Word: marjah
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...Unlike his father, Muqtada has no formal religious standing to interpret the Koran, and relies for religious authority on an Iran-based Iraqi exiled cleric, Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri. But he clearly believes he will himself assume the rank of marjah - the highest authority on religion and law in Shiism, in American pop-cultural terms a knight on the highest Jedi council. His father and uncle certainly provide him with an impeccable pedigree in terms of Iraqi Shiite martyrdom. Their names - along with Muqtada's - were chanted by thousands of worshipers making the pilgrimage to Karbala last week. He denies...
...Even before he attains such status, he does not hide his contempt many of the others who have. "I deny all marjah, except for Haeri, and I represent the second martyr (meaning his father) and not the Hawza (the supreme religious academy of Iraqi Shi'ism, located in Najaf)." Of the other marjah, he says, "some of them have no followers." He downplays the importance, both political and military, of one of the most senior marjah, Ayatollah Mohammed Sayeed al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its military wing, the Badr corps...
...Attassi Case, which started as just another televised Damascus spy thriller to the accompaniment of John Philip Sousa marches, came to a jarring finale last week. In the chill of dawn, naturalized U.S. Citizen Farhan Attassi, 37, was hanged in Damascus' Al Marjah Square. Attached to the white robe customary for a condemned criminal was a large poster stating the verdict. For seven hours the limp body swayed on the gibbet, watched by curious crowds, before it was cut down and taken away for burial. On the same day, Attassi's cousin and alleged accomplice in spying...