IRAQ: Baghdad's most powerful Shia cleric warned yesterday he would use a "hand of iron" to impose an extreme vision of Islam that could seriously challenge America's secular ambitions for Iraq.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartousi, a youthful hardliner, said he would vigorously enforce a new fatwa that bans alcohol, commands women to wear veils and orders cinemas to close.
The sheikh appears to have considerable popular support in the vast, impoverished Shia district in eastern Baghdad, formerly known as Saddam City, where his supporters stepped in swiftly to fill the power vacuum.
Sheikh Fartousi (31) admitted having up to a thousand armed men under his control, several of whom were guarding his office yesterday at the small al-Hekma mosque. While US troops continue to patrol most of Baghdad, there were none in evidence in the Shia district yesterday.
On Friday, during lunchtime prayers, the sheikh issued his fatwa, ordering his new laws to be in place by the end of this week. Several alcohol factories were attacked hours later.
Yesterday Sheikh Fartousi said Baghdad's sizeable Christian population should also follow his commands. "Our fatwa is for all the people," he said yesterday. "Alcohol is banned under every religion." A committee from the mosque would be sent to the house of those who refused to obey the fatwa. "They will try to make the person understand that we believe in a religious society," he said.
"It should be a hand of iron to handle this matter. We will send these people to the Islamic courts."
His words will not be welcomed by all Iraqis. The country is one of the more secular nations in the Arab world.
In Baghdad, alcohol is readily available and women often walk unveiled in the streets, study freely at universities and, in the past, were able to find work.