Word: clericism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...about Mughniyah and his alleged exploits from the 1980s. Sheikh Sobhi Tufayli, a founder of Hizballah who led the organization between 1989 and 1991, once told me that Mughniyah was innocent of the charges leveled against him by the U.S. "He had nothing to do with it," the gruff cleric said, then added "Besides do you think I would tell...
Satterfield said Sadr's political influence has waned since November 2006, when the cleric "made a political gamble and lost." That was when Sadr withdrew his party's ministers from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet after Maliki refused to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. When the government did not collapse, Satterfield argued, the limits of al-Sadr's political power were exposed. That's when Maliki no longer felt the need to protect his biggest constituent in Parliament and gave U.S. forces the green light to enter Sadr City, the cleric's popular stronghold in north...
...workers bused in from the slums of Sadr City in Baghdad 100 miles to the north. I was hearing rumors that his followers were kidnapping and beating religious students who criticized him. The Coalition Provisional Authority was dithering about whether to arrest him on charges of killing a rival cleric the April before. To most observers, including myself, he seemed to be a thug with a lot of bluster and little substance...
...study, but Sadr, say aides, wants to complete it within two years. In that time, he'll receive the religious equivalent of a mail-order diploma. "No Shi'ite Iraqi really believes he is going to study or that he could complete his studies to become a respectable cleric in a year," says Nasr, "but he can do enough to get the political cover he needs...
...scene that should have U.S. officials worried. Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who closely follows developments in Iraq, calls Sadr's decision to rein in his forces a "pretty huge" part of the recent progress. But he isn't convinced that the young cleric has graciously taken himself out of the game without a long-term strategic agenda in mind. O'Hanlon doesn't see Sadr as a weaker player, "but a person who is deciding if he wants to play politics or go back to the battlefield," says O'Hanlon. "I wish I could...