What, you’ve never seen an 80-year-old man in robes walk a tightrope before?
From the Associated Press today:
Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.   ÂThe edicts, or fatwas, by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani suggest he seeks to sharpen his long-held opposition to American troops and counter the populist appeal of his main rivals, firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.
. . . So far, al-Sistani’s fatwas have been limited to a handful of people. They also were issued verbally and in private — rather than a blanket proclamation to the general Shiite population — according to three prominent Shiite officials in regular contact with al-Sistani as well as two followers who received the edicts in Najaf.
. . . In the past, al-Sistani has avoided answering even abstract questions on whether fighting the U.S. presence in Iraq is allowed by Islam. Such questions sent to his Web site — which he uses to respond to followers’ queries — have been ignored. All visitors to his office who had asked the question received a vague response.
The subtle shift could point to his growing impatience with the continued American presence more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion.
It also underlines possible opposition to any agreement by Baghdad to allow a long-term U.S. military foothold in Iraq — part a deal that is currently under negotiation and could be signed as early as July.
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It’s notable that Sistani’s allies made a concerted effort to leak this news the day after the grand ayatollah met with prime minister Maliki, during which he likely conveyed his thoughts on what kind of agreement with the U.S. (if any) would pass muster with the marjaiya.
Substantively, though, in many ways this news shouldn’t come as a surprise. Sistani has never been willing to endorse the U.S. occupation, even as he was letting American troops level much of his home city of Najaf in order to flush Moqtada al-Sadr out of the Imam Ali shrine in 2004. And conversely, no matter how (literally) bloody the rivalry between Sistani’s allies/followers and Sadr’s has been, the grand ayatollah has repeatedly intervened in disputes to support or even rescue Mookie when the latter’s back was against the wall.
I don’t think this news story is a move to “counter the populist appeal” of Sadr, as the AP story and some blogger commentaries have theorized — if Sistani wants to burnish his anti-occupation street cred with the Iraqi people, I doubt he’ll do it through anonymous leaks to the Associated Press. Instead, it seems more logical that he’s trying to signal to an American audience (namely, the Bushites) not to push their luck too far with regard to Sadr.
And it’s probably a signal he wants the Sadrists to notice, as an “I’ve got your back” gesture to help grease their current truce with the Maliki government… all in service of keeping Iraq’s Shiite factions, if not on the same page, at least not outwardly at each other’s throats. Which, of course, has been Ayatollah Sistani’s primary goal for almost as long as there’s been an occupation to oppose.
Stumble it!
June 11th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
[...] of Iraqi complaints to U.S. media outlets about the proposed security deal that began with associates of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani leaking rumors of his increasing unease with the occupation a few weeks ago. [...]