Uprising Has Increased the Influence of Sunni Clerics

[Barrett808]

Uprising Has Increased the Influence of Sunni Clerics
By EDWARD WONG
Published: May 31, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 30 — Words of fire shot out of the imam's mouth, hot enough to ignite the kindling in the hearts of the thousands of worshipers sitting before him.

"Our enemy is planning or conspiring and has plans to tear apart this country and destroy its unity," said the white-turbaned Sunni imam, Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, at a recent sermon in the sprawling building once known as the Mother of All Battles Mosque.

"They have many plans to make conflict between Iraqis, between sects, between ethnic groups, between tribes, between students and teachers, between the military and civilians," he said, chopping his fist through the air. "They shake hands with the people of Falluja with their right hand, but they shoot them with their left hand."

The enemy is America, and since the uprising last month that message has been hammered into the heads of worshipers every week across the country, more intensely and with greater effect than ever before. These days, no political soapbox is more powerful than Friday Prayer, and clerics are taking advantage of that to spread hatred of the occupation and to increase their own popularity. The surge in influence — which has come about largely because of the absence of strong, charismatic politicians — is especially noticeable among Sunni clerics, who have traditionally held less sway over followers than Shiite clerics like Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The rising power of Sunni religious leaders presents serious hindrances for the Bush administration as it tries to build legitimacy for an Iraqi government that it plans to endow with modest sovereignty on June 30.

(more)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/international/middleeast/31SUNN.html

[rfkrocks]

1. So let me get this straight

we went to war under the newly created Bush doctrine (preemptive war), spent our country into a black hole of debt, spit in the eye of our european allies and the UN, have 800 dead and 5,000 wounded GIs and have hurt unknown thousands of Iraqis civilians and now we will have a radical fundamental government in charge when we leave-Can November come soon enough?