MOOKIE GROWS UP:

Shi'ite power bloc in Iraq takes shape (Babak Rahimi, 4/04/07, Asia Times)

One of the oddest developments in the recent history of Iraq has been the growing connection between the young firebrand cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, and the highest-ranking Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani. In 2003, the erratic politics of Muqtada, with his mix of Arab nationalism and militant chiliastic ideology, was considered eventually to collide with Sistani's quietist form of Shi'ism, which advocates that clerics should maintain a clear distance from day-to-day state politics.

Since 2004, however, an unlikely alliance has gradually taken form between the former adversaries, which is bound to reshape Iraqi Shi'ite politics in the years to come. By and large, the relationship between the two clerics has been one of asymmetrical partnership, in which Sistani plays the superior partner, guiding the younger and less experienced Muqtada in his quest for becoming a legitimate leader of the Iraqi Shi'ite community.

In doing so, Sistani has tried to tame Muqtada by bringing him into the mainstream Najaf establishment to form a united Shi'ite front against extremist Sunnis and the United States. In return, Muqtada, who lacks religious credentials, has been using Sistani's support to legitimize his religious authority and expand his influence in southern Iraq. The relationship is mutually opportunistic, but also pragmatic, since the two clerics have not been able to ignore each other.

In broad terms, such an alliance signals two significant changes: first, a dramatic shift in the balance of power in Shi'ite Iraq in terms of the revival of the Hawza, as a cluster of seminaries and religious scholarly institutions in Najaf, and second, an increase of tension between Shi'ites and Sunnis in Iraq.

Cracks in Sadr's army: A freeze on the Iraqi militia's activities has spurred defections and fears that Iran is recruiting members. (Ned Parker, April 3, 2007, LA Times)

Seven weeks into the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad, leaders of the Al Mahdi militia of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr acknowledge that their fighters are chafing under orders to freeze operations, and worry they could lose control of the sprawling organization.

Some members have defected to armed groups that have no intention of calling a cease-fire. Commanders have gone underground, leaving a leadership void as U.S. forces arrest members in raids. Some commanders have fled to Iran and others to southern Iraq. Rumors abound about the location of Sadr.

Senior leaders of Sadr's movement also worry openly that Iran has started to recruit Al Mahdi fighters to possibly confront U.S. forces in Iraq.

Sadr's movement is part of the U.S.-backed government, but now American and Iraqi officials face the danger that the Al Mahdi militia may splinter into dozens of armed groups no longer under a national command.

As Mookie entered the mainstream the followers who believed he was radical were bound to peel off.

MORE:
Meet Iraq's Most Important Man (ELI LAKE, April 3, 2007, NY Sun)

The most important man in Iraq is someone of whom most Americans have never heard. He is not the general, David Patraeus, whom President Bush sent to Baghdad to win the war his wise men said could not be won. He is not Prime Minister Maliki, whose commitment to a unified Iraq Mr. Bush's national security adviser questioned in a leaked memo last winter. Nor is he the ethnic cleansing cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not shown his head in Baghdad since February.

Meet Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, the Sheikh who leads the Anbar Salvation Front. The front, a model now being emulated in Diyala and other provinces, could -- if it works --win the war. It is an affiliation of 42 local tribal chiefs dedicated to expelling al-Qaeda from Iraq. As opposed to the other Sunni Iraqi leaders, who spent the last four years trying to broker deals between the Americans and the less pious terrorists devoted to destroying any government that failed to reflect the Ba'athist fiction that Sunni Arabs are a majority in Iraq, the Anbar Salvation Front is coordinating its counter-terrorism with both the Marines and the elected government.

Mr. al-Rishawi agreed this month to participate in a counter-terrorism task force after Mr. Maliki personally paid him a visit in Ramadi. He also pledged allegiance to the Shiite led government and the office of the prime minister.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2007 7:37 AM