Putting Faith in the Masses To Forge New Secular Rule

Saleh al-Mutlak, a senior member of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, which holds 11 seats in parliament, said there have been discussions between his Fadhila Party and the Iraqi National List to form a nonsectarian coalition, but things "are not finalized yet."

"It will happen, but the problem is this is not enough, just to form a political front," he said.

He said the politicians are discussing alliances with groups now outside or with minor roles in the political process, such as former Baathists, leaders of the previous Iraqi army, ethnic Turkmens and Iraqi Christians to create a wider political base.

The prospect of the Kurds joining such an alliance may have been diminished by recent steps taken by the Shiite government to encourage Arabs to leave Kirkuk, a priority for the Kurds in their effort to claim the oil-rich city as part of their largely autonomous region in northern Iraq.

"The Kurds are aligned with the [Shiite] alliance, and they are partners in the national unity government," said Abdul Khaliq M.R. Zangana, a Kurdish member of parliament. As for the proposed political bloc, the Kurds have been circumspect. "The Kurdish alliance is studying the project," he said.

Inside his lavishly furnished office inside the fortified Green Zone, the deputy speaker of parliament, Khalid Attiah, was not worried about his ruling Shiite alliance losing its standing.

"They are weak," he said of the secularists. "The government is backed up strongly by the people and it is strong in the parliament -- and President Bush is clear in his support of this government. I don't think there's any chance for change for the time being."

Attiah noted that Iraqi society contains many factions, making it natural that the parliament would be divided along certain lines. "This is life," he said. "Everybody is keen to be represented."

Some politicians say they believe the talk of a new parliamentary alliance is a cover for an attempt by Allawi to take another run at ruling Iraq. Allawi was installed as interim prime minister in mid-2004 by the U.S.-led government in Iraq, but he was swept from office by the groundswell of support for religious parties in January 2005.

Some members of Allawi's current political alliance are worried that rushing to fashion a new structure out of Iraq's fledgling democracy could mire the nation in more brutal violence.

"We want to be very careful not to push the country toward civil war and take apart this country," said Hachim Hasani, a secular Sunni member of Allawi's faction. "It's going to be very difficult. This is a 'front of contradiction,' that's what I call it. You've got all these different groups who are not in harmony among themselves. I don't know if they're going to be able to build something out of that."

But to the Shiite cleric Jamaleddin, they've got to try. Each week he receives hundreds of e-mails from young Iraqis yearning for a respite from violence and for the freedom to have fun, he said.

"We are confident that all Iraqi people want life, and they love their country," he said. "I demand secularism, not because I'm against religion, but because I want to safeguard religion. Some politicians ask me how could you say such things while you're a clergyman. It's because I'm a clergyman that I want to defend my religion."

Special correspondent Saad al-Izzi contributed to this report.