Abdel-Wahhab speaks for that segment of the Iraqi population that has looked at almost every turn since Saddam Hussein fell on April 9, 2003, with resilient hope, even if despair and disillusionment with the United States ensued. There was the collapse of Hussein's government, the appointment of the interim government under Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in June and now the elections, to be conducted at 9,000 polling places across Iraq and among exiles abroad. His sentiment is heard often in Baghdad's streets: The elections are less a celebration of newfound freedoms and more a means to bring stability to chaotic Iraq.
"It's the only way for us to emerge from this crisis," Abdel-Wahhab said.
An Iraqi man smokes at a coffee shop in Baghdad. The Iraqi Islamic Party has its main office in the capital, where one of its leaders was arrested recently.
(Ceerwan Aziz -- Reuters)
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The election headquarters he runs in a former Baath Party building is a cramped affair, where 20 people have been working in earnest since July, often putting in 12-hour days. As is the custom among Islamic activists, most of the men wear beards; their Western-style suits are less traditional. On one wall is a Koranic verse in blue: "Adhere together in the path of God and do not divide." On two other walls are a map of Baghdad and one of Iraq. Four fluorescent bulbs overhead provide meager light.
On another wall is the party's election logo, which will appear on the ballot. The party's symbol is a bee fluttering over a honeycomb, with a Koranic verse about God's inspiration. (The election commission rejected the logos of a few other groups: a Koran with a halo around it, an image of a mass grave and one that pictured a Kalashnikov rifle.)
In the summer, before the boycott was declared, Abdel-Wahhab had ambitious plans.
He said he was prepared to photocopy 500,000 leaflets to distribute in Baghdad and towns in the region north and west of the capital known as the Sunni Triangle. A similar number would be handed out during Friday prayers at mosques where the party's religious agenda might be received warmly. The leaflets called voting a duty and quoted nearly a dozen Sunni clerics endorsing the view. He planned 20 lectures in Baghdad during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Delegations from the party's 400 branches would try to visit as many as 50 houses a day. At that rate, he estimated, they could cover 5 million people in a month.
After U.S. forces attacked Fallujah, he canceled all the plans.
"I couldn't do it," Abdel-Wahhab said. "The people wouldn't accept it."
"They tell me, 'Don't you see the river of blood flowing? Are you crazy to take part in the elections?' "
His deputy, Saad Adel, nodded his head. "We are dealing with Sunnis, and most of the Sunni regions are gripped by the resistance," he said. "The idea is that elections give legitimacy to the occupation and the interim government."
Abdel-Wahhab recalled a saying sometimes used in Iraq: If your right eye twitches, it's a sign of impending evil. If your left eye twitches, it's an omen of good things to come. Despite his optimism, Abdel-Wahhab admits his right eye is twitching.
The resentment of the U.S. presence is so deep among some of his friends and the threats of retaliation by insurgents taken so seriously that Abdel-Wahhab refuses to be photographed. When he visits the election commission in the heavily fortified area known as the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and offices of the interim government are located, he fears for his life.
"When I go there," he said, "I ask God, 'Do not take my soul.' "
The party has tried to publicize fatwas, or religious edicts, to encourage voting. One hangs in the headquarters on a green bulletin board and insists that not only should Muslims vote but they should work at the polling stations, too.
