on the other hand- from your article:
"The Shiites are fast filling the power vacuum left by the ouster of Saddam Hussein - and some fear their dominance of postwar Iraqi politics could lead to an Islamic theocracy like the one next door in Shiite-dominated Iran.
Long repressed under Saddam's Sunni-dominated government and representing 60 percent of Iraq's population of 24 million, the Shiites have divided their religious loyalties between at least three leaders. Yet their opposition to a prolonged U.S. presence on Iraqi soil appears uniform, and some look to Iran as a model."
and
"Iraq's largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has its headquarters in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
The group's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, is still in Iran. But his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, has come back to Iraq to pave the way for the ayatollah's return.
He told al-Jazeera television on Wednesday that the group opposes any foreign presence in Iraq. Its fighters - the Badr Brigades - are present around Iraq but have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told al-Jazeera television"
Iraq's top Shiite cleric is in Iran, and is named "Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim" per your article. Did you read that article before you posted it? Seems to contradict what you said.
"Many Shiites oppose the idea of an Islamic state run by clerics, including Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani" |
