Firebrands & Hotheads: Younger Clerics

"There are clerics who are very moderate and who understand what the current situation demands, and there are clerics who have political agendas and who marshal forces for their own gain," said Joost Hilterman, the Middle East director of the International Crises Group. "Those are the dangerous ones."
--New York Times, February 26, 2006


In the article quoted above, Joost Hilterman goes on to say, "The more political clerics are quite willing to push their agendas no matter what it might lead to, including civil war and the breakup of the country."

Aside from the growing power of the anti-American Shi'ite, Moqtada al-Sadr, who is said to be in his mid-thirties and to command thousands, is his main rival, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a cleric and the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamaic Revolution in Iraq, or Sciri, which not only commands the Badr Brigades and its Death Squads, but also preaches anti-Americanism, which used to be the preserve of Mr. Sadr.

It was Mr. Hakim who accused American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of having set off the bombing of the Golden Mosque by his stern talk about purging militias from the Interior Ministry. To Westerners, such an accusation is ludicrous, but to followers of Mr. Hakim, it made some sort of deadly sense.

Using the power of the sermon to whip up the emotions of mostly illiterate young Shi'ite males, these clerics, who also hold positions of political power in the fledgling government, may soon render not just the more moderate voices in Iraq moot, but also any ability of the Americans to influence Iraq.

Meanwhile, older and more moderate clerics like the Grand Ayatollah Sistani are being forced into more aggressive stances in order to maintain their own influence over the masses.

And the younger voices are becoming more and more strident and anti-American. Even as Moqtada al-Sadr made a belated appearance to appeal for calm after four days of bloodshed and violence, his vitriol against the United States had not abated.

Blaming the American military for the recent violence, he told Iraqis to "cut off the head of the snake."

In a comment so ironic it blasts the mind to think he could not have seen the irony, Sadr said, "We got rid of the accursed Saddam…" (which, of course, begs the question, Who's WE, kimosabe?), and continued, "only to be replaced by another dictatorship…of Britain, America, and Israel."

According to reporters on the scene, writing for the New York Times, thousands of followers, some waving Kalashnikov rifles, cheered in the streets.