Word: alis
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...What we are seeing in Iraq is a historic awakening of the country's Shiites - which translates as "partisans of Ali," a reference to the branch of Islam founded by the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. It happened among Shiites in Iran and in Lebanon starting in the 1970s, but Saddam Hussein's brutality made sure that Iraq's Shiites did not join in. Thanks to the toppling of the Baghdad regime, Iraq's Shiites have a real chance to grab meaningful political power in their country for the first time. That poses a dangerous challenge...
...cities of Islam on their territory. Yes, Mecca and Medina are in Saudi Arabia, but this week's ritual was performed in Kerbala, which along with Najaf are Iraqi cities which have been venerated for 14 centuries by Shiites as the resting places of their two most revered imams, Ali and Hussein. If there was any message for the U.S. from the Shiite throngs, it wasn't, Welcome, liberators. It was, Get out, occupiers...
...Iranian ruler actually rose to fame on the back of a nationalist revolution and then cemented his authoritarian power through a Shiite doctrine called velayat-e fagih, or rule of the Islamic clergy. The doctrine is not widely accepted by Iraqi Shiites, including their most revered leader, Grand Ayatullah Ali Sistani, who favors the traditional "quietist" role of the clergy in politics...
...first sign came on April 10, not yet 24 hours after the U.S. Marines helped pull down Saddam's statue in Firdos Square in Baghdad. At the Mosque of Ali in Najaf, a gang murdered Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Khoei, the son of the late Grand Ayatullah Abolkassem al-Khoei. The killing was an immense setback for the U.S., since al-Khoei was a moderate who had been courted to play a crucial role in encouraging Iraq's Shiites to cooperate with Washington's nation-building plans. The killers appeared to be supporters of Moktada al Sadr, the young, power...
...prominent pro-Western cleric at Najaf demonstrated. Ayatollah Abdel Majid al-Khoei was murdered by supporters of a young cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who seek an Iran-style Islamic state in Iraq and are innately hostile towards cooperation with the U.S. But the supreme clerical authority in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, has been more cautious. And even the most influential of the Shiite groups, the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is considering working with the U.S. In an interview with Reuters, the group's leader Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim said his group...