‘Hope’ on horizon in Iraq

BAGHDAD - The torrential rains have stopped, and the gold-domed shrine at the center of Kadhemiya, a middle-class Shi’ite section of northern Baghdad, sparkles under clear blue skies and the late-morning sun.

The crowded alleyways surrounding the shrine teem with Kadhemiya’s unique blend of commerce, faith and politics.

“It’s hard to even think about what it used to be like before,” said Abdul-Karim Mahdi, a 45-year-old employee of the Ministry of Public Works.

“We used to live in fear. We used to unplug the phones whenever we talked with each other inside the house. With Saddam gone, at least there’s hope.”

Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, his entrenched government and social order, the outlines of the country’s future are beginning to emerge.

With a newly elected parliament in a position to maneuver a radically transformed nation, Iraqis enter their third year of a new era hardened by two years of violence.

Iraq’s Shi’ites have waited 1,000 years for power, first under the Ottoman caliphate, next under the Sunni-led monarchy established by the British and finally under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam.

Two years ago, the Shi’ites stood by patiently as U.S. troops entered their country. Some followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr since then have fought violently against the occupation. But they represent a tiny sliver of the country’s Shi’ite majority, which mostly has begun looking forward to asserting their numbers and assuming political control.

Politicians associated with Shi’ite groups control more than half of the 275 seats in the new parliament, and a pious Shi’ite religious scholar named Ibrahim al-Jafaari is all but assured of becoming the next prime minister. The past two years have drawn them out of hiding and into the public sphere.

The Shi’ites have transformed much of Iraq’s landscape, plastering posters of turbaned clerics on walls, unfurling colored banners commemorating the martyred Shi’ite saints and celebrating their faith in once-outlawed public ceremonies.

Fadhel Mehdi Salah, a 46-year-old goldsmith, once could ply his trade only inside a dingy apartment, fearful of Saddam’s security men. He had joined Saddam’s Ba’ath Party when he was 14, only to fall out with them when he was asked to spy on Kadhemiya residents four years later.

He got into a fistfight with another young party recruit, was arrested and was sent to prison for a year. Authorities let him out, but kept a close watch on him, and he tried to stay hidden.

A year ago, he proudly opened up a jewelry shop on a wide avenue leading to the shrine.

“All we need now are honest people who care about the country to lead us forward,” he said.

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