- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When
the United States wanted a Shi'ite cleric to strengthen the credibility
of the Iraqi Governing Council, it turned to Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, whose
family was almost annihilated for opposing Saddam Hussein.
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- Watching his hometown of Najaf come under U.S. bombardment
to crush Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers, Uloum has lost faith in American
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 Shi'ites.
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 Moqtada 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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- Uloum has been one of the most outspoken critics of violence
fueled by Sadr and his supporters, who have challenged the authority of
elder clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Uloum himself.
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- The established clerical class has come under mounting
criticism from ordinary Shi'ites for remaining silent over the U.S. offensive,
especially Sistani, who expressed sorrow at the events in Najaf but did
not condemn the U.S. offensive.
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- "FOREIGN CLERIC"
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- Sistani traveled to London as U.S. 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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- Sadr's supporters see Iranian-born Sistani as a foreign
cleric who staffed the Najaf seminaries with his followers at the expense
of Iraqi nationalist clerics. Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq,
challenged Sistani's authority as well as Saddam. He was killed in 1999.
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- Uloum, who acknowledges Sistani as the supreme living
Shi'ite religious figure, suggested that Sistani would have condemned the
U.S. offensive if he had full knowledge of it.
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- "Sayyed 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 U.S. offensive on Najaf
will undermine Sistani in the long term, and how much influence he will
retain among Iraq's majority Shi'ites, long persecuted and excluded from
power.
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- Like his father, 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, 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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- Uloum 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. "The consequences
are unthinkable."
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