Clerics Urge Shiites to Protest
Call for Iraqi Elections Carries Hint of Violence
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 17, 2004; Page A01
KARBALA, Iraq, Jan. 16 -- Preachers in Shiite Muslim mosques appealed to their followers Friday to prepare for demonstrations, strikes and possible confrontations with occupation troops to back up demands for elections in advance of a transfer of authority from a U.S.-led administration to Iraqis.
The calls increased pressure on the Bush administration and its handpicked Iraqi Governing Council to satisfy demands by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most influential cleric, for elections. President Bush's chief administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and top Governing Council leaders are scheduled to meet in New York next week in hopes of enlisting U.N. help in changing Sistani's mind.
The United States and the council have fashioned a proposal to select a transitional assembly by July 1 through a complex system of regional caucuses. Sistani rejected the plan on the grounds it disenfranchises Iraqis and puts Iraq's future in the hands of the United States. Sistani's challenge was sharpened in Shiite mosques throughout Iraq on Friday, and the option of violence was made explicit.
"We should think seriously about the future and for the coming generation, and fashion it to keep our dignity," said Abdel-Madhi Salami, the chief cleric in Karbala, one of two Shiite holy cities in Iraq. "This will happen through serious participation in a peaceful protest, strikes and, as a last resort, possible confrontation with the occupying forces, because they plan to draw up colonial schemes."
Salami is a senior associate of Sistani. A similar appeal was made in the biggest Sunni mosque in Baghdad.
The relative calm that has prevailed among Iraq's Shiite majority since the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein last spring now hangs in the balance. Shiites, one of two major streams in Islam, make up at least 60 percent of the population. Unlike their Sunni Muslim counterparts, who make up about 20 percent of Iraqis and formed the backbone of support for Hussein, the Shiites largely welcomed the U.S.-led invasion of the country.
But the issue of Iraq's political future has put the relationship between the Shiites and the occupation authorities in question. Shiites consider Sistani, 73, a marja al-taqlid, or object of emulation, and his followers heed his words not only on religious matters but also on social and political issues. Despite hints of compromise emanating from U.S. and Iraqi officials, Sistani does not appear to be budging.
On Friday, Sistani met with tribal leaders at his offices in the holy city of Najaf, his home base. There were no reports of demonstrations. On Thursday, tens of thousands of Shiites marched in Basra, the country's second-largest city, to demand elections. Salami said that Basra was a sample of things to come.
"We want to convey to the people the importance of this case. Some people think it will take confrontation. Not for the present, we hope," Salami said in an interview.
Salami also suggested a way to avoid violence, repeating Sistani's demand for the United Nations to send a fact-finding team to Iraq and judge whether elections can be organized. When Sistani first called for a U.N. visit, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a letter to the Governing Council saying elections could not be arranged properly before July 1.
"It was not correct for Kofi Annan to sit in New York and say it," Salami said. "We feel this was all a maneuver. If the commission came, investigated and said there is no way, then an alternative would have to be found."
He was evasive about whether Sistani would accept a U.N. judgment. "There is a lack of trust," he said.
Salami spoke dismissively of Bremer, with whom Sistani has refused to meet. "It's a feeling we will not get anything from Bremer. My evaluation is, there is no profit in a meeting with him," he said.
He spoke in his office at the edge of the Imam Hussein mosque, one of a matching pair in Karbala, each topped with a golden dome and gilt minarets set above an enclosure adorned with tiles in floral patterns.
Salami's appeal for protests was issued to thousands of worshipers gathered under a warm winter sun for Friday prayers. His speech made no mention of the United Nations.
Shiites in Karbala seemed to agree with his words. "There have been too many promises not kept," said Hameed Abu Sajjad, a hotel owner in Karbala. "The United States has lots of experience in organizing elections. Let them organize one for us."
Abdullah Ridha Abdul Mahdi, a plastics goods salesman, said: "Elections would make things clear. We would like it soon."
"I do not think our religious leaders want to cause problems. We just want our rights, which is the reason the Americans said they came here," said Amir Abbas, a retired laborer who was rummaging through a pile of sandals and shoes worshipers had shed before prayers, according to Islamic custom.
Iraqi officials fear that a U.N. commission would take a long time to investigate and would add to the aura of Sistani's authority, perhaps setting a precedent for clerical review of government decisions. Nonetheless, Adnan Pachachi, current president of the Governing Council under a rotation system, said the council would do what it could to "accommodate" Sistani by providing "transparency and inclusiveness."
But not elections. Pachachi will lead the Governing Council delegation to New York. He warned that the wrangling could derail the transition to Iraqi rule and prolong U.S. military occupation.
Elections would give the majority Shiites and, in all likelihood, the Shiite religious leadership a leg up on political rivals. The mosque is the most organized and well-financed institution in Iraq. The leadership is funded by donations from millions of the faithful.
Beneath the surface of the election dispute lies another issue dear to Sistani: enshrinement of Islam as Iraq's guiding ideology. Allowing a transitional assembly and government molded by U.S.-selected councils to take power would set Iraq onto a secular road, his followers contend.
"The issue is not just freedom. It is guaranteeing that laws be passed within the rules of Islam," Salami said.
He explained that Shiite leaders see the current situation through the prism of an Arab uprising in 1920 against British colonial rule. Then, Shiite clerics supported the revolt and later rejected a peace solution that involved installation by the British of an Arab monarch in Iraq. Effectively, the Shiites ceded control of Iraq to the minority Sunni population.
This time, the clerics want to ensure they have a deciding say in the creation of an Iraqi government, Salami said. "The people should benefit from the experience of the 1920 revolution. At that time, they lost their rights," he told worshipers at Imam Hussein mosque. "This time, the marja of Najaf is taking care about the transfer of authority from the occupiers. The people should wake up." |
