Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-HAKIM's murder in the city of Najaf, focuses world attention on the turmoil among the Shias of Iraq. They are torn between gratitude to the US for freeing them from the yoke of the Saddam HUSSEIN regime, and the necessity to appear as nationalist as other Iraqi groups in order to play a major political role in the country's future.
The Shias attitude towards the US led occupation of Iraq whether a benign neutrality or eventually an overt resistance will determine the future of this occupation. Young clerics dream of an islamist state modeled on Iran. Older, more
conservative...