Najaf’s residents rip radical cleric

NAJAF, Iraq — With a massive U.S. military force blocking the main roads, the residents of this holy Shi’ite city have begun to voice strong criticism of Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, the young cleric whose uprising has brought the threat of an attack.

“Najaf people want peace and quiet,” said Haidar, 39, who owns a small deli near the Imam Ali Mosque in the city. “Al-Sadr must get out of the city. This is not the time now to be against Americans even though I don’t agree with the U.S. policy.”

All the people interviewed during a visit insisted their full names not be used, for fear of repercussions.

The firebrand cleric, who controls a large militia force, meanwhile struck a defiant note during a sermon yesterday at the main mosque in neighboring Kufa yesterday.

“We will not allow the forces of occupation to enter Najaf and the holy sites because they are forbidden places for them,” he thundered and called on the faithful to support his tough stance and fight.

The Kufa mosque has been ringed with machine-gun emplacements, razor wire and young militiamen digging trenches. Gun-toting militiamen also peer down from the high surrounding walls and turrets.

“It is martyrdom that I am yearning for, so support me and know that this is a war on Shi’ites,” he said.

But three days spent inside Najaf — within a stone’s throw of the golden-domed Imam Ali Mosque and Sheik al-Sadr’s well-guarded headquarters — revealed almost no backing from residents for the 30-year-old cleric’s armed confrontation with coalition forces.

Off a narrow alley diagonally opposite one of the main exits to the great mosque, Sheik al-Sadr is holding out behind a green door bearing his portrait.

Inside, men pray five times a day on carpets, while in the next room Sheik al-Sadr sits on cushions on the floor, receiving a steady stream of supporters — and occasional would-be or actual mediators.

But in the rest of the city, many expressed fears that Sheik al-Sadr was leading them not only into bloody and inevitably losing clashes with the U.S. forces, but also toward a Sunni-Shi’ite civil war or clashes between different armed Shi’ite factions.

A man who gave his name as Suid, said he had been one of Sheik al-Sadr’s spokesmen and keen supporters until recently. “Al-Sadr has no brains, he’s not mature enough to lead the Shi’ites,” he said this week. “I witnessed many criminal acts. He gave people arms and money.”

Suid said funding for Sheik al-Sadr came partly from Iran and partly from money and gold that he had taken from the charity collections of pilgrims to the holy mosques. He said he would be willing to testify in court against the cleric.

Ahmed, in his 40s, runs a spare-parts shop for cars, and runs two families with one wife supervising nine children and the other wife looking after four.

He claimed to have been a witness when Sheik al-Sadr’s supporters killed a local imam.

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