Clerics Raise Fear of Islam Ruling Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031204/ap_on_re_eu/iraq_islamic_republic&cid=518&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In an Iraq (news - web sites) torn by uncertainty, Shiite Muslim clerics are easing into the role of the nation's guardians and protectors of the faith — a newfound power that many see as a harbinger of a future in which the clergy shapes the country's politics.


The prospect of an Iranian-style, clergy-ruled state is dismissed by some as unrealistic, given Iraq's ethnic and religious diversity and the secular traditions of its educated classes. But the influence of Shiite clergy is so huge that the possibility cannot be ruled out.


"In my view, an Islamic state can be set up in Iraq, but it will be an Islamic state of the Iraqi variety," said Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi, a senior cleric from the holy city of Karbala. "It will be an Islamic state that's open toward other civilizations."


An Islamic state or an administration with a heavy religious slant would leave the Bush administration in an awkward position: replacing a brutal dictator with a government likely to share the widespread, regional resentment toward the United States as the power behind Israel, the nemesis of Arabs and Muslims. Such a government would also sympathize with Shiite Iran.


Portraits of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, adorn the walls of virtually every Shiite cleric's office in Iraq...

more

[Onward]

1. Sounds Good

...to me.

[mikehiggins]

2. What else did anyone expect?

Did anyone really buy the neocon fantasy of building a glowing example of democracy on the backs of the Tigris? Islam is a very much more important part of daily life in the region than Christianity ever was in the colonies. Of course it's going to play a large part in whatever kind of government staggers into existence over there.

The funniest part of this situation, if anything can be considered funny, will be the expression on Bush's face when the new improved government tells him to get the hell out of Dodge.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I can't wait for the Bush/Ayatollah photo op in the Rose Garden

Wonder if Junior will invite tyhe new Ayatollah to the ranch for the weekend?

Don

[saigon68]

5. THEY WON'T BE EATING BABY BACK RIBS

Nor will they be drinking Lone Star.

[Neutrino]

3. It just illustrates the complete lunacy of the Bush Admin--

how hard was it NOT to see that this would happen? In Bush's blind
lust for Oil and control of the Middle East--(something he accused
Saddam of) he is now hoist on his own petard. What a pity that so
many lives have been lost. Bush's "Faith" is the PLAN, not God.
The death and destruction that he has caused to Culture and Humanity
are so in excess of anything that has gone before that no amount
of "rebuilding" can ever erase these awful deeds. It is a shame
that it will take so long for History to record his name along with
the evil conquerers he mirrors.

[leftchick]

6. well this certainly is an understatement....

<snip>Iraq's U.S.-led occupation authorities are wary of the rise of the Shiite clergy's political fortunes in recent months, something that Washington planners may not have counted on in a post-Saddam Iraq.