Word: clericalization
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...miss out on the action. As Iraq convulsed in sectarian violence last week, al-Sadr was stuck in Beirut, on the final leg of a grand tour of Middle Eastern capitals. He was being feted by heads of state across the region, a remarkable achievement for a politician-cleric who has neither been elected to any office nor completed his religious education. After hearing news of the destruction of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, al-Sadr cut his trip short to return to Iraq to marshal his Mahdi Army, a militia of bristling young Shi'ites who had swarmed...
...government's security forces cannot provide the necessary protection, the believers will do it." AYATOLLAH ALI AL-SISTANI, senior Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, after a bomb shattered the golden dome of the revered Askariya Shrine in Samarra, prompting attacks on dozens of Sunni mosques. Al-Sistani later urged his followers not to attack Sunni holy sites in revenge...
...April: Supporters of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stage an uprising against U.S. troops in several Iraqi cities...
...Iraq, and their Sunni allies in the insurgency. Shi?ite reactions were swift and violent. Mobs from the predominantly Shi'ite Shu'lah neighborhood in western Baghdad attacked Sunni mosques in Ghazaliya, a nearby Sunni area. Gunmen were out on the streets of Sadr City, home base for rebel cleric-and parliamentary power broker-Moqtada al-Sadr. In Basra, there were reports of heavy street fighting between Sunni and Shi'ite gunmen. Elsewhere, Sunni political party offices were attacked...
...democracy helps relieve extremism in the long run, because the prosaic work of governing tends to make ideological politicians more pragmatic. "Elections are just the start in his view," says a senior Administration official. It's encouraging, U.S. officials say, that powerful Muslim figures--including Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, and even some leaders of Hamas--have tried to quell the unrest over the Danish cartoons out of fear of a collapse in law and order. But even if that tames the passions unleashed over the past month, there's every reason to expect...