Word: sunni
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...only sizable group within the political process that is associated with the Sunnis, the Iraqi Islamic Party, is poorly organized and scorned by the clerics for having contributed two ministers to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government. The other prominent Sunnis likely to contest the elections represent secular parties of uncertain popularity. Adnan Pachachi's Iraqi Independent Democrats, Nasser Chaderchi's National Democratic Party and Wamid Nadhmi's Arab Nationalist Movement are all maneuvering to form electoral alliances with Shi'ite and Kurdish parties rather than appeal to Sunni voters. The highest-ranking Sunni in the U.S.-backed interim...
...trouble is that secular political alliances probably won't bring out the vote in much of the Sunni triangle, where sectarian sensibilities run deep, and many Sunnis say they fear being marginalized by Shi'ite religious parties that are set to dominate the new government. Even in cosmopolitan Baghdad, many Sunnis feel they need a party that represents them exclusively. Ali Hameed, a neuropsychiatrist and worshipper at the Omar alMukhtar, describes himself as secular-minded but laments the lack of a strong Sunni party. "I would not be troubled if a Shi'ite party came to power in the elections...
...Omar al-Mukhtar, worshippers who ask that question of al-Nasseri get a carefully weighed answer. A senior cleric in the A.M.S., he shares not only the Sunni clergy's intense dislike of the U.S. but also its distrust of a political process sponsored by "the occupying power." But unlike many of his fellow clerics, he believes Sunnis should hold their noses and dive in. He is advising his flock to vote. "The important thing is for us to have a say in the future of Iraq," he says. "If we stay out of the elections, then we lose...
...authority to the Allawi government. The broader objective guiding the security strategy of the U.S.-led coalition is to create sufficient stability by January to allow for a national election to choose Iraq's new leaders - and there'd be little chance of holding a credible poll throughout the Sunni triangle and even in Baghdad if the insurgency was permitted to maintain its current momentum. The Coalition hopes that the insurgency can be stopped in its tracks, or at least that its momentum can be slowed, by smashing what has come to be seen as its epicenter...
...leading Sunni Muslim clerical body, the Association of Muslim Scholars, which is viewed as allied with the insurgency, has condemned the assault and warned of an escalation of the insurgency elsewhere. And, of course, it has reiterated its call for a boycott of the January election. Others, like UN Secretary General Kofi Annan have warned that if the assault of Fallujah creates a backlash that keeps Sunnis away from the polls, then the operation will have been self-defeating. Even acting president Ghazi al-Yawer, the most senior Sunni figure in Allawi's government, has publicly warned that a bloody...