Juan Cole is a valuable source for news and analysis on events in Iraq, not least because he's an authority on Shi'a Islam.
He reports on his Weblog for 10/15 on a violent clash between rival Shiite factions in the holy city of Karbala. The opposing factions in this case being the supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, who recently declared a rival government to the occupation authority, and those of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (my emphasis).
In reaction, Shaikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbala'i, one of Sistani's representatives in Karbala, criticized Muqtada for announcing a shadow government, saying it was not the time. He added, however, that the conflict with the United States is not confined to the Sadrists. He said all Iraqi's are fast losing their patience with America, and that the latter should leave Iraq immediately.
This is the statement of the "moderate" Shiite faction headed by Sistani!
The Western press again said widely today that Sistani favors a separation of religion and state. This simply is not true. He wants Islamic law to be the law of the land. He wants his fatwas to guide aspects of society. He wants judges to be clerics. All he is saying is that the legislature and executive should be staffed by the laity and that clerics shouldn't get involved in day to day governing. That isn't [Iran-style] Khomeinism, but it isn't a separation of religion and state.
The Administration is complaining about "the media" not reporting enough of the favorable events in Iraq. But favorable or not, political developments like this are defining the context in which the occupation is operating.
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