United and divided

Newly empowered Shiites are wrangling over religion and politics as ayatollahs, and the U.S., seek to shape Iraq's new government.

By Jill Carroll

Feb 8, 2005 | Sitting in a white room paved with spotless rugs, Sheik Mohammed al-Khazai serenely welcomed visitors into his home and spread the word from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Iraq's new government and constitution must respect Shiite Islam's sharia law, Khazai said. That's hardly what U.S. policymakers had in mind when envisioning a democratic Iraq, but it's not an uncommon desire of religious leaders in the country. And Khazai is not an average cleric issuing demands from the pulpit at a Friday sermon.

Khazai was recently named a wakeel, or representative, for Sistani and another of the four grand ayatollahs who make up the top Shiite religious authority in Iraq, the marjiya. After the votes from last week's election are tallied -- a process expected to be completed Thursday -- Sistani and the other ayatollahs of the marjiya will officially become the most potent political force in the country. The United Iraqi Alliance, a slate of candidates loyal to the marjiya, is surging ahead in the vote count, undoubtedly because of a widely held belief that the candidates had Sistani's endorsement. "When [the marjiya] said that the election is a must for people, it was not for the purpose of establishing a National Assembly," said Khazai in a recent interview. Sistani told people it was their religious duty to vote to make "sure the coming constitution will not have [provisions that violate] Islam and that [the one] who rules Iraq is not a man but a constitution," Khazai said.

Many United Iraqi Alliance candidates share strong loyalties to the marjiya, and they are expected to try to see that their priorities are carried out -- meaning a heavy dose of religious law mixed into the constitution, something U.S. officials, Sunnis, Kurds and even some Shiites are loath to see happen. A showdown when it comes time to write the constitution, Shiites fear, could lead to civil dissent that would weaken their long-sought rise to power. With the unquestioned loyalty of millions of Shiites, and the backing of an electoral mandate, Shiite leaders already have a good deal of leverage to shape Iraq in their own vision. So the big question is the degree to which the marjiya will seek to influence the politicians.

On the one hand, Khazai says, the clerics don't want to interfere in the new government. But sensing the unprecedented opportunity Shiites finally have to rule in the manner they see fit, after decades of rule by the Sunni minority, the marjiya seem determined to ensure that the new government, and the constitution in particular, agree with their sensibilities. "The marjiya will not interfere unless people need it," Khazai said. But "if the marjiya find that the coming policies oppose the sharia, they [will feel] it is their duty to stop that policy." The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a conservative religious group whose candidates dominate the United Iraqi Alliance slate, is echoing the calls of the marjiya in insisting that a new constitution not violate sharia law. "We [want] this constitution to respect Islam as the religion for most of the people in Iraq," said Reda Taki, head of political relations for the Supreme Council. "The constitution won't respect any law against Islam."

Sharia consists of rules and regulations derived from the Koran and the Hadith, a record of what are believed to be practices of the prophet Mohammed. Sunni sharia law and Shiite sharia law are similar, but they do have a few differences. For example, Shiites place more emphasis on pilgrimages to holy cities like Najaf and Karbala, which has fueled the massive religious tourism industry in those two Iraqi towns. In addition, Shiites are permitted to hide their religion if being open about it would endanger them, a nod to their historical role as an oppressed underdog.

While seeking the guidance of religious leaders, United Iraqi Alliance candidates for the moment are trying to strike a diplomatic tone. They recognize that the touchy question of mixing religion and governance could make minorities like the Sunnis feel threatened or excluded, so, to assuage such fears, they are setting up a flurry of meetings with political groups across the spectrum, including Sunni clerics who boycotted the vote. "Because we are in the first steps of building a new country we have to be precise and wise. We don't want to provoke the others. It is the time for cooperating with others, not conflicting with them," said the Supreme Council's Taki, sitting on the edge of a couch, his knees bouncing in a sharp pinstriped suit and his hands fiddling with a string of brown prayer beads.

No matter what degree of involvement the clerics have, Taki insists no one has theocratic designs in mind for Iraq. "We don't believe in an Islamic state because the form of the people in Iraq is different [than in Iran]. Most of Iran is Shiite. And we don't believe at all in a Shiite state even though we will have a massive majority in the [National] Assembly."

Next Page: The large minority of Shiites who voted for secular candidates wonder how their views will be represented

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