Word: clerics
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...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-seeking son of the late Ayatullah Muhammad Sadiq al Sadr, a radical cleric who had opposed moderate rivals before being murdered by Saddam's regime...
...Wooing the Shiite clerics, however, is a daunting task for General Jay Garner, the U.S. administrator for post-Saddam Iraq. Shiite religious-political groups are far from united, and their divisions are potentially violent, as the fatal stabbing two weeks of a 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...
...vacuum. The U.S. has to be careful. It's just possible that the worst thing Washington could do is handpick a winner, who would be tainted as an American puppet. The dangers of that were apparent in Najaf, where the mob murder of a pro-American Shi'ite cleric last week showed how lethal such an image...
...Coalition for Iraqi National Unity's spokesman, and second in charge, is a cleric who teaches at a local mosque. Even if you accept the power of the clerics in this region, is it really wise to place them in charge of a U.S.-sponsored military force? It seems too great a concentration of power, given the volatile mix of religion and politics in the area...
...didn't help when the cleric, Hassan Mussawi, began talking about his party. Asked asked about reports that his forces are looting the local people, he responded, "People who accuse us of looting are extremists who are against national unity." The best answer he can come up with when asked about the seven late model Nissan's and a very new looking Mercedes in the courtyard is, "This is what the people give us to fight Saddam." When asked if the U.S. supplies the vast quantities of food his men have on hand he says, "We are self financing...