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In Iraq, every picture tells a
story
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
BAGHDAD and KARBALA, Iraq - The Grand Ayatollah
Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim emerged as a leading figure in
the Shi'ite community through his untiring struggle
against the Saddam Hussein regime. But now his position
as the leader of the most organized Shi'ite grouping
faces a challenge from sections opposed to his perceived
pro-US stance.
 Hakim, 63, returned to Iraq in
early May after more than two decades of exile in
neighboring Iran. There he had formed a movement
advocating theocratic rule for Iraq and conducted a
low-level, cross-border guerrilla war against the regime
of Saddam. His movement, the Supreme Assembly for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), was directly
supported with funds by Tehran and with arms by Iran's
elite Revolutionary Guard.
But now one of
Hakim's SAIRI members, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, is a part
of the 25-member Governing Council appointed by the
United States to help the US civil administration run
Iraq until the country is handed over to a
democratically elected government, and to give the
country's majority Shi'ites a voice after being largely
denied by Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.
This
willingness on the part of Baqir al-Hakim to participate
in the US process presents many Shi'ites with an awkward
dilemma. On the one hand his religious pedigree is
excellent, while on the other his political judgment now
appears flawed.
Hakim profits from
identification with his father, Ayatollah Muhsin
al-Hakim, who was the spiritual leader of Shi'ite
Muslims around the world until his execution at the
hands of Saddam in 1970. For the average Shi'ite, their
clergy is the most sacred thing on earth and they dare
not deviate from their guidance.
However, this
subservience is being overridden by the desire on the
part of many Shi'ites to rebel against the presence of
US troops in the country in place of Hakim's more
conciliatory approach. This sentiment is being
championed by Muqtada al-Sadr, a charismatic 30-year-old
cleric from the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, and who also
comes from a powerful clerical dynasty. He is the son of
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999
by agents presumed to be working for Saddam. Also on
this bandwagon are members of the Iraqi Communist Party,
back to life after decades of exile and disrepair, and
now determined to make its own grab for at least a share
of power.
Baghdad barometer
The
al-Kadhmiya neighborhood in Baghdad is home to the
shrine of Imam Musa Kazim, the seventh successor of the
Prophet Mohammed, who is deeply revered by Shi'ites.
This is one of the few areas in the Iraqi capital where
daily life goes on much as before as pilgrims from all
the over the world keep the local economy ticking over,
as evidenced by busy streets, hotels and restaurants.
However, there is one significant difference
from the past. From almost every shop blare the speeches
of Shi'ite scholars extolling the Islamic way of life
and Islamic revolution. Near the Imam's shrine, banners
bearing the slogans of revolution are plentiful, while
hawkers sell the sermons of the late Ayatollah Khomeini,
leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, in
books and on compact discs.
Jostling for space
on walls near the shrine are Communist Party banners
singing the praises of former Iraqi president Abdul
Karim Qasim, whose accession to power through a coup in
1958 ended the monarchy. Qasim was assassinated in 1963
when the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Ba'ath Party)
took power.
Southern indicator
To the
south of Baghdad in Najaf, which has traditionally been
a nest for the Ba'ath Party, Muqtada al-Sadr - a vocal
critic of the US occupation of Iraq - has emerged as a
key figure. Some doubts have been expressed about the
young cleric's intentions, let alone his qualifications.
Either way, last Thursday about 10,000 men showed up in
Najaf to join the "army of al-Mahdi" in response to a
request from Muqtada al-Sadr, so clearly he has some
credibility, and growing clout.
Much farther
south, near Basra, vast marshlands are home to Shi'ite
Biduwiyan tribes. At the time that Saddam was
suppressing the heads of the Shi'ite clergy and their
followers, these tribes remained loyal to Saddam and in
return received monthly stipends in the form of drought
relief funds and a degree of political power. They still
constitute a stronghold for Saddam's followers, and they
have recently allied with Muqtada al-Sadr.
After
the fall of Saddam's regime, his pictures in streets,
homes and mosques were widely replaced by those of Baqir
al-Hakim and his father Muhsin al-Hakim. To date, these
pictures remain. But very recently images of Muqtada
al-Sadr have appeared on the walls of two sacred shrines
in Karbala, site of the 7th-century martyrdom of
al-Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and one
of the Shi'ites' most revered saints, and his younger
brother al-Abass.
These portraits could
represent the true picture of things to come for Iraq's
Shi'ites.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co,
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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