Iran's clerics fear rise of democratic Iraq

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

TEHRAN -- The rise of a secular, democratic Iraq could pose a threat to Iran's Shi'ite clerical establishment, which fears it would serve as a powerful model for moderate Iranians who seek change, clerics said.

Many senior clerics are particularly concerned about any shift in the center of gravity within Shi'ite Islam away from Iran's holy city of Qom, from which clerics wield immense political authority, toward Najaf in neighboring Iraq.

The emergence of Najaf coincides with the rise to political prominence of Iraqi clerics, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who question the legitimacy of absolute rule by the clergy.

"Now Najaf, as a more moderate center, will regain the place it held for most of the past 1,500 years," said Hadi Qabel, a reformist midranking cleric from Qom.

"It will rejuvenate the role of clerics throughout the Shi'ite world. ... Iraqi moderate clerics like Ayatollah Ali Sistani do not consider ruling the country as their legitimate right," he said.

Monday's formal transfer of sovereignty from a U.S.-led coalition to an Iraqi interim government represents a further opportunity for the rehabilitation of Iraq's Shi'ite community, which was brutally suppressed under Saddam Hussein.

Iran fears Washington may promote Iraq as a model for Shi'ites to emulate in pressing for change in the Islamic state, which Washington accuses of harboring terrorists and pursuing nuclear weapons.

Since a revolution 25 years ago toppled a shah supported by Washington, Iran's Shi'ite supremacy has driven a policy hostile to the United States even as the country has wrestled with the issue of internal reform.

Reformists, including Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, have repeatedly warned their rival hard-liners against creating an anti-democratic "path of extremism" that he says risks alienating people from Islam.

They argue that blocking reform that could eventually see Iran become a democratic Islamic state could paradoxically help to promote Najaf as an alternative center.