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Shiite Arabs
Est. Population: approx. 15 million, about 60% of Iraqi pop.
Religion: Shia Islam
Language: Arabic
Geographic Area: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and other parts of Middle East
Major Political Groups: Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Badr Organization, Mehdi Army, Dawa Islamic Party
Key Leaders: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (SCIRI/Badr), Moqtada al-Sadr (Mehdi Army)
Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, numbering about 15 million, or 60 percent of Iraq's population, lives mostly in the southern half of the country, centered around Najaf, Nasiriya, and Basra. Shiites also live in some northern cities; in the 1970s and 1980s, Saddam Hussein's regime forced Shiite Arab families to relocate in the north as part of an "Arabization" program, paying them 10,000 dinars each (thus they are known in the north as "10,000-dinar families").
The Shiites were brutally persecuted under Sunni-dominated Baath Party rule. Following the Gulf War in 1991, Shiite rebels attempted a revolt against Saddam in the far south, around Basra, but they were crushed and massacred when the U.S. failed to support the uprising. Parts of the Shiite resistance fled to neighboring Iran, joining others who were already based there.
[Editor's Note: The political information that follows was the situation as of February 2004.] One of those exiles was Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, now the leader of the politically moderate Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest and most influential Iraqi Shiite organization. SCIRI returned to Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, and its militia wing, the Badr Brigade, has been renamed the Badr Organization for Development and Reconstruction. The Badr militia, said to number anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 members, has helped maintain order in the south, forming a tactical alliance with British coalition forces.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who holds one of the 13 Shiite seats on the Iraqi Governing Council, is seen as the Shiite establishment's leading political figure, but the preeminent spiritual leader of Iraq's devout Shiites, and the ultimate political authority for many, is Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani. Although Sistani preaches a "quietist" version of Shia Islam, which holds that clerics should not be directly involved in politics and government, the U.S. has discovered that Sistani's pronouncements serve as powerful mandates for devout Shiites. Surprising some observers, Sistani has inserted himself forcefully into the debate over how to elect an interim governing body for Iraq, and many thousands of Shiites have demonstrated in the streets to support Sistani's demand for direct elections rather than the town-meeting style caucuses planned by the U.S. and accepted by the Governing Council in the Nov. 15 agreement. The U.S. and Governing Council have asked the United Nations to determine whether direct elections are feasible in time for the June 30 transfer of power.
Although Sistani is Iraq's most respected Shiite cleric, there is concern that Shiites could fall victim to infighting. Moqtada al-Sadr, the young, radical son of a revered ayatollah murdered by Saddam's regime, calls for a strict Islamic government. Sadr, viewed as a populist, has won a following in some of the poorest Shia areas, such as the Sadr City (formerly Saddam City) suburb of Baghdad and Basra in the south, and maintains his own militia, called the Mehdi Army ("God's Army").
Grand Ayatollah Sistani and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, along with other prominent members of the Shiite establishment such as Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, have said repeatedly that they do not favor a theocratic Islamic state on the model of Iran, but rather a constitutional democracy that respects Islam while guaranteeing political and human rights to all Iraqis. The question of Islam's role in a new Iraqi constitution -- whether, for example, there will be a place for Islamic Sharia law -- is still open.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani
Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, Sistani is one of four ayatollahs on the religious council called the Hawza, in the holy city of Najaf, and is regarded as a marja, or supreme spiritual guide. Sistani -- who, largely for security reasons, rarely, if ever leaves his residence in Najaf -- issues his pronouncements through a network of aides who serve as his communicators to and from the outside world. Sistani's "quietist," as opposed to activist, brand of Shia Islam maintains a distance between religious authority and direct political involvement, holding that Islamic clerics should not govern or assume political power as in Iran. However, Sistani is plainly cognizant of his own influence and has asserted himself in the demand for direct elections leading up to the June 30 transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an interim Iraqi government. Many Shiite Iraqis say they are ready to challenge, and even fight, the U.S.-led coalition should Sistani's call for elections not be met.
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Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a group of Iraqi Shiite exiles based in Iran until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. Having long opposed Saddam and operated clandestinely against the regime, SCIRI did not interfere with the U.S.-led invasion, and it has since formed a tactical alliance with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Al-Hakim is believed to be the commander of SCIRI's militia wing, the Badr Brigade, which has since been renamed the Badr Organization for Development and Reconstruction. Al-Hakim's brother, the revered Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, was killed in a car bombing in August 2003 outside the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Their father served on the Hawza in the 1960s, in the preeminent position that Grand Ayatollah Ail al-Sistani now holds. Read FRONTLINE's interview with al-Hakim.
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Moqtada al-Sadr
Sadr's father, Mohammed al-Sadr, was a respected cleric and Shia opposition leader whom Saddam Hussein ordered killed in 1999. At age 30, the radical young Sadr does not carry the same religious clout as his father -- he is considered relatively uneducated by detractors in the Shia clerical establishment -- yet he has successfully capitalized on his father's martyrdom, striking a populist chord among the poorest and most persecuted Shiites in places like the Sadr City (formerly Saddam City) suburb of Baghdad and in the southern city of Basra. Sadr, who does not sit on the Governing Council, has challenged the coalition by declaring his support for an Islamic government. Sadr's radicalism has distanced him from some followers as Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani has taken a patient and more moderate stance toward the U.S. Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army (God's Army), has clashed with Sistani's supporters, and observers speculate that if Shiites split over their role in the new Iraq, Sadr could benefit.
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Ahmad Chalabi
A secular Shiite and founder of the prominent London-based exile group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), Chalabi is among the most prominent members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Having spent more than a decade lobbying the U.S. government to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Chalabi is a controversial figure, viewed by many Iraqis as a former exile with no constituency in today's Iraq. Convicted in absentia of embezzlement by a Jordanian court in 1992 (though he has steadfastly maintained his innocence), Chalabi was a close adviser to the civilian leadership at the Pentagon during the build-up to the U.S.-led invasion, providing what is now viewed as questionable intelligence sources on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and ties to terrorism. Read FRONTLINE's interview with Chalabi from the October 2003 report "Truth, War and Consequences."
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