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Sect organized orderly pilgrimage for million faithful

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

By Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press

KARBALA, Iraq -- Swaying and chanting, some bleeding from self-inflicted wounds of ritual mourning, an estimated 1 million Shiite Muslims marched to this city's holy shrine yesterday, celebrating their freedom from years of repression by Saddam Hussein's regime.

The large turnout for the pilgrimage, which ends tomorrow, highlighted the power and potential of Iraq's majority Shiite community. Despite bitter internal differences the Shiites, who represent 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, were able to pull off the event on short notice and thus far without violence.

It showed how once again, upheaval in a Middle East country has brought followers of the Shiite branch of Islam to the forefront. It happened in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded a Shiite theocracy in neighboring Iran, and three years later when Israel invaded Lebanon, drove out Yasser Arafat and ended up facing the Shiite fighters of Hezbollah.

Pilgrims, many with heads bleeding and limping from long journeys in 90-degree heat, pressed up against each other on roads. U.S. troops were largely out of sight, with a few members of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress at checkpoints.

The collapse of Saddam's rule left a political vacuum, "So we moved in a specialized and organized way to face this problem," said a Shiite official, Sheik Sadeq Jaafar al-Tarfi.

"All the religious leaders, Sistani and Sadr, united to make it successful, and had it not been for this unity, it would have failed," he said, referring to Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of al-Sistani's slain predecessor.

He said the Hawza al-Ilmiya, a center of Shiite learning headed by Sistani in the holy city of Najaf, sent in thousands of volunteers to manage security and traffic.

U.S. troops were ready with food and water, but it wasn't needed. Maj. James M. Bozeman, a civil affairs officer attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, said U.S. special forces did treat scores of pilgrims for sprains, cramps and heat exhaustion. In addition, the U.S. military said police on Monday arrested six men who had been planning to blow up two of Karbala's mosques. Five of the detainees claimed to be members of Saddam's Baath Party, and one said he belonged to al-Qaida, said Army Capt. Jimmie Cummings.

The United States hopes to work with Shiites to form a new government without resorting to a Shiite theocracy like Iran's -- a balancing act that will test the skills of retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who is overseeing Iraq's postwar reconstruction.

Shiites were long suppressed by Saddam's ruling Sunni minority. Since Saddam fell, Shiites have been setting up local administrations, and religious leaders have emerged as key sources of political power, especially in southern Iraq. It is unclear whether clerics will be ready to transfer power to a new government.

Senior Shiite clerics insist that they want to share power with Iraq's other communities, particularly Sunnis and Kurds. But many Shiites -- from secularists to fundamentalists -- have also shown a deep mistrust of U.S. efforts in Iraq.

There was anti-American sentiment among the pilgrims yesterday. Some held signs that said "Bush equals Saddam" and "Down USA." Anti-Saddam feelings, however, appeared stronger -- perhaps because, in an apparent attempt to avoid friction with pilgrims, U.S. troops mostly stayed clear of the city.

Pilgrims beat their chests and screamed: "You dirty Saddam, where are you so that we can fight you?"

Water trucks were brought in for the pilgrims. Roving men sprayed worshippers with rose water, which cools and conveys a blessing.

Shiites from Iran joined those from Iraq and other countries to converge on Karbala -- site of the 7th-century martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The extent of the Iranian presence was unclear. The border between the two countries is officially closed but porous.

Akram al-Hakim, a London-based Iraqi Shiite activist, said outsiders who expect Iraqi Shiites to try to recreate Iran's clerical regime have "Iran phobia."

"Iraqi Shiites cannot contemplate an Islamic state to replace Saddam's regime. They only want their share of power," he said.

Even so, some pilgrims said Iran is a model. Khalil Jalil, 53, said he wants "a democratic state like Iran, a modern state but not a backward state, that gives everyone his right to practice his religious rituals and the freedom of opinion."

The pilgrimage marks the anniversary of the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period for Hussein, who died because the people failed to rise up and support him in the face of a vast army. The Shiites see Hussein and his father, Ali, as the rightful successors to the prophet.

The pilgrims included men and women of all ages -- the men clad mostly in white robes and headbands, the women cloaked head to toe in traditional black dress.

Two men crawled on their stomachs into a shrine, saying they had vowed months ago to do so if the Americans ousted Saddam.