Word: daris
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...that didn't automatically translate into a revival of fortunes for the AMS. Many Sunnis turned instead to the insurgency, reasoning that the best protection against armed gunmen would come from other armed gunmen. It didn't help the AMS's cause that its top leadership, including al-Dari himself, has spent much of the past year outside Iraq, trying to rally support among the governments of Sunni Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait. The Association seemed rudderless and out of the mainstream of Sunni politics...
...warrant against al-Dari has returned him to the front and center of Sunni politics, earning him sympathy and support even from those who have long disagreed with his political views. Most of the prominent Sunni politicians in the government - people al-Dari scorns for having collaborated with the U.S. - have denounced the warrant as an affront to the community. The two Sunni blocs in parliament have demanded the warrant be withdrawn. Adnan al-Duleimi, who leads the larger of the two groupings, has called for a formal government apology to al-Dari...
...Ordinary Sunnis, too, are rallying to al-Dari. Many feel victimized by the Shi'ite political establishment and now see al-Dari as the personification of their community's predicament. On Sunni TV channels, newspapers and Internet bulletin boards, there is an outpouring of vitriol against the government and support for the cleric. A typical message reads: "We are your swords, O Lion Sheikh - From the people of Adhamiya." (Adhamiya is a Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Baghdad.) Several Sunni groups - insurgent, political and social - have paid "homage" to him, which is akin to naming him their spiritual leader...
...That is precisely the role al-Dari has sought since his return to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Having spent much of the adulthood teaching Islamic law and history in various Arab universities, he was nonetheless able to adjust quickly to the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq. As an Islamic scholar of note, few questioned his right to lead the AMS, and he organized the clerics' body into a stridently anti-American organization that gave voice to the Sunni community's anxiety and resentment over the loss of their centuries-old grip on political power...
...Association dismissed Iraq's fledgling political process as illegitimate since it had been nurtured by an occupying power. But al-Dari rarely articulated a political vision for Iraq, speaking only in broad terms about an Islamic state governed by the just. In conversations with TIME, he said he didn't want any political office for himself, and that the future shape of the Iraqi government could only be determined after U.S. soldiers had departed...