Thursday, Aug 26, 2004

In the Amirneighbourhood of Najaf, Shakir Qassim, 25, is not a happy man. The holy city of Najaf has seen sustained fighting for nearly three weeks and yet the pre-eminent leader of Iraq's majority Shia community has sought refuge thousands of miles from his people. It was only yesterday that he returned to Iraq from London.

"Sistani escaped from Najaf. There are more hospitals in Baghdad to treat the same disease but he escaped to save himself," Mr Qassim says.

Nearby, Safa Abdel Zahra, 20, agrees. "Sistani escaped from Iraq because he was afraid. There are hospitals (in Iraq) that can treat him. At the end he is a coward."

Three weeks ago such outspoken criticism of the 73-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, hitherto the most influential spiritual leader in Iraq, would have been unthinkable.

Mr Sistani has consistently polled as Iraq's most popular figure. But on August 6 an ailing Mr Sistani was spirited out of Iraq for heart treatment. His supporters insist his illness is genuine but hint that he needed to leave Najaf because he was being held hostage by Moqtada al-Sadr, the renegade younger Shia cleric who has launched a bloody uprising against US forces.

By remaining all but silent through three weeks of fighting between US troops and Shia militiamen, Mr Sistani, along with fellow senior Shia scholars, has seen an erosion in his position in Iraq. Meanwhile the popularity of Mr Sadr and his more militant Islam has risen.

The struggle for Najaf's Imam Ali mosque, the holiest Shia shrine, where Mr Sadr and his militiamen have been holed up, is a high-stakes battle for control of the hawza, the Shia clerical establishment, and for leadership of the Shia world. Sixty per cent of Iraqis are Shia.

The tradition of the hawza has also been called into question. This is the process whereby students follow strict, decades-long study before emerging as mujtahids - scholars deemed able to think and argue for themselves - and possibly ayatollahs, who are sources of emulation and of guidance. This epitomises the difference between Mr Sistani - a grand ayatollah - and Mr Sadr, who is aged about 30, but who trades on the reputation of his father, who once had as much religious authority as Mr Sistani.

Mr Sistani's return yesterday appeared aimed at reasserting his authority in Najaf and placating his detractors. Popular anger has been deepened by the fact that Mr Sistani went to London rather than Iran, where he was born, or Lebanon, home to one of the Arab world's largest Shia minorities.

Britain was one of the countries that invaded Iraq last year, after all. British troops have recently been engaged in heavy fighting against Shia militiamen, Mr Sistani's constituency, in Meisan province. Up to 12 Iraqis were reported killed on Monday by British troops fighting in Amara.

The government of Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, has been keen to gain more outspoken support from Mr Sistani.

On Sunday a senior official in the Iraqi cabinet office visited Mr Sistani in hospital in London but received only Mr Sistani's "wishes for peace in Iraq especially in Najaf".

The reassertion of Mr Sistani's authority over Najaf is crucial for the Allawi government and for the US. With much of the Sunni heartland out of American or Iraqi government control, the Bush administration has relied on the ageing cleric - and changed its plans for political transition in accordance with his wishes - to keep Iraq's Shias from rising up against the occupation.

Most important, Mr Sistani and other senior clerics espouse a quietist Shia Islam that favours a separation of church and state, while Mr Sadr advocates a more politicised and militant Islam.

The split in the Shia community tends to fall neatly on class lines. The educated, be they religious or secular, support Mr Sistani, while many poor Iraqis - both Shia or Sunni - support the strongly nationalistic Mr Sadr. Back in Najaf, Mr Sistani still has his supporters, especially among the well-to-do. Ahmed Ali, 34, is a gold merchant who has been forced to close his shop. "We don't support Moqtada. If he wants to fight Americans he should fight them outside Najaf. We are followers of Sistani because he wants peace. Moqtada wants death for people."

Jassim Hussein, 22, a self-declared moderate, wants Mr Sadr to leave Najaf. "If it continues our family will die from hunger," he says. "We cannot work. We have closed our shop for the last 15 days. Suddenly you get these (mortar bombs) falling down next to your house."

* Militants have kidnapped two relatives of the Iraqi defence minister Hazim al-Shalaan and demanded that US forces leave Najaf and that Iraqi police free an aide to Mr Sadr, Al Jazeera television reported yesterday.

By JAMES DRUMMOND and AQIL HUSSEIN

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