns from Qom). He's considered to be the 5th ranking Najafi figure, and I think the only surviving Iraqi Grand Ayatallah to reach the comperable level of accomplishment (the other four--Ali Husayni al-Sistani & Mohammed Said al-Hakim being Persian, Husayn Bashar al-Najafi originally from Pakistan, and Ishaq al-Fayyad an Afghan; a half dozen Iraqi Grand Ayatallah's were martyred by the Baathist state since the late 70s). Unlike the other 4 ranking Najafis, who are generally known as passive (which perhaps explains their more extended lifespan), Haeri is much more politically driven and that political tendency typically described as "radical". He's also the guy the lightning rod Muqtada Sadr looks up to for an official source of guidance, Sadr not having the official credentials to stand alone.