Word: quietistic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...speed and level of chaos in Iraq is picking up fast. An apocalyptic cult came uncomfortably close to taking Najaf, one of Shi'a Islam's most holy cities, and murdering Grand Ayatollah Sistani. Sistani is the neo-cons' favorite quietist Shi'a cleric, the man who was supposed to keep Iraq's Shi'a in line while we went about nation building. And then, on Sunday, Iran's ambassador to Baghdad told the New York Times that Iran is in Iraq to stay, whether the Bush Administration likes...
...reached the senior level of accomplishment called ijtihad, which entitled him to pass his own judgments on religious questions. Sistani kept his distance from Khomeini, who was then in exile in Najaf and already honing his militant philosophy of temporal clerical rule. Al-Khoei, Sistani's mentor, preached the "quietist" approach, in which religious leaders address matters of spirituality and behavior but stay out of politics. Sistani embraced that philosophy...
...occupation, and he cleverly judged that Sistani's silence in recent days despite the Abu Ghraib scandal and U.S. military action that damaged a mosque in the shrine city of Karbala may be damaging Sistani's standing among Shiites. Sadr - whose widely respected father had challenged Sistani's "quietist" moderation under Saddam's regime, before its agents murdered the elder Sadr - has offered to disband his militia if ordered to do so by the Grand Ayatollah. Much as Sistani would like nothing more than to see Sadr's rag-tag militia strike its tent and disappear, he can't afford...
...refuses to meet with Iraq's American occupiers. Yet with one call last November, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani brought plans for an American transfer of power to a grinding halt. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last April, Sistani has gone from being a relatively unknown "quietist" in Najaf's Hawza seminary, preaching that Shi'ite clerics must stay out of politics, to becoming a political institution...
After almost a century of second-class citizenship, the Shi'ites are on the threshold of securing a major place in Iraqi politics. Up to now, most seemed to share the Shi'ite establishment's preference for the quietist approach that Sistani espouses: leave politics to the politicians while the clergy serves society's spiritual and social needs. Though the reclusive Sistani has exerted a strong influence over Iraq's temporary, U.S.-picked Governing Council to help ensure that Shi'ites will gain meaningful power for the first time, he has never sought a ruling role. Under his nonviolent guidance...