Word: sistani
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...power, even if a significant number of troops remain and real authority will mostly be wielded out of a new 3,000-person U.S. embassy. Officials believe delaying the transition would only further enrage Iraqis, including, critically, the country's most revered Shi'ite leader, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, whose support the U.S. needs more than ever as it tries to rein in the upstart al-Sadr. "June 30 is a good date," says Rend al-Rahim Francke, Iraq's diplomatic representative to the U.S. "It is long overdue...
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...
...claims to a rightful share of power. On the streets in the Khadamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, al-Sadr's outspoken defiance made quiescent Shi'ites feel good. Militia guarding a Shi'ite shrine were giddy with pride in standing up to the Americans. Even those who trusted Sistani's wisdom were frustrated by his silence. "The Americans are listening to us," said one, "and they are scared...
...feels that enough is enough. "We have to take him down," says an Administration official in Washington. But attacks last week on the Mahdi Army make it unlikely that moderate Shi'ite leaders can act to sideline the young firebrand. Sistani would no doubt love to see the end of his headstrong rival, but it's hard to imagine an Iraqi mullah condoning U.S. action against an Islamic cleric. In the past, Sistani marginalized al-Sadr by ignoring him, according to Noah Feldman, a New York University professor who was an adviser to the coalition authority. As a result...
...officials have vowed to eliminate the Sadrist militia, but the movement may prove resilient. Indeed, the underground organization it maintained inside Iraq in the teeth of Baathist terror - Moqtada's uncle, a revered Grand Ayatollah who was once a rival to Sistani, as well as his father and brothers were assassinated by agents of Saddam's regime - gave it a head start on all the political organizations returning from exile after the regime fell. Within weeks of Baghdad's capture, the Sadrist movement had emerged as the most organized political force in Iraq. That legacy will make the movement difficult...