Iraq's radical Shiite faction is gearing up for an Islamic state in the wake of Saddam's downfall, writes Lara Marlowe, in Sadr City
Until yesterday, I had never seen a hospital director's office with ammunition boxes stacked next to microscope cases, or crutches leaning in a corner beside grenade launchers. But Sheikh Tassin al-Ikabi is not an ordinary hospital director. Until US forces entered Baghdad eight days ago, he was a theology student in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 161 kilometres south of the capital.
When I remarked that Sheikh Tassin looked young to be running the biggest hospital in Sadr City (formerly Saddam City), he smiled through his black beard and wire-rimmed glasses and replied, "The Shiites say a man who wears a turban carries a crown on his head, and the weight of the world on his shoulders."
Sheikh Tassin studied in the "Al-Sadr Religious University", the most prestigious of the howzah or schools of religious learning that comprise Najaf, much as the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge make up those universities. In the wake of the US-British invasion, the howzah are governing Baghdad's Shiite slums, via local mosques. "The people here are not responsible for themselves," another turbaned sheikh told me. "The howzah control everything."
And the most powerful force in the howzah is the al-Sadr name. Virtually everything Shiite is being renamed after the most loved of Iraqi "martyrs" since the original Imams, Ali and Hussein. The former Qadissiyah Hospital where I met Sheikh Tassin is now Sadr Hospital.
Mohamed Bakr al-Sadr was executed on Saddam Hussein's orders in 1980. His son, also called Mohamed, and grandsons Mustafa and Mohamed, were assassinated in the al-Hanan quarter of Najaf in January 1999. "I was in Najaf when it happened," Sheikh Tassin said. "Saddam and his son Qusay had them killed at night, in the street, when they were walking home after last prayers. Saddam sucked the blood of this country for 35 years." One of the al-Sadr descendants survived: Muqtada, now aged 22. Remember his name. The radical young cleric could play a role comparable to that of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, nearly a quarter century ago.
"The young people in Najaf follow Muqtada, but the older ayatollahs say he doesn't have enough knowledge," explained one Shiite Baghdadi. But the decree on the gate of Hikmat Mosque in Sadr City - the virtual government of the two-million-strong slum - is entitled "Notice from Muqtada al-Sadr".
The sheikh of Hikmat Mosque must be obeyed by all the people in Sadr City, it says. "He is responsible for the people here, for their Islamic duties, and for administering to their needs."
"They are stepping into the vacuum left by the former government," a resident explained. "The Hikmat Mosque provides free medical care, distributes food, runs the schools, burns the rubbish. They try to provide security." All this within one week of the arrival of US forces, and miles from the nearest US serviceman. Men with Kalashnikovs - the Sadr militia - guard the mosques and hospital, and they seem nervous. "We are shot at every night," one complained. "They shoot at our mosques, our houses and our families. Six people have been wounded in this neighbourhood. We set up checkpoints in every street, each one with 14 armed men." It is not entirely clear who "they" are - Arab fighters who travelled to Iraq to defend Saddam Hussein's regime, and/or Saddam loyalists from his security services.
Although Muqtada al-Sadr has not yet earned the status of ayatollah or marja ("source of imitation") which would earn him the loyalty of more conservative Shiites, he is fast earning a reputation for force. Sheikh Ali al-Maliki, from Najaf, told me he was the military leader of Muqtada al-Sadr's howzah, when I met him by chance at the Palestine Hotel yesterday. An imposing man in impeccable robes and white turban, Sheikh Ali stood next to a Marine Corps officer, and he looked furious.
"The American forces are interfering and taking decisions concerning housing and medical care, and these are our prerogatives," he said. "We are not happy." Muqtada al-Sadr's followers are believed to have knifed Majid al-Khoie to death in Najaf's holy shrine last week. Al-Khoie, like the young Muqtada, was the son of a historic Shiite leader.
He maintained good relations with the US and Britain, but his real "sin", it now appears, was to defend the Ba'athist official who had been appointed to maintain the Shiite shrine under the ancien regime. A crowd formed around Mr al-Khoie during an argument. He fired warning shots in the air, and the crowd went wild and killed him. Ayatollah Ali Sistani, another Shiite leader accused by the radicals of complacency towards Saddam, is virtually under house arrest.
The clergy of Sadr City accuse anyone who mentions differences within their community of promoting disunity. But a Mokhabarat (secret police) report found earlier this week in a former interrogation and torture centre devoted three handwritten pages to tension between young Muqtada al-Sadr and an older sheikh in Najaf called Mohamed al-Yacoubi. Saddam Hussein's General Security Headquarters ordered "confidential sources on both sides" to follow closely the struggle within Najaf's schools of theology.
The Mohsen mosque in Sadr City was shut down several times by Saddam. A riot there, after the murder of Mohamed al-Sadr four years ago, resulted in its permanent closure. It reopened on April 9th, the day the Americans arrived in Baghdad. As I waited outside yesterday, men crowded around me, to complain. "The Americans have no interest in our security, or in order in this country," one said. "They came just to protect the oil fields and the ministry of oil. We don't want occupation, but we don't react because they released us from Saddam. If things remain as they are, we will change our attitude." Did that mean they would fight the Americans? I asked. "Yes!" they all shouted in unison. "Except this time we would fight of our own free will, because we believe in it - not like when Saddam forced us," another man added.
A photograph of Sheikh Qa'abi, the cleric killed when Saddam's forces burst in firing machine guns in 1999, hangs inside Mohsen Mosque. The new Sheikh, Ala'a al-Massoudi, is strange. For one thing, he chain-smoked cigarettes while lecturing the faithful, sitting cross-legged on the carpet. (Most Muslim clergy consider smoking a sin). He scolded them, saying, "I'm a Sheikh and I have no car, no gun. If anyone wants to kill me he can. Now, behave like Muslims!" The same admonition - "Behave Like Muslims" - was freshly painted on the wall outside, part of Najaf's campaign to stop the looting that characterised the first week of the post-Saddam era.
"The Ba'athist dogs even forbade us to pray in our manner," Sheikh Ala'a said, referring to the Shiite practice of self-flagellation to commemorate the "martyrdom" of the first Imams. "The howzah will never let anyone else take power again," he continued, in a clear allusion to US forces. "We want an Islamic state and we shall have one. It may take months; it may take years. God will decide."
Unfortunately for Washington, any Iraqi Shiite it promotes is likely to be rejected by the Shiite majority. I've asked dozens of Shiites in Baghdad what they thought of the political meeting near Nassirya on Tuesday, and of Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite favoured by the Pentagon. Mr Chalabi was convicted of embezzling at least $60 million in Jordan. So far, his contribution to the US invasion of Iraq has been to "pre-position" a few middle-aged men in US uniforms with "Free Iraqi Forces" flashes in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. But he threatens to bring more armed men up from the south soon, "to help keep order".
The "Free Iraqi Forces" had better stay away, warned Sheikh Ala'a in Sadr City. "There are a million men with guns who support Muqtada al-Sadr." Then he predicted a glorious future for the seat of Shiite learning. "Najaf will at last regain its role in the Islamic world. Even in Iran, they will listen to Najaf. The thinking of Mohamed al-Sadr [killed in 1999] is so powerful that it will mark the next half century. He explained very well how to set up an Islamic state."