Shiite Leaders Differ on Iraq's Future

March 20 -- Iraq is a complex country, and there are many different ideas about the future. For example, two of the country's most influential men are Shiite Muslim clerics.

One of them, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whom the United States prefers, will not permit American officials to visit him. The other, Muqtada al-Sadr, is openly anti-American.

Shiites are a minority in the Muslim world, as a whole, but they are the majority in Iraq. As such, they are determined to fill the country's political vacuum.

A year ago, only pictures of Saddam Hussein were publicly displayed in Iraq. Today, however, there are pictures of the two Shiite leaders who have such different ideas about the country's future.

Al-Sistani, in his 70s, is the most important Shiite leader in the country. He's openly grateful that the United States toppled Saddam Hussein. But when he objected to the interim Iraqi constitution, the United States was left swinging in the wind until he gave his OK.

Al-Sistani believes Iraq should be a democracy, provided there are direct elections, which would favor the Shiite majority.

A Younger Challenger

His challenger is the 30-year-old al-Sadr, a very public leader who says Iraq must be ruled like Iran, by religious clerics.

Al-Sadr is wildly popular with the poorest Shiites; he taps into the resentment in the underclass.

In the city of Najaf, the place most venerated by Shiites Muslims, there were several small demonstrations with an anti-American flavor last weekend. The United States, protesters claim, is in Iraq for its own good — for the oil, for Israel, and to defeat the Muslims.

The Shiites have a powerful sense of being victimized by history.