- (Reuters) -- When the United States wanted a Shia cleric
to strengthen the credibility of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), it
turned to Muhammad Bahr al-Uloum, whose family had lost many members for
opposing Saddam Hussein.
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- Watching his hometown of Najaf come under US bombardment
to crush Muqtada al-Sadr and his supporters, Bahr al-Uloum has lost faith
in US intentions toward Iraq, and says millions of moderates like him,
who welcomed last year's invasion, now regard Washington as an enemy.
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- "The Americans have turned the holy city into a
ghost town. They are now seen as full of hatred against Najaf and the Shia.
Nothing I know of will change this," the former president of the now
defunct council said on Friday.
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- "I do not understand why America craves crisis.
A peaceful solution to the confrontation with Muqtada could have been reached.
We were hoping that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi would lead the way, but
he sided with oppression."
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- Bahr al-Uloum has been one of the most outspoken critics
of violence fuelled by Sadr and his supporters, who have challenged the
authority of elder clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Bahr
al-Uloum himself.
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- The established clerical class has come under mounting
criticism from ordinary Shia for remaining silent over the US offensive,
especially al-Sistani, who expressed sorrow at the events in Najaf but
did not condemn the US offensive.
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- Iranian cleric
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- Al-Sistani travelled to London as US forces launched
their offensive on Najaf last week to seek treatment for a heart condition.
His aides say the problem is not life threatening.
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- Al-Sadr's supporters see Iranian-born and Iranian passport
holder al-Sistani as a foreign cleric who staffed the Najaf seminaries
with his followers at the expense of Iraqi nationalist clerics.
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- Traditional objection
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- Al-Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr,
challenged al-Sistani's authority as well as that of Saddam. He was killed
in 1999. Iranians and Iraqis exchanged accusations blaming each other for
killing al-Sadr.
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- Bahr al-Uloum, who acknowledges al-Sistani as the supreme
living Shia religious figure, suggested that al-Sistani would have condemned
the US offensive if he had full knowledge of it.
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- "Sayyed (Shia title) al-Sistani is ill. I do not
think he has knowledge of the destruction being wreaked in Najaf. He might
have a vague idea of clashes, but not killings and oppression," he
said.
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- It remains to be seen whether the US offensive on Najaf
will undermine al-Sistani in the long term, and how much influence he will
retain among Iraq's Shia.
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- Plight of the poor
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- Like his father, al-Sadr made the theme of dispossession
a basis for his political platform and raised the plight of the poor, saying
living conditions have not improved since the United States toppled Saddam.
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- Although the young Sadr lacked political maturity, dealing
with him through force only bolstered his support, especially among the
poor and unemployed, Bahr al-Uloum said.
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- "The government has lost the support of the Middle
Euphrates region and the south, even if it manages to calm down these areas
temporarily using brute force," he said, referring to clashes in central
and southern Iraq.
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- He said Sadr should have been given a political voice
in government to avert violent confrontation. "There is no wisdom
to what the Americans and Allawi are doing," he said.
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- "The consequences are unthinkable."Ý
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