Word: clericism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Harith al-Dari is a wanted man - and the warrant for his arrest is the best thing that could have happened to him. By issuing the warrant Thursday, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has turned the dimunitive Iraqi cleric into a Sunni hero and a symbol of his community's angst and anger...
...Even for a government that has shown all the political subtlety of a rampaging rhinoceros, this was an especially maladroit maneuver - and al-Dari's clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, has moved swiftly to capitalize on it. The Association's spokesmen have accused the Shi'ite prime minister of deliberately stoking sectarian tensions by singling out a 65-year-old Sunni cleric for arrest when tens of thousands of murderous Shi'ite militias and their leaders enjoy the protection of the government. They have also pointed out that a 2004 warrant for the arrest of radical...
...terms, the arrest warrant is unlikely to threaten al-Dari's freedom: He spends much of his time shuttling from Amman, Jordan, to other Sunni Arab capitals, none of which are about to seize him and hand him over to the Iraqis. In political terms, the warrant gives the cleric a gilt-edged opportunity to stage a dramatic comeback after a long spell in limbo...
...That impression was reinforced Thursday when Interior Minister, Jawad al-Bolani, a Shi'ite, issued an arrest warrant for leading Sunni cleric Harith al-Dari, accusing him of fomenting terrorism and sectarian violence. Al-Dari is the head of the influential Muslim Scholars Association, who while condemning terror attacks on Iraqi civilians has nonetheless openly backed insurgent attacks on U.S. forces as "legitimate resistance." The arrest warrant was greeted with howls of protest by the Sunni parties participating in the government, who denounced it as a sectarian attack. Some Sunni leaders even warned that if it were not rescinded, they...
Iraq After Saddam Hussein's ouster, many local leaders sought to erase part of his legacy. One prominent example: the sprawling, poor Baghdad neighborhood of Saddam City became Sadr City. The name honors Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's father, a revered cleric who was killed during Saddam's regime...