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The war in Iraq has produced an unintended consequence ­ a formidable Shiite geographical bloc that will dominate politics in the Middle East for many years. This development is also creating political and spiritual leaders of unparalleled international influence. It is easy to see the Shiite lineup. Iran and Iraq have Shiite majorities, and so does Bahrain. In Lebanon, Shiites are a significant plurality. In Syria, although they are a minority, they are the dominant power in government. They are the majority in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and have a significant presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The...

NAJAF, Iraq, April 30 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims swarmed on the Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Wednesday to mark the death of the Prophet Mohammad, freely making the pilgrimage for the first time in decades. The pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Prophet Mohammad, was the second show of Shi'ite might in a week and highlighted the country's newfound religious freedom since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Last week, hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites made the pilgrimage to the nearby southern city of Kerbala in a fervent display --...

Defense, State differ on how to handle Shi'ites By Jonathan Wright WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - While U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rules out Shi'ite clerical rule in Iraq, U.S. diplomats are calmly sounding out opinions in southern Iraq among the very Shi'ites who might see neighboring Iran as an example to follow, U.S. officials say. The different approaches illustrate the continuing divide between the U.S. military and the diplomats over how to handle the internal politics of Iraq, where the collapse of three decades of Baathist rule has left a gaping power vacuum. Ideally, the two branches of the...

A massive pilgrimage to this Shiite Muslim holy city this week ended unexpectedly in peace and with signs of moderation toward US forces they credited for ousting Saddam Hussein, who had severely restricted the ritual in past years. Despite repeated calls from religious leaders to show hostility to occupation forces, anti-US demonstrations staged on Tuesday and Wednesday drew only a few thousand, a tiny fraction of the pilgrims. Hundreds of thousands joined the ceremony of mourning imam Hussein, the Shiites' top martyr, in and around his mausoleum in Karbala, 80 kilometres southwest of Baghdad, paying little or no attention to...

Understanding the True Nature of Iraq’s Shiites CBN.com April 24, 2003 "Secularism is a concept that is different in Islam than in Christianity, because Christianity fundamentally creates two separate spaces for God and Caesar, or for Christ and Caesar. In Islam, this is not the case." CBN.com – There has been much talk about how the Iraq war will change the political landscape of the Middle East. But it could also change the religious landscape, and take away some of the power of radical Islam. The fall of Saddam Hussein promises to unleash a political earthquake in the region, especially...

Relatives Dig Up Missing Iraq Dissidents By NIKO PRICE .c The Associated Press ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (AP) - For years there were only numbers - mound after mound in the parched dust marked by numbered metal stakes. Now this back corner of a public cemetery is filled with the wails of people who have connected those numbers to the names of loved ones who disappeared during Saddam Hussein's rule. ``They used to tell people who asked that this cemetery was for poor people who died nameless in the streets,'' said gravedigger Majid Moussa. ``But we knew it was for political...

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims flocked to Iraq's holiest city of Karbala in a pilgrimage banned under Saddam Hussein as the United States rebuffed a diplomatic olive branch from France. But the second and last day of the Shiite ceremony, outlawed for nearly quarter of a century under Saddam, failed to ignite large anti-US demonstrations despite appeals by clerics for mass shows of anti-Americanism. Iraq's US civil administrator, retired general Jay Garner, acknowledged Washington was facing "some staged demonstrations" against its rule but insisted most Iraqis "are glad we are here." Garner continued a tour...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 22 (UPI) -- The Kadhimain Mosque is crowded with devout Shiite Muslims at noon prayer. Sayed Hussein Al-Hayderi greets his non-Muslim visitors with soft handshakes and a welcome to the mosque the Shiites consider the most holy in Baghdad. Speaking softly through a translator, the leader of this mosque –- who is accepted by Muslims as a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed –- calls on the American and British forces to work hard to rebuild Iraq -– and then to leave.</p>

As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites' organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country. The burst of Shiite power -- as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands who made a long-banned pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala yesterday -- has U.S. officials looking for allies in the struggle to fill the power vacuum left by the downfall of Saddam Hussein. As the administration plotted to overthrow Hussein's government, U.S. officials said this week, it failed...

KARBALA, Iraq, April 22 — At least 1 million Shiite pilgrims marched ...in an emotional ritual that had been banned for decades under Saddam Hussein. ...Shiites...were repressed under the ousted regime but who have also expressed deep wariness about U.S. ... estimates... 1 million ...2 million were taking part. ...Shiites have been setting up local administrations to re-establish order, and religious leaders have emerged as key sources of political power, ... “It is a symbol of Shiite unity and their rejection of oppression and injustice,” ... “It’s an expression of their yearning for freedom.” U.S. military officials said police arrested...

<p>KARBALA, Iraq (CNN) -- Exuberant Shiite Muslim pilgrims are surging into the central Iraqi city of Karbala, reviving a religious tradition that was not allowed under Saddam Hussein's rule.</p> <p>Religious leaders said the crowd could reach several million by the peak of the observance Wednesday. The pilgrims came from all over Iraq -- some walking more than 60 miles.</p>

Uday's passions: his mom, the Net and torture April 18 2003 at 05:09PM Baghdad - Uday, Saddam Hussein's feared elder son, had several hobbies: women, cars, the Internet, jewellery, weapons, the Shi'ite branch of Islam, alcohol and especially torture. "He would spend much of his time searching NGO websites for information on the most sophisticated forms of torture, including in Latin America, and when he couldn't read the Spanish, he would print out the pictures," one of his former aides said. He attended torture sessions in a prison 50km south of Baghdad run by the Fedayeen paramilitary corps he headed,...

An al-Jazeera reporter had to be rescued from a crowd of Iraqi Americans celebrating the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime after they turned on him and his cameraman. Nezam Mahdawi, Washington correspondent for the Arabic-language broadcaster, was set upon by angry demonstrators in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, where he had travelled to cover the spontaneous demonstration. Dearborn is home to one of the largest populations of Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims outside the Middle East. Police were forced to intervene and asked the pair to leave following a long stand-off with crowds hurling insults and shouting "Down Jazeera". Al-Jazeera is widely...

his thesis that speed kills the enemy. A more nuanced formula may govern America’s international strategy beyond Iraq. This formula was revealed by Jim Hoagland, Washington Post columnist, on April 13, as having been proposed by Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser to President George W. Bush: Punish France, ignore Germany, forgive Russia. Anxious to avoid punishment, French president Jacques Chirac urged his Russian and German colleagues at their St. Petersburg summit this week to start dismantling their anti-American front. If this was meant seriously, Hoagland advised the French president “to pick up the phone at the Elysee and call Bush...

Shi'ites defy Saddam with ritual in streets By Michael Georgy UMM QASR, Iraq, April 4 (Reuters) - Shi'ites in the southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr performed a public ritual of self flagellation, a move they said would have meant death if President Saddam Hussein was still in control there. The ritual, performed at a funeral on Thursday night, was the first open sign of defiance of the Iraqi president by Shi'ite Muslims in the port town since it was captured by U.S. and British troops. "Saddam your days are numbered," the marchers chanted, as religious ritual turned into broader...

Iraqi Shiite Opposition Opposes Coalition, Not Iraqi, ForcesMar 29, 2003 - 0507 GMT Summary Comprising 60 percent of Iraq's population, Shiites will largely decide the fate of Iraqi resistance countrywide. So far they have been more on the side of Baghdad than of Washington. Some Shiites are fighting U.S. forces, and others have remained neutral. Changing this pattern will be difficult, but this is what the United States must do to crush resistance, both during and after the war. Analysis The administrations of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had hoped that allied troops...

An exiled spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslims, who make up more than 60 percent of the population, tells CBS News correspondent Bob Simon that he is ready to return to help his people - a factor that could affect the U.S. plans for a post-war democracy in Iraq. The interview with the Ayatollah al-Hakim, who has spent the last 23 years in exile in Iran, will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Ready to return to Iraq on a moment’s notice, al-Hakim has enjoyed a long relationship with Iran’s revolutionary Islamic government. "I...

Saddam Hussein's death squads are forcing Iraqis to fight by holding their children hostage and threatening them with execution, allied forces said. From the front lines to Capitol Hill, U.S. officials expressed disgust that fanatical paramilitaries would kill their own people before letting them surrender. "We witness the regime's forces becoming more and more desperate in their actions," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said at a briefing in Doha, Qatar. "Their repressive acts against Iraqi citizens showing any signs of tolerance of the coalition are growing harsher." Reports of Iraqis being ordered to fight at gunpoint were bolstered by grisly evidence:...

<p>CAMP AS SALIYA, Qatar — Allied forces pounced on an Iraqi convoy as it left the urban cover of Basra and sought the surrender last night of Iraqi troops who survived the onslaught of coalition air power.</p> <p>A column of about 100 Iraqi vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, headed out of Basra southeast toward the allied-held Faw Peninsula.</p>

<p>The U.S. military expedition into Iraq has skirted ancient sites named in Jewish and Christian scriptures and apparently avoided sacred turf where Shi'ite Muslims had their historic and bloody showdown with rival Sunnis.</p> <p>Troops that invaded from the south crossed territory called the cradle of civilization and traditionally considered the site of the Garden of Eden. The troops passed by Abraham's birthplace of Ur and the heart of ancient Sumer, whose poetry told of a creation and flood like that in the book of Genesis.</p>