Word: cleric
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reversal signals the extent to which Irish republicans have turned to politics as the path to pursuing their goal of a united Ireland. ?We are closing the curtain on 700 years of Irish history,? said Father Alec Reid, a Catholic priest who had been invited, alongside a Protestant cleric, to witness the decommissioning with de Chastelain...
...have majorities in four provinces, but in only two provinces are those majorities large enough to scuttle the constitution. Despite massive voter registration drives on the part of the Sunnis, to get the numbers needed, they will have to ally themselves with other forces, most likely those of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who commands the loyalty of millions of poor Shi'ites in Baghdad and across the south. Al-Sadr has spoken out against federalism and is involved in a power struggle with the major Shi'ite party backing the constitution. But thus far, he has kept his intentions...
...have less influence than they had before. The Shi'ite parties in the negotiations - Dawa, SCIRI and Badr Organization - dug in their heels so much that President George W. Bush called SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim to ask him for more flexibility. The president failed to convince the cleric. Other accounts say the Americans in the embassy gave up trying to broker deals two days before the parliament accepted the draft...
...disaster could provide fuel for efforts by Sunni opponents of the proposed constitution to court Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi'ite cleric who has twice led armed uprisings against U.S. troops. The base of his support is in the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, home to one-third of Baghdad's population. If al-Sadr called on his poor Shi'ite followers to join Sunnis in opposing the charter, it is likely it would be defeated. Abdul Salam al-Qubaisi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni group, claims al-Sadr is working...
...possible al-Sadr is using his flirtation with the Sunnis to win concessions from other Shi'ite leaders. Fattah al-Sheikh, a member of al-Sadr's movement, told TIME the cleric has not yet made a decision on the constitution. Though most Shi'ite leaders support it, al-Sadr in the past has criticized the idea of dividing Iraq into three autonomous regions, as called for in the constitution...