Iraq's Ayatollah Sistani Warns UN Not to Back Constitution

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040321/ts_nm/iraq_un_sistani_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United Nations (news - web sites) must not endorse Iraq (news - web sites)'s U.S.-backed interim constitution because it could lead to the break-up of the occupied country, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite Muslim cleric said.

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said he will boycott a U.N. team expected to visit Iraq shortly to help form an interim government unless the world body says it will not back the interim constitution.

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[Malva Zebrina]

1. the world is being jerked around by George Bush, fascist dictator

[Robbien]

2. Isn't Sistani a pretty powerful man in Iraq

Isn't he the one who BaghdadBurning says everyone listens to, even the CPA. This could be trouble for Bush&Co.

[madrchsod]

9. one of the most powerful

man in iraq,it`s pretty much up to him what is going to happen in the area he controls-can you say "civil war/religious?"

[Just Me]

3. What, exactly, does al_Sistani want?

I mean, aside from regaining voice,...WTF? I know he objects to the veto thing. What is his problem?

[NNN0LHI]

4. I think he wants his country back? But I am just guessing n/t

[Zorba607]

6. no shit

I thought he'd just said the constitution was ok, it was the iterim council he had a problem with. I have no clue what could be done to satisfy him. I mean, why not meet with the un? They're obviously taking great risk to be somewhere and take care of a situation that as a body they were opposed to, that doesn't strike me as the actions of a group seeking any sort of personal gain or other agenda (unlike, say, the US). No sense to me, and here I thought I somewhat understood what sistani was striving for.

[daleo]

7. Partly, I think he is just playing Bush for a fool

The constitution is no good...
OK, I will sign (or at least not object)...
No, it is no good...
OK, I will agree for now, under protest...
It is no good, the UN better not endorse it...

On the other hand, I read a copy of it once, and I am not surprised that a religious leader of his type would not really endorse it. If taken seriously, a lot of it was really quite liberal, and not something that someone who preferred a theocracy is likely to care for.

[Xithras]

8. Sistani is trying to protect his people

al Sistani isn't an extremist...far from it actually. He is a quiet, introspective religious leader who eschews jihadi fatwa's in favor of religious self-improvement. He lives a peaceful existence and is one of the few power players in the middle east who genuinely cares about the people he represents.

al Sistani's objections to the constitution are troublesome, but you have to understand where they come from. As the supreme religious leader to the largest portion of the population in Iraq, he was forced to sit by and watch his people persecuted, slaughtered, and stripped of all dignity in a land they dominated. He himself was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by Hussein, and he is ONLY alive today because the Shiites would have revolted if he'd been executed. He was Hussein's #1 enemy, and the one guy Hussein didn't dare touch.

Al Sistani simply wants to make sure that nothing like that will ever happen again. He refuses to support ANY constitution that grants the nations minorities the ability to overrule or oppress its majority. He believes in true "majority rules" democracy, and won't accept any political maneuvering that strips the majority of its power.

[Babel_17]

5. I'm not sure I understand

All I can do is guess that al-Sistani has a very ambivalent opinion of the new constitution and at a minimum is reserving the option to disavow it if/when he feels it appropriate. So, following that, he doesn't want the UN to make the new constitution more official then it is in all reality.

Convoluted logic but all I can think of.

Does anyone have an explanation? Tia.

[pw]

10. al-Sistani is jockeying for position

If he can make Twit and the UN dance to his tune, then his faction (and even if he's moderate for a cleric, that hardly makes him a moderate) can grab additional power and help turn Iraq into a theocracy (or more likely, a bunch of warring theocracies).

The US demolished pretty much every nonreligious institution that was left in the country after Saddam's rule, so who's suprised that the clerics are the ones with the power (and the militias)?

[alcuno]

11. Sistani is waiting us out.

Not long ago he issued a statement saying that after June 30, he expected the US to leave. The statement got little or no play here.

[indypaul]

12. The biggest fear in Iraq is

a civil war which I fear is just around the corner.
This has been on the back burner since day one of this whole
fiasco. A theocracy has been developing and our unilateral
approach to the entire problem is about to fall down around
our ears. Our purchased coalition recognizes this and has
now determined it has the potential of destroying their own
governments in their respective countries. They will be leaving
us one by one and we cannot or will not recognize the inevitable.
One can only hope that our attempt to bring a now very reluctant
U N into this mess will succeed and the U S will quietly extricate
our forces before an all out civil war erupts.