Shiite culture gives hints of what Iraq may become

Shia teachings have no specificprescription for proper government.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
For many Americans who have been struggling to understand Islam, the war with Iraq has raised two new questions:
What is a Shiite? And what is there about Shiism that might affect Iraq's future and the American role in rebuilding that nation?
The answer to the first question is relatively simple: Shiites are the largest minority sect in Islam, representing about 10 percent of more than a billion Muslims in the world. But in Iraq, they are the majority, representing about 60 percent of the population. (About 85 percent of the Muslims in the world, and almost 40 percent of Iraqis, are Sunni.)
The answer to the second question is anything but simple. But experts say the history and practice of Shia offer clues, if not a road map, for what is possible in post-Saddam Iraq.
Adjusting to power
The Shiites (they generally refer to themselves as Shias) were discriminated against under Saddam Hussein. But Shia history and culture are all about how to survive as a downtrodden people. So it's not clear how they'll adjust to greater control of their government -- if they get it.
"You find a lot of Shias not comfortable with the idea of being in control," said Khaled Abou el Fadl, an expert on Islamic law -- Shia and Sunni -- at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They have spent hundreds of years celebrating the position of the minority."
Still, some Shia clerics are already trying to fill the power vacuum in Iraq. Some have tried to take over hospitals. Others are running social service projects, distributing food and water.
Many Shias share an identity that includes a millennia-long history of persecution, a theological emphasis on sacrifice, a particular reverence for religious authority and a deeply held suspicion of political institutions.
Teachings on government
Shia practice includes a flexibility that could either encourage democracy or support a rigid theocracy. What Shia does not include is a specific prescription for what a government should be, said Maulana Shamshad Haider, religious leader for the Metroplex Organization of Muslims in North Texas, a Shia mosque in Irving.
Neither theology nor tradition make an Islamic theocracy like the one in Shia-controlled Iran inevitable, he said.
"It was not a recipe given in our hadiths," or sacred sayings, he said.
But Shia culture makes it particularly important for Americans to gain the support of top Shia religious leaders, whose power and authority among followers are comparable to that of the pope.
And Americans should realize that the sometimes-prickly reception they're getting in Iraq isn't necessarily personal, experts say. It represents a traditional Shia reaction to any secular authority.
"To be a dissenter has been considered morally superior," el Fadl said.
Elsewhere in Mideast
Shia is not completely new to Americans who pay attention to faith and politics in the Middle East.
The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric, was the spiritual leader behind the overthrow of the repressive, American-backed shah of Iran and the establishment of an "Islamic republic." His dark-robed visage and fiery rhetoric (calling the United States the "great Satan") became notorious during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981.
And the Lebanese Hezbollah, responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed more than 200 U.S. Marines, is largely backed by Shia contributions.
But violence has not been a constant in either Shia history or modern practice, and the public violence is not normal for most Shias, said Maulana Haider. ("Maulana" is a clerical title used by Shias.)
"Our scholars have said they are not supposed to seriously endanger their lives," he said.
Sunni-Shia differences
In some ways, Shias are more different from Sunnis than Catholics are from Protestants. They accept some different sacred texts, have a different sense of religious authority and have a long history of mutual antagonism.
In other ways, they are at least as similar as, say, Lutherans and Methodists. In the largest local Sunni mosque, the Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson, Imam Yusuf Kavakci encourages Shias and Sunnis to pray together and has performed "mixed" marriages.
"Though to be fair, there may be other mosques where other people do not feel so welcome," Imam Kavakci said.
For Shia and Sunni, tradition holds that Mohammed is God's last prophet, and the Koran is the only correct account of God's words. Both groups agree about many sayings of Mohammed, called hadiths, that are considered essential instructions for believers.