Reported Murder Plot Cements Cleric's Stature

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040207/ts_latimes/reportedmurderplotcementsclericsstature&cid=2026&ncid=1480

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"A successful assassination of Sistani would be a disaster for Iraq," said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group research organization. "He has been a voice of moderation … and that moderating voice would be gone.

"There would be a need for revenge, so you would have a very bloody situation. There's no one else with the stature to hold together the different factions."
Sistani's portraits initially remind many Westerners of his onetime colleague and fellow Iranian, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But Sistani has acquired and exercised his influence in a vastly different manner.

Whereas Khomeini exhorted his followers to revolt and then took up the role of supreme political leader, Sistani has demonstrated his power as much by counseling restraint as by urging political action.

And although he has proved that he can summon tens of thousands of followers to the streets, he has accomplished this from the sheltered confines of his study — shunning public appearances and issuing most pronouncements through intermediaries.