A commenter on an earlier post quite fairly complains that I don't give Iraqi Shia politics as much attention as I do Iraqi Sunni politics. That isn't going to change anytime soon, but let me pass on this comment from a well-informed friend of mine who does - an interesting perspective on the widely reported decision by SCIRI to change its name to SIIC, take a more explicitly Iraqi identity, and recognize Sistani rather than Khameni as the faqih:
What the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (formerly known as SCIRI) said in their conference communique is being misreported, I think. There's no evidence they decided to regard Sistani as the faqih in wilayat al-faqih.
The Arabic version of the communique is at: http://www.almejlis.org/news_article_11.html
The document says only that the Supreme Council "values the tremendous role" played by the hawza, and "at its head, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani," in "protecting the unity of Iraq and Iraqis." As Reidar Visser points out at his historiae.org website, it says nothing about recognizing Sistani as the faqih to be followed, nor does it renounce the Supreme Council's recognition of Khamenei as such. As far as I can tell, it doesn't say anything in particular about Sistani's religious authority, though later there is a general affirmation of the importance of the marja'iyya in wordly affairs.
The text goes on proclaim that the Council "values" the "great sacrifices" of numerous Shiite religious figures in the Iraqi past, including Ayatollahs Muhsin al-Hakim (father of the Council's founder Muhammad Baqir), Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr (Muqtada's father). Since the latter two are old rivals of the Hakim clerical family, this clause would also seem to be purely political -- an olive branch to the Sadrist trend today.
All in all, this seems to be another attempt by the Supreme Council to inoculate themselves against the charge of being insufficiently Iraqi, a charge Fadhila and the Council's other rivals have an interest in pressing.
In that light, it's interesting as well that in a May 12 "clarification of what's being said the media": http://www.almejlis.org/news_article_12.html the Supreme Council goes out of its way to praise Iran for having "sheltered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis" during the Saddam Hussein years.
Now back to my papers and packing.
Not a comment on this post -- just calling attention to a story on the BBC regarding Arabic music videos. Nancy and Haifa are both discussed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6666725.stm
Posted by: Alan | May 21, 2007 at 11:26 AM