A rchive Date
[ 14-04-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Salim_Mansur/2004/04/14/419950.html
Muqtada's deadly power quest
SALIM MANSUR, For the London Free Press
2004-04-14
The ferocity of recent violence across Iraq once again provides the world a glimpse inside a terribly sick society.
The bid for power by Muqtada al-Sadr, a charlatan and a thug posing as a Shiite cleric with his militia of lumpen elements, was a year in the making. His attack on American forces in Iraq was a feint to ignite a movement against the ranks of Shiite clergy located in Najaf around Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani.
Senior members of the Iraqi Shiite clergy are fully aware of Muqtada's ambitions and ruthlessness, but they find themselves in a quandary on how to disarm him without being viewed by Iraqis in this volatile situation as American puppets.
Muqtada bears the name of a highly respected Shiite family that suffered greatly under Saddam Hussein. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Muqtada's uncle, was a charismatic cleric and an intellectual leader with a huge following in the period after the 1958 anti-monarchical military coup in Baghdad. He was executed on orders of Saddam in April, 1980. Sadiq al-Sadr, Muqtada's father, was a minor cleric, but paid with his life in 1999 when he challenged Saddam's authority.
Muqtada, apart from bearing the name, bears no resemblance to his uncle and father. But he has successfully traded his family history for popularity in the fluid situation after the fall of Baghdad last spring. He repudiated al-Sistani's advice to remain distant from politics and maintain the sanctity of religion by adopting Khomeini's Iranian model as his objective for Iraq.
A year ago, Muqtada ordered the killing of a moderate rival cleric, Majid al-Khoei, who was returning home from exile in Britain. Al-Khoei was hacked to death in the shrine mosque of Imam Ali, the founder of Shiism, in Najaf. Some six months later, an Iraqi magistrate issued an arrest warrant for Muqtada on the charges of involvement in al-Khoei's murder.
Here, the coalition provisional authority, led by U.S. administrator Paul Bremer, committed an error.
The CPA, instead of arresting Muqtada, preferred the Shiite establishment to work out a solution. This only emboldened Muqtada and his thugs, as the Shiite establishment hesitated to confront him. For the Shiite leadership, democracy is a code word to get rid of the Sunni domination of Iraq and turn the page on their brutal persecution that runs through the heart of Arab-Muslim history.
In his bid for power, Muqtada joined those Sunni Iraqis still fighting the coalition forces, and appealed for a common front against Americans, using Saddam's discredited language of Arab nationalism.
They are not alone - their numbers swelled by Arab-Muslim fanatics, members of al-Qaida and its network of terrorists, and agents of Iranian ayatollahs - in the recent effort Muqtada mounted to derail the U.S.-led project for Iraqi democracy.
Americans, in this instance, have waded into the hell of Middle Eastern politics without fully comprehending the peculiar culture of its people. Here the people share a common characteristic of an excess of emotions suffocating reason, and among Shiite Muslims this trait is reflected in the recurrent orgy of ritualistic mourning for the murdered Husayn, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed.
Americans have been excessively cautious in a culture where, frequently, massive force is used to contain mob fury. The enemies of freedom and democracy, however, took American caution as a sign of weakness to be exploited. The Shiite establishment, on the other hand, by its indecision, has been consistent with its history of failing its own purpose.
Instead of confronting Muqtada, it nursed its demon that now throws into great jeopardy its wish for a democratic Iraq under a constitutional package prepared by the Iraqi Governing Council.
The present difficulties in Iraq are not indicative of another Vietnam-in-the-making for America.
It may, however, be another Karbala Iraqis are making for themselves, predictably to cry over their own duplicity as they mourn for the prophet's grandson betrayed by their ancestors.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays.
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