April 7, 2003
THE COMING SHIA-AMERICAN ALLIANCE:
Shiite Schism (Amir Taheri, Wall Street Journal, 4/7/2003)Ayatollah Ali Mohammed Sistani is a happy man. For the first time since 1988 he is not only not under house arrest but free to travel wherever he wishes. What's more, 22 of his relatives, held hostage by the Iraqi government since October, have returned home. A contingent of American Marines patrols Najaf, his hometown, widely regarded as the most sacred city in Shiite Islam....The 75-year-old ayatollah is the undisputed A'alam al-ulema (the most learned of the learned) of the mullahs who minister to the religious needs of Shiites.... This follows his fatwa last week -- the first pro-U.S. fatwa in modern political Islam -- in which he ordered Iraq's Shiites not to resist U.S.-led coalition forces.
The news is potent, and potentially tectonic in its impact. And with Saddam's regime disintegrating, Ayatollah Sistani is already talking of restoring Najaf's position as "the heart of Shiism."
What does this mean? Speaking on a satellite phone to this writer, the ayatollah said he had advised "believers not to hinder the forces of liberation, and help bring this war against the tyrant to a successful end for the Iraqi people." His emissaries have also gained control of mosques and seminaries in Karbala, to the north, the second most sacred city of Shiism. On Saturday, a delegation of his followers arrived in Baghdad, to "guide believers on the right path." "There is good in what happens," he said, quoting the Prophet Muhammad. "Our people need freedom more than air [to breath]. Iraq has suffered, and it deserves better government."
Ayatollah Sistani's close entourage goes further in its support of the U.S.-led coalition. "We shall never forget what the coalition has done for our people," says Hojat al-Islam Abdel Majid al-Khoi, son of the late grand Ayatollah Khoi, who was Iraq's supreme religious leader for almost 40 years. "A free Iraq shall be a living monument to our people's friendship with its liberators."
The friendship that is rising between Shia leaders and the United States is founded on something much deeper than a common interest in Saddam's defeat, and will long outlast that defeat. I am hopeful that this friendship will prove stronger than that which binds us to Japan and Germany, because it is founded in shared spiritual values.
Posted by Paul Jaminet at April 7, 2003 4:02 PM
I think not.
Shia Islam has always been in the minority in the Muslim world and they're not about to have that much influence on Sunni Muslims.
Oh and I'm not nearly well versed enough in Islamic history to understand all the issues behind the Shia-Sunni split but I think where Islam took a definite wrong turn was allowing Muawiyah to appoint his son as the next caliph, thus ending the tradition that he was to be appointed by a poll by the equivalent of the Muslim electoral college.
Although at the time given that succession issues had twice nearly led to widespread civil war breaking out I can see why prominent Muslims didn't protest too much.
I remember reading something along time ago that commentators originally praised the Westernizing Shah and singled out Iran's Shi'ism as why it was successfully modernizing. Then after the Islamic Revolution brought Khomeini to power, people started saying how bad Shi'ism was and why more conservative brands of Islam, like what the Saudi's practiced, was more inimical to US interests.
Personally, I hope that a Shia dominant Iraq combined with a Shia Iran with a (still yet) triumphant democratic reform movement could single the start of a true alliance among some Muslim countries with the US based on real sympathies and not just realpolitik. However, until events on the street actually indicate that, I wouldn't hold my breath for it.
Ali, you know much more about the Islamic world than I do. Still, I think it is inevitable that sooner or later Muslims will embrace freedom, after noticing that freedom leads to prosperity and success, and on the assumption that Allah wants his faithful followers to be prosperous and successful. And the people of Iraq and Iran seem to be psychologically prepared for freedom in a way most of the Islamic world is not.
Posted by: Paul Jaminet at April 7, 2003 8:44 PMIf anyone's interested in the interplay of some of these issues, Roy Mottahedeh's Mantle of the Prophet, which I've recently finished but not yet reviewed, is a terrific look at Iran and the history that led to the Revolution.
Posted by: oj at April 7, 2003 9:07 PMhttp://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/1237
Posted by: oj at April 7, 2003 9:08 PMPaul,
I suspect that the people in Iraq and Iran seem ready to embrace freedom so strongly simply because they've been living under such brutal tyrannies for so long.
Though to be sure, in the case of Iran, this was given as the reason Iranians were so willing to embrace Komeini.
I hope you're right, of course; but the more cynical might remark on the extreme shifts of reaction one sees in the region.
Barry - All true; tyranny has been tried and failed; and at least in Iraq and Iran, they seem to be ready to try freedom. If there is any ground within Islam for a libertarian philosophy to win purchase, I think some Iraqis and Iranians will look to build upon it. And so I was encouraged that there seems to be room for at least a foothold.
Posted by: pj at April 8, 2003 7:19 AM