Equip Disciples

The Shiite state of mind

They are the majority in Iraq but have a history of persecution and sacrifice
 

05/10/2003

By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News

For many Americans who have been struggling to understand Islam, the war with Iraq has raised two new questions:

What is a Shiite? And what is there about Shiism that might affect Iraq's future and the American role in rebuilding that nation?The answer to the first question is relatively simple: Shiites are the largest minority sect in Islam, representing about 10 percent of more than a billion Muslims in the world. But in Iraq, they are the majority, representing about 60 percent of the population. (About 85 percent of the Muslims in the world, and almost 40 percent of Iraqis, are Sunni.)

The answer to the second question is anything but simple. But experts say the history and practice of Shia offer clues, if not a road map, for what is possible in post-Saddam Iraq.

KIM RITZENTHALER / DMN Shiite Muslims use turbahs, discs of pressed clay or pieces of wood, so that their foreheads do not touch synthetic materials during prostrate prayer.

"You find a lot of Shias not comfortable with the idea of being in control," said Dr. Khaled Abou el Fadl, an expert on Islamic law – Shia and Sunni – at the University of California, Los Angeles. "They have spent hundreds of years celebrating the position of the minority."

Still, some Shia clerics are already trying to fill the power vacuum in Iraq. Some have tried to take over hospitals. Others are running social service projects, distributing food and water.

Many Shias share an identity that includes a millennia-long history of persecution, a theological emphasis on sacrifice, a particular reverence for religious authority and a deeply held suspicion of political institutions.

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Neither theology nor tradition make an Islamic theocracy like the one in Shia-controlled Iran inevitable, he said.

"It was not a recipe given in our hadiths (sacred sayings)," he said.

But Shia culture makes it particularly important for Americans to gain the support of top Shia religious leaders, whose power and authority among followers are comparable to that of the pope.

KIM RITZENTHALER / DMN Maulana Shamshad Haider leads a Friday prayer service at the Metroplex Organization of Muslims in North Texas in Irving.

"To be a dissenter has been considered morally superior," Dr. el Fadl said.

Recent political history

The Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric, was the spiritual leader behind the overthrow of the repressive, American-backed shah of Iran and the establishment of an "Islamic republic." His dark-robed visage and fiery rhetoric (calling the United States the "great Satan") became notorious during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981.

And the Lebanese Hezbollah, responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed more than 200 U.S. Marines, is largely backed by Shia contributions.

That violent reputation was augmented last month by unforgettable images of a Shia ritual. Tens of thousands of men took to the streets in Iraq, beating themselves with chains and slicing themselves with swords, mourning the killing of their prophet's grandson, Hussein, more than 1,300 years ago. Some chanted anti-American slogans along with their traditional prayers.

KIM RITZENTHALER / DMN Ali Haji holds prayer beads during prayer service at Metroplex Organization of Muslims in North Texas.

A very different scene from the gory ones in Iraq was played out last week in a converted Buddhist temple in Irving, one of at least four Shia mosques in the Dallas area. The walls were draped in black, a silent sign of mourning for the same long-ago death bewailed so violently in the streets of Iraq.

Prayer was in Arabic, solemn, and quiet. A few days earlier, the mosque was filled with louder and more emotional worship, but not the violence seen in Iraq. The public violence is not normal for most Shias, said Maulana Haider. ("Maulana" is a clerical title used by Shias.)

"Our scholars have said they are not supposed to seriously endanger their lives," he said.

Islam's Sunni majority does not mark the anniversary of the killing of Hussein.

Similar traditions

In other ways, they are at least as similar as, say, Lutherans and Methodists. In the largest local Sunni mosque, the Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson, Imam Yusuf Kavakci encourages Shias and Sunnis to pray together and has performed "mixed" marriages.

"Though to be fair, there may be other mosques where other people do not feel so welcome," Imam Kavakci said.

For Shia and Sunni, tradition holds that Muhammad is God's last prophet. And the Quran is the only correct account of God's words. Both groups agree about many sayings of Muhammad, called hadiths, that are considered essential instructions for believers.

But Shias and Sunnis differ in their beliefs about what should have happened after Muhammad's death, traditionally set in 632 AD.

Sunnis say the leadership of the fledgling Muslim nation went, as it should have, to a trusted companion of Muhammad. Shias say the prophet had publicly declared that his successor should be his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. And future leaders were to be selected only from his descendants.

However, three caliphs, or leaders, were selected before Ali got his turn. And after his death, the caliphate did not stay with his family.

Today, Ali, his two sons and nine of their descendants are revered by Shias as the only true successors to Muhammad's authority.

Sunnis, on the other hand, regard Ali as an important spiritual leader, but believe that Muhammad gave no special instructions about the role his family was to play in Muslim leadership.

To Shias, the issue is much more than a historical question about political leadership. Their tradition holds that only Ali and his descendants possessed complete and perfect understanding of the Quran. Their sayings (and those of Fatima, Ali's wife and Muhammad's daughter) are also considered authoritative by Shias.

Among the other major differences between Shias and Sunnis:

The lines of authority. Sunnis can pick and choose among several schools of interpretation of Islamic law. Shias are supposed to have an allegiance to an ayatollah (which means "sign of God") whose rulings are considered absolutely authoritative. But there are several so-called "grand ayatollahs" and no universally acknowledged Shia leader.

Independence from government. The major Sunni schools are government-financed. Shias, however, have a tradition of giving a fifth of their income to their ayatollah to pay for religious education and other functions. Even under the shah and Saddam, that allowed Shia institutions to thrive. The contributions also give considerable economic power to the ayatollahs.

Judicial reasoning. For both Shia and Sunni, the most respected religious authorities tend to be jurists, not theologians. Their role is to decide how the Quran and hadiths should be applied to current conditions. Shias emphasize adapting the law to conditions in the world, rather than just examining the sacred texts, experts say.

This emphasis on logic and reasoning, what in Arabic is called ejtehad, has led Shia scholars to confront issues such as cloning, rights of women in divorce and fertility research more aggressively than their Sunni counterparts, Dr. el Fadl said.

It's also what encouraged Ayatollah Khomeini to go beyond the traditional Shia reluctance to combine religious and secular authority. For most of their history, Shia scholars understood their role to be critics who told government authorities when they were not acting in accord with Islamic law. Ayatollah Khomeini suggested that conditions in post-shah Iran required that more authority be placed in the hands of the top clerics. As a result, the top religious authorities in Iran have veto power over laws passed by the secular government.

That's not to say the same will happen in Iraq if the Shias prevail there. At least one Iraqi ayatollah agrees with Khomeini's viewpoint; but others do not.

Temporary marriage. In Sunni tradition, this is an element of early Islam that is no longer valid. Shia consider the practice of marriages that expire at a fixed time still appropriate in principle, even if they are seldom performed. Supporters say temporary marriage simply recognizes the reality of sexual needs or that it gives couples a chance to test their compatibility. Opponents say it's a way to oppress women and evidence of the corruption of Shia.

Other differences are more important from the inside: the exact timing of prayers, how to wash before worship, upon what surface heads can rest in prayer. Those differences are enough so that some Sunnis declare Shias to be unbelievers, Dr. el Fadl said.

Beginnings of Shia

Most Shias believe that the 12th imam was commanded by God to go into hiding 1,072 years ago – and is still alive, awaiting God's commandment to return and bring justice to the world.

From the Shia point of view, the ancient treacheries committed against their imams are as current as the bloody demonstrations in the streets of Iraq last month.

Those were well-organized demonstrations, joined by as many as a million men. That the Shias could organize such a showing so soon after the fall of Saddam indicates how deeply ingrained Shia culture remains in Iraq, even after decades of government oppression, said Dr. Kevin Jaques, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Indiana.

"As we saw immediately after the fall of Baghdad, the Shias were much more organized than people expected them to be,' he said. "They had to be able to nuance the system and go under the radar screen."

Flying under the radar is keeping with Shia history, he said. But it's difficult to predict how Shia traditions will play out next, he said.

"It's hard to say, because Shias in Iraq haven't been allowed to do anything Shia for so long," he said.

E-mail jweiss@dallasnews.com