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Disaffected Iraqis Spurn Dominant Shiite Clerics
Pilgrims pray at night in front of the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites. Nearby there is an open sewer. "The marjaiya sold us the promise that Iraq is going to be a prosperous country," one man said, referring to top Shiite clerics. "But that has not happened."
(By Sudarsan Raghavan -- The Washington Post)
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There is "a high possibility" that the killings are an attempt to weaken the marjaiya's influence, Najafi said. The perpetrators "want to strike the streets, to misguide the streets."
Self-Styled Ayatollahs
In an enclave of Najaf filled with metalwork shops and run-down houses, a small store sells CDs, pamphlets and pictures celebrating Mahmoud Sarkhi al-Hassani, who claims the highest clerical rank of ayatollah.
But Hassani did not earn the title after decades of scholarship or by working his way up the Shiite religious hierarchy. Born in 1963, the engineering graduate represents a new breed of cleric that has emerged to challenge the traditional establishment.
Hassani "has more knowledge than the rest of the scholars, more than Sistani himself," asserted one of Hassani's aides, Thalib al-Garawi.
Other self-anointed ayatollahs have sprung up. Diya Abdul-Zahra Khadim launched a messianic group near Najaf that allegedly tried to assassinate Sistani and the other top clerics. Khadim was killed in January during a clash with U.S. and Iraqi troops.
"There are many of them," said Brig. Gen. Kareem Mayahi, the police chief in Najaf. "We follow them. We get information. We keep an eye on their fliers, their statements. These groups thrive because of ignorance. They are trying to draw people away from the marjaiya."
Today, Hassani runs his own seminary, with several hundred students. He has an estimated 40,000 followers, as well as an armed militia that has clashed with Iraqi and U.S forces. At the entrance to Karbala, where his movement is most active, his image is plastered on billboards.
The most powerful militia in Iraq today is Sadr's Mahdi Army. The 34-year-old cleric's decision to leave the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki bolstered Sadr's standing, as has his family's history of resisting Hussein's oppression of Shiites.
"The marjaiya has its voice and its presence, and it has influence," said Jassim al-Musawi, a student at one of the seminaries run by Sadr. "But the Iraqi streets want a person who demands for their rights."
"No one," he added, using an honorific for the cleric, "demands more for the Iraqi people than Sayyid Moqtada Sadr."
Damaging a Heritage
Ayad Jamaldin has long rejected any political role for the marjaiya. Today, the 45-year-old cigar-smoking cleric and legislator says his worst fears have come true. For centuries, Shiite clergy were never rulers, but instead railed against the establishment and "totally disapproved of political Islam," he said.
"The great heritage of the marjaiya was greatly damaged within four years," said Jamaldin, a soft-spoken, brown-bearded man who wears a black turban to signify his descent from the prophet Muhammad.
