The Hindu : Cleric for Islamic state but not extremism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 11, 2003

International

International

Cleric for Islamic state but not extremism

BASRA may 10. The leader of the largest Iraqi Shia Muslim group opposed to Saddam Hussein returned to Iraq on Saturday after two decades in exile, arriving to expectations that he would figure prominently in the future of the country he was kept from for so long.

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim promptly called for Iraq to become an Islamic state — but condemned religious extremism.

He also rejected any foreign-installed government for his homeland, though he did not mention the United States directly.

Al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, rolled across the Iranian frontier into Iraq at the Shalamjah border crossing. The son of another grand ayatollah, he had been in exile in Iran and under protection of its Shia religious leaders since fleeing there in 1980.

``I am a soldier of Islam, serving all the Iraqi people,'' al-Hakim told a crowd of about 10,000 supporters hours later in the southern city of Basra, Iraq's second-largest. But, he added, ``We don't want extremist Islam, but an Islam of independence, justice and freedom.''

He said Iraq must be governed by Iraqis, not foreigners.

The Bush administration is wary of any Iranian-style theocracy taking control in Iraq, and is particularly jittery about the possibility that a democratic vote might produce a conservative, Islamic-oriented government with close ties to Iran's anti-American Shia clerics.

Washington has accused Tehran — which gave al-Hakim refuge for so long — of meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Al-Hakim's group, whose English acronym is SCIRI, wants Iraq's future to be governed by Islamic law.

He has said in recent days that SCIRI seeks to ``realise the will of the Iraqi people,'' rebuild the country and establish good relationships with neighbours.

While al-Hakim, also known as Baqir, remained in Iran during the weeks after the war last month, his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, returned to Iraq in advance to pave the way for the ayatollah's return.

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