A diverse but united community

an interview with Kamran al-Karadaghi

BI: The Shi'ite community forms the majority population in Iraq and it would seem they have the most to gain from elections. So why the armed resistance of Moqtada al-Sadr? Wouldn't it be in the interest of the Shi'ites to cooperate with the occupying coalition forces?

Karadaghi: Well, in a country where about 60 percent of the population is Shi'ite, as are a quite considerable percentage of the Kurdish and Turkmen communities, it is natural that whatever the outcome of the elections the Shi'ites should form a majority. Whether they can be considered as one political bloc is a different matter.

Moqtada al-Sadr is a kind of exception within the Shi'ite community or among the Shi'ite leadership, whether political or religious. The main Shi'ite establishment, including the religious leadership of [Grand Ayatollah Ali al-] Sistani and other political Shi'ite groups, are, in effect, cooperating with the multinational forces, and have been since the beginning. Representatives of major Shi'ite groups like the Dawa Party, or the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution and others are represented in the government, and they were represented in the Iraqi Governing Council that was established by the Iraqi coalition authority. So, in effect, they are cooperating, and I think this is one reason why al-Sadr was eventually persuaded by the mainstream Shi'ite establishment that it would be in the interest of the community if he puts an end to his armed struggle against the occupation and joins the political process. This is something that he now says he is willing to do, and he is moving in this direction.

BI: In other words, within the Shi'ite community there are different interests, and it would be wrong to see the community as a monolith?

Karadaghi: Definitely. It's not accurate to say that all the Shi'ite community in Iraq speaks with one voice and is one bloc. There are different voices; there are religious Shi'ites as well as secular Shi'ites, who have a strong influence on the community. There are also Shi'ite Turkmen and Kurds, who may be part of national groups.

One important factor to bear in mind though, is that the Shi'ite establishment, both religious and political, has really learned that they have to work together and to do so on the basis of consensus. If they commit mistakes and split, they might end up as losers from the changes in Iraq, and I think they have managed, until now, to find a way of cooperating and coordinating among themselves. To date, they have formed two main alliances: one, when the Iraqi Governing Council still existed, they formed the so-called Shi'ite House, which brought together all the political and religious groups both inside and outside that council; and another, when they later established what is called the Political Shi'ite Council, which, again, represents almost all the Shi'ite groups and which maintains very strong contacts and even coordinates, I would say, with the religious leadership as represented by Sistani and others.

BI: So despite the internal differences, you would say there is a high level of organization across the different Shi'ite groups?

Karadaghi: There is, despite the fact that you cannot say they all have the same agenda. It looks like, for the time being at least, the various groups think they should try to make the best of the coming elections by acting as a single community with one voice.

BI: What about Shi'ite and Sunni relations?

Karadaghi: This, of course, is a complicated matter in Iraq. I think both communities, or at least the religious leaderships of both communities, sometimes try to hide the real differences and tensions between these groups. On the surface they of course always say that the Shi'ites and Sunnis are all Muslims, there are no differences and there should be no tensions, but in reality there is tension. For centuries, I would say, the Shi'ites were the underdogs in Iraq, and in the last three-four decades under Saddam Hussein they were really an oppressed community in Iraq, they suffered a lot. So all these grievances exist and it won't be easy to solve them quickly. We have to wait and see how these things develop, and whether as a result of elections both communities as represented by their respective political and religious parties, can manage to find a kind of consensus for the sake of the whole country and not just their own narrow interests.

BI: Are you optimistic that this will happen?

Karadaghi: I don't think, looking at Iraq now, one can be 100 percent optimistic. But from the experience of the last one-and-a-half years after the regime change in Iraq, no matter the differences and tensions, all groups--ethnic, political, religious--have managed somehow to find common ground. Whether they will be able to continue this through the elections and after is very difficult to speculate about at the moment.

- Published 21/10/2004 (c) bitterlemons-international.org. Used here with permission.

Kamran al-Karadaghi is an Iraqi commentator and the editorial director of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. The views expressed here are his own.