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The New Sunni Jihad: 'A Time for Politics'
Abu Theeb, a guerrilla leader, canvassed Sunnis for votes against Iraq's charter, a shift from violent rejection of the political process.
(By Ghaith Abdul-ahad For The Washington Post)
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"Nine ballots to Haji Abu Hussein," shouted the registration official, a local villager the government had certified as an election worker. Another local, also deputized by the government, handed Haji Abu Hussein a sheath of forms.
Ignoring the voting booth set up for privacy in a corner, Haji Abu Hussein stood at the table, checked "no" boxes against the Shiite-led government's proposed constitution, folded the ballots and chucked them into the ballot box.
By midday, as the flow of voters slowed, Abu Theeb's men decided to chuck the formalities as well.
Setting a ginger-bearded man at his own table, they assigned him the task of checking "no" boxes on all the ballots they could find. As they exhausted the ballots of the village's 1,500 registered voters, they telephoned Baghdad for 20,000 more ballots. Government officials sent over about 5,000.
Two days later, Abu Theeb and two insurgent clerics were sitting on the floor of a mosque debating the next step for Sunnis, and for his group: what role to play in Iraq's Dec. 15 national elections.
"We should keep all options open, even forming a coalition with Allawi," Abu Theeb advised, referring to the secular Shiite Ayad Allawi, who was prime minister in the previous U.S.-formed government. "People have problems with Islamists. We should put the secularist in front."
On Tuesday, officials in Baghdad announced that the constitution had passed. Although more than 50 percent of voters in Iraq's three Sunni-majority provinces rejected the charter, that was not enough to prevent its passage. Earlier, officials had cited signs of possible voting irregularities. But despite scenes like the one in Abu Theeb's village, they certified that the vote was on the whole fair and was binding.
It was not possible to contact Abu Theeb for his views on the outcome.
From Secret Service to Holy War
The serpentine road to Abu Theeb's village is lined with palm groves and pockmarked with craters from bombs planted by the insurgents to catch passing American and Iraqi forces.
A few thousand Sunnis from one tribe live there, almost all related. Residents trace their lineage back to the prophet Muhammad. Most are Salafis, members of a fundamentalist branch of Islam that believes life and law should be guided by a literal interpretation of the Koran, the Islamic holy book.
Women are rarely seen in public. Men wear the bushy beards and ankle-length dishdasha garments of Salafis. When the call to prayer comes five times daily from the minarets of the village's many mosques, all activity stops.
Entering the hamlet by the main road requires passing 100 yards of blast walls, concrete barriers and concertina wire. U.S. troops command the checkpoint, and masked Shiite government soldiers from the south man it. Government forces have sprayed graffiti on the blast barriers, all of it with anti-Sunni subtext. "Despite the anger of those who denounce people as infidels, democracy will prevail in Iraq," reads one message.
