Iraqi Cleric's Citizenship at Issue (al-Sistani)

[DoYouEverWonder]

AP Wire

January 26, 2004, 3:39 PM EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The newfound influence of Iraq's most prominent Shiite Muslim cleric is raising a sensitive and potentially divisive question: How did someone gain such power even though he's an Iranian?

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani has swiftly become one of Iraq's most important figures with his opposition to the U.S. blueprint for transferring power to the Iraqis by July 1. He has drawn tens of thousands of supporters out to protest the American plans, and they obey just as quickly when he asks that they stay home.

more....




So wait a second, we got rid of Saddam, a secular Iraqi for an Iranian Muslim cleric? What's wrong with this picture?

[daleo]

1. I wonder if he was given the option to take out Iraqi citizenship

Fifty years (the article says he is about 75, and has been living in Iraq for over half a century) is a long time to live somewhere without taking out citizenship. The article does not mention whether he ever applied for citizenship or not. It is certainly possible that there was some religious bar to his taking out citizenship, imposed either by the state or himself. This point should be addressed one way or another.

[Aidoneus]

2. a bit on the politics of this

even though he's not much a politician himself.

Najaf is the essentially the top international school of all the Shias (Qom and Mashhad in Iran may rival, but are not as historically important as the sites of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq except in the period of Saddam's heavy hand), called the hawza, and considered to be a "special case"/left to itself until the Baathists began to feel threatened by pan-Shia political activism ("national borders" in this case are not wholly binding as in the typical sense, as they were drawn by the European imperialist powers without consideration of the existing tendencies--thus the daawa efforts and political movements often tended to be internationally oriented).

The 4 top Grand Ayatallahs in the Najafi hawza are not Iraqi-Arab born, and Sayyid al-Sistani is without a living superior in his field (the closest to Sistani's accomplishment would be Ayatallah al-Uzhma al-Sayyid Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah in Lebanon--whom the CIA once tried to assassinate in what ended up as a horrible massacre of mostly women and young girls--, and he recognizes Sistani as his superior); he accomplished this mostly by keeping to himself and quietly gaining respect as most of his peers were executed. That he stuck his neck out on the elections point is notable. The other three top figures are another Persian, an Afghan, and a Pakistani.

The top Iraqi-born Ayatallah is considered to be Ayatallah al-Uzhma al-Sayyid Kazim al-Haeri. He went into exile many years ago, and has yet to return from his residence in Qom, Iran. Muqtada Sadr's father, who was one pillar of Iraqi Shiism in the 90s (Sistani being the other), designated him as his successor before he was executed by Saddam's agents; one of Sadr's agitations is to have Sistani replaced by Haeri as marjaiyya for Iraqis of the Jafari madhhab in the Najafi schools. Thus Sadr has a reason (petty as it may be) to chip away at Sistani along with the others.

That some of the Sunnis see Sistani as an Iranian agent is somewhat understandable (and a fairly prominent theme in communiques applying to other people); in general they are more strictly Arab nationalist in orientation and do not align with the same currents as those he represents. "Sunni" Islamic movements may instead see him as a rival figure with a similar platform, though the "Shia" movement in Iraq has tended to not be so much sectarian as much as they are in general for an Islamic State--the sectarian divisions are seen, ideally, as arbitrary and only benefiting their common enemies, but are often effectively binding anyway.

That Abdelaziz al-Hakim stumps for Sistani at the end of that piece isn't really helpful to the point--many of the Hakims are Persian by birth themselves (a Hakim is one of the 4 top Grand Ayatallahs in the Najafi hawza mentioned above, and is Persian by birth), and his martyred brother's Badr Corps/SAIRI organization was formed in Tehran during the 80s war to act as a provisional government if Iran ever captured Basrah. I guess the point he makes is right (not being Iraqi, it is not really my business to dictate an agenda to them any more it isn't the business of the crusaders who criminally invaded and occupy Iraq), but could be countered by the same people for the same reasons as in other parts of the article.

Not too terribly organized and ends on a bit of an "eh" note, as per my usual.. :(