http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/world/ny-woshia064139525feb09,0,4523247.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print
In Iraq, Shia hardline softens BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gone are the black shirts. Now the bodyguards of Sadr City's imams are wearing pale yellow knock-off Christian Dior turtlenecks with the designer's logo stitched below their hearts. During Friday prayer services last fall, the streets outside various mosques in the sprawling slum of Sadr City were the scenes of furious anti-American and anti-Iraqi government preaching. The clerics' bodyguards, soldiers in the Shia insurgent group called the Mahdi Army, were clad in black and carried their pistols holstered on their hips. Preaching on Friday to more than 3,000 men at the Mohsen mosque, radical cleric Nasser al-Saadi had absolutely nothing to say about the U.S. military presence, including the tank parked a few hundred yards away. His only mention of the Iraqi government was to criticize officials he alleged to be corrupt. There was not a gun in sight. Since the Jan. 30 election and preliminary results putting Shia parties in a commanding lead, there has been an almost tangible swelling of pride and empowerment in Iraq's majority Shia community. Leaders of large Shia parties have demanded that a new prime minister be appointed from among their ranks. At the same time, various Shia politicians have made the conciliatory noises of the victor toward the electorally vanquished Sunni minority. Perhaps the starkest sign that even Iraq's most extremist Shias are sniffing real power - the kind of power that comes from a huge voting bloc rather than a suicidal militia - is that the Mahdi Army seems gone, at least for now. "The Mahdi Army was established for relations between God and the people, not to carry weapons," said Fatah al-Sheikh, leader of the small but growing party called the Independent Elites and Cadres. A few months ago, al-Sheikh was the de facto spokesman for the Mahdi Army in Sadr City. He threatened an uprising against the American occupation, and warned that killing al-Sadr would provoke an all-out war. Now he wears a Prince of Wales checkered suit, insists there is no difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims and says Mahdi Army members could play a key role in Iraq's army and security forces. If the final tally goes his way, he could be taking his seat soon in the 275-member national assembly, which will be tasked with writing a permanent constitution. The Mahdi Army's shift to the mainstream was sped up by its heavy losses in pitched battles against the U.S. military in the holy city of Najaf as well as by the constructive role played by the Shias' Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who mediated the withdrawal of both the Mahdi and the U.S. armies from Najaf. But since then the Mahdi Army's leader, the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has kept a low profile and has watched as Sadr City and Najaf have undergone major urban renewal projects with the help and money of the Americans and the Iraqi government. In the elections, more than a dozen candidates, including al-Sheikh, ran with the tacit approval of al-Sadr. Al-Sheikh, despite the "Independent" in his party name, still speaks of al-Sadr as his leader. The rhetorical shift of Shia leaders like al-Sheikh is remarkable considering that two years ago they were still under the yoke of the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein. For decades, Iraq's Shia majority had suffered persecution and killings at the hands of the Sunni elite. After the regime fell in April 2003, Shia hit squads hunted down regime officials. Al-Sadr's armed men appeared as if from nowhere and seized control of Sadr City and other parts of Iraq. Then came the power struggles with the Americans, the Iraqi government and with other factions inside the Shia community. Their displays of power seemed highly organized but also tinted with the kind of directionless fury of an adolescent or an innocent man just released from prison. That anger seems to have tempered. While much remains unresolved - al-Sadr still advocates a fundamentalist form of Islamic government, unlike many other Shia clerics - the country's Shia politicians now are speaking almost as one about national unity and tolerance. There is anxiety among the minority Sunni population that the Shia leaders' words are what Arabs often call haki faadi, or empty noise. While many regular Shia Iraqis interviewed said they wanted to forgive their Sunni brethren for the sake of peace and national unity, some remain too angry and suspicious to forgive and forget. "If the Sunnis do not stop sabotaging and killing, and do not turn to building the country with us, and stop the aggression against us, we will do what we have to do," said Mohamed Kadim, 26, who works in a dry-cleaning shop in Najaf. Seven members of his family were executed by the Hussein regime, he said. "They have to remember they are the minority, and the Christians, Kurds and Shia want to take revenge on them." The possibility that under the rhetoric of brotherhood there remains a thick seam of such sentiments among the Shia community has some Sunni leaders anxious to see how the Shia parties use their new power. The United Iraqi Alliance used a "huge machine" to spread its campaign message, said Faisal Qaragholi, a top adviser to Sherif Ali bin al-Hussein, leader of the Constitutional Monarchy Party. Al-Hussein has regular communication with Sunni leaders in the insurgent stronghold of Anbar province and other Sunni regions of central Iraq. Was Qaragholi worried that members of the Shia coalition might use the same tactics to run the government their way? "That's exactly our worry, of course," he said. Other Iraqi politicians say that only time will tell whether the men who appear about to take power in Iraq will remain true to their pluralist, democratic rhetoric. "Let us hope that now they have understood," said Bakhtiar Amin, minister of human rights, "that everyone understands they will gain more through struggling in a peaceful manner than through violence. ... That violence will not advance their causes and will not bring this country to a peaceful shore." -- And, Lord, we're especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is, except for solar, which is just a pipe dream. -- Homer Simpson ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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