Killing of
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim
is the Start of an Iraqi Civil War

WILLIAM O. BEEMAN / Pacific News Service 2sep03

[Obituary, Last Sermon, and Biography of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim below]

The assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim in Najaf on Aug. 28 is the opening volley in the coming Iraqi Civil War. The United States will reap the whirlwind.

One of the most consistent and ominous prewar warnings to the Bush administration by Middle East experts was that removal of Saddam Hussein without the most careful political and social engineering would result in the breaking apart of Iraq into warring factions that would battle each other for decades.

The hawks in the White House would not listen. They were so wedded to the fantasy scenario that the removal of Saddam in an act of "creative destruction" would result in the automatic emergence of democracy. They brushed aside all warnings.

Present-day Iraq was three provinces of the Ottoman Empire before World War I. It was cobbled together by the British for their own convenience after that conflict. The British installed a king, the Saudi Arabian son of the chief religious official of Mecca (Faisal, of Lawrence of Arabia Fame) and glued the whole mess together with the resident British Army.

The three regions were incompatible in ethnicity, religious confession and interests. The Sunni Muslim Kurds occupied the north. The Sunni Arab Bedouins occupied the center and Southwest. The Shi'a Arab and Persian population occupied the South and Southeast. Of the three groups, the Shi'a were largest, with 60 percent of the population. With oil, an outlet to the Persian Gulf and good agricultural land, they would be the natural dominant force in the state the British created. The Kurds would be important, too, because they lived in the region of the country with the largest oil reserves.

However, the British wanted the Sunni Arabs, the smallest faction of the population, to be dominant. They wanted this both to reward Saudi Arabians for helping them fight the Ottomans, and because they had existing clients in the sheikhs who ruled the Arab states of the Gulf.

When the British were finally expelled, and their Saudi ruling family deposed in Iraq in a 1958 nationalist coup, the new Ba'athist Iraqi, nationalist rulers had a supremely unruly nation on their hand. The only way to keep power in Sunni Arab hands, and away from the Shi'ites was through ruthless dictatorship and oppression. Saddam Hussein was the supreme master of this political strategy.

Ayatollah al-Hakim's family was victimized by this oppression. Virtually every one of the Ayatollah's male relatives was executed by Saddam's regime. He fled to Iran for years of exile, returning only after Saddam was deposed by the United States. He became one of the principal leaders of the Shi'a community, and a symbol of rising Shi'a power in post-War Iraq. His triumphant return to Iraq and the holy city of Najaf was one of the most celebrated events in recent Iraqi history.

It is still not known who set off the explosion that killed him at the shrine of Ali, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. It could have been Sunni Arab factions who fear the rise of Shi'a dominance in Iraq, or it could have been his own Shi'a supporters, disappointed with him for cooperating with American policies in Iraq. Or it could have been someone else. What is clear is that his death will now forever be a rallying cry for the Shi'ite community against its enemies.

It is notable that in Shi'ism virtually all significant leaders have been "martyred." Of the 12 historical Imams of the Ithna 'ashara branch of Shi'ism dominant in Iraq and Iran (Ithna 'ashara means "twelve" in Arabic), ten are buried in shrines in Iraq. Their tombs are ever-present reminders of the oppression and struggle of the Shi'a. Now Ayatollah al-Hakim will join them, and with the power of a saint, will inspire generations of grimly dedicated young warriors, determined to wreak vengeance and assert the power of their community. They will be led by his own paramilitary group, the Badr brigade.

Shi'a fury will be directed at the Sunnis to the north. It will also be directed toward United States as the occupying force who both did nothing to prevent this tragedy, and further continued the British doctrine of Sunni favoritism by insisting that the Shi'a religious leaders would never be allowed to come to power. In any case, the forces of retribution are about to be unleashed in a manner hitherto unseen in the region.

Could the United States have done anything to have prevented this tragedy? Of course it could have. As the occupying power U.S. officials knew acutely about the danger to Ayatollah al-Hakim. Since Washington opposed the rise of Shi'a power in Iraq, charges of American indifference or even complicity in his death will soon be flying.

The final question Washington must now face is how to stop this inevitable civil war? When the factional shooting starts, where does the U.S. army, caught in the crossfire, aim its own guns?

William O. Beeman is the Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University and the author of the forthcoming book, "Iraq: State in Search of a Nation."

Obituary
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim

LAWRENCE JOFFE / The Guardian (UK) 30aug03

Shiite cleric who headed the largest opposition group in Iraq and advocated a form of pluralism in his society

The Shiite cleric and political leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, who has been assassinated, aged 63, in his hometown of Najaf, devoted most of his adult years to opposing the regime of Saddam Hussein. He had just finished a sermon on the need for Iraqi unity and was emerging from the gold-domed shrine of Imam Ali when he and at least 75 others were hit by a massive car-bomb explosion. Al-Hakim headed the Supreme Council of the Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), probably the largest opposition group in the country. As a scion of one of the most prominent and respected Iraqi Shiite families, he wielded enormous influence over the Shiites, who constitute more than 60% of the Iraqi population.

The ayatollah only returned to his native country on May 12 this year, after spending more than two decades of exile in Iran. The parallels with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini are striking. The Iraqi was often seen as someone of equivalent status for his fellow citizens to Khomeini in Iran and just as that cleric spent 12 years in exile - in Najaf - before returning, via Paris, to vast crowds in Tehran, in early 1979 so al-Hakim received comparable adulation when he returned.

With hindsight, it should have been obvious that al-Hakim's life was in danger. For milling amongst May's throng in Najaf were supporters of the 29-year-old Ayatollah Moqtada al-Sadr. The younger sheikh is the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, murdered in 1999. He is said to represent radicalised urban Shiites who dwell in Sadr City - formerly Saddam City - in Baghdad.

Al-Sadr's acolytes repudiate the right of "exiles", like Hakim, to assume natural leadership of the Iraqi Shiites. Some say they represent a generational challenge to the older Shiite opposition. Rumours have associated al-Sadr's men with a recent unsuccessful assassination attempt on al-Hakim's uncle, Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mohammed Said al-Hakim.

Schisms have mounted alarmingly within the Shiite community. Only a day after Saddam's overthrow, another prominent Shiite cleric who returned from exile, Ayatollah al-Khoei (obituary, April 12 2003) was hacked to death by rivals in the Najaf mosque. A taboo had been broken, as the right of sanctuary in a holy place is pivotal to Shiite beliefs.

Al-Hakim spoke out against American rule of Iraq. "They gave the justification that they came in the name of liberation, but now they are an occupying force", he said in June, adding ominously: "If the people lose their patience, there will be social uproar." Yet the politician was subtle and pragmatic. He admonished supporters not to use force against the foreign armies, and allowed, and even encouraged his brother, Abdel-Aziz, to sit on the provisional governing council. This was all the more remarkable, given that Abdel-Aziz also heads SCIRI's Iranian-based Badr Brigades, which United States defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned not to intervene during this year's US and British invasion. By contrast, supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have shunned the council.

Al-Hakim cut an inspiring figure. Though his head was swathed in the familiar auspicious black turban of a sayyid - descendant of the house of Mohammed - his face often betrayed a mischievous smile. Such a demeanour gave little hint of his past suffering.

Al-Hakim was born in Najaf, where his father was a senior cleric. He received a traditional Shiite imam's training, but was arrested and tortured for his beliefs by Saddam's forces in 1972. Five of his brothers and another dozen or so relatives were killed by the Baathist regime.

In 1980 he fled to Iran, a predominantly Shiite country, just as it began fighting his homeland in a brutal eight-year-long war. Until then al-Hakim had belonged to the shadowy Dawa (the call) group, Shiites who periodically launched armed attacks on state functionaries, yet who were mainly dominated by conservative clerics.

In Tehran al-Hakim created SCIRI as an umbrella group, encompassing Dawa and other bodies. He was angry with US "betrayal" in 1991, when the first president Bush appeared to promise to assist a Shiite rebellion, and then let them down in March, leaving them at the mercy of Saddam's Republican Guard. Tens of thousands were believed slaughtered in Iraq's south.

By the late 1990s, Dawa seemed to have distanced itself from SCIRI, accusing the latter of falling too far under the sway of Iran, and especially leading the hardline Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet after 2001, al-Hakim made strenuous efforts to advocate inter-denominational pluralism, and democracy - doubtless realising the innate numerical preponderance of Shiites in Iraq. He also suggested he no longer had plans for an Iraq based on vilayet e-fagih - the Iranian fundamentalist formulation of "rule by clerics".

Signs of SCIRI's potency were clear when Iraqi dissidents met last December in London, and set up a British and American-backed 65-member Follow-up and Arrangement Committee (FUAC). SCIRI members gained eight seats; and affiliated independent allies another eight, thus making them, nominally, the most powerful opposition force in Iraq.

• Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, ayatollah, born 1939; died August 29 2003

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1032018,00.html 3sep03

Ayatollah Al-Hakim's Last Sermon

[Listen ]

Here are extracts from the sermon delivered by the leading Shia Muslim politician, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim, prior to his death in a car bomb attack in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq.

The first act carried out by the criminal Baathists when they came to power in Iraq is that they attacked the religious authority Imam al-Hakim. Afterwards, they began killing the religious authorities one after another... This targeting is not new...

It is true that the followers of the old regime were attacking the religious authorities directly, but then they changed their policy to one of infiltration, falsification, deception and misleading. This policy is still being followed.

They have penetrated different groups, under various titles, in order to carry out these attacks. We have to realise that the followers of the defunct regime are behind this act.

Condemns coalition forces

The fourth point to which we should pay attention is the responsibility of the occupation forces for these attacks. The occupation forces did not carry out their legal and real duties to protect the religious authority and the holy places. This is to be condemned. We condemn this stance by the occupation forces.

Moreover, the occupation forces have not carried out their duties to protect the international organisations such as the headquarters of the United Nations in Baghdad. The UN headquarters also faced this kind of aggression.

They have also not provided protection to the diplomatic organisations such as the foreign embassies in Baghdad. Preventing such attacks is the responsibility of the occupation forces and they should carry out their responsibilities.

What is more important with regard to the responsibilities of the occupation forces is that since the first day I came to Iraq, even before I came to Iraq, I have been saying ... that you [the occupation forces] should give the Iraqis the opportunity to protect the holy places and the religious authority.

We do not need you or your forces. The Iraqis are capable of protecting themselves, their religious authority, and their holy places...

Holy site protection

We call for the formation of a religious, faithful and committed Iraqi force. This force would protect the religious authorities and the holy places in Iraq.

The Americans, British or the foreigners should not approach these holy places and the people would not allow them to do so. Therefore, an Iraqi force should do this.

We believe that this issue is important and necessary. Some steps have been taken in this regard in Al-Najaf and we encourage such steps. We hope and call for taking such steps in all centres and holy sites in Iraq. We should pay attention to this matter.

The last point in this regard is the security issue in Iraq in general. I am not only talking about providing security for the religious authority and the holy sites. We have seen that there is no security in this country.

The occupation forces thus far have tried to achieve security but they failed to do so. They will continue to face failure, as I said earlier...

Iraqi government formation

The security responsibility should be given to the Iraqis themselves. They have a better understanding of what is taking place in their country. The Iraqi people would only co-operate with Iraqi security services to achieve security. If the security services are foreign, the Iraqi people would not co-operate with them.

The old regime was dealing with the security issue through oppression and acts of aggression. We cannot practice what the old regime was practising. So, what is the best way?

The best way is to form Iraqi security services that the Iraqi people would co-operate with in order to solve the security problem. We should join efforts in order to return full sovereignty to the Iraqi people by forming an Iraqi government.

source: http://www.hussaynia.com/hakim/hakimsermon.htm 3aug03

Biography:
Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir ibn Mohsin Al-Tabatabai Al-Hakim

Ayatollah Sayyid Mohamad Baqir Al-Hakim, was born in 1939, is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhsin AI-Hakim (who was the spiritual leader for the Shia world in the period 1955-1970).

The Al-Hakim family is a well known religious Iraqi family loved and respected by millions of Shia Muslims in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world. Sayyid Al-Hakim, was born, brought up and studied religion in Najaf, Iraq (the holy city for Shia in the world). He was a distinguished scholar and the personal religious/political representative of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohsin AI-Hakim in Iraq.

Sayyid Al-Hakim was a co-founder of the Islamic political movement in Iraq established in the late fifties, along with the late distinguished leader Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr and other scholars. Sayyid Al-Hakim maintained a close association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr up to the martyrdom of Ayatollah Al-Sadr in 1980. In 1972 Sayyid Al-Hakim was arrested and tortured by the Bathist regime. He was released after a wide spread popular pressure on the regime. In 1977 he was re-arrested following the people's uprising in Feb. 1977 in Najaf, and immediately sentenced to life imprisonment by special court without any trial. He was released in July 1979 following huge public pressure on the regime.

Sayyid Al-Hakim's association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr continued after his release in 1979 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was put under house arrest. At this point Sayyid Al-Hakim assumed the responsibility of conducting clandestine contact with Ayatollah Al-Sadr until April 1980 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was murdered by Saddam's regime. Sayyid Al- Hakim then decided to leave Iraq in 1980 shortly after the eruption of war between Iraq and Iran. He played a prominent role in the deliberations leading to the establishment of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI) in November 1982.

Saddam's regime reacted violently to Sayyid Al-Hakim's prominent political activity of SCIRI and arrested 125 members of his family in 1983. Subsequently 18 members of his family were executed. Despite this ordeal and the assassination of his brother Sayyid Mahdi Al-Hakim in Sudan Jan. 1988, Sayyid Al-Hakim continued his political activities against Saddam's regime. In addition to his political activities, Sayyid Al-Hakim is a leading member of several Islamic associations. He is also the author of many books on Islamic and political thoughts.

source: http://www.hussaynia.com/hakim/hakimbiography.htm 3aug03