By Susan Sachs
New York Times
21 December 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 20 - In an otherwise grim and uncertain time, the banners hanging in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods this week struck a joyous note: "Congratulations to the families of the martyrs on the capture of Saddam Hussein!"
The reviled Mr. Hussein, accused by Shiites of killing their most eminent clerics and persecuting their sect for more than 30 years, was in American custody, his decrepit underground hiding place given away by one of his own Sunni Muslim clansmen.
But there were ample reasons for celebration even before his capture.
Iraq's Shiites, long the underclass in a nation where they are the majority, stand on the verge of their first real chance at political power in Iraq.
After the Shiites were sidelined for centuries by successive Sunni and foreign rulers, their political and religious leaders have become the dominant players in the American-led process of shaping a new, more representative government for Iraq.
"Our tragedy will not occur again," vowed Muhammad Hussein al-Hakim, a spokesman for his father, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Said al-Hakim, one of the four most senior Shiite clerics in Iraq. "There is no turning back the tide."
His confidence in that future was only buoyed, he said, after seeing the bedraggled Mr. Hussein in American hands.
"We saw him in his true character - as a humiliated, cowering man who could no longer hide behind his big words," Mr. Hakim said.
The former Iraqi leader must be put on public trial, he added. But the clerical establishment, he said, would counsel Shiites to be patient, to make sure everyone in the world with a claim against Mr. Hussein had a chance to present their case.
"The Shia are patient people, so they will be patient," Mr. Hakim said. "It doesn't matter when it happens because he's in custody now."
The country's Shiite leaders have taken pains to avoid openly antagonizing the American occupiers, the Sunnis or the Iraqi Kurds. The Shiites have said they do not seek a theocratic form of government like that in neighboring Iran, the next-largest Shiite nation. They have said they do not seek to oppress other groups.
But the Shiite leadership has also made it clear that its modesty should not be mistaken for meekness. The Shiites are believed to make up as much as 70 percent of Iraq's population of 25 million, and Mr. Hakim, whose family has produced a long line of senior clerics, said they would not accept less than the presidency of an independent Iraq.
"We don't want a dictatorship of the majority to dominate," said Mr. Hakim. "But we do want to preserve the rights of the majority, which is the Shia, and the simplest right is to have the head of state come from the majority. Isn't that correct?"
Iraqis are not expected to choose a head of state before next June, after a new provisional legislative assembly is chosen and it votes on a provisional government. National elections might not be held for years, under a plan approved by the American-led occupation authority.
But most Shiite religious leaders are thinking ahead.
Ayatollah Muhammad Yacoubi, another prominent cleric from the holy city of Najaf, is one of a small but vocal group of Shiite scholars who have started publicly advocating a political role for the clergy. He suggested that the network of Shiite religious schools and teachers based in Najaf - grouped together under the name Hawza - might sponsor a new political party to take part in Iraqi elections.
"We are calling for clerics to participate directly in politics, and for the Hawza to support politics and be part of a multiparty system," Ayatollah Yacoubi said. "After all, the Hawza is a guiding force."
Shiite religious leaders, without even leaving their homes in Najaf, have already emerged as a pivotal factor in the deliberations at the Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad.
The word of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential of the Iraqi Shiite clerics, ultimately forced both the council and the Bush administration to change course on Iraqi independence last month.
The United States had pushed for Iraq to adopt a constitution and then hold national elections before it would be granted independence. But Ayatollah Sistani, in a religious edict, decreed that the drafters of a new Iraqi constitution had to be elected. The only way to satisfy his ruling, it was decided, was to postpone writing a constitution until after independence.
The United States has promised Iraq sovereignty by July 1. But the ayatollah is still pulling strings on the political process, as Iraqi political leaders and American officials try to come up with a plan for choosing a provisional legislature that would get his blessing.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a member of the Governing Council, said he regularly gave Ayatollah Sistani the minutes of every week's council meetings and any draft resolutions it discussed.
"He goes through the documents carefully," Mr. Rubaie said. "This is one of the major ways to keep him informed about the Governing Council but also to guarantee his continuing support of the council."
As they have built up their influence, Iraqi Shiites have also suffered losses.
Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, an influential political and religious figure who founded the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was killed in a bomb blast in Najaf in August along with at least 95 other people. Just this week, on Wednesday, another member of the same group and a distant relative was killed in Baghdad.
But there have also been triumphs.
At noon prayers on Friday, for example, Shiite clerics delighted worshipers by recounting the respectful reception given this week to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the brother and successor of the slain Ayatollah Hakim, by the king of Spain, the president of France and the prime minister of Britain.
----------------------------------------------------
Citation: Susan Sachs, "Iraqi Shiites Enter New Era of Inclusion, Not Exclusion," New York Times, 21 December 2003.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/international/middleeast/21SHII.html?pagewanted=print&position=
----------------------------------------------------