August 29, 2007
NATURE ABHORS A POWER VACCUUM:
Instant ayatollahs vie for power (Christoph Reuter, August 29, 2007, Record Online)
While Washington has been busy focusing on the divisions between Shiites and Sunnis that have led to nonstop sectarian violence in the country, the deep divisions within the Shia community itself have gone almost unnoticed. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at August 29, 2007 7:59 AMIn addition, a new type of Shia leader has emerged: self-appointed clerics who combine the might of armed militias with an almost messianic sense of purpose.
Among these "instant ayatollahs" is Farqad al-Qazwini, who set up his own hawza after being dismissed from the Najaf seminary, and Dhia Abdul-Zahra al-Garawi, who headed a group called the Soldiers of Heaven before being killed during a confrontation with Iraqi and U.S. forces near Najaf earlier this year.
But the most powerful, and some would say the most dangerous, of these figures is Sayyid Mahmud Hassani al-Sarkhi
Many in Karbala regard him as a serious threat to security and stability, and accuse him of being behind several successful and attempted assassinations of Shia scholars and clerics who have criticized him.
Largely unknown before 2003, Sarkhi now presides over the Sadiq Hawza, with more than 500 students, leads the Wala (Loyalty) political party and commands between 15,000 and 20,000 followers in various southern provinces of Iraq as well as an armed militia.
His followers have clashed repeatedly with Iraqi security forces as well as with supporters of other ayatollahs.
Shouldn't you have titled this post "There is no Shiastan"?
Posted by: Brandon at August 29, 2007 2:04 PMThere is Shiastan, there's no Iraq.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2007 3:54 PMYeah, but if the Shia are going to fight it out amongst themselves as semi-independent warlords, doesn't that mean there isn't really a Shiastan?
Posted by: Brandon at August 29, 2007 4:06 PMCome, let us drink to confusion to the enemy, to the fragmentation, the dissolution, of the spiritual jailhouse, as once we toasted the confusion of the jailhouse of nations.
Posted by: Lou Gots at August 29, 2007 4:51 PMThe Crusaders sacked Constantinople. Takes a while to sort out power.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2007 6:51 PMNo, it means the governor of Shi'astan hasn't been determined yet. They're centuries behind Christendom, which we run.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2007 6:52 PMThe trouble is, Lou, that OJ doesn't seem to think these thugs are the enemy. Based on what I read around here, if the election came down to Rudy and a somehow eligible Mookie, I fear OJ would be supporting the latter.
Posted by: PapayaSF at August 29, 2007 6:53 PMBingo! They aren't our enemy, but they are yours.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2007 9:54 PMIt's the scowl - he loves the scowl.
Of course lots of Shi'a Saddam wannabes are going to emerge. They were suppressed for so long that it would have been surprising if these thugs didn't come forward. They're unsuccessful imams who want to be successful gangsters (as they have observed in Iran).
The problem for OJ is that these guys are the enemy of the Shi'a (just like Mookie is), not just the Sunni and/or the Kurds and the US. If there is a Shiastan, these guys are doing their best to turn it into Gaza. Not so smart.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 29, 2007 11:49 PMAre the armed militias the jailhouse version of classroom nuns?
At what point do these bozos decide "I gotta get me some gunmen"? Is it in the Koran? Or is it more like the Mob (which, though Catholic, was hardly Christian).
Posted by: ratbert at August 30, 2007 7:23 AMAre the armed militias the jailhouse version of classroom nuns?
At what point do these bozos decide "I gotta get me some gunmen"? Is it stipulated by the Koran? Or is it more like the Mob (which, though Catholic, was hardly Christian).
Posted by: ratbert at August 30, 2007 7:24 AMSocieties cycle through the gangs until they find one that impose order and afford liberty. It's nothing new.
Posted by: oj at August 30, 2007 10:33 AM