More On Sistani "Quiet Fatwah" Report

By Cernig

Over at the Weekly Standard, Bill Roggio is chearleading the administration's preferred narrative in the face of yesterday's AP report that Sistani is quietly issuing fatwahs against the US occupation.

With the Iraqi Army's push into Sadr City after Muqtada al Sadr blinked and cut a deal with the government, the narrative on failure in Iraq has shifted. The latest story from the Associated Press indicates that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has secretly issued fatwas, or religious edicts, to select individuals that would allow them to conduct attacks on Coalition forces.

..While this certainly isn't beyond the realm of possibility, I have spoken to several US intelligence sources who think this is highly unlikely.

Roggio is on familiar ground then - doing his usual duty as stenographer of MNF-I, relaying their spin faithfully to his readers.  But either Roggio and his sources can't read or they're just being flat-out dishonest. For isntance, the primary reason they think the article is "unlikley" is:

...that one of the groups cited in the article, the Jund al Marjaiyah, which means the Soldiers of the Religious Authorities or Army of the Marja, essentially serve as "the Shia version of the Swiss Guard for Sistani's religious circle." This means their purpose is to protect the religious sites and the senior leadership of Sistani's circle. If the Jund al Marjaiyah starts to conduct attacks on Coalition forces, this would invite reprisals and directly endanger the senior leadership and religious sites.

Yet the original AP article makes it quite clear that the Jund al Maraiyah's only involvement is to ask questions in public, on Sistanis website, that seem to bear out the articles sources on Sistani's way of thinking. No-one is saying they're involved in attacks at all.

Next, Roggio puts forward a conspiracy theory - that AP has been duped by Sadrists into thinking their Sistani insiders.

All of the sources believe the Associated Press may have been fooled by Sadrist members purporting to be close to Sistani. "It is not unheard for Iraqi Shiites to secretly claim Sistani's blessings," one source said. "We have seen Sadrists put words in Sistani's mouth," he added, noting that this happened when Sadrists claimed Sistani and other senior Shia clerics told Sadr to keep the Mahdi Army after Prime Minister Maliki ordered the Mahdi Army to disband.

And how do we know Sistani didn't tell the Sadrists to keep their militia? Oh yeah - a spokesman for the rival ISCI claimed to be correctly speaking for Sistani and said that Sistani wanted the militia disbanded. That absoluetly fills me with confidence in Roggio's version, that does.

Roggio continues:

The media often falls for this type of trick. Take this article today in the AP, where a monitor for the Sadr City ceasefire is saying the Iraqi Army is violating the truce and assaulting and mistreating Iraqis in the Mahdi Army stronghold. The AP cites Mohannad al Gharawi but does not tell you who he is. A quick search will tell you that Mohannad al Gharawi is a member of the Sadrist movement, which has a vested interest in making such claims.

Why bother searching? The AFP article itself tells you that it's sourced from a Sadrist spokesman in the very first line: "The movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday accused the Iraqi army of violating a truce..." But since less than 1 in 10,000 Weekly standard readers likely ever bother to click through on a link, that the AFP deliberately hid the fact will be the new Rightwing meme.

And finally, and most importantly of all to the preferred narrative, comes this:

Finally, the article just flat out contradicts Sistani's role in Iraqi politics since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Sistani has repeatedly avoided interjecting himself into the political sphere. This is in line with his "quietist" approach to Islam. The quietist approach says that the form of government is not important to Shia Islam, just as long as the followers are free to practice their religion. The Iraqi government has sanctioned the presence of U.S. forces. There is no U.S. occupation government in the model of the Bremer viceroyship that existed for roughly the first year after the invasion, but an elected Iraqi government that Sistani has not opposed. So Sistani's secret edicts would go against his own teachings.

Here's an AFP picture of 100,000 Shiites applauding their religious leader's "quietist" convictions in 2004:

The original caption at the Boston Globe reads: "Iraqi Shiite Muslims chant slogans and wave pictures of leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as thousands stage a demonstration in Baghdad today in support of Sistani's demands for the US-led coalition to abandon power-transfer plans in favor of full elections." The story continues:

Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims marched peacefully in Baghdad on Monday to demand an elected government, as U.S. and Iraqi officials prepared to seek U.N. endorsement of American plans for transferring power in Iraq.

Huge crowds of Iraqi Shiites, estimated by reporters at up to 100,000, marched about three miles to the University of al-Mustansariyah, where a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani delivered a speech he said was directed at Annan, the U.S.-led occupation authority and its Iraqi allies.

...Al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shiite leader, has rejected a U.S. formula for transferring power through a provisional legislature selected by 18 regional caucuses, insisting on direct elections instead.

The legislature is supposed to appoint a transitional government, which will take over from the U.S.-led coalition administration July 1 before holding full elections in 2005.

''The sons of the Iraqi people demand a political system based on direct elections and a constitution that realizes justice and equality for everyone,'' al-Sistani's representative, Hashem al-Awad, said. ''Anything other than that will prompt people to have their own say.''

The crowd responded by chanting: ''Yes, yes to elections! No, no to occupation!''

''What our religious leadership is doing today is at the heart of its mandate,'' cleric Faras al-Tatrasani, 36, said. ''We are demanding democracy. And that's what America came to give us.''

What was it Roggio claimed? Oh yes: "the quietist approach says that the form of government is not important to Shia Islam". Perhaps true - but as Matt Duss has noted what is definitely true is that from 2003 to 2006 Sistani was nothing like a "quietist". Maybe Roggio and his handlers have forgotten that, maybe they're just being dishonest.

But one thing is for certain - that such a press to spin the AP's report yesterday means those "US intelligence sources" that Roggio does such great stenography for are worried.

Update: Really worried.

Sheikh Jalaluddin Al-Saghir, head of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) bloc at the parliament, told KUNA these press reports about the alleged fatwa "are totally baseless." He said the policy of Sistani was based "on resisting the occupiers via peaceful means and he is still supporting the political process therefore there these claims are false."

Al-Saghir is a leading member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and just days ago told Asharl Al-aswat that "that the strategic agreement that will be approved this summer between Iraq and the United States is in the interest of Iraq". So Bill Roggio will doubtless cite him as definitive proof shortly, since he has no possible motive to wish Sistani to move closer to rival Sadr and away from his own party.