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May 2, 2002/Nisan 30, 5763 Vol. 55, No. 36
Iraq's Shi'ites taste freedom once again
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Twenty years ago in Lebanon, the Shi'ite Muslims turned within a matter of weeks from a suppressed community into the torch bearers of a national struggle.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, the Shi'ites in the South initially greeted the Israeli soldiers as liberators from PLO oppression.
However, once the Shi'ites realized that Israel planned to stay for a while, they became the spearhead of Lebanese resistance, forming the fundamentalist terrorist group Hezbollah as well as a secular militia, Amal.
Only a few days after the fall of Baghdad earlier this month, Shi'ite clergymen already were lifting the banner of resistance against the con-tinued presence of American troops in the country.
Like Lebanon's Shi'ites, the Shi'ites of Iraq enjoy the support of neighboring Iran, where a fundamentalist Shi'ite regime took power in the 1979 Revolution.
In the past few days, Shi'ite clerics have been streaming from Iran to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, Iraq's major Shi'ite teaching centers.
In addition, hundreds of Iraqi students who studied at Iran's religious seminaries have begun returning to Iraq.
On the face of it, it seems a legitimate return of exiled sons. But experts say it also represents an orchestrated attempt by Shi'ite radicals to export Iran's Islamic Revolution - and the Iraqi ground is ripe.
Shi'ite militants do not want to waste any time. The Iraqi-born Grand Ayatollah Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Shi'ites to "seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the future administration of Iraq and play their role in reconstructing their country."
Shi'ites make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population, some 13 million out of an estimated population of 22.4 million. There are 165 million Shi'ites worldwide.
Shi'ism is Islam's second largest branch after Sunni Islam, representing about 10 percent of the total Muslim world.
The sect emerged in the middle of the seventh century as "Shi'at Ali," or the faction of Ali Ibn Abu-Taleb, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shi'ites traditionally believed their religious leaders held a higher degree of political legitimacy than did the state.
Last week, in Karbala in central Iraq, Shi'ites staged a religious celebration that had been banned during Saddam's era.
Suddenly Iraqi Shi'ites smelled the sweet odor of political freedom.
They appointed neighbor-hood committees run by Shi'ite religious leaders, handed down fatwas calling for a Shi'ite takeover of the country, and self-appointed local mayors and governors.
How fast will the Shi'ite fire spread? The answer depends not just on the local scene but on possible outside support, mostly from Iran.
The Bush administration has issued stern warnings to Iran not to back Shi'ite resistance to the American presence in Iraq.
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