Iraq's religious majority: Anger in Baghdad contrasted with religous fervour in Najaf, from where Lara Marlowe writes
For Iraq's Shia majority, it was a day of celebration; for US and British forces, a day of warning.
Tens of thousands of Shia religious pilgrims obeyed their leaders by starting out on foot for the holy city of Kerbala, to mark the 40th day after the commemoration of the 8th century "martyrdom" of Imam Hussein. This is the first time in more than 30 years that the Shias have been able to hold the march, which was banned by Saddam Hussein.
In his first Friday prayer sermon, Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, the heir to the most evocative name in modern Iraqi Shia history, spoke repeatedly of Iraq's newfound "religious freedom". No one had preached at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf since al-Sadr's father was murdered four years ago.
And the Dawa Party, the Iraqi Shia movement founded in 1956, opened its first public offices in Najaf and neighbouring Kufa, amid hopeful talk of a democratic future.
But while Shias practised their religion freely in the holy cities of the south, in the capital, Shias and Sunnis participated in the first substantial protest in Baghdad against the presence of US and British forces. Some 2,000 men gathered at the Mohsen Mosque in Sadr City, north Baghdad, after Friday prayers. They carried banners saying, "No UK and no USA", "No Relations with Israel," and "Jihad, Jihad".
The demonstrators walked several kilometres to the nearest US position, where they shouted slogans including, "Occupiers go home. We will never let you stay in Iraq." The tense, increasingly anti-American mood in Baghdad contrasts sharply with the more reflective feeling of Najaf, the holiest city in Shia Islam. The two cities fared differently in the war. Baghdad was bombed and shelled, whereas US forces were careful to skirt the Shia shrines, for fear of raising an outcry in the Muslim world.
The coffins of war victims were strapped to the roofs of cars travelling south yesterday. All Shias want to be buried in Najaf, like the sect's founder, Imam Ali, and the centre of the city is a huge cemetery.
The funeral journeys mixed with tens of thousands of pilgrims, heading in groups towards Kerbala.
While US military convoys sped past, raising clouds of dust, the barefoot pilgrims walked or ran by the roadside, to imitate the suffering of Imam Hussein: hi-tech war passing medieval pageantry. The pilgrims carried symbolic banners - green for Islam, black for mourning, red for blood and revenge, white for peace. The women, all wearing chadors, moved separately, like flocks of black birds.
On Najaf's main square, in front of Imam Ali Mosque, vendors sell colour photographs of ayatollahs and other religious leaders, the way postcards of movie stars are sold on Hollywood Boulevard. Among the most popular images are those of Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, the popular young Shia leader who yesterday preached his first sermon. The title "sayyid" means the holder is a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, and is allowed to wear a black turban.
Sayyid Muqtada is the grand-nephew - not the grandson, as often mistakenly reported - of Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Sadr, "the first martyr" executed by Saddam Hussein in 1980. Muqtada's father Mohammed became "the second martyr" when he and two of his sons were murdered in 1999. The inhabitants of Najaf rarely bother to speak their names. "The first martyr" or "the second martyr" are adequate identification. "All Iraqi Shias feel an attraction towards this [al-Sadr] family and its persons, because they are well known for sacrificing for the Shia," Sayyid Mustafa Jaffar al-Yacoubi told me in Sayyid Muqtada's office, just off Imam Ali Square. Contrary to widespread reports that Sayyid Muqtada is only 22, Sayyid al-Yacoubi insisted he is 30. And he defied anyone to challenge young Muqtada's knowledge of the Koran or Shia learning. Sayyid Muqtada, his acolyte claimed, is supported by three quarters of Iraqi Shias, close to 45 per cent of Iraq's population.
One of the fundamental tenets of Shia Islam is taqiya or dissimulation. In other words, if his faith or well-being are in danger, a Shia is allowed to lie. For this reason, trying to learn the truth about infighting between Shia leaders, or their attitude towards US forces, requires patience and interpretation. In Sayyid Muqtada's entourage, they speak only of differences between "traditional" and "active" howzah or schools of theology in Najaf. The "active" theologians believe religious leaders should become involved in the day-to-day running of society.
The example of Islamic Iran is foremost in everyone's mind. "I want an Islamic Republic, but with justice," a former prisoner from the Dawa Party said. "Because we have knocked on all the doors and we don't see any just Islamic Republics." There is no difference between politics and religion, Sayyid Jaffar said, "but men of religion and politicians do not have to be the same ones - that is the main difference between us and Iran." The Iraqi people, he added, were "closing an evil period" and "know very little about how other countries are ruled." For 35 years of Baathist rule, most Shia leaders practised taqiya to survive. For the moment, rifts are mostly about whether they tried to live peacefully under the regime or actively fought it. Now, says a Shia named Tariq, "Everyone is practising taqiya against the Americans, because we are under occupation. The Shia leadership is divided and confused; they're trying to find their bearings."
Shias in Baghdad have repeatedly told me they will fight the Americans if they don't leave. Their spiritual leaders in Najaf are more cagey. "The Americans said they wanted to liberate us and search for weapons of mass destruction," Sayyid Jaffar said. "This is the desire of all Iraqis. They say that afterwards, they will let the Iraqis rule themselves, so we don't have any problem with these two goals." And if the Americans take Iraqi oil, or overstay their welcome? "We will take a decision at the time," Sayyid Jaffar said.
Thousands of men packed into the Kufa Mosque - where Imam Ali was "martyred" in the 8th century by a fellow Shia - to hear Sayyid Muqtada's first sermon. Considering the young sheikh's reputation, it was bland to the point of boring. He started by excoriating the foreign media for saying the Shias had been looting, then urged his followers to walk to Kerbala. The howzah (religious schools) represented Shiaism's hidden Imam, who is expected to return, Christ-like, to bring eternal peace to the world. Sayyid Muqtada listed qualifications for a Shia leader, all of which he fulfilled. He thanked God - not the US - "for religious freedom and for liberating us from dictatorship." Sayyid Muqtada's only allusion to the US was a complaint: "The superpower launched the war," he said. "There should be a return to general services for the people, like electricity and water. But some refuse to do this; I don't want to say who they are."
Sayyid Muqtada's criticism of the Tehran-based Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Hakim, one of his main rivals, was more pointed. "Religious people who went into exile should not have left," he said. "The country needed them." Sheikh Ali al-Maliki, Sayyid Muqtada's military leader, told me that the "Badr Brigades" - Iranian-backed Shia fighters who have infiltrated Iraq since the US-led invasion - were driven out of Sadr City in north Baghdad on Thursday night.
Suddenly, it all made sense: the nervousness of militiamen in Sadr City, the vague allegations of "Wahabi" and "Baathist" attacks on the Shia slums. The Shias are in fact fighting each other, and trying to keep it secret.
Sheikh Ali was also angry about the seizure of former regime buildings by a plethora of political parties. Kurdish groups, the "National Unity Party", the former exile Ahmed Chalabi, Mohammed Zubaidi - who on Thursday proclaimed himself Mayor of Baghdad - and others have all set up offices, but US forces were still denying Sayyid Muqtada's "Sadr Movement" such a privilege. "If they don't give us one, I will take the buildings and attackthe parties inside," Shiekh Ali threatened. Asked how many armed men he commands, he answered, "A lot. Most of the men in [the Baghdad districts of] Ash-Shaab, Kadhimiyah, Shu'ala and Sadr City."
The Dawa Party officials I met near the Kufa Mosque were happier with the present state of things. The Dawa paid the highest price for Saddam's rule. Now, there is no reason why Islamic parties cannot "play an active role in a new Iraq, free of weapons of mass destruction and terrorist training camps," Sayyid Hassan al-Mussawi said. Although they share the same founders and theologians as the "Sadr Movement", the Dawa make no wild claims about their support. "We were living in secret for so long," said Sayyid Hassan's brother, Hussein.
"There were one or two or three people in a street. We didn't know each other, except through remote channels." The Dawa members feel confident the people of Iraq will "express their opinion at the ballot box". "But there is something dangerous we are concerned about," Sayyid Hussein added. "They are changing parties into militia forces. This is preparing the ground for civil war." Which parties?
But the old, secretive instinct kicked in. "I cannot tell the names, but it is real; it exists," he responded.