A Reclusive Cleric Holds the Power

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf has no troops at his disposal and has rarely spoken in public. Few Iraqis have ever seen him, and he refuses to meet with L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator in Iraq. In fact, Sistani, who is 73 years old, is said not to have left his home during the last six years.

Nevertheless, amid the turmoil in Iraq, and in the absence of a secular Iraqi political leader with the stature to unite the Iraqi people, the reclusive cleric has reasserted himself as the most revered leader of Iraq's Shiite majority. He has assumed the role of a Shiite "pope," providing counsel to his followers and responding to the political aspirations of his constituency.

For many Americans, who still remember the rise to power of the virulently anti-American Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran, Sistani's growing power in Iraq is worrisome. But unlike Khomeini, who advocated that clerics play a direct role in politics, Sistani represents what is known as the "quietist" school of thought within Shiism and has been reluctant to get involved in worldly affairs. In the decade before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Sistani sought to shield the religious leadership -- and the seminaries in Najaf -- from politics. He refused to deal with the Baath regime of Saddam Hussein, but he also kept his distance from the Shiite opposition groups.

One result of his reclusive attitude was that some of the nation's 15 million Shiites sought alternative clerical leaders; most notably, Mohammed Sadiq Sadr (who was gunned down in 1999 and whose son, Muqtada, remains a potent force in Iraqi Shiite politics). These rival clerics have championed activism and grass-roots politics as a way of mobilizing Iraqi Shiites.

Although this rivalry is likely to remain a feature of Iraqi Shiite politics in the coming years, it is Sistani who has managed to consolidate power among his people, and he has done so while projecting himself as a force of moderation in Iraq.

Since the beginning of the U.S. occupation, Sistani has shown pragmatism in dealing with the American presence in Iraq, as have the other three senior Shiite clerics in Najaf, Mohammed Said Hakim, Mohammed Ishaq Fayyad and Bashir Najafi -- all of whom have lent their support to Sistani. In contrast to the calls by Sunni clerics for jihad against the foreign occupiers, Sistani permitted his followers to deal with the Coalition Provisional Authority and urged Shiites not to take arms against the Americans.